I weep for the future.

I don't talk politics much here. In my 2004 election coverage, I tried to give equal time to both candidates. But as I watched the news on election night -- as the votes came in -- I had a bad feeling that the election was going to go the wrong way. My suspicions were confirmed.

First, let us remember these simple words:

That's the first amendment to the United States Constitution. The first. The foremost. Numero uno. I think there's a reason they made it first. It's the very foundation of the freedoms that people sing about in jingoistic country-pop tunes.

Here's another sampling of that thing we call the Constitution:

It's the fourth amendment. You know, the one that gives you privacy. Remember that thing, privacy? It's so overrated, isn't it?

Like it or not, we're losing these freedoms every day. Some of it is in the name of corporate interests. Take network neutrality, for example. Net neutrality ensures that every Internet user has free and equal access to public content. As basic as it may sound, this right is being challenged in Washington. The companies that you and I pay to get Internet access want to take more control over what we see and what we pay more to see. In effect, they would control the flow of information into our homes, all in the name of the almighty dollar.

Let's think about the effects that this might have. What if you had to pay extra to be able to go to small web sites such as this? What if you were strapped for cash and weren't able to afford a "premium," all-inclusive Internet plan? Would this great big Internet of ours be a better place if you were no longer able to view my opinions and those of your ISP side by side? Not at all. What if you wanted to use a search engine other than the one owned by your ISP? Better go make yourself a sandwich while the page loads. Free speech wouldn't be so free. Open discussion on, say, Usenet? Forget about it. Equality on the Internet would be lying murdered in the street, blood dripping away into the sewer drain.

But there's an even bigger threat, and this is what I'm really getting at. The government has been using the threat of terrorism as an excuse to curtail people's civil liberties. They're making our country safe, right? Maybe! But are they making you, as an individual, any safer? You may say, "It doesn't matter if the NSA looks at my phone records. I have nothing to hide!" You may not have anything to hide... right now. But what if they made it so that you did? What if they changed the definition of the "enemy" to anyone who didn't like what the government was doing. What? Your friend went to a peace rally last week? We see that you've called her since then -- twice! We're taking you in for questioning.

Oh no, but the government wouldn't abuse its powers like that, you may say. Oh really? It is a fact that they are already spying on millions of Americans, maybe even you. They can find out what books you've checked out at a library. They can look through your luggage for no reason because no one is standing up to stop them. So where are they going to draw the line for themselves? If they've taken "security" measures this far, who's going to stop them from going further? Doesn't it bother you the least bit that Uncle Sam is setting himself up to be Big Brother? It may not happen tomorrow. It may not happen this year. But at the rate things are going, eventually everything will be in place for the United States of America to be a fascist police state.

Am I blowing things out of proportion? No. Don't think it can't happen here. Good governments go bad everywhere, and bad governments can get even worse before they weaken and fall. You may know that I read blogs that report the news. And the headlines show that our freedoms are being chipped away every day. Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court are working to take over our lives constantly. How often do I read a news story relating to more lost liberties? Every zarking day. I'll prove it to you. I'll collect every such news story I find for a month. On July 26, I will post here to show you how fast your rights are going down the toilet.

Here's an example for today! What happens when the government breaks the law by spying on American citizens without a court order? Here's what they're doing to fix that problem: they want to write it into law so it's not illegal anymore. Problem solved! (Except for that pesky Bill of Rights thing.) Yes, things like this are happening every day.

Is the threat of terrorism so great that no one can be safe from the watchful eyes of the feds? I don't know which is worse: being brought to a sudden, unexpected death by foreign terrorists or to a slow, painful death by the elected leaders of our own country.

But what can we do? Where are the riots in the streets? Oh yeah: nobody gives a crap. So here's a message to everybody that doesn't realize this already: America as we know it -- the land of the free -- is dying, and it's all because home of the brave is now a den of cowards who want to feel safe by accepting unquestionably everything the government does. It's time to wake up and smell the coffee, Mrs. Bueller. It's time to think for yourself. Liberate your mind from these arbitrary concepts like "patriotism." No institution automatically deserves respect; it must be earned, and right now the government isn't living up to its mission statement. So, if you haven't been able to see it, it's about time that you open your eyes to the evil that your government is doing -- and will continue doing -- to you.

Now if you'll excuse me, I should probably go to the library and get Nineteen Eighty-Four while I still can. On second thought, I should probably avoid the library and buy it.

(I'm sure that once the comments come rolling in, I'll remember why I never write about politics.)

From YouTube: Superman Leaves Physics 140 Class at University of Michigan. I doubt college is that exciting all the time.

Google News Cloud is a pretty nifty tool for viewing the most popular keywords in the news and seeing how they tie together.

One year ago: "I did it. I'm one of them."
Two years ago: "Seeing as it's black and in a black case, it probably won't stand the heat very well." And: "Man, am I stupid. I actually thought that those morons were going to come to this stupid thing."