Sunday, January 9, 2011

POLITICS - Obama Administration

Misery With Plenty of Company - NYTimes.com

CRIME - Shooting: Rep Gifford Critical 6 Dead, 12 Wounded

Gabrielle Giffords shooting in Tucson: Did it stem from state of political discourse?

Pardon me for a totally different take on this whole situation, Tragic? Of course. But trying to pin the cause on Tea Party, Palin, Beck, et al, is absurd. There will always be crazies. People talking to voices, or seeing Hitler marching down the street. 

All of us rightfully worry about the surveillance under which we live, justified by the flimsiest of government justifications. Founders, in their constructing the Constitution, did not in their wildest dreams, have any idea of how the Fourth Amendment could possibly fail to protect the privacy of citizens.  Stifling the hate purveyors who dominate much of the media is no guarantee of protection against the crazies.  As a nation, we must somehow find the balance between the technological protections available to us, versus are right to be free from the prying eyes of government.

This will always be a constantly shifting and ever changing fine edge balanced between remaining unseen and unknown, against the protection which professionally managed technology can provide. if for example, YouTube had a built-in capability to identify word or audio combinations suggested in that the submittal was by someone who was potentially dangerous, we might have been warned in advance that this assailant was someone who should be carefully monitored.  Yet, all of us are concerned, and rightfully so, that the NSA has the technological capability, and engages in precisely the same activity, deployed against American citizens.

Does any of this answer the question of privacy?  No.  That said, it is that question which should be asked.