You're being watched. Almost everywhere you go. Video cameras proliferate like sex-crazed rabbits. Satellites can probably count the hairs on your head. Those obscene, ubiquitous cellphone cameras are catching you from every angle, whether you know the owner or not — whether you want to be shot or not.
You're being tracked. Not just through the Internet, despite the claims that one can surf without leaving a trail. Your cellphone probably allows people to set your position to within an inch or two. And every time you use a credit card, a little bit of you is shaved off and sent via transporter to a central receptacle where it's processed, coded, and safely stored — for eternity.
You could open your door one day to a passel of men in dark suits who flash identification and take you to an undisclosed location where you have no rights. A phone call? Don't make them laugh. Think it can't happen? Why? What makes you so special?
You've lost your privacy. Do you care?
There's this episode of West Wing, that bastion of liberal socialistic anti-Americanism, where a potential Supreme Court nominee is asked if he believes the constitution contains a Right to Privacy.
(Editor's Note: If you take the a and c out, it spells privy, where real men have for generations guarded their privacy. After over twenty years of marriage, my bride still asks with a tone of disbelief, confusion, and irritation why men spend so much time in the privy. And, after all these years, I still can't explain it.)
But I digress. The nominee says that there is no explicit right to privacy in either the Constitution or Bill of Rights. Oops. Wrong answer for some liberal, left wing, socialist program. He's toast.
Now the First & Fourth amendments do suggest some measure of personal privacy. (For those of you who don't have your Constitution handy, here's the Fourth:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Irene Wagner
A college friend of mine who was on a submarine--which turns humans into sardines--said everyone's favorite place was the "head," the only place one had any time to oneself. It was an all-male sub, Mark Schannon, and had nothing to do with wives driving their husbands there!
I've been at this "message board" thing for awhile, though BC is the first place I've ever used my real name. By the time I started participating here, I knew there wasn't any fact left about me that could escape deep-data-mining, including the political activities I've engaged in. Anybody in BC could, with a little effort, find out what color my house is. That's something any of the whacked out individuals who might follow me home from work could also find out. Still, using my real name is a decision I regret making sometimes. I'm not sure I'd do it again.
2 - Cindy
Mark,
I just posted a link to that very same book earlier today.
(eerie special effect music plays in the background)
3 - Mark Schannon
Irene--we male-type people don't hog the privy because of women; there's something in the genes that draws us to the place. Maybe because most of us are full o' sheet anyway, lass.
Cindy, we're growing old, me dear. How many under 40, nay 50 or 60 would even remember it. And how many even believe it or care.
Just remember...
In Jameson Veritas
4 - Ruvy
Mark,
I read your essay to the bride, and this is what she said, "This essay was very annoying. Everything is so negative, it's as if there's nothing good in life!" Heck, Mark, throw in a dash of the Divinity, some Prophecies and how they relate to today's events and I could have written this. You do sound an awful lot like me bellyaching about the lack of privacy and how some gov'mint agent can string you up by the balls for no reason at all.
Well, anyway, I said what I have to - now I have to go hog the privy for an hour or two to regain my inner equilibrium....
5 - Ruvy
By the way, this wasn't satire Mark, whatever it was.
6 - Joanne Huspek
Wait til you get a pre-census census form that asks when you leave for work by the hour and minute, in addition to what appliances you may have. Oh, and if you don't answer, you could be subject to a fine.
Brave new world, my a**.
7 - Mark Schannon
Ruvy, tell your bride I'm a very happy person. Read her some of my other articles, such as "Twenty Reasons to Commit Suicide Now," or "Why Your Children Will Group Up to Break Your Heart" or "Heaven is Just Hell With Less Humidity."
I don't know if it's satire or not--the world has gone beyond anyone's ability to easily satirize it. I think I was exaggerating a bit...but who knows.
Anyway, enjoy your privy time.
Joanne, you only think you jest.
In Jameson Veritas
8 - Baronius
Worrying about privacy is a young man's game. As I get older, I care less and less if Mastercard or the DMV has my name on file, because I know that they can get the information wrong. Once you get a credit card application for David Jnoes, and your name isn't even Jones, illusions of Big Brother fall away.
