This is just a quick note on yesterday's column to try to clear up
apparently some confusion as to exactly what I meant in the piece. I
thought the meaning was crystal clear, but two close friends both
have reached confused conclusions over it. One of them (Waves at TC)
has been known to misread my pieces before (Gee somehow that sounded
dirtier on paper than it did in my head). Whether this is my fault
or his fault is a small bone of contention. However, the other
friend is a much more skilled orator/scriptor (New word, like it?)
than me and he seemed equally confused so I am going to post a very
rare attempt at clarification which will probably serve only to
confuse the issue, but hey lets give it a try.
In the piece I spoke about an article which claimed that a poor
unsuspecting gentleman went to the ACA website to look for insurance,
didn't like what he saw and refused to buy after which he was
supposedly served with a notice of lien from the IRS for 1000s of
dollars and several other threats. This article launched all sorts
of commentary over how the ACA was going to be used to gather
personal information to further some evil government plot (You can
insert your favorite conspiracy theory here, I've seen to many to
pick one.)
I pointed out that the mentioned piece was nothing more than poorly
disguised propaganda attempting to scare people from using the
website. I then mentioned that the US Government doesn't need the
information gathered from the ACA website to do bad things to people.
In case you haven't tried it yet, the site asks for things like your
name, where you live, what your yearly income is etc. This is all
data that can easily accessed by any mid-level government flunky in
the right office. So the idea that this site is gathering dangerous
information about you is stupid.
At no time did I say that the Government doesn't gather information
on the American People for reasons ranging from benign to Nefarious.
Hells I have never said that. If Agent Fred in the Department of
Super Sneaky Underhanded Stuff (DSSUS for short) wanted to know what
you had for breakfast and what you were wearing while doing it
(Striped PJ bottoms and a protein shake for me Agent!) he could with
just one or two flicks of a switch or press of a button. The intense
surveillance state we live in makes Cold War Russia look like a
Hippie Commune. There is more tapping going on than at a Dance
Convention. We has met the enemy and he is us or at least something
like that.
When I wrote that piece I wasn't trying to paint broad strokes that
covered a vast area. I was merely commenting on one conspiracy about
one aspect of one event. The ACA website is not some super duper top
secret attempt by Agent Fred to find out secret aspects of your life.
It is just a very glitched government website trying to deal with an
average of a million or more people trying to access it everyday.
Now the secret Illuminati Take over of Facebook on the other hand,
that is very very real. But you didn't hear it from me.
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