[quote=CA renter]It is rather creepy, isn’t it?[/quote]
CAR: Yup. Especially when you ask yourself one question: What “benefits” does a facility like this bring you as an ordinary citizen?
Remember Ben Franklin’s admonition about security versus liberty: “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”
We no longer have a free and objective press, instead we have a corporate owned and corporatized media and a political class so beholden to the money that elected them (Republicans and Democrats both) that our rights and liberties are now no longer relevant.
I’m sure the NSA (“No Such Agency”, “Never Say Anything”) will come up with all sorts of good “reasons” to have such a facility, such as the “War on Terror”, the Chinese, the Iranians, etc, but it’s real function is the acquisition and USE of such information against the very people it is supposed to “protect”.
Gitmo remains open and operating, warrantless wiretapping is still alive and well, as is extraordinary rendition to “black houses” around the world and targeted assassinations of US citizens.
Yeah, Orwell envisioned exactly this and he wasn’t talking about Stalin’s Soviet state.