The Cost of Freedom

It was reported a couple days ago that the NSA was depositing cookies in people's web browser as they visited the Agency's website. These cookies were set expire in the year 2035! If this doesn't raise a red flag with anyone, I don't know what will.

Now, I've always lived a good an wholesome life; I've never been arrested (although there was that time where my friends and I were pulled over and we had an eight ball in the car), but I've always figured that there the odds were pretty good that at one time or another some low level staffer at the NSA decided to listen in on one of my phone calls or look at a couple email messages that I happened to send to my friends. Personally, not a big deal.

But folks, this is about principle. The fact that our government is illegally spying us is a huge problem. Not only are we losing our discretion, but we're losing our Freedom. Of courese, our goverment is telling us that they are doing this in the name of Freedom, Justice and every other abstract word that you want to through out there. I understand that we're fighting a war, but that doesn't allow the government to take away our God-given rights. It doesn't give the president (whomever he may be) the right to initiate secret spying programs on his country's citizens, nor does it give the right to an Agency who's job it is to help defend our Country from the very nefarious characters we are fighting a war against, to track the Web surfing habits of its citizens.

Now, you'll notice from the title of the article that I linked to, it says the NSA 'inadvertantly' used the cookies. Let's not kid ourselves; there was nothing inadvertant about it. You don't inadvertantly deposit a cookie into a users browser (trust me, I'm semi-skilled in how online marketing works and when you deposit a cookie into a user's browser, it's anything but inadvertant).

Finally, I know this blog has taken more of a political subject matter; probably more than I have ever intended. But the fact remains, there are certain things that I, and several million other people fervently believe in. And sometimes it's nice to get those thoughts on paper.