The way to love someone
is to lightly run your finger over that person's soul
until you find a crack,
and then gently pour your love into that crack.
~Keith Miller

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Creepy.




  • From the airport ... my phone updates me on time and conditions D-> home
  • From the house ... my phone updates me on time and conditions to various places, occasionally to the exact place where I am headed.
I think it's both somewhat helpful and a lot creepy.  My phone (and probably your phone too) stores data on exactly where I have been.  I don't go anywhere that I would want to keep secret but ... why the extra attention?  I didn't "app" for it.

My phone, and it's likely due to user error, frequently chirps up "Sorry, I did not understand you."  I've been told that "it" can turn itself on to listen and that even the camera can be remotely opened.  True or not, I do not know, sounds a bit far-fetched but then, so many things do these days.
I do know that I am far and away the least interesting person I know.  I'm a mom, a wife.  I cook clean, fold, chauffeur, repeat.

H and I were talking yesterday about her return to the workforce.  She shared her husband's comment, "You are more like the person I chose to marry then you have been in eight years."  Their daughter is about 8.  We talked a bit about how being a mother to the exclusion of other (non domestic) activities sucks the very essence of you out of you.

I do still know what I think.  It's just that if I do begin to share my thoughts I am spoken over.  I don't have a need to shape other's opinions or actions.  Mostly, I am quiet.  I do wonder why citizen's are (potentially?) monitored when our leaders seem to be ... umm, unreliable, untrustworthy.  I wonder why we "let people in" who we think may need to be monitored.  I wonder why we don't send people "home" and let them back in after they've been scutinized.  Recently saw the story about a child who was beheaded by her nanny (in Russia).  The article said parents should:

Russia's children's rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov called the killing 'Monstrous and inexplicable', urging parents to carefully check on the mental state of nannies when they are hired.

(How do I check on the mental state of my new neighbors?)

I have watched the National political maneuverings with interest these past several months.  How have we come to this ... where can we best go from here?  Things have already gone to hell in a hand basket.  I am an American.  Who are these people running the country and who are those people asking to run the country?  It seems that both the (Super Tuesday) front-runner's values don't bear any resemblance to my own or to those of anybody I actually know.  I understand Trump's popularity in that he appears to me the poster manchild for a sharp turn away from Political Correctness, a term which seems to be synonymous with wussiness, liberalism, progressivism.  I can see that he is not PC.  What he actually "is" is less easily discerned.  I don't like all the PC business. Is that the single most import issue to base my vote on?

I'm almost sixty.  I guess it's okay to refer to back in the day ... .  Back in the day when someone was obnoxious people just "didn't play with them anymore".  If you were bullied you toughened up, told your parents (who discussed it with the bully's parents), or you told your "brother" (who helped the bully understand that it was time to move on).  I didn't grow up hearing a lot of crude talk or seeing a lot of crude images.  I'm old.  I get it.

We saw DEADPOOL Friday evening past.  It seemed like a compilation of several old movies.  I've said I like Marvel movies.  Deadpool was too much for me in every aspect.  Too profane, too crude, too graphic ... his friend was too dumb, the villain was too evil, the violence was too bloody, the ... too much.  Too much everything.  I closed my eyes and wondered when was the last time I saw a good movie.  I sat through it wishing to be not there.  It is a metaphor for how things are in the world now.

Back in the day ... when a politician got caught "misbehaving",  committing treason or just snooping around, they just didn't get to play anymore, even if they were a girl.  Maybe they were pardoned before they were sent home,  maybe they were still in the mix in private ... publicly, there were
consequences.
    Individuals convicted of a felony are ineligible to vote while incarcerated and on parole. Voting rights are automatically restored upon completion of parole, and people on probation can vote. Ex-offenders should re-register to vote.
    Under Article III, Section 3, of the Constitution, any person who levies war against the United States or adheres to itsenemies by giving them Aid and Comfort has committed treason within the meaning of the Constitution. The term aid andcomfort refers to any act that manifests a betrayal of allegiance to the United States, such as furnishing enemies with arms,troops, transportation, shelter, or classified information. If a subversive act has any tendency to weaken the power of theUnited States to attack or resist its enemies, aid and comfort has been given.
    The only requirements for presidency of the U.S.: 
    1. Being a natural born citizen of the U.S.
    2. Being at least 35 years of age.
    3. Being a permanent resident of the U.S. for at least 14 years.

