Today the news reporters are aghast–the government has access to our phone calls and internet exchanges! Why would this come as a surprise to anyone? Maybe I’m just paranoid, but I’ve always suspected it. Maybe it was growing up in the D.C. burbs, where stories of secret underground missiles and bomb shelters were standard fare. “See that farm over there? The trees and the grass look so perfect because they’re not real!” Maybe it was George Orwell that started it for me. Attending high school in the early 70’s, we read 1984 as sci-fi. We thought that by the year 2000 we’d all be talking on phones with cameras on our television screens, that we’d even have them in our bathrooms, most assuredly–that is, if we survived the pending nuclear holocaust.

Although I’ve been online for many years, I’ve always kept a low profile, guarding my AIM, Yahoo, Google and Facebook accounts as if they were hot commodities someone would steal or use against me someday. So, it figures that right after I decide to get out here and share my real name and start a “Heart to heart” blog in the electronic world, the news would confirm my belief that none of this is private! Oh, well. If they decide to persecute me for being who I am, then I guess I’m done for!

Seriously, though, our fine government has a history of pulling some pretty sneaky tricks. Read the rest of this entry →