Salmon Sheets

Michelle Malkin raises a very good point about the invasion of privacy. For all the howling about government invasion of privacy from various people who seem obsessed by the topic, special interest groups are the real abusers. Just as you're far more likely to be murdered by family or friend, your privacy is far more likely to be abused (and the abuse is likely to be worse) by people outside the government (especially family and friends) than inside. But in both cases, the big scare tactics from movies and the media focus on the unlikely threats.

The government is listening in to phone calls made between specific highly suspect terrorists outside the US talking to people within the US, something that it has done in the past under various presidents. The government is tracking large bank transactions outside the US (which they already do within the US for anything over $10,000). These are both legal and mundane, and they both have precedents.

On the other hand, the New York Times shows you where Donald Rumsfeld lives and points out security measures he has in place ("There is a lens in the birdhouse at the driveway" along with a photo of it). High profile people have been stalked by political activists in frightening ways. Michelle Malkin has the details. The latest targets are the "Swift Boat Veterans" and their families who are getting harassing phone calls. Someone posted their personal information with the statement "I have some very good ideas I gleaned from 'CIA BOOK of DIRTY TRICKS' Don't get mad, get EVEN."

This is far from being the only case. Brute force intimidation when persuasion doesn't work. We've done ourselves a huge disfavor in the West by focusing entirely on the abuses of groups associated with the "right" (Nazis, police states, etc.) and not nearly enough on the abuses of groups associated with the "left" (Stalin, Mao, Castro, etc.) who, in terms of total damage done, are actually far worse. It's just that nobody tells you about it.