we're all hiding something

we all have something to hide.

what are you hiding? do you maybe not want everyone you know to see every website you visit? do you maybe not want your kid's teacher to have access to your family personal health records? do you really want your teenaged son to hear the details about that time you were eighteen and you got arrested for drunk and disorderly?

or maybe you're one of those people who used to do drugs but you don't anymore? is that everybody's business, or just yours?

what if you cheated on your wife once and she knows about it and you've been forgiven but it would be really hard for her if all the neighbors knew?

what if you made a stupid investment in a scam and you're embarrassed to have done it?

what if you're worried you might get fired from your job if your employer thought you were seeing a psychiatrist?

what i'm saying here is that a lot of people have things to hide, and those things are not necessarily illegal.

if you are an elected representative, you are still entitled to some measure of privacy, just like everybody else.

if you are a senator and your platform is about family morals and anti-abortion, you might not be entitled to privacy about your mistress and the abortion you got her to have.

if you are a congressman and you are involved in insider trading, you are only entitled to as much privacy as your constitutional protections allow.

now here's a fun brain teaser: look at which US senators and congressmen keep telling us flat-out that the NSA should get to do whatever it wants because reasons.

some of those senators (diane feinstein, i'm looking at you) are traditionally civil liberties sorts, so it doesn't add up.

but we already know that the NSA has been conducting surveillance of our lawmakers for a long time. if you cannot for the life of you figure out why a particular senator or the president is an NSA lapdog when it goes against everything else you've ever heard from them, you have to ask yourself: what are they hiding?

they may not be hiding illegal stuff, but sure as sugar they are hiding SOMETHING.

ok, ok, the theory doesn't apply to lawmakers whose every move is all about taking away civil liberties and increasing police powers, because THOSE guys can be expected to support the NSA and the CIA snooping on everything and sharing that warrantless information with the IRS and the DEA and anyone they like.

but people who are civil rights champions who suddenly support all the NSA's bogus claims?

dig deeper. find out what they're hiding.

it's awesome, though, because in today's washington climate anybody who has the balls to stand up to the NSA about domestic warrantless spying is either an honest politician or a tragically stupid megalomaniac.

the joke used to be that there was no such thing as an honest politician.

are your senators afraid of the NSA?

mine are not.

you should write to yours and ask.