Bad information is currently more dangerous than good information. I can envision a time when good information becomes dangerous, but I don't think we've gotten sufficiently competent with data yet. That was always the failing of 1984 and its real-life counterparts. A hundred people can't monitor a million people. A million people can't monitor a million people. A hundred people and a hundred pre-Skynet computers can't monitor a million people.
9 - Dr Dreadful
Good points, Baronius. A sense of perspective does help. Even if every step of one's journey to work every morning is being recorded somewhere, it's unlikely that anyone is paying attention.
10 - Clavos
Even if every step of one's journey to work every morning is being recorded somewhere, it's unlikely that anyone is paying attention.
...Or so "they" would like you to believe...:>)
11 - Dan(Miller)
Clav,
Well, yes. But we must be mindful that now the freedom loving Obama administration, not the horribly repressive Bush administration, is doing it. Therefore, it's not going to cause any problems. It is now a different "they."
No need to worry; I'm a lawyer, and you can believe me.
Dan(Miller)
12 - Cindy
LOL
13 - Dr Dreadful
Clav,
...Or so "they" would like you to believe...:>)
And how would you know? Do you have insider information? Should I perhaps be more circumspect when you're on the threads from now on?
Rubber heeler alert!
:-D
14 - Baritone
First: I think any future islamic martyrs reading your piece will be very disturbed to see that you have downgraded the virgin count to 27. I have long been suspect that the # I always heard in this association, that being 72, was still hardly enough to last an eternity. I mean, is it a one and done affair, or is there any recycling involved? But that's another matter.
Of course, it is disturbing to realize that pretty much everything we do, or say, or write, or anyplace we go... yada, yada, yada, is or at least may be monitored and/or recorded by and for someone, somewhere for whatever reason(s.)
I have watched all 3 of the "Bourne" films more than a few times. They are pretty good. One of the main aspects of these films is how whatever nefarious agency it is that is after Jason's ass manages to track him and others through various means.
It's fairly impressive even if they always come up a day late and a dollar short.
Anyone watching any of TV's "procedurals" like CSI or NCIS or whatever, can't be blamed for being impressed with what can be deduced from a speck of dirt or a parasitic worm found under a dead man's tongue.
Taking in all these wonders of the technological age gives us a sense of security, a sense that the bad guys haven't got a chance.
But given a bit of thought, apparently as has Mark, one realizes that all that wonderful technology can be and likely is being used in some manner against us. There are data bases out in cyberworld that remember far better what brand, what size, what color undies I bought at Kohls 4 years ago.
Our local grocery knows precisely what percent of fat we prefer in our milk, that even though we may be well into our "golden" years, we still prefer to start our morning with a bowl of Fruit Loops rather than the more sensible shredded wheat.
The whole world may know what prescriptions we pick up at our local apothecary along with what "flavor" KY we prefer.
I must agree with Baronius. I'm getting too old to give a shit. I tend to talk to myself or often sing along with the music while driving to and fro. It has often occured to me that someone could be listening. (You do know that if you have your cell phone on in your pocket or wherever around you, anything you or others say within microphone shot can be heard whether you are using the phone or not, don't you?) But then I think, who gives a rats ass? I sometimes say some crazy shit which could be taken the wrong way - you know - that whole "context" thingy, but, on the other hand, I actually sing pretty well, so anyone listening - enjoy.
B {:%#) (I have a lumpy nose and I sport a mustache.)
15 - Ruvy
First: I think any future islamic martyrs reading your piece will be very disturbed to see that you have downgraded the virgin count to 27. I have long been suspect that the # I always heard in this association, that being 72, was still hardly enough to last an eternity
YOu obviously haven't been reasing up on the law, Bazritone. One would think a man as intelligent as you would at least know what is in the stimulus package of the Blessed of Hussein.
Under section 935 (Sexual Stimulus), paragraph 2, sub-paragraph c) it specifies a reduction for Moslem martyrs from 72 houris to 27.
The remaining houris are to be distributed as follows.
