I must shamefully admit, that I didn't know very much about the Patriot Act until I read the following story "FBI is on Your Cell Phone" at the World Net Daily. Admittedly, WND is even further to the right than I am. They are really into conspiracies, such as the Obama birth certificate controversy. I'm just not interested in that sort of thing. To each his own. Back to the topic...a brief summary of The Patriot Act is in order. "The USA PATRIOT act, its full name being the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, is an eight section act meant to increase the powers of law enforcement agencies in the USA." That is a very vague summary given to basically any interpretation that law enforcement desires.

The reason I bring this up is that story from World Net News. The story reports how the FBI can listen in to our private conversations on our cell phone. I was always aware a technological savvy country, such as the USA, could do it. But, what I didn't know is that our government will do it if they feel it is justified. All this comes back to the "If You See Something, Say Something" campaign that basically is similar to Nazi Germany having citizens report on potential seditious acts of others during that time. History has a bad habit of repeating itself. It seems we learn nothing from the lessons of history. This is just another little chip at the liberties we take for granted...until we wake up one day to discover those liberties are gone.

Chances are, you and I will never be eavesdropped on by the FBI or any other law enforcement agency. But, it does give one reason to pause when you consider they can do it. That's what bothers me. It is an open invitation to abuse by law enforcement. Don't tell me law enforcement or government agencies are not above abusing the law. Again, history is replete with lessons of such.

 Subscribe in a reader