Whiskey Bar: Leviathan

billmon's usual brilliance-this time about hobbes, the NSA/TIA (TOTAL INFORMATION AWARENESS) intelligrab, the police state "we" want (50% of americans basically don't give a flying fuck about the 4th amendment, but as billmon points out, the bill of rights are inalienable, e.g. not the problem of polling numbers. they just are, and should always have been.), the more we will have to give to declare TOTAL VICTORY over our various emphermeral enemies.

it's good stuff.

funny enough, watching "Seven" the other night, i was struck by macguffin, which involves morgan freeman's character having a back door to a guy at the FBI who has...the cross-referenced records of people at the public library's reading habits. the movie is 1995 vintage, but this is treated like...something...they...would...do, or maybe andrew kevin walker knew something, i dunno. still, it is funny how innocent it all looks (hey, they caught the bad guy with it, sort of, after he had chopped off gwyneth's fetching head, but still). now we know--when push comes to shove, this country's citizens will toss aside our "inalienable rights" like they are the remains of a swanson "fat american fuckwad size!" TV dinner after a good five minutes of eating and watching "Access Hollywood". and it doesn't look so innocent anymore, this plot device. it just looks like a way to catch reporters at ABC you don't like.