Loss of Privacy

Around 3:30am, Wednesday morning, Police received several calls from people who were concerned about screams they heard coming from a nearby park. When the police arrived on the scene, they discovered Adrian Apgar screaming that he was being attack by an alligator.

Deputies dove into the alligator-infested waters and pulled Apgar from the alligator’s jaws and then swam 40 feet to safety. Apgar was nude when he was pulled from the water and later told deputies that he’d been smoking crack.

Apgar is currently in critical condition at the local hospital, having suffered a broken arm, a partially amputated left arm, and major trauma to a leg.

Wildlife officials weren’t surprised by the attack, stating that 4am is prime feeding itme for alligators.

The moral of the story is, don’t smoke crack. It’s really bad for you. And, if you do insist on smoking crack, don’t get into alligator infested waters naked during feeding time. You’re just asking for something bad to happen.

Two teenage boys set off homemade acid bombs inside a Wal-Mart on Sunday and the story has all but died out. There were, as of this morning, 233 stories about this, most of which were copies of one another. There seems to be even less this afternoon.

This particular store had been filled with people out buying holiday gifts and at least eight people were treated for irritation to their eyes and throat and several more for ringing in their ears. This story has received little coverage and, what has been covered, has been filled with mixed feelings on the newpapers’ comments sections. Some think that it’s an outrage and ask why more isn’t being done, while others think it’s not a big deal.

Besides the Wal-Mart, they placed other device at other businesses.

Investigators described the devices as acid bombs made from a concoction of common household products. The chemicals react to form an acidic substance while simultaneously expanding, causing the container to expand to the point of explosion.

Investigators believe the boys had made three additional explosive devices that did not detonate. Fire marshals collected one bomb from the roof of a downtown Chinese restaurant and two from the lawn of one of the boys’ friends, McCausland said.

Regardless, of your position of whether this is or isn’t a big deal, you have to wonder why they’ve been released into their parents’ custody. Why are they not being held as terrorists? Why are they only being charged with criminal use of explosives?

Where, indeed, is the outrage from America? Why is no one saying, “Look, these boys are terrorists!” Why does no one see the connection that all the Real ID, fingerprinting, US Visit program, and checking tourists like they are criminals do nothing to stop the homegrown terrorists? All these programs have taken away people’s privacy to make everyone safe from terrorists but does nothing to stop idiot teenagers with too much time on their hands. Nor do they guarantee our safety. They merely play the part of illusion. Do people no longer remember Tim McVeigh or Ted Kaczynski?

What are we going to now? Are people going to be subject to the types of scrutiny you face at airports whenever you want to go shopping? Are we going to turn even more militant and start restricting the movement of people? I say no. Why? Because this will all be forgotten in a few days. There will be a little blurb later about the outcome of the case, nothing more.

After all, they are just bored teens, albeit misguided ones. We have to keep our focus and attention on the suicide bombings in the Middle East and those “evil” people in Iraq who brainwash children into becoming suicide bombers.

Well, who brainwashed these American kids? Why aren’t we freaking out over these two teens? Why are we making excuses for two kids who are doing the same thing as kids in those “far away places?” Why do they get a free pass and don’t get labeled a terrorist while others do?

Do we really need for a bigger, better, acid bomb to be made and kill people before we wake up and realize we are breeding the same children to do the same things that we accuse others of? Or is boredom really an acceptable excuse to do whatever the hell you want today?

Since it’s fashionable today for everyone on the planet to bash the United States on just about every topic, people have moved on to the pettiness of The United States of America and its commonly referred to name as America. They piss and moan that the United States is claiming superiority over other countries in North America by taking the terms America and American and claiming it as their own.

When you actually educate yourself, you’ll discover that Mexico’s official name is Los Estados Unidos Mexicanos (The United Mexican States). They do not cal themselves the Mexican States of America.

Canada isn’t called The United Provinces of America. They are called Canada. Canada was proposed as the name to unite all the provinces in 1867. The Kingdom of Canada had been suggested but was considered too pretentious for a new country and they didn’t want to anger the United States so soon after the US Civil War in which Great Britain had supported the Confederate South. They settled upon being called the Dominion of Canada under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Other names that had been considered were The United Colony of Canada, The United Provinces of Canada, The Federated Provinces of Canada and The Republic of Canada. The Dominion of Canada was in common use until the 1950s when Dominion was removed from all official documents.

Brazil is the Republica Federativa do Brasil (Federative Republic of Brazil), not the Brazilian Republic of South America. There is also The Republic of Panama, the Republic of Cuba, the Republic of Honduras, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the Argentine Republic. Are you getting the point yet?

These countries in South America are “South Americans” but you do not see them running around calling themselves that, do you?

I have heard and read that all the other people in North America are disenfranchised because the USA has stolen their identities. These people believe that the people from the United States of America should call themselves USians or United Statesers. Aside from these being ridiculous and idiotic sounding names, there is no reason not to call people from the USA Americans.

No one uses these terms except for the few fanatical people who are afraid of accidentally being labeled as an American. I have traveled to many different places and have been mistaken as French and German, yet I didn’t freak out because of someone’s misconception. I politely corrected them. It’s not America’s fault that the Canadians are so paranoid. Perhaps they should take to wearing jackets with a giant maple leaf on the back when they travel or wear t-shirts that say, “I’m Canadian, not American,” if they are so worried.

Are we not also disenfranchising the people from Mozambique, Lesotho, and Botswana when we call South Africans, well, South Africans, simply because those countries are also in a region called South Africa? No. They are called that because they are from a country called South Africa! The USA is The United States of America. It is shortened to America because it is simpler to use. No one walks around saying, “I am from The Federative Republic of Brazil” or “I am from The United Mexican States.” They always state, “I am from Brazil” or “I am from Mexico.”

Everyone in the world knows that when you say, “I am an American,” it means that you are from the United States of America. No one confuses you with being a Canadian or a Mexican or Brazilian. It is only in the last few years that this small nitpick has started to surface. If such petty differences are all you have to talk about, you should really try to get out more and see and experience the world. It is foolish stupidity to think that these semantic problems are all we should be talking about with all the bigger problems in the world.

Please, when you have figured out world peace and saved the world from starvation, then such minor things may be acceptable to argue about. If you wish to discuss the debacle that is Iraq or America’s ever over-reaching arm into everything, then, yes, that is a real problem to be discussed and debated. There are bigger things we should be worried about than a few people, sitting at home, hiding behind their computers, who constantly get their panties in a bunch because they were accidentally called an American.

Purple flowers at the grave of Martin Van Buren, taken by me, July 2006.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Many people will be eating way too much food and talking about all the feel-good reasons that they are thankful this year. I thought I’d share with all the people who have nothing better to do today and tomorrow than surf the web, all the things I’m not thankful for this year.

I’m not thankful for the people who are so ready to give up what little privacy we have left in this world, just for a little convenience. These are the people that freely display on places like MySpace (not, I’m not linking there.  I hate that place) all their personal information, give up their ID so they can be cool for a night in a bar, and sign up for every damned loyalty and credit card on the planet. These people are only telling the government that it’s okay to put everyone in a database to be accessed by the highest bidder. Hell, any bidder. If you got cash, here’s some free data mining. You think this is over reacting to nothing? Just wait until your insurance company starts denying you coverage or you can’t get that cool job because someone doesn’t like the fact that you go to bars too often, or you drink too much, or you buy the wrong kind of deodorant.

I’m not thankful for people who think that spelling and grammar aren’t important just because they are chatting on the Internet. Sloppiness, no matter where it occurs, bleeds over into other parts of life and makes you look like an imbecile to those potential employers or customers. It is important. It does count. You, of course, are exempt if English is not your first language. If it is, you should be ashamed at your ignorance.

I’m not thankful for the many, many people I come across that gleefully smile in their own ignorance of the world. They think it’s cool that they don’t know math or science, who Vladimir Putin is, or where the Sudan is located. You should be disgusted that you have embarrassed your country by being yet another stupid American. Now, while I realize that it’s impossible to know everything, you should at least make an attempt to know the major news articles and not just where Paris Hilton had her latest binge fest.

I’m not thankful for the No Child Left Behind Act that has actually taken teaching out of the classroom and helped to further students down the path to stupidity. I’m not thankful that teachers haven’t been able to teach for the last ten years and are forced, more and more, to teach to state mandated tests instead of actually encouraging their students to learn. I’m especially not thankful that, at least in New York, slavery isn’t important to know because it’s not on the Regents Exam so it gets 2-3 days during the school year. No wonder teenagers are stupid.

I’m not thankful for the Americans that seem to have lost all sense of shame. These are the people that taken great pride in being on Jerry Springer or brag about how wasted they got last night. They are also the politicians who find it impossible to be embarrassed by the actions they take. Many Americans have lost all sense of common decency. I’m not advocating returning to the 1950′s, but people should realize that making asses of themselves for short-lived fame is not what one should aspire to. Too many Americans enjoy Schadenfreude far more than having respect for anything or anyone. If you enjoy social degradation, you’ll enjoy all of these people.

I’m not thankful that we can’t find a single politician with a plan for Iraq or how to solve the problem that most everyone in the world now hates Americans.

I’m not thankful that we have politicians who think it’s acceptable to photograph and fingerprint every single person that comes to America and then bemoans the fact that tourism is declining.

I’m not thankful that we truly are getting closer to a big brother society. No, it won’t be identical to 1984. I think it will be more like Fahrenheit 451, but without the massive book burning. We’ll just burn a few books, like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451.

I’m not thankful that people are more concerned with the outcome of the BCS instead of people dying in Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, the entire Middle East, Somalia, etc. etc.

I’m not thankful for the fact that every time I travel overseas I now have to be the defender of the USA and all its problems. I’m sorry, I am on vacation, enjoying another culture and its history. I don’t want to have to defend the multitude of assholes who share my citizenship merely because my parents weren’t rich enough to be born elsewhere.

Lastly, I’m not thankful that my rant will fall on deaf ears because everyone is getting ready for the football games on Thanksgiving, running out and getting last minute ingredients for that perfect Thanksgiving dinner, and scanning through the Black Friday ads for all the crap they’re going to buy Friday morning. But, I still have to try. Maybe someone will stop and think about my rant. You never know if you don’t try.