The camel's nose
Feb. 18th, 2006 01:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lurkittyI had to calm down considerably before writing this. Some think the fanfic we write is obscene, but I find this far worse. It is true that nothing came of this particular incident. But is it a harbinger of things to come? If the US inches further towards fascism, what does that portend for the rest of the world?
The death of Andreas Katsulas this week got me thinking about how prophetic J. Michael Straczynski's vision was in Babylon 5. If you haven't seen the series, I highly recommend it. It ranks among the best Science Fiction series of all time. Late in the series, JMS introduced the Night Watch, a jack-booted arm of the Earth government that enforced a series of increasingly Draconian measures designed to "protect" the Earth from outside attack. These included restricting access, blacklisting and imprisoning undesirables and sympathizers, and controlling the media. This series was written well before 9/11.
I read about an incident today that set my blood boiling. A man was reading pornography in a public library in Bethesda, MD. Two uniformed men came and informed him they were from Homeland Security and told him what he was reading was not appropriate. A librarian intervened. A police officer arrived. The uniformed men were escorted out of the building and told it wasn't their job to police the reading material of library patrons. The two have been reassigned.
This is not a spoof. I didn't read it in some obscure socialist daily or the National Enquirer. I read it in the Washington Post! Everybody has been very quick to point out that these guys were out of their jurisdiction and were confused or something. But the nagging bit of truth is that Homeland Security is the Federal department that investigates internet pornography crimes. Am I the only one that finds this spooky? Am I the only one with alarm bells going off in my head saying this is where we are heading?
This is another reason why unlimited government access to email and internet searches is a bad idea. Because everything falls under the broad
heading of Homeland Security nowadays.
Sleep well, folks.
The death of Andreas Katsulas this week got me thinking about how prophetic J. Michael Straczynski's vision was in Babylon 5. If you haven't seen the series, I highly recommend it. It ranks among the best Science Fiction series of all time. Late in the series, JMS introduced the Night Watch, a jack-booted arm of the Earth government that enforced a series of increasingly Draconian measures designed to "protect" the Earth from outside attack. These included restricting access, blacklisting and imprisoning undesirables and sympathizers, and controlling the media. This series was written well before 9/11.
I read about an incident today that set my blood boiling. A man was reading pornography in a public library in Bethesda, MD. Two uniformed men came and informed him they were from Homeland Security and told him what he was reading was not appropriate. A librarian intervened. A police officer arrived. The uniformed men were escorted out of the building and told it wasn't their job to police the reading material of library patrons. The two have been reassigned.
This is not a spoof. I didn't read it in some obscure socialist daily or the National Enquirer. I read it in the Washington Post! Everybody has been very quick to point out that these guys were out of their jurisdiction and were confused or something. But the nagging bit of truth is that Homeland Security is the Federal department that investigates internet pornography crimes. Am I the only one that finds this spooky? Am I the only one with alarm bells going off in my head saying this is where we are heading?
This is another reason why unlimited government access to email and internet searches is a bad idea. Because everything falls under the broad
heading of Homeland Security nowadays.
Sleep well, folks.
