Walking between the war against terrorism and...personal privacy

Hi to everyone,

everyday(english) we could read some cool article from newspaper... and yesterday I read this one... that could be more useful in order to reflect on something that's happening in country like USA or...in Italy. What is right and what is wrong I don't know...I just know that day by day we are losing our personal privacy, being under control of some intelligence body. Is this the way we are going to live...or we have some other option?

Enjoy your reading... and if you want to leave your opinion, just submit it.

Peter Tanner, a freelance writer

OPINION FROM THE WORLD: MY TOTAL TERRORIST PROTECTION PLAN

"You don’t have anything to hide, do you? You’re a patriotic, law-abiding American citizen, right? Good.
We are on the same side. So you’ll be delighted to learn that I have come up with a plan to give you total protection from terrorists. (Homeland Security is probably going to suggest this any day now, but I beat them to the punch.)

How will I do this? Simple. I’ll soon be sending my congressman an exciting new initiative I call Patriot Act III (nicknamed "Freedom’s Best Buddy"). This bold plan will allow Homeland Security to put a high-definition TV surveillance camera in every room, in every home of America.

You will find it easy to love this new security break-through. Our trained intelligence agents won’t miss a thing; when we see people on their knees, praying toward Mecca, you can be sure we’ll be keeping close track of them. When we hear anyone talking about the Constitution – and especially the Bill of Rights – we’ll be monitoring them 24/7. When we find potential trouble-makers, like Quarters and others who seem to be unhappy with some new presidential powers, you bet we’ll keep an eagle eye of them. When we spot possible terrorists wearing inappropriate or inflammatory t-shirts, our cameras will be able to zoom in on every word on the t-shirt to see if it’s unpatriotic. And you know can trust your government: We promise not to let anybody else the tapes we make of you and your family discussing your medical problems, or arguing over finances, or making love. We wouldn’t ever do that. Cross our hearts and hope to die.

Here’s even more good news: At no extra cost, the TV surveillance cameras will also include a special device that actually lets you vote in the privacy of your own home. It’s easy: you just look up at the camera and, in a loud, clear voice, state which candidates you want to vote fore. It will be completely confidential, of course. And you can depend on our advanced voting computers to never make a mistake.

You probably have some questions, like: Isn’t it expensive to put TV surveillance cameras in every home? And how will we pay for this? Glad you asked. No, it’s not that expensive. We’ve negotiated a very favourable contract with Halliburton to provide these surveillance camera below cost. They offers us this price for only 24 hours, and we gabbed it. Their operators were waiting for our call. We’ll pay for all this in the normal way, of course. We’ll be asking Washington for additional cuts in welfare, food stamps, child care and Medicaid.

And we are sure that every red-blooded US representative will go along with "Tannen’s Total Terrorist Protection Plan". After all, elections are coming up, and the fight to keep America secure is Job One, right? So, relax. Be safe. And be thankful you live in this bastion of freedom and democracy. Good Bless America.

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