A bit of Brutal Truth.

I'm gonna lay some brutal truth on you, straight up with no sweetener :

As things stand right now, there is no Fourth Amendment to The Constitution of the United States.
Your cell phone is routinely monitored. Your mail scanned and photgraphed, your email read for keywords and "Suspicious behavior". You are videoed everywhere you go. Police will search you as they want and make up an excuse for why later, up to and including arresting you for Resisting Arrest or Obstructing Justice. Further, you have no right to avoid self-incrimination.

A story fragment

This one came to me while I was waiting in a parking lot.


I'm sorry , you shouted yourself mute. When the serum started to take effect, the excruciating pain must have been too much for you to remain silent. It's a good thing these walls are sound-proof or the others might have been disturbed. You'll be able to get up and move about soon, but I don't recommend it.
(I might come back to this later and finish it. who knows. -- DLC )

Why are we still having this conversation ?

I'm really wondering why we need to be having this conversation. 

I really am. The current elections of 2016 are between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.The two of them could not be more different :
On one side, we have a greedy, arrogant, cheating, lying, misogynistic, racist, bigot, gonif, meshuggenah, POS that calls himself Donald Trump. On the other hand, we have Hillary Clinton, a woman who has a less than spotless reputation, owing largely to 30 years of being slimed by her opponents with the mostly willing cooperation of the news media. (newsies will tell you, if you manage to slip one enough truth serum, that they hates them some Clintons) Yes, it's true that Mrs Clinton has made mistakes, and some unforced errors, and has at times skated a bit close to the thin ice. But she's human. She puts her pants suits on one leg at a time just like the rest of us. She bleeds red blood, gets sick sometimes, and probably has said some sharp-tongued things. But compared to Donny, she's a freakin saint. Holy crap, I can hardly believe I have to explain this to people. HRC is not my favorite democratic candidate. That would have been Bernie Sanders. But she is light years ahead of Trump. Galaxies, even.

A few thoughts about "The Government."

When it comes to how people in the USA think about their government, many people reply to polls like this  , or this stating that they distrust "The Government"  (a nebulous, poorly defined thing but seemingly meant to be the Federal Government of the USA). I place responsibility for this trend in thinking directly upon They.

What's wrong with this picture ?

When some person gets in hot water with the IRS because of his sincere belief that paying taxes to a government that uses it for war is wrong, we call him a tax cheat and put him in jail. When some person gets in hot water with a federal judge because of using their elected office to deny people their rights gets in trouble, we call them a hero and have parades and demonstrations in their honor. What's wrong with this picture?

I wrote this in 2015 during the uproar over a certain County Clerk in a certain state who was refusing to do her duty and issue marriage licenses to *those people*. 
In my opinion, this County Clerk was misusing the power of her office to further a religious agenda.
In case some of you missed it, the state may not discriminate  on basis of religion, which includes because of the government official's religion. If you are a government official it is your sworn duty to do your job without favor for all who require your services. You may not
refuse service to someone, even if their personal lifestyle, culture, religion, ethnic origin or creed disturbs you or offends you. If you are unable to carry out the duties of your office due to this, you are obligated by honor to leave that office. You can always lobby government to change regulations, but beware that doing so to appease one specific religion is off the table.