FREEDOM OR SECURITY-TALK IS NEEDED-Dangerous or Otherwise

FEELING MANIPULATED?

or as though someones listening in?

   The big yap yap now over the NSA disclosures at least

has people talking.

     And there is a lot of that going around.(Friend and reader Beverly noted, the bovine above is not a bull. Indeed, as a careful look will inform you. But just sort of go with it)  
      A question is, How do we want it?  What are the boundaries?

      Are we willing to give up liberty to feel safe? The conversation is needed and all of us, from voters to the intelligence community, need to weigh in. 

      I'm hung up on a couple of points.  Why is so much of our top clearance, security and intelligence work being done by private contractors? When and how did we decide to job it out and for who's benefit?  We are now paying private sources more money to do work that should be the exclusive franchise of US Government employees.

      Eisenhower had it right about the "military-industrial complex."  The modern codicil is "intelligence-industrial."  So a high school drop out, army wash out, can get hired by the CIA and get clearance and then quit only to be hired by a private contractor, paid reportedly a $ quarter million a year and have his ticket punched so he can purloin some of our most secret and sensitive information. Yea, that's intelligent isn't it!  Where are the adults?

      It's not an easy riddle. Americans voluntarily give up more private and specific data to social media, banks, in online purchases and e-mail than what the NSA has gathered in bundles. Private business knows more about you than do the spooks and some in the intelligence community  can't figure why that is, or why the current flap.

      Intelligence and security people reason they've been tasked with keeping us safe from harm and in their mind they cannot have too much information. But in the old days raw and irrelevant data got purged.  Now files are kept forever. Is that right?  It's another choice we have to make.

      The panel of Judges who guide the intelligence community in their acquisition of data also need to be heard from. It would be good for the Republic to hear the mind set and thinking of those who frame these vitally important considerations.

      And a word about Snowden as a leaker.  As a one time investigative reporter I could bore you with countless details about how a whistle blower or leaker helped get information to the public. In my experience there were many instances where the public good was served.
     Examples-an elementary school being built over a "forgotten" hazardous material dump, a grand jury being used to punish political enemies, mental patients being poisoned by inept or non existent medical supervision in over or wrong medication, Ku Klux Klansmen working on a city payroll as a result of extortion, managers of public housing selling material meant to improve housing projects out of the back door and profiting huge sums, a KGB officer trying to infiltrate a public office holder's staff, security breaches where some of this nation's most deadly nerve agent is stored, toxic poison leaking into a public water resource.

      I would not have been able to get that information onto the public agenda, had it not been for state, city and federal employees getting information to me-data, records, documents that had been buried, hidden, over looked, forgotten or in some cases "destroyed." 

      In my own little footnotes to history, our work prompted investigations, prosecutions, regulations, new statutes, and informed conversations. 

      We all would be well served by a robust conversation now about privacy, safety, expectations, propriety, and who should be minding our secrets.

       There's a great thought, attributed to both Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.  I'm comfortable with quoting them both-

       "Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either!"

   See you down the trail.

TREASURES DESTROYED & THE REAL DEAL

IDIOTS OF THE PERNICIOUS SORT

    A New York Times piece by Felicity Barringer got my blood boiling.  She detailed the work of vandals in National Parks, Monuments and other priceless settings. Perhaps before we knew better we carved our initials in a tree or on an old log. While it may have been a bit destructive, it is nothing like the senseless or stupid desecration of wilderness done by spray painting or cutting, or malicious damage. Shame on the idiots and their friends or family who condone it.  

      Warning!  If I see you up to this pernicious behavior, you will be confronted.  A couple of years ago, in the height of fire season, I saw an Hawaiian shirt bedecked German tourist wandering off the path, despite warning signs, collecting pine cones, despite prohibition warnings, his hands and arms full while a cigarette dangled from his lip. Though I speak no German, he understood my castigation, the look on his face revealed that.  Impishly I smile a bit about that fool's wandering from the path in his shorts and flip flops as he waded through a healthy patch of poison oak!

THE REAL DEAL IN MORRO BAY

     Authentic California fishing village scenes still play out in Morro Bