Are your phone calls safe? Phone records have always been available to government agencies when there is cause to access them. However, that has changed in the post 9/11 world, and now the government has carte blanche to access whatever information they so choose, without having to go through the bother of showing cause or necessity. I'm not sure about how others feel, but I know that this kind of Big Brother approach to government makes me very, very nervous.

I have no doubt that there will be people out there who say that if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about. No offense, my friends with the rose-coloured view, but that point of view is a fallacy. As is the thought that it is unpatriotic to question your government. The Founding Fathers are probably crying tears of disappointment wherever they are right now, because the principles that they fought for are slowly being eroded.

Take this masterpiece of wordplay presented by our Commander-in-Chief today:

"We are not mining or trolling through the personal lives of innocent Americans,"

So apparently the tens of millions of persons whose phone records they have accessed, mined and trolled through, and otherwise commandeered from the phone companies, those people are obviously not innocent Americans. If they were innocent, their records wouldn't have been accessed.

Again, if you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Right? Riiiiiight...

I end this with another quote, one that I find to be more and more applicable in our times:

The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve, nor will he ever receive, either. - Benjamin Franklin

Say it again, Ben. You got it right.

So I've started a blog here. I already have a LiveJournal account, but I figured that I'd try it over here too as a lot of people seem to like this site. So we'll see how this goes. I'm trying to decide what to use this particular blog for. It's tempting to use it as a political blog, commentary on the modern world and all that rot. I wonder, though, who would find that even remotely interesting, though. After all, I'm not a famous political pundit. I'm just an average person trying to survive in rather insane times.

Then again, maybe more of us average folke need to speak up about these so-called "interesting times" that we live in. More voices need to be heard when the government seems to be going from "by the people, for the people" to "by the profit, for the bottom line", and when the President of the United States is more concerned about whether his oil buddies are making the most profit possible than he is about whether the average person can afford to get to work every day because gas prices are so high.

I warn you now, I lean strongly toward the left, though I have moments when I suddenly arch back toward the conservative side. I do enjoy a good debate, though, as long as it remains a debate rather than an argument.

So...if you're not already bored, then I look forward to a fun ride together. Let's explore this world we're in, and see what we can see.

If you are bored, well then I doubt you've read this far anyway. :)