Horny Hollywood stars who commit suicide -
6
Lesbian martyrs who pass on to the other side of the veil - 6
Martyrs with Hispanic-American surnames - 6
Gay men who die in terror attacks - 6
Gay men who die committing terror attacks - 12
Jewish women who die in terror attacks - 3
Jewish men who die in terror attacks - 0
Atheists who die in terror attacks - 2
Old guys die from taking too much Viagra - 1
Sub paragraph d) of the legislation states that the activities of the houris will be monitored and regulated by the Un-American Activities Committee of the United States House of Representatives.
I'm surprised you weren't aware of these things Baritone. Really!! A man of your sagacity!
16 - Clavos
A man of your sagacity!
I thought personal attacks were not allowed???
17 - Irene Wagner
Testing. Testing. Stand DOWN, Mr. Baggypants!
18 - Cindy
Irene shows her 'cruel' side.
(Thanks for leaving a comment on my new blog post, Irene. I have some interesting info I have found. I'll finish a short article on it or I'll post you some links.)
19 - Baritone
Ruvy,
Despite your uh, misgivings, you should be aware that our current president is just a guy whose shit stinks just like yours. He is not the anti-christ, nor is he the devil incarnate or any such drivel.
You are so over the top with your own zealotry that you have long since left any shred of reality far behind you.
Your inference regarding Obama being the "blessed hussein" is childish and of no consequence.
Believe it or not, the world does NOT revolve around either you or Israel. That your country, which is little more than a blip on the map gets the kind of attention it does, I guess, speaks well of Israel's Chamber of Commerce, but Israelites have an outsized notion of their importance to the rest of the world. Cudos to your people and your government in its ability to hold, in particular, the west as a moral hostage, but you all must be careful to not overplay your hand. A pair of deuces will not likely allow Israel to take the pot after the last card is played. The blip could easily turn to dust. (Pardon the mixed metaphors.)
B
20 - Irene Wagner
Not as cruel as I would have been if I'd pointed out that, for all the careful accounting above, there are three houris still left unaccounted for. Maybe they've found honest employment as gratiae.
Cindy, yours and Clavos' "sun-rise... sun-set"ting on the other thread has gotten me in a mood of eager anticipation for the noontide emergence of my own little brood of teens. Summertime is funtime! Have a great day, and I'll plan to check back at your blog...
21 - Irene Wagner
PS Ruvy -- I posted that last comment before I saw Baritone's. Mine wasn't a pile-on insult...not even an insult, really...not as good as one Christopher Rose could've come up with, anyway... Time to go, fo' sho'!
22 - Cindy
B
Gotta admire a person who has time for both a nose and a mustache.
23 - Baronius
Baritone, according to the great, great online comic XKCD, when you're alone, every once in a while you should say "I know you're listening". If no one's listening, no one will ever know you said it, but if someone is listening, you'll freak them out badly.
As I see it, I write to my congressman and he votes the other way; every time I like a new TV show they cancel it; my phone company sent me two items yesterday, a bill and a "switch to us" message. No one's listening to me.
And maybe this article would have persuaded me some other week. But some jerk spends most of his 88 years hating the Jews, hating the Fed for being Jewish, hating Jesus for being Jewish, publishing this stuff, and then he strolls into the Holocaust Museum with a gun...and I'm supposed to feel like we're overwatched?
24 - Ruvy
Baritone,
Learn some Arabic. Barak Hussein is Arabic [Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]; it means "blessed of Hussein". If your piece of shit president can't spell Arabic transliterations right because he is following his daddy's ignorance, it ain't my fault. I spell it right. If it insults your piece of shit president by spelling his name wrong, so much the better. If he is going to show his contempt for me and mine with his damned photos, I'll show my contempt for him.
No more light-hearted answers for your garbage, dude.
25 - Ruvy
Not as cruel as I would have been if I'd pointed out that, for all the careful accounting above, there are three houris still left unaccounted for. Maybe they've found honest employment as gratiae.
The bad accounting was purposeful, Irene. It shows what you can expect from a Democrat drunk on power - bad math. And your country is suffering from a surfeit of bad math lately....