Eagle

I decided to flip through my old DVDs (not my physics notes) and picked "Enemy Of The State". It is an action-packed movie featuring Will Smith who had to run from the NSA because he was holding on to tape recording of a murder by accident. The agency was able to track him down using satellite images and tracing phone calls.
In one scene, Gene Hackman mentioned how agencies were keeping tabs on phone calls, and be capable of filtering out keywords from conversations, such as "bomb" or "Allah". This is in effect, one of the most potent weapons the government has to combat terrorism, both domestic and foreign. By enabling the Patriot Act after 9/11, law enforcement agencies were given the abovementioned capability, which includes emails too.
This is a very sensitive issue indeed. Privacy used to be a right, and keeping secrets is soon losing that status too. People are worried, unnecessarily or not, about what the government can actually do with the information they are receiving. That's when you'll have conspiracy theories sprouting junk like the government wanting more control of the population, just like how they "encroached" on people's liberties by enforcing gun control. A climate of paranoia was omnipresent for those who understood what was entailed.
Their baking recipes stored in emails are going to be seized, and then exploited by a retired agent living on pension to make big bucks. Men in suits might get turned on for free by the sexually suggestive messages people are sending to their lovers via mobile phones. Organizations known by only three letters would be fully aware of everyone's travel plans to whichever exotic country and by what means. They are so all-knowing, they even know what kind of pathetic grades lazy kids score for their exams.
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If it is anything, it would be terribly boring to sit down and leave a headphone on for hours in a row, and stare at a computer screen to check out who's having cybersex, who's the biggest hit on Facebook and what not. The poor geeks have to sift through heaps of rubbish daily, which is both an eye sore and an horrific assault on their ear drums, in hopes of detecting potential threats. They have to remain tight lipped about their occupation to family members and friends, all in the name of national security. In the local context, it is factually proven to be effective. Some racist blogger was fined under the Sedition Act. A blog that I used to frequent alot for tremendous entertainment value became stale, and people who commented were suspicious that the blogger was told off by the *relevant* authorities because he was insulting the government outright. He was probably invited down to have a good cup of coffee *somewhere*.
Freedom of speech can be defined easily but only so by sensible and open minds. I'm not speaking out against it not because I'm their posterboy for surveillance, neither is it due to me being cowed in fear.
Because of the nature and content of this entry, I might have attracted readers I'm not acquainted with. Or maybe they were already here entries before. And because of that, they're capable of finding out who has tagged (very simple process), and they're also able to find out who's been reading my blog, who might be potentially subverted by the toxic in my posts, if any.
That's you.
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