    Article I of the U.S. Constitution gives the Senate the power to disqualify persons who have been impeached from holding federal office. However, there is no mention of the simple state of being a "felon" disqualifying a person from being elected President.

(How do I check on the mental state of those seeking leadership roles?)

How far is too far now?  How much is too much now?  Who can guess.  We seem to have developed an insatiable appetite for "too much".

Apple vs THE FBI


"This is not about one isolated iPhone," Apple said in the 65-page document. "Rather, this case is about the Department of Justice and the FBI seeking through the courts a dangerous power that Congress and the American people have withheld: the ability to force companies like Apple to undermine the basic security and privacy interests of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe."


What's next?
Magistrate Pym has scheduled a hearing for March 22 in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Riverside.
In the meantime,  Cook asked Congress to form a commission or panel of experts to talk about intelligence, tech and civil liberties along with the implications on law enforcement, national security, privacy, and personal freedoms. "Apple would gladly participate in such an effort," he said. Cook also did an interview with the ABC News program "World News Tonight with David Muir" on Feb. 24, saying that what the government is asking "would be bad for America." ~How an iPhone became the FBI's public enemy No. 1 (FAQ)
Creepy. 
Located in the stately 19th century building known as “Runde Ecke” — the Round Building — the museum features a powerful permanent exhibit called “Stasi – Power and Banality.” Walk through the rooms where the secret police operated a sinister network of spying and terror and it becomes clear how the Stasi infiltrated every aspect of the everyday life in the GDR. (German Democratic Republic)  ~ Stasi Museum in Leipzig: 40 Years of Spying and Terror

I'm not savvy enough to know why my phone collects and stores information about my doings. It's interesting that we readily accept the absence of privacy.  I'm not doing anything "wrong" so why would I care?  I stop at the red lights and barely notice the cameras.  Why would anyone want to check up on me?

I follow the rules.





4 comments:

Rob De Witt said...

There is no option, dear Lady, beyond choosing not to participate. There is literally NO reason that you "need" a cell phone - all those intrusive "apps" represent choices that you made, to cede your privacy to strangers whose mental health you know nothing about.

Get an answering machine. Tell everybody you'll call 'em back. Problem solved.

DeAnn said...

Thanks Rob.

I know it's hard to ferret the primary source of angst out of a rant like this ... basically, I'm trying to express a concern about "our" government becoming "our" enemy. I understand (in concept) the societal benefits of having a "common enemy", I just dread the havoc that's sure to ensue as individual rights go down the flusher along with "privacy"as the chaser. It's a complicated issue, above my pay grade, but it seems like "we" are losing ground even with as the new standards are put in place.
As for choosing not to participate - too late, "my scented clothe is already in a jar". It got there when we started using SS#s for identification (if not before).

I do appreciate your time in commenting - your point is well made and well taken.

Teri said...

The government is the enemy. Maybe it always has been. They aren't like you and I. They live in gated communities, surrounded by people that think exactly like they do. If they leave government, they get jobs with the companies that paid them to write favorable bills. Their children go to expensive schools, get jobs in government or big corporations and marry people that think exactly like they do.

Since you are about my age, you understand that this was not always so. Men that served in WWII were around people that were not like them and were used to dealing with those folks. We've lost that. Part of the reason is that we seem to think that no one but a professional politician should be elected to office. And double plus points if they went to Harvard.

I think the government is trying their best to get rid of those pesky Americans, the ones that think of themselves as free born people with certain inalienable rights. They would like a more pliable electorate. And so they scour the world for serfs, willing to do what they are told. This may be the last pushback, the last attempt to stop the changes to this country. I don't know if it will succeed as the weapon we have is a flawed person. We'd like someone more obviously noble. People have gotten used to doing what they are told after all.

DeAnn said...

Thank you Teri, for making time to leave an interesting comment. I wonder, if it were possible to truly know our past Presidents, how noble were they. History paints with a filter for certain. And, as you've noted, people are flawed.