Okay, it may have become evident that recent events, both in this country and abroad, have become too much for me.  I'm fed up of my government, your government, the whole shebang.

But I guess that, here, I am preaching to the converted.  I don't think i've read a blogger yet who is "kill. kill. kill".

Okay, enough already.

In These Times | Kurt Vonnegut vs. the !&#*!@

"Based on what you’ve read and seen in the media, what is not being said in the mainstream press about President Bush’s policies and the impending war in Iraq? Kurt Vonnegut::That they are nonsense."

[Brain Off]

If you like Vonnegut it's worth reading the whole interview.  Heck, it's worth it even if you don't like Vonnegut!  Just shut up and go read the damn thing!

The New TIA

President Bush renamed the much-criticized Total Information Awareness program during the State of the Union address. Now that the TIA was effectively shut down by Senate action, the president said he will create a Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC), which is effectively the same function the TIA was designed for: domestic surveillance. This came in close proximity to Bush's bizarre hint that assassination is part of the war on America's enemies.

Expect the Administration to continue to use the TIA to distract the public debate from the TTIC. TIA hasn't been completely killed and can serve as a convenient whipping boy while TTIC grows.

Since its founding, the United States has struggled to prevent domestic surveillance and, with exceptions like the domestic persecution of dissent during World War I and the Hoover years at the FBI, it has done a pretty good job.

Why write about this on a business, technology and investing site? Because the freedom to speak and communicate without fear of persecution is one of the main reasons the U.S. economy has prospered and given rise to so many new ideas.

[RatcliffeBlog: Business, Technology & Investing]

What he said.

(This week seems to be developing a theme...)

Bugging warrants double under Labour. I spy with my all-encompassing eye [The Register]

Why aren't more people bothered by this?

Are there only a few of us who think the government shouldn't have such an easy time of it snooping on it's citizens?  Where is the oversight?  Where is the regulation?

Who cares right?

<sigh>