In my observation, the folks who spend the most time worrying about other people's faults, and who are the loudest heralds of other's failings, are themselves the worst miscreants. For instance, Child Protective Services is full of pedophiles and childless old maids who have nothing better to do but tell others how to run their families.
It's a sickness that borders on obsession for some.
In the general headlines today, we see massive examples of this disease. From the Houston family who was living in a metal building, in a style that would make many Indonesians envious. Yet, CPS and nosy neighbors had so little to concern themselves with, that destroying this family was all they could find to distract themselves. But the really big examples to be found are at the highest levels of government.
In England (hardly worth calling Britain any more), Rupert Murdoch is up again the Parliament and Crown for doing what the Parliament and Crown have been doing to everyone else for decades...snooping.
You see, it's OK if the government places cameras, motion detectors, scanners, and dozens of other devices all around your environment, in order to catch the subtlest signs that you are not in lock-step with their dictates. Yet, when the tables are turned, and the press is listening in on their open signals using public airwaves, then it's time for hearings and trials and even murders.
They can build massive systems that intercept and parse every phone call, email, text message, and uttered unintelligables, but if your do the same to them, then you must be impoverished, imprisoned and embarrassed. You sons and daughters must be drug through the dirt and hung out to dry, but it you do that to them yourself, then they assume the right to take your family from you.
If politicians and court jesters don't have the sense to use encryption and to realize that their own creations make all of us vulnerable to snooping, then they fully and rightfully deserve to be snooped upon. Everyone's every digital utterance is open to interception, no matter what your rank or station. If you don't like it, then don't do it.
Another fine example of this disease is the Obamanation. He has the unmitigated gall to tell corporations and rich individuals that they can't own private jets (or any other form of transport, one assumes), yet his own entourage is a veritable fly-tilla of aircraft owned by the people. There are at least two Air Force Ones, that I know of, plus Marine One (the big helicopter that takes him to the airplane), and lord knows how many other aircraft in his service. Furthermore, you may recall a while back when His Obamaness did a whirlwhind tour of Asia, there were roughly one hundred aircraft and sea vessels riding on his coattails.
Sorry, I don't buy this rubbish. Neither does Warren Buffet, and presumably Obama-worshippers like Algore and John Travolta are a tad upset as well...or are THEY exempt (like Obama-care)?
Just a short time ago, His Obamaness was mandating that all government vehicles had to meet a certain level of 'greeness' (another load of hogwash). At the same time, the Royal Carriage, a massive Cadillac armored vehicle that prevents His Obamaness from having the least little interaction with the people who put him there, got stuck backing out of the parking lot. Guess that full tank of premium gasoline was a bit heavy...or was it Michelle's butt?
You give the illegitimate, illegal shoe-shine boy a little power, and he turns into a tyrant. That's why the Constitution was so careful to keep the Executive weak. Speaking of which, the Constitution is written on hemp paper, but us peons aren't allowed to grow it, smoke it or exploit it.
Here in Indonesia, a high-ranking member of the political party that gave the country a rather draconian anti-porn law, was caught IN PARLIAMENT surfing porn on his tablet, because a sharp photographer in the galley recorded the whole thing.
What a crock it all is.
If you don't like your dirty laundry being hung out to dry, then don't hang others' out. It's a very simple rule that found elegant voice in that epic novel called the New Testament: "Physician, heal thyself," or "How can you pluck the cinder from your brother's eye, when you can't see the plank in your own?" For all its failings, there's some good wisdom in that much-misused fairy tale.
As a society, we have become a bunch of busy-bodies, forbidding our neighbor from sipping tea while we swill ours. We're all for crime cameras that catch thieves, but get outraged when we find that we are the thieves.
It's high time to shut it all down. Minnesota is on the right track. If more states follow, could the feral gummint be far behind. I know it's too much to hope for, but I hope they don't reach a budget deal. I hope the whole thing comes crashing down. It's time to throw out the baby with the bathwater and start fresh.
In Terry Gilliam's brillian "Time Bandits," there's a great line near the end..."Don't let any of that get on you. It's PURE evil!" If even a minute piece of corruption and evil is allowed to escape, then anything that follows will start already polluted. Dismantle the whole damn thing and start fresh. Life will go on, trust me.
Life, the Universe and Everything existed long before the US started give it orders, and it will continue long after the last memory of it dies off. Nothing is too big to fail, especially if it is corrupt, duplicitous and two-faced.
Those who force their moralities and sensibilities on others are quite often the worst offenders. It's time for everyone to spand a little more time cleaning their own nests, and leave the rest of us alone.
And Rupe? Go get 'em, Big Boy!
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