I may be wrong, but the most cherished American freedom is the Freedom of Speech. We have it and we want everyone else in the world to have it. Of course we all know that you can’t yell “free pop-corn fire” in a crowded theater, or say the word “bomb” in the airport. Oh, you can’t say the n-word if you are white and while you are at it don’t bother with “nappy headed ho’s” You can’t make jokes about being retarded, because it offends the retarded.
“We have a sense of humor,” he said. “But just as it is with every other group, there are lines that shouldn’t be crossed.”
You can’t joke about switching sides when you are working for the military. Recent article talks about a qualified scientist who was fired with a bad record for saying:
‘If we bomb Iran, that’s where I draw the line, hop the border and switch sides,’
According to the Star, after joking in such manner, this lady who is a civilian was reported on and subsequently dismissed. While I understand that in the military certain things should not be said, it’s the persistence of her co-worker in getting her fired that struck me as odd.
According to the lawsuit, McCroy complained to their team leader that Helbig was a security risk and that he didn’t trust her.
The team leader reprimanded Helbig, telling her that in their military environment a person should never “joke” that way. But he deemed no further action was necessary.
“That wasn’t enough for McCroy,” Helbig said. He went around their immediate superiors, she said.
Another arm of the military got involved. The Foreign Military Studies Office took over McCroy’s complaint and began investigating Helbig’s character.
Days later, Helbig was in between classes at Fort Leavenworth when she overheard a security officer interviewing a teammate about Helbig and “her suspicious activity,” Helbig remembers.
These Soviet posters “Be Vigilant” are from a simpler time when citizens were encouraged to report suspicious activities to the authorities. Soviet propaganda made sure that everyone was convinced that spies and other evil-doers are lurking “in sheep’s clothing” waiting to sabotage the struggling republic. Everyone reported on everyone. Relatives, neighbors, co-workers, classmates, many people were never heard from again after NKVD (later KGB) “followed up” on these reports. Many of the “upstanding citizens” who complained later followed their victims to the GULAG, themselves a victim of someone else’s vigilance. Where does the prudent vigilance end and paranoia starts? It’s ironic that the heroine of this story is a daughter of Ukrainian immigrants, whose parents and grandparents may have gone through this before.
I recently ran into a modern version of old posters. These are from Australia, but will not look out of place in this country.
The first picture was taken by a blogger in Australia, the second poster is actually a pdf file, but I converted it to an image. If you look closely you’ll notice phrases like: “I overheard them planning something” or “I felt like I had to let you know”.
The latter was a phrase that started many people on their way to execution or years of hard labor. Simpler times indeed.
7 responses so far ↓
1
Burrowowl
// Aug 13, 2008 at 2:17 am
—–BEGIN NSATT SNOOP BLOCK—–
building bomb tower terrorist grenade c4 explosive plot hijack
plane police feds white house guns dirty device convoy president
war chemical death drop off mule undercover launch rocket drug
covert cell sarin mass infidel Allah package subway mass losses
detain briefcase plane hidden phone listen threat massive dead
——END NSATT SNOOP BLOCK——
2
Doc
// Aug 13, 2008 at 8:41 am
i’ve had much the same discussion with several e-friends over the last 6 months; they have wanted to get together, have a beer and discover for themselves whether or not i am as deranged as they think.
when i explain that it is not particularly safe for me to do so and still retain my anonymity they scoff. but these people don’t work for the federal government. they do not see the presence of Homeland Security everywhere. literally - there is now at least one office of Homeland Security in every agency building in the U.S., acting much as ‘political’ officers have done in every repressed society.
while certain federal positions have always been appointed -and therefore political- adherence to the party line has been enforced to such a degree the last 7 & ½ years that people with 10, 15 or 20 years of service have been suddenly walked out the doors by the FPs, never to return. and don’t get me started on the people who have simply not shown up for work one day after questioning certain business or technical decisions – maybe none of these folk had issues with rendition, but how do you disprove a negative? And before you scoff at the notion, remember that this is an administration that has consistently called into question the patriotism of anyone and everyone who has not toed the line on the illegal invasion and occupation of iraq.
whether you want to believe it or not, your phone lines are tapped and your conversations analyzed (especially if –as Burrowowl demonstrates- you use certain keywords), your internet traffic is all captured and sifted through. Actions in all public spaces are captured via traffic cams, weather cams, security cams, satellites and the ubiquitous cell phone cams. Your travel patterns and specific geographical location is known via credit card usage (fill up with gas at a QT in Omaha after visiting the zoo and watch the reader ask for your zip code), your cell phone and –more and more- your car; OnStar and its ilk, after-market lo-jack devices and sat radio.
behind all of this surveillance –and more that it is not prudent to mention- is a massive computing infrastructure dedicated to correlating all of the above input into predictable patterns. several different federal agencies concerned with safety, security and national defense then add dollops of information from their own databases, stir it up and ladle it around the table. some of it even is fed to the dogs sitting patiently at the table waiting for scraps – local law enforcement.
none of the above is the really scary part. the scary part is you point about people: folks ‘informing’ on their neighbors, feeling ‘they just had to say something’, calling ‘anonymous’ tip hot-lines and feeding the great beast with rumor and innuendo that makes it way up to the centralized witches brew of data where it is blended in with all the rest…
everything i have written above is fact.
you know what the average response is to all of this?
“so what? i don’t have any reason to worry. i haven’t done anything. besides, our government doesn’t spy on its own people. The things Meesha writes about can’t happen here.”
bullshit. unadulterated, wishful thinking, uninformed bullshit.
i’ll wait until after the elections and see if the culture changes: I’ve got a family at least a dozen ‘outside’ kids to support…
; ‘ )
3
Brian
// Aug 13, 2008 at 9:35 am
It’s amazing that people are so willing to surrender their liberties in this country. The warrantless wire tapping, suspect rendering, torture and indefinite detentions instituted by the Bush administration all run counter to everything that makes this country great. Yet so many ignorant people will readily surrender their rights, as well as the rights of others, to feel a little safer at night…
On a mildly-related note, I too read about the protests of Tropic Thunder, and everytime I hear about things like this, I have the same thought: Calling someone retarded (or a midget, handicapped, etc, etc) is frowned upon because those are considered negative terms. My counter is, aren’t those negative things? (overall I mean, I realize it doesn’t make them bad people, but I merely mean it makes life more difficult to have such an affliction) How long will it be before “mentally challenged” or “little person” is frowned upon as a negative term? Where does it stop?
4
m.v.
// Aug 13, 2008 at 10:35 am
Dear Burrowowl, thanks for your comment. I am writing to you from my new cell in GITMO. Wish you were here…
5
Burrowowl
// Aug 13, 2008 at 10:37 am
Found myself nodding my head a little too much to Mojo Nixon’s “You Cannot Kill Me” last night. Armed insurrection is looking better all the time.
6
Nuke
// Aug 13, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Great topic Meesha!
The government, and almost every corporation that you do business with, have oodles of data on you. For the moment the fact that many of these businesses and agencies don’t share well with each other, coupled with the lack of raw processing power, means that nobody has a complete profile on you. This can be good or bad, depending on your personal situation. Unfortunately both of those things are changing.
Doc, watch your butt.
7
travel
// Aug 13, 2008 at 4:31 pm
You all really believe Obama is going to put an end to all this? There is no way to stop it. The internet and credit cards, debit cards, our very lifestyle would all have to change…It will NOT happen just because we have Democrats in control.
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