Editorial

I'll keep an eye out for ya

David A. Lombardo

I don't wear an aluminum foil hat to stop the voices talking to me when I go to bed. I'm not a paranoid kind of guy; I'm not a conspiracy theorist...well, for the most part. Seriously, everyone knows Kennedy got whacked by the mob and made Oswald the fall guy.

On the other hand, I have a friend who exhibits delusional paranoia to the point he will only drink bottled water. While he's obviously seen Dr. Strangelove too many times, he recognizes he's paranoid but makes a good point: "Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not really out to get me," he said.

I had a long, though confusingly erratic, conversation with him about the focus of his paranoia: the government. I think I'm a pretty level-headed kind of guy who's rooted firmly in the soil of reality, so it is with the utmost sincerity that I share with you this thought about the gist of that conversation. Dude, we are so screwed.

There are only two kinds of Americans who can't wrap their brain around the reality of government surveillance and intrusion into our daily lives: those with an IQ slightly lower than an eggplant and liberals, but I'm being redundant.

Satellites have been orbiting the Earth for more than 30 years, and at a billion a pop, those gigantic digital cameras can take a high resolution photo of a five inch object from 200 miles overhead. What they can't do is hear; enter the NSA warrantless surveillance program.

Started under George Bush after 9/11, NSA telephone taps have evolved into a full-fledged Orwellian nightmare. Big Brother is literally monitoring every telephone conversation, email and text message. Obama has assured us that no one is actually listening to our conversations; right, he also assured us he'd have the most transparent administration in history. So far, the only transparent thing about this president is his vacations all over the world on the taxpayers' dime. The problem with satellites is they have to keep moving or, well...they fall to Earth. The best they offer is a peek at things on the ground so enter the drone.

Even the FBI admits they're using surveillance drones over U.S. soil, though they swear they aren't shooting Americans with them like they do in other countries. And people wonder why foreign travel has taken a major hit by American tourists. Eric Holder assures us we can shoot Americans from a drone over there.

Unlike satellites, a drone can loiter over a given location and collect gazillions of bits of information ranging from what bathing suit your teenage daughter is wearing at the pool to whose apartment you visited after work before going home. It's difficult to see an upside to having drones flying over one's house unless, of course, you want to keep tabs on someone. The feds get a tip that Bob is growing wacky weed, and the next thing you know, Bob's got a drone in a holding pattern over his house. Well, wacky weed is one thing, but what about keeping an eye on...oh, let's say those troublesome Tea Party people. Oh, wait, the IRS already has the franchise on that one.

Of course cities like Chicago can't afford all this fancy stuff, so enter the red light cameras and, more recently, the installation of a street-level surveillance system the Chicago Urban Center for Computation and Data calls The Array of Things. It is a matrix of small boxes around the city that measures environmental information. We're told it is oblivious to individuals, but it does detect mobile devices that have Bluetooth-you know, like every cell phone- and has the ability to-are you sitting down?-talk to you as you walk by one of them. They suggest it can be used to warn a pedestrian about an icy sidewalk ahead or, you know, it can say: "Stop Citizen-you are leaving your authorized residence sector without a permit!"

Seriously, how could it come to that? How would they know who you are? There would have to be some sort of chip planted in your body like the radio-frequency identification chip used on store products and in pets for identification if they're lost. Oddly enough, the Food and Drug Administration has recently approved RFID chips for insertion into humans.

You know, I think I need to stop at the store and pick up a box of aluminum foil before I go to bed.  

Obama: MDs should determine

fitness to carry a gun

Foiled at every turn, Obama has pulled another joker out of the gun control deck. Now he wants doctors trained to determine who is "fit" to carry a firearm. He's got the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians and U.S. Surgeon General nominee Vivek Murthy calling gun violence a public health crisis. North Carolina is among the states where law enforcement can ask physicians to sign off on competency permits, but a recent survey of the state's doctors shows many of them worry they may not be equipped to judge their patients' physical and mental ability to handle concealed guns safely. The U.S. currently lacks training programs and comprehensive standards to guide doctors in making such assessments, so physicians are reduced to using their best clinical judgment. Twenty-one percent of doctors who responded to a survey said they had been asked to sign off on concealed-weapons competency permits and indicated they had done so 80 percent of the time when asked. But most of them admitted they did not feel comfortable assessing patients' physical competence to carry a gun. A sizable minority also expressed concerns about mental competence evaluations. Most physicians (84 percent) felt that medical assessments for competency should be conducted by physicians specifically trained in doing so. The North Carolina survey also showed that doctors are concerned about the potential ethical consequences participation in this assessment might have for the doctor-patient relationship. [Source: Townhall.com] 

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Texas teenager cyber attacked

after posting hunting photos

In yet another demonstration of liberal double standards, there's no tolerance for anyone, regardless of age, if they don't tow the liberal party line. A page titled "Kendall Jones Hate Page" has been removed by Facebook after a deluge of complaints from sportsmen reporting it as harassment. The page in question was created when numerous stories of 19-year-old hunter Kendall Jones surfaced after she posted photos of her recent African safari to her fan page. Photos of Jones with African animals she had legally harvested sparked outcry from animal rights activists, who soon took to social media to harass and threaten the life of the teenager. The "Kendall Jones Hate Page" served as a platform for the anti-hunting community to further post photos and berate and threaten the young hunter. "I am truly proud of how our community rose up and helped dismantle this page," said Nick Pinizzotto, USSA president and CEO. "This is a huge statement from the hunting community that we will not stand for this type of behavior." According to Facebook, the page violated the Facebook Community Standards for bullying and harassment. "We allow users to speak freely on matters and people of public interest, but take action on all reports of abusive behavior directed at private individuals. Repeatedly targeting other users with unwanted friend requests or messages is a form of harassment," a spokesman for Facebook said. 

Armed citizen saves store manager

who then puts up "No Guns Allowed" sign 

A convenience store in Mississippi has posted "No Guns Allowed" signs on the front doors, despite the fact that a brutal stabbing was stopped by an armed citizen there recently. Last March the manager of Keith's Superstore in Lumberton was attacked by Lamont Williams, 29, who is believed to be a disgruntled former employee. An armed citizen with a concealed carry permit happened to be in the store at the time of the stabbing. When Williams tried to flee, the armed citizen chased him and held him at gunpoint until police arrived. The entire incident was captured on the store's video surveillance system. No shots were ever fired by the armed citizen, who was only identified as a white male in his 30s. The store manager, whose identity was not released, survived a total of eight stabs to the neck, chest and arm. Williams was taken to the Lamar County Correctional Facility where he faced charges for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, initially being held with a cash bond of $150,000. Sounds like a concealed carry success story, doesn't it? You would think that store would be very thankful that an armed citizen saved their manager. Well...that's not quite what happened. Because no good deed goes unpunished, Keith's Superstore has decided that people like that brave armed citizen are no longer welcome in their shop. It is worth noting that according to their signs, Lamont Williams, the man who stabbed their store manager, would still be welcome with his knife.