It reads like a spy novel. A low level technician in a mega spy agency has a crises of conscience and spills the beans on how that mega-spy agency is more than likely spying on all our electronic communications with or without the tacit agreement of the big 3 social networking sites. Throw in a mysterious and sexy girlfriend and we are looking at box office news.
It bores me.
I grew up during the troubles. Even then Government Communications Headquarters in the UK were monitoring every phone call from here to the UK. When email arrived these were monitored too. Did that worry me? Did I feel used and abused?
Nope.
It was and is a fact of life. It doesn’t cause me to foam at the mouth. I know what I do and who I chat to. I do nothing wrong. In some ways, if there is a system of uber-surveilance, I actually feel safer. Disruption of any kind of criminality must be a good thing.
What may cause me to raise an eyebrow is that it is happening under the leadership of a president who was and is seen as a champion of liberal politics. But then again, JFK was also seen as such a champion. Cuban Missile Crisis anybody?
Reasoned debate based on mutual respect. That’s all that anybody involved in debating public affairs asks for. I think this is what Enda was asking for when he told the Dail about receiving plastic feotusus and letters written in blood. Having a pro-life view is perfectly reasonable and I understand why people find abortion abhorrent. But there is a line that can not be crossed.
The perverse angle is most of the senders of such material profess themselves as members of a religion whose central tenant is love. Love is not telling a disabled person they escaped an abortion bucket. This happened me. My mother was with me at the time. Go figure. If I was in any way sensitive, what kind of irreparable damage to my relationship with my mother could that comment have caused? Did they care?
The worrying thing is lines seem to be blurring between leadership of the pro-life movement and its Brownshirt element who carry out such actions. Sickening behaviour such as letters written in blood are seen as the rough and tumble of debate by certain politicians. It’s not. It is wrong and borders of evil.
As some of you may know, the Tom Dunne Show has been discussing prostitution this week. UnDaunted has an open mind on its legal position. As long as the women are treated with respect and are not abused in any way, it may serve a purpose.
I have never used a prostitute but I have seen its very close relation – the porn industry - in action. I was in Brussels for a boring weekend meeting. When I arrived at the hotel, there was an unexpectedly high amount of men in leather trousers around the hotel. I thought dodgy euro-heavy metal band so I made my way to bed.
They were still there the next morning. And later that afternoon. In the evening, the ‘awards’ dinner took place and who wouldn’t be amused by a 10-foot transvestite on stilits welcoming people? It was fun and made for great people-watching.
There was a darker side. In the breakfast room each morning, you saw corpulent movie moguls in their late sixties enter the room arm-in-arm with their beautiful twenty-something[I hope] Asian girlfriend. The thing is, if you looked into the eyes of the women, there was a tiredness. You knew they were show ponies who had been performing all of their lives. That’s when the laughter ended and the sadness began. I suddenly felt unclean and wanted to get out of that hotel as fast as possible.
When I was growing up, a glut of surveys began to suggest watching TV would stunt any development I may have. Ha! Some of the best cultural reference points in my life come from TV. Then there is all the chat up lines a young man or woman could glean from TV.
These golden memories flooded back this week as I read of a survey by Mumsnet condemning characters like Homer Simpson and Fred Flintsone as dangerous examples of failed father figures.
Hello!!
Are they wife beaters? NO
Child abusers? NO
They are first and foremost cartoon characters. They are also American cartoon characters. This means every cartoon episode is a moral journey that ends in harmony. Dad is great. He saves the day even if he goes a bit mad along they way.
Chill out mumsnet.
Happy Father’s Day!
