"Patriot Game," linked here, is a post I wrote nearly eight years ago. I dismissed concerns about domestic government spying as so much piffle.
Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. What a difference a few years can make in teaching us how human nature is the one thing that doesn't change. When given extra power, those in power will take even more--and most likely use it very badly.
The single comment I got on "Patriot Game" was from a blogger named Deedee. I remember I believed her account of the government's spying on her family, but I thought it was an isolated case. Now, in the wake of the NSA scandal and news of the mega data center in Utah, it seems like we're all in the same carefully surveilled boat. I even wrote a post on our snoopy government two months ago.
The world has changed exponentially in the past decade. The powers the Patriot Act extended to the US government were supposed to protect us from terrorists, not to spy on our own citizens. And if the Feds are determined to spy on Americans, couldn't they at least have been efficient enough to find the Boston Marathon bombers?
Early on in the process of domestic "data gathering," it appears that Deedee knew where this was going. Wherever she is now and for whatever it's worth, we're on the same page now.
