I really hate to write stuff like this, because I happen to enjoy WorldNetDaily. I enjoy WorldNetDaily, because there are times, when WorldNetDaily reports things that are not carried by other Conservative and mainstream media outlets. Although, I will admit, I am not that big of a fan of Joseph Farah, as he does still beat that drum of the Obama birth certificate. Furthermore, I have had correspondence with Mr. Farah and felt his attitude displayed in his e-mail to me, to be quite unbecoming of someone who is a born-again Christian and someone who is a reader and student of the Holy Scriptures.
So, when I saw this article over on WorldNetDaily, I felt compelled to write something about it. It is your classic affair for WorldNetDaily, the usually the Government is out to get you and if you use twitter, the Government will come to your house and get you:
Let me begin by acknowledging that I have an admitted distrust of government. I believe there is compelling evidence to suggest that our online activity is of far more interest to Uncle Sam than might be considered healthy. Don’t you find it quite odd that foreign countries have undertaken criminal litigation against Google over privacy issues surrounding Google’s Street View while here at home we have basically taken a “no harm-no foul” position?
If that’s not enough to get your antenna up, here’s another bit of news that most people missed. In April 2010 it was announced that every 140-character snippet you have ever posted on Twitter has been committed to the U.S. Library of Congress. The Library of Congress and our friends at Twitter have agreed to archive every single tweet since its inception on March 21, 2006, when the first tweet was launched. It is now estimated that together we send a billion tweets a week – and all of it is be preserved forever.
It does not seem to me that there is such a big jump from the retention of this information to the dissection and analyzing of such data and then ultimately the utilization of what is learned.
The purpose (according to a blog post by Library of Congress communications director Matt Raymond) is to document “important tweets” as well as gather information about the way we live through the sheer masses of tweets on the site. Some find great comfort in the fact that only tweets from public Twitter feeds will be included, not those that have been set as private. Think quickly for me – are your tweets set to be private? Do you really understand that every tweet you post is intrinsically designed to be searchable? We must understand that Twitter was always designed to be searchable.
Okay, let me first state that all of the above that this man has written, is nothing new under the sun. The Government has been monitoring the internet, in some way, fashion or forum since its founding in the 1980’s. Despite what the Government says, they have been monitoring the internet for a very long time. Another thing too, what this man is describing is NOT unique to twitter at all. In fact, the United States Government has the ability to monitor ALL forums of internet traffic. They routinely read blogs, Facebook pages and yes, twitter accounts. Back in the 1990’s the United States Government used to read UseNet newsgroups as well, for illegal activity. While they still do monitor those groups, the Government has curtailed some of that sort of monitoring, as UseNet is not that big of a internet norm anymore, due to the rise of social media and web 2.0.
The point I am getting to my friends is this; if you are not breaking the law, and you use the internet, you need not be worried. No matter what Joseph Farah and his merry band of paranoid followers tell you; the United States Government is NOT going to break your door down, because you happen to be of a particular Religious or Political persuasion. Anytime the Government has ever gone after anyone, it was because they were breaking the law. Edward and Elaine Brown were breaking the law, Randy Weaver was breaking the law, David Koresh was breaking the law, as was everyone else that the Government has had to invade and arrest. Just like the idiots who are occupying various cities around the Country. They have broken the law, in various ways and because of it; the police have been forced to use force against those breaking the law. There is nothing abnormal about the local police enforcing the rule of law in a city, which is what the taxpayers pay them to do.
Let me be very clear, I am all for mistrusting, questioning, and even protesting the Government, when you feel the Government is wrong. However, I cannot sit idly by and let a man, who’s God is really the almighty dollar to allow paranoia propaganda go unchallenged. The worst thing that can happen to the America people is for them to become paranoid, to the point of losing touch with reality; and then begin arming themselves for some sort of an apocalyptic event involving the Government, that most likely will never happen. This is the Waco tragedy happened, that is how the situation with Randy Weaver happened and the list goes on.
My friends, in closing, it is okay to want to protect you and your family, it is okay to stock up just in case. It is okay to be a survivalist. However, one must use common sense and not lose sight of what is real and what is the mad ranting of an overly paranoid mind. This is how tragedies like those that are listed above happen —- for once, let us use our minds and think for ourselves. We are a much better informed people than we were, say, in the 1940’s. We have progressed; we should try to act like it, at least once and a while.
I end this with the Words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt:
So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.