Morning Briefing
For June 10, 2013
1. Trust and Taps
It is long held that the government can look at the outside of an envelope as it passes through the postal system. The government can see who is sending a letter, to whom it is being sent, and from which postal location the letter was mailed.
The government, in the twenty-first century, is trying to come to terms with a society that transmits information differently from the postal service. Extrapolating the boundaries of the mail, the government has decided to start collecting the metadata of emails and phone calls, e.g. who is contacting whom, from where, to where, the size of files, the length of phone calls, etc.
Superficially, it may make sense. In fact, many national security professionals on the left and right think it is necessary. The content of the messages and phone calls is not revealed, the documents themselves being transmitted are not revealed, just the metadata — the data from which the underlying phone call, email, or document passes through the series of tubes known as the internet. We know, however, mistakes have been made in the handling and processing of the data.
There is one key issue here — unlike the postal service, private companies control the series of tubes through which the data travels. The private companies are either complicity working with the government (most likely) or are being hacked in some way by the government (least likely).
I do not fault the Obama Administration trying to keep us safe. President Obama has used and expanded the very policies of George W. Bush that candidate Obama attacked. Amazing how the depth, seriousness, and gravity of office can change someone’s world view.
But I think this may go too far . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
2. Has the Obama administration EARNED our trust on phone metadata harvesting?
Let us imagine a world where the following occurred . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
3. Adrift on the sea of power
Government power is exercised only in the absence of liberty. If you are legally compelled to do something, you are not free to refuse. The government does spend a good deal of time making “suggestions” and offering optional “benefits” these days, but all of this activity is funded by the compulsory seizure of wealth.
Power takes many forms. Money is power. Everything the government does requires funding. The ability to take money unevenly from the populace, assigning different tax rates and exemptions to people, conveys tremendous power. The tax code can be used to reward favored constituents, and punish behavior the government disapproves of. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
4. A Faith To Stand Firm
The Boy Scouts, as by now you know, has decided to allow in gay scouts while keeping two prohibitions. The first is that which prevents gay scout leaders. The second, which has gone mostly without notice, is the prohibition on sexual activity by scouts.
This has put many Christians in a position they never asked to be in, in a fight they never asked for — if being gay is not a sin, but homosexual practice is a sin, how then are they to exclude gay scouts who cannot practice homosexuality? . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
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