Losing Our Minds and Rights

By John Cory, Reader Supported News

23 November 10

Reader Supported News | Perspective

keep hearing a song in my head from the movie Crazy Heart. Actually it's just one line from the song: "Funny how falling feels like flying, for a little while ..."

Sometimes a "WTF" moment of chaos just begs the question: have we gone completely berserk?

I understand America has always been a bit schizophrenic. I mean, look at Florida. They just elected Rick Scott as governor. This is the guy who ran Columbia/HCA, the hospital chain he wanted to make into "the McDonalds of healthcare" but instead got fined $1.7 Billion dollars for Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Nice.

That didn't bother the folks in Florida, but you know what does? Rick Scott received a golden parachute of $300 million when he resigned in disgrace from Columbia/HCA and apparently some of that cash has investment ties to Playboy! The Florida Christian Family Coalition is not happy. Fraud okay. Playboy bad. I wonder how they feel about the government taking naked pictures of their members at airports and courthouses?

The TSA fondles kids and grannies to keep us safe from - something - while they ogle hot screen babes and snicker at hefty-Herb's small "package," or perform what Marcy at FDL calls "Gate-Rape." Vaginas of America, only you can prevent terrorism!

Joe Biden says it's uncomfortable but necessary. Obama says the "experts have indicated to me that the procedures ... are the only ones ... they consider to be effective ..."

See? It's not him. He is only following the "experts." He went on to say, "One of the most frustrating aspects of this fight against terrorism is that it has created a whole security apparatus around us that causes huge inconvenience for all of us."

What do you mean, "Us," Kemo Sabe?

Biden and Obama and members of Congress are exempt from having their "plums and bits and tackle" manhandled and weighed in public or being forced to pose for revealing pictures.

And what about all those rich Wall Street CEOs? Oh wait, they have private jets don't they? Does TSA perform security checks on executive jets? Do celebrity fliers like Paris Hilton or Sarah Palin or George Clooney get the "upgraded" pat down?

Obama says it is the terrorists' fault, not the government or their corporate accomplices. If the terrorists would just surrender then all of this would be unnecessary. Remember, "they hate us for our freedoms," so we have to put those freedoms through a full body scanner and a little fondling before we lock them away for safekeeping.

Obama is not an agent of change or hope. He is a mediator, a facilitator, between bad, badder and baddest. For the grammatically persnickety - bad, worse and worst.

He is a company man offering pre-packaged solutions, like one of those pharmaceutical TV commercials that describe an ailment you've never heard of and never thought about, but for a price, you can be cured of if you just ignore all the fine print and long list of lethal side effects.

The former head of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, turns out to represent some of the scanner companies via his lobby firm, the Chertoff Group. Is he or his company one of the "experts" Obama consults with on these matters?

It's a shame that the former head of Health and Human Services wasn't one of the "experts" Obama included in consultations. That was a missed opportunity.

We could have hired medical personnel to perform prostate exams, mammograms and pap smears and a colonoscopy all at the same time and all of it included in the price of an airline ticket. Copies of X-rays, scans and certificates of health along with security clearances would be electronically issued to your insurance company so they could better assess your annual premiums and coverage. How great would that be?

Talk about bipartisan success! The Patriot Act, FISA, warrantless wiretaps, endless war and Internet monitoring combined with privatized health screening and the cost savings of early detection of pre-existing conditions - just add some immigration stuff and you have got bipartisan heaven and a safer America!

It is for our own good, and besides, it's not like they keep those images, right? Oops.

In Florida, the US Marshal's Service recently admitted that it had stored 35,000 images of people who went to the Orlando federal courthouse, and the same type of machines were tested in Washington, DC, where the status of retained images seem to be unknown. Read more here.

Airports - courthouses - government offices - where next? Starbucks?

Mr. President, you might reconsider your reaching across the aisle mantra, because the only hand reaching back keeps grabbing America by the balls. And it doesn't feel good.

But hey, it is a free-market system and if you can make money off fear and loathing and war - you're creating jobs and investing in the real American dream. And that's what is important, not small things like privacy and individual rights. Right?

"How come falling feels like flying, for a little while ..."

-PEACE-

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