Sunday, February 17, 2013

When the Drones Come Home


We know them as the silent killers of the Great War on Terror.

For years they have been killing Al Qaeda terrorists, and hundreds of innocent people, in places like Yemen and Afghanistan.

Now the deadly birds are coming home to roost, and if we're not careful we too could end up with no place to hide.

And living in a police state.

What Jay Stanley of the ACLU calls his “nightmare scenario” begins with drones supporting “mostly unobjectionable” police raids and chases. Soon, however, networks of linked drones and computers “gain the ability to automatically track multiple vehicles and bodies as they move around a city,” much as the cell phone network hands calls from one tower to the next. The nightmare climaxes with authorities combining drone video and cell phone tracking to build up databases of people’s routine comings and goings—databases they can then mine for suspicious behavior.

Because if they're coming to the U.S. now, sooner or later they'll be in Canada. Police  departments love them, and so do some in the media.

The fact is drones are efficient, affordable, effective and safe. They have a place in the arsenals of military and civilian agencies, particularly in Canada, a place that is often described as having too much geography.

But they should be more careful what they ask for, because although drones can be useful patrolling places like the Arctic, in the hands of totalitarians like the Con regime they could threaten what little privacy we have left.

That's presuming we would want to preserve that privacy eh? For in a world where companies mine us for data, police surveillance is increasing, and we willingly share our lives on social media, is privacy just an old fashioned concept?

And in a country like Harperland, with such a submissive population, would many Canadians shake their fists at their aerial stalkers, or pose for their cameras?

How scary is that, and how creepy is this?



And if that isn't enough of a nightmare think about this one eh? 

No not Orwell's famous quote:

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever."

Picture Vic Toews peering in your bedroom window. Or following your every move.

In a country run by a deranged leader who would do ANYTHING to cling to power.

With nowhere to hide.

And nowhere to run...



Smile, you're on camera.

The drones are coming home to roost.

Welcome to our nightmare...



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