Posted on 07/01/2003 12:34:34 PM PDT by optimistically_conservative
LOL, I'm trying to think of places you could mail it to. Brothels...Gay bars...etc. But I haven't been able to think of anywhere I'd be shocked to learn Daschle visited.
You could send it to Monica Lewinsky once a week. At the very least that ought to start a good rivalry between Tom and Bill.
You can bet that this is precisely what it was designed to do.
Mourn for our Republic - it is on its deathbed.
Oh the minorities will surely go for that. Yet another reason to hate whitey and distrust authority. I wonder what the replacement cost is to keep those cameras in working order? If I was a drug dealer there would not be a single camera recording my actions.
Maybe I need to patent my LCD license plates.
God's eyes are watching us all the time so it should be something we are use to - it happens that those who don't believe in God and that He doesn't see them that often get upset by public cameras.
SO GET USE TO being recorded. IT happens every second of your life by God - and the government has a right to record public events to protect us against red light runners, terrorists, speeders, etc.
Microgood said:
But who protects us from the government? Since government is made of people and not GOD, they are corruptible. A lot of identity theft comes from government employees selling information which should be private to others. We need to limit the information government has about us exactly because we cannot trust them. We have our constitution because we cannot trust them.
Microgood is exactly correct. Who will watch the watchers? And why, Kkindt, to you compare the government to G-d? The government is made up of a bunch of corruptible human beings, who are tempted even more into corruption by the power that they wield. Remember the saying "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely?" Well, Kkindt, we are well and truly screwed. Some future J. Edgar Hoover is going to get recordings on all of his or her political enemies, and will use that information to blackmail them the same way that the Clintons used the 900 FBI files against the Republicans.
Ben Franklin, a wiser observer of human beings than anyone on FR, said "Those who are willing to give up their essential liberties in exchange for the illusion of security neither deserve nor will get either." In light of this statement, and of the corruptibility of humans everywhere, maybe you should re-examine your statist philosophy a bit.
Where is Sandra Day O'Connor to weigh in on this. Screw "current law", just say sodomites might lose their privacy and POOF! the whole camera issue falls away as an invasion of the Constitutional Right To Privacy.
Or is that right only available within the bedroom?
Open your eyes and look around.
Don't you know that those who receive a government paycheck are angelic saviors from above? It is only the evil people who make up the non-government sector that can't be trusted and need to be monitored 24/7.
With all of this monitoring you would think that there would be some grand payoff for this total invasion of privacy. But I seriously doubt that the government would use this for catching parole violators, illegal aliens, people with outstanding arrest warrants or the majority of government employees who wander around town aimlessly while on the clock running errands, cruising the park, enjoying three hour lunches at some strip joint, etc. . More likely to be used by divorce attorneys, targeted investigations on political enemies, the ever expanding War On Drugs, traffic violators, and any other subject where the government could find a return on its investment in terms of cash and control.
Wow, an actual bone fide slave-minion of the State. I suppose that you feel that government is perfect and flawless and would never do anything to hurt you because the government's benevolance exceeds the mercies of the Creator God.
Information is power and Power is something that is routinely abused. The next time that there is a rape or robbery in the neighborhood and you show up on a government camera around the same time. I hope you have a gift card at Home Depot so you can afford to replace your front door.
Spit on the sidewalk? A piece of paper falls from your pocket? Look! You are on candid camera and as your mug is being photgraphed by a government desperate for easy fines and taxes from its citizens (to pay for all of this around the clock survelliance you so dearly love) the whirring sounds of printers performing the steps in forwarding to your address fines for spitting, jaywalking, littering, smoking, whatever the government feels a need to punish.
You say that you don't want privacy and everybody's outdoor lives should be scrutinized? What happens when there is the likely public/private cooperation in that some private company fronts the money to install these cameras, look for "crimes" then sends you fines and does this all on a commission? What if this private company then finds your non-private life outside your home as a way for additional revenue to marketers and other demographers? Since countless numbers of people will be needed to "monitor" these events and process the fines, undoubtably you must feel that every person hired is the epitomy of honesty and virtue and certainly no one would use the cameras to trace some hard body woman around town - to stalk certain people. Oh no. The government is good. The government is perfect. People should surrend all modesty, privacy and identity to your god the government.
I suppose you believe that 225 ton statue out on Bedloe's Island is the Statue of Security.
I'm troubled by this.
I no longer can enjoy my liberty or pursue happiness in relative anonymity from the state.
There is no longer an assumption of an act which would attract the attention of the state.
You have surrendered to the state a compelling interest to monitor your activities either without cause, or in the expectation of that you will violate something or in some other means fit into a "compelling state interest."
Especially troubling is not that the state will act on a violation, but that the state will compile, correlate, profile and eventually predict my proclivities and behavior.
I will be categorized and filed based on a comprehensive compilation of snippets, placed on watch lists with autonomous thresholds watching for a triggering event or act.
There will be numerous false positives, and false negatives, resulting in an increased loss of liberty for most but a reduction in the populist infractions you mention.
Just not that attractive to me. I'm hoping there will still be large tracts of land with low density populations where I'm less likely to be observed - so I can live in Aldous Huxley's wilderness.
Day 1 -- Subject awoke at 8:59am. Went to his home office in the room adjacent to his bedroom. Stayed there until 7:45PM. Ordered in Pizza. Read an article on ASP.net. Went to bed at 11:45PM.
Day 2 -- Subject awoke at 8:59am. Went to his home office in the room adjacent to his bedroom. Stayed there until 7:45PM. Fixed a BLT. Read an article on c# programming. Went to bed at 11:45PM.
Day 3 -- Subject awoke at 8:59am. Went to his home office in the room adjacent to his bedroom. Stayed there until 7:45PM. Ordered in Pizza. Read an article on ASP.net. Went to bed at 11:45PM.
...
Day 68 -- Subject awoke at 8:59am. Went to his home office in the room adjacent to his bedroom. Stayed there until 7:45PM. Ordered in Pizza. Read an article on ASP.net. Went to bed at 11:45PM.
Day 69 -- I quit. This is boring. Subject is pathetic, and I am even more pathetic for doing nothing but watching him.
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