Posted on 06/18/2013 11:01:23 AM PDT by Starman417
I remember once when I was in college I took a trip home to the DC metro area with my girlfriend. She and I went to the movies not far from where my mother lived in a rather rough part of town called Capitol Heights, MD. I have no idea what we saw. I do however remember that we had a terrible time, and it had nothing to do with what was on the screen and everything to do with what was going on in the theater.
Not long before this at a different theater a few miles away in Oxen Hills, MD. I was standing in line with a friend and I saw two teenage girls fighting not 10 feet away. I grabbed one of the girls and someone else grabbed the other. That’s when I noticed that the other girl was bleeding profusely and the girl I grabbed had a 12 inch steak knife in her hand. It was something about a baby’s daddy is all I knew. Needless to say we didn’t see a movie that night.
So at this different theater we were hoping for better results. As soon as we sat down I wasn't so sure. People were talking to the screen, smoking in the seats and being rather raucous. My girlfriend mentioned the smoking and I said that if that was the only problem we encountered that night we would count ourselves lucky.
I mention all of this because when you think your life may be in jeopardy, it’s hard to enjoy entertainment… and that’s the whole point of movies. Movies require your buy in for success. They require you to turn off reality. They require you to become connected with the characters. They require the suspension of disbelief and much more if you are to get everything out of the movie and enjoy two hours of entertainment.
If you can’t do any of those things you can’t become engaged in the movie. If you’re worried that someone’s going to pull a knife, a gun or set the place on fire, you’re going to be busy looking around to scan the theater, listening for commotion or trouble and generally paying attention to everything but what’s on the screen. As a result you'd probably miss much of the storyline and likely would end up doing little more than wasting your time and money.
Just as movies require your buy in for success, so too does life. And that’s the problem with all of this seemingly ubiquitous government surveillance. The danger is not so much that Big Brother is watching and trying to control our every move. They don’t have to. Our knowing they could be is enough. Somewhat like the Observer Effect in physics, the observing itself impacts the people being observed.
Think about it this way, if you think it’s tough to enjoy a movie when you’re worried about what’s going on in the theater… imagine how difficult it would be to write a compelling, engaging movie while the whole time a government agent is standing over your shoulder. Whether you realize it or not, you’re writing that movie... it’s your life story.
How much different would your story be if you knew your every word and action might end up as part of some government dossier on you? How much could you embrace freedom and focus on having fun, sowing your wild oats, finding your passion, or risking failure to pursue some crazy dream if you were constantly wondering what some government bureaucrat with the power to throw you in prison or take your kids away might think of it?
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
Spying on the citizens isn't to make the citizens safer. To the contrary it is to ensure the citizens are not up to anything that will thwart the will of the government.
Either we have a 4th amendment or we don't. The 4th amendment says:
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.It doesn't have the addendum "unless the government thinks it's better to spy on the people." It is an absolute determined by awrrant and probably cause, not fishing expeditions.
That’s PG county for ya, especially that area.
The author has a point. I’ve been living under a cloud of impending doom since January 20, 2009.
Cops driving down the road don't need a warrant to report what they see. You, as a citizen, don't need to go to court to get a warrant to report what you see to a magistrate.
Eavesdropping is different.
There are other countries who work this differently but none of them have yet figured out how to get around the problem that you see what you see and you hear what you hear, whether you are a private citizen or a cop.
If you want everybody to get a warrant before they say anything about what they see or hear what you'll have is an all encompassing brutal tyranny.
But...Isn't this the reason masked, plugged-in, sunglassed SWAT and the FBI will eventually run the ticket booth, sell you your popcorn, hand your six-year old her movie-stub, and guard all four exits in and out of the theater with automatic weapons??
"Relax and enjoy your Disney movie, sir and madam. We're from the government and here to help you."
(feeling safer yet??)
He loved his house. Loved mowing the lawn. Loved being able to live without 5 locks on the door. And it was only an hour's drive to work rather than the 15 minutes he'd gotten used to.
I think he liked owning and knowing how to use a firearm as well.
Point I made is unless you know what is or is not reasonable you don't know if you need a warrant, and there are some REASONABLE searches ~ always have been ~ always will be.
Again, solve the "reasonable/unreasonable" formula before jumping to warrants!
I think reasonable/unreasonable is reasonably clear in this case. It is unreasonable to go on fishing expeditions looking for things unless there is already evidence of a crime. Either the fourth amendment means something or it doesn’t. The governments view is that it - along with all the other amendments in the Bill of Rights - means nothing. The concept of “living constitution” means that the constitution means only what the government wants it to mean, and in that case the constitution which was institutied among other things to protect the citizens from tyranny is gone.
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