HEY, AMERICAN, WHAT'S YOUR PRICE?

While pumping a bit of iron this morning, I began to think about the 30 pieces of silver and what the American equivalent would be these days. Strangely, in the middle of a set of curls, I found myself speculating on just how much it would take and how anyone could rationalize treachery against the constitution of a country which has endowed its people with more freedom than has ever been seen in this world.

EDWARD SNOWDEN

And then, even more bizarrely, my mind drifted off to college and university curricula and those courses that are "hot" these days, courses like "Feminist  Goals & 21st Century Sociology,"  "The Point & Counterpoint of Gay Politics," and "Black Folks: Victims of the White Capitalist Onslaught."  Combine such academic offerings with "A" being the grade most often awarded in the halls of academe, and it quickly becomes apparent that many students are likely not graduating with much broadening of the intellect, not to mention any understanding of the liberties that were provided by forefathers who sacrificed their all. 

In settings that look distressingly like scenes from X-Files, 100's of young "geeks" are the 21st century's version of miners and are under contract to your government, with the difference being that they are mining data, not minerals. And, in the process, the email transmissions and telephone records of millions of Americans are subject to government scrutiny and analysis.  Given what we know now about the internal workings of the Justice Department, the IRS and the State Department, this is obviously not a development 
to inspire confidence in the multicultural philosopher
 kings and queens on the Potomac.

THE LYING IDIOT GENERAL CLAPPER

One always hopes, of course, that geek scruples have been formed and that geek technical curricula have been supplemented by serious study of American history and the Constitution.  But, about that, I am not optimistic.  The average young geek, burrowed in a dark warren of computers, is probably drawing more money than he or she could ever have imagined, made possible, of course, by your tax dollars.  And, there is always that new car or that new house to be bought.  And, of course, there are those troublesome student loans to be paid off; and, after all, the geeks are undertaking these tasks for our "own good."  In fact, idiot general James R. Clapper himself said so!  And that was after the fact of lying to Congress last March in denying that there was no gigantic data mining program going on.

As a trenchant critic of both government waste 
and attacks on our civil liberties,  it is apparent to 
me that the threat of terrorism could be abated and billions could be saved by simply cutting back on Muslim immigration into the United States.  Oh, but no, this solution is too simple!  Just like the TSA, solutions must hamper and inconvenience law-abiding Americans. Never mind  illegal searches and seizures!

Thank God for Edward Snowden, for without his blowing the whistle we would have been totally ignorant of the nefarious activity going on that threatens liberty.  If this government chooses to persecute, prosecute and hound Mr. Snowden, it will be making a terrible mistake.  And that brings to mind all the rumors about Muslim money circulating in D.C. that has furnished some pretty exclusive villas for some "public servants" on the Aegean coast of Turkey.  Are they not as compromised, or perhaps more so, as the geek miners who are undermining our rights in their gloomy and depressing burrows?  And, could it be that we have descended into the dark, paradoxical  world of Mulder and Scully?

And, finally, to the geeks in the mines:  Hi, fellas! Hope you had a good read over there in Hawaii, and be sure to keep in touch with Ed!