I Watch 'Em So You Don't Have To

GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME... MORE LIBERTY

A Brief Conversation About Freedom And Yes, We Still Have It

Living in the US, personal freedoms have always been a given. We have a Constitution. We have rights. We pay for those rights with our money and our obedience to the laws of the land. But what happens when the obedience to those laws start infringing on our freedoms? If you have watched or listened to the news at all, you realize people get furious. They polarize. Suddenly we're not a united nation, we're 50 states with different opinions and laws. It's not just about race. It's not just about whether we have the right to own weapons. It's not just about what information is becoming available to the government. It's us and how we live.

So we've learned that our email, our phone conversations and other data may be in the hands of people who will... what? Use it against us? Snoop on what we're doing? I thought that was called the internet. Think about it. Whatever social network you happen to use, you are giving up certain freedoms to use it. You have to give them your real name. Your email. Your address and phone number. You may be able to hide certain facts from the public (Some have 'user names' that are not their real names. My name is real, my profile picture, obviously, is not.).

So why do some things make us so angry? Yes, our government screwed up by collecting info without our knowledge. But do you know how many times sites on the internet do that same thing - and have even more of our information than you may know - often selling them to third parties which is why we get an email address full of spam. I have a good computer system. For security we got top notch software that protects us from those dreaded viruses that we keep hearing about that can wipe out our hard drive in seconds (pffft). But you know what? Through a trusted source I found a little program that does one thing - it blocks any, ANY site that tries to 'track' you, gather your info, see where you're going and what you're doing.

And you know what? So far (and I haven't had it very long) it has blocked sites from 'tracking' me (as of this date) 183,263 times. And I'm no computer addict spending 23 hours of my day online. This is just from the little I can get on here. Who tracks you? Did you buy a song from iTunes? Tracked. Go on Facebook or your Google + site? Tracked. Buy a book or ??? from Amazon? Tracked. Look at your personal and supposedly secure (mine is through my phone company) email account? Tracked.

We can get as mad as we want that the NSA want the billions of pieces of electronic information from us for whatever reason they tell themselves but the plain truth is - our stuff is already out there. As for me, although I never use a picture of me or my family online, it's on my driver's license and a national database, including my fingerprints (no, I've never been arrested). They have everything on me. They have almost everything on everyone already. What more could they possibly use? And what good would it do them?

And for those yelling their opinion in our faces - be quiet and go home. Especially celebrities who think that they are much smarter than the rest of us poor stupid people. I'm thinking of one particular actor with dual citizenship who recently starred in a very violent movie (I should know, I saw the first one and was pretty disgusted.) and NOW is screaming that certain rights we have should be removed 'cause we're all stupid and all we want to do is go around killing people. Oh, and he hates his new movie. 

Okay for the record here's the timeline: There was a tragic shooting with understandable outrage from the public. One year and 7 months go by and there was another tragic shooting with understandable outrage from the public. Four months after THAT, this actor made his movie. One month after THAT was a tragic shooting with understandable outrage from the public. NOW this actor says his film was wrong, us having our rights is wrong (and quietly went to the bank and cashed his check).

Is there any wonder there is shouting from both sides accomplishing nothing? So far in this Country we still have the rights we've always had. Now there is arguing on both sides on whether that should change but the point right now is that NOTHING HAS CHANGED. The NSA got caught doing what the internet has been doing to us all along probably since the first day they hooked up. And as long as we obey the laws and protect those laws, nothing they see will matter one little bit.

People can scream all they want about what certain groups WANT to do to change our world but those changes haven't happened. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer and the violence has not changed a whit - what has changed is how fast news travels and how many people take facts and present them in whatever way they choose. It makes things seem worse, but let me end this with some facts that I will not comment on:

Despite news media impressions to the contrary, there are not many murders in the United States that are committed with rifles or shotguns. Combined, it is under 1,000 per year---more people are murdered with knives. FBI data shows that most murders are done with handguns. Random killings are very rare, most are between people who know each or rival gang members. In other words, stay out of areas, such as parts of Rahamland (Chicago), and your chance of being killed by a stranger is very, very slim. Further data to contemplate: In 32% of the murders in 2010, no firearm was used.

Weapons	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Total	15,087	14,916	14,224	13,752	12,996
Total firearms:	10,225	10,129	9,528	9,199	8,775
Handguns	7,836	7,398	6,800	6,501	6,009
Rifles	438	453	380	351	358
Shotguns	490	457	442	423	373
Other guns	107	116	81	96	96
Firearms, type not stated	1,354	1,705	1,825	1,828	1,939
Knives or cutting instruments	1,830	1,817	1,888	1,836	1,704
Blunt objects (clubs, hammers, etc.)	618	647	603	623	540
Personal weapons (hands, fists, feet, etc.)	841	869	875	817	745
Poison	12	10	9	7	11
Explosives	1	1	11	2	4
Fire	117	131	85	98	74
Narcotics	48	52	34	52	39
Drowning	12	12	16	8	10
Strangulation	137	134	89	122	122
Asphyxiation	106	109	87	84	98
Other weapons or weapons not stated	1,140	1,005	999	904	874

Peace and love to you all.