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Jun. 9th, 2013
Big Brother Is Watching Over You
Jun. 9th, 2013 11:14 am It isn’t that the Internet has been penetrated by the surveillance state; it’s that the Internet, in effect, is a surveillance state.
-- Ross Douthat at The New York Times
People are flustered and have their dander up after a couple of big news stories about the widespread spying of our government into our personal lives. But this is hardly news, right? We got more specifics of this spying in these news stories, such as the code names of the particular programs, but we have known the general truth for years. We have long been talking about how the Internet is a self-imposed Orwellian telescreen into our lives. I grant that this is a noxious fact, but it also now seems to be a fact of life that we must live with. All we need is another major terrorist attack, and people will be quiet again about what government does in the name of security. In any case, I am going to let Maureen Dowd provide us with a window into this whirlwind of controversy.
( Read more... )
-- Ross Douthat at The New York Times
People are flustered and have their dander up after a couple of big news stories about the widespread spying of our government into our personal lives. But this is hardly news, right? We got more specifics of this spying in these news stories, such as the code names of the particular programs, but we have known the general truth for years. We have long been talking about how the Internet is a self-imposed Orwellian telescreen into our lives. I grant that this is a noxious fact, but it also now seems to be a fact of life that we must live with. All we need is another major terrorist attack, and people will be quiet again about what government does in the name of security. In any case, I am going to let Maureen Dowd provide us with a window into this whirlwind of controversy.
( Read more... )
67. Yokota Days
Jun. 9th, 2013 04:00 pmThinking about how I let opportunities pass, I remember when Marie came to sit beside me on the bench in the middle of a basketball game that my team was playing. I just sat dumbly silent. This silence often falls on me in social situations, which must often make me seem retarded, or in this case, perhaps spiteful. I cannot remember if this particular incident happened after a chill blew on our friendly relationship, when she started dating Adrian, but even if it did, I am pretty sure that I badly wanted to say something friendly, even something as asinine as, “Enjoying the game?” But nothing came to me, and I just sat there like a sack of rotting potatoes. I wonder if it is because, deep down, I know that nothing can come of it. What can I possibly say that will make me loveable?
