Big Brother is...listening

I consider myself a pretty moderate person (politically) I feel that people should have many personal freedoms and with that comes with personal responsibility. There are many freedoms that our nation allows us to have that other nations do not share with their citizens. I have friends and family members that are of all political ideologies so I hear many things. During the 90’s many times I would hear from conservative friends that the “socialist” policies of the liberal administration would put us under a communist state and “big brother” would be listening. Yet here we are in the mid 00’s and “big brother” is listening, but it is not a socialist, liberal administration eavesdropping illegally, it is the “compassionate conservatives”. So now numerous (“innocent until being proved guilty”) Americans are being listened to by the “big brother” government.

National security is important and the President should do all he can to protect us, but I come from a culture that has been persecuted by those in the government and even had their execution ordered. Where people were driven from their homes and land because elected officials disagreed with their beliefs and thought they were a threat. This happened numerous times until the people were driven from a land that they chose to a land that no one wanted. No group should be singled out because of rumors and conjecture regarding their activities no matter what people in power “think” they are doing. With God you can not be punished unless you commit a sin and you can not repent for what you have not done. So without committing and action against the United States or its laws how can a person be a criminal?

Macworld 2006~San Francisco

Macworld 2006- San Francisco… Wow! What a morning. New iMac and MacBook Pro. Apple and Intel seem like a good combination. So far what I can see is that there are major speed increases with the new processors. I can’t wait until I can go and test them out (I’ll have to do that at the local Mac store Mac Life). I have to admit that I am a little excited about this. Where I work we use software that is pc-centric so anyone using a Mac has to jump through the virtual pc hoop to get it to work. Using virtual pc can be a pain as Microsoft makes that software and intentionally disables some windows features. With an Intel chip it opens up the door for programs created for Intel processors to run natively, not emulated. Also we are almost in the market for a new Mac in our family. We currently have an iMac g3 266 (blueberry) and an iBook g3 600. The iBook is used more than the iMac so it is what we would replace. So we are probably going to wait until the iBook line is revamped and look into that. There were so many rumors about what would be announced, but the Intel transition is here. I wholeheartedly embrace it.