Extreme Paranoia

Have you noticed that our entire society operates on fear now? Everyone is afraid of everybody else. We are taught not to trust anyone that we do not know and that we should literally spy on our neighbors because they might be a threat. If you do not participate in all of the extreme paranoia that is going on then supposedly something is wrong with you. In fact, if you are not paranoid like everyone else is then you might be a threat.  After all, according to FBI Director Robert Mueller, "homegrown terrorists" represent as big a threat to American national security as al-Qaeda does.  But in the midst of all of this extreme paranoia, we have thrown common sense out the window.  We are told that it is Islamic extremists that want to attack us, and yet we are so obsessed with being politically correct that the TSA will grope grandma, grandpa and all the little children they can get their hands on but they will allow men in full Islamic dress to walk right through airport security without even being checked.  We will put up video cameras to watch schoolchildren eat their lunches and yet we are leaving our borders completely wide open.  Thousands of real terrorists could be crossing our borders each day and we would never even know it.  But this is what happens when extreme paranoia sets in - people (and governments) start behaving very irrationally.
Recently, U.S. Representative Paul Broun went through airport security and what he witnessed absolutely shocked him....

"I walked through there was right behind me there was a grandmother — little old lady, and she was was patted down. Right behind her was a little kid who was patted down. And then right behind him was a guy in Arabian dress who just walked right through. Why are we patting down grandma and kids?"

What ever happened to common sense?
The American people are constantly whipped into a state of fear by the mainstream media and so there is a never ending call for even more "security" so that we can all feel safe.
Meanwhile, the most basic things that need to be done for our security, such as securing our borders, are totally ignored because they are not politically correct.
Instead, most of the focus seems to be on keeping as many eyeballs on American citizens of possible.
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden made headlines recently when he revealed that the U.S. government interprets the Patriot Act much more "broadly" than the general public does....

"We’re getting to a gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says."

That doesn't sound good.
According to Wyden, "the government is relying on secret interpretations of what the law says without telling the public what those interpretations are."
Isn't that great?
Now the government has such extreme paranoia that they won't even tell us what the rules are so we won't even know if we are breaking them.
Have you noticed that everything seems to be "secret" these days?
Everywhere you turn someone in the government is claiming that "national security" is at risk for one reason or another.  The American people are being increasingly kept in the dark about everything because we cannot be "trusted".
Secrecy and extreme security measures are now equated with patriotism.
Recently, U.S. Representative Ron Paul gave a speech on "The Patriot Act" on the floor of the House of Representatives.  The following is a brief except from that speech....

Our Presidents can now, on their own:
*Order assassinations, including American citizens,
*Operate secret military tribunals,
*Engage in torture,
*Enforce indefinite imprisonment without due process,
*Order searches and seizures without proper warrants, gutting the 4th Amendment,
*Ignore the 60 day rule for reporting to the Congress the nature of any military operations as required by the War Power Resolution,
*Continue the Patriot Act abuses without oversight,
*Wage war at will,
*Treat all Americans as suspected terrorists at airports with TSA groping and nude x-raying.
And the Federal Reserve accommodates by counterfeiting the funds needed and not paid for by taxation and borrowing, permitting runaway spending, endless debt, and special interest bail-outs.

Does that sound "patriotic" to you?
The following is a short video that includes even more of Ron Paul's remarks....
Sadly, Ron Paul is vastly outnumbered in Congress by those that want even more secrecy and even more extreme security measures.
America is becoming a much different place.  The truth is that even if we give up all of our liberties and all of our freedoms we will still be extremely vulnerable to outside threats.
Do you really want to live in a society where there is very little liberty or freedom?  That is the direction America is going.  We may feel slightly safer, but we will cease to be Americans.
Recently, I wrote about the growing "big brother" control grid going up all over the country on The American Dream....

Do you want your children and grandchildren to live in a futuristic "big brother" control grid where everything they do is watched, recorded, tracked and tightly controlled?  Well, that is exactly where things are headed.  We witnessed some really bad totalitarian regimes during the 20th century, but what is coming is going to be far more restrictive than any of the despots of the past ever dreamed was possible.  Today, nearly every government on earth is tightening their grip on their citizens.  Paranoia has become standard operating procedure all over the planet and nobody is to be trusted.

All of this extreme paranoia must stop.
Sometimes people will say something like this: "Well, I don't mind if the government watches me or searches me because I have nothing to hide."
The next time someone tells you something like that, do the following....
Pull out a chair and set it down six inches away from that person.  Then sit in the chair and stare directly at him or her without moving.  After a few moments that person will say something like: "What in the hell are you doing?"
In response, just tell them that they just said that they didn't mind being watched.
The truth is that none of us want eyeballs on us 24 hours a day.
Our founding fathers included the Bill of Rights in the Constitution for a reason.  The Bill of Rights is there to protect our most basic liberties.
If we allow those liberties to be stripped away in exchange for a little bit more security we will only have ourselves to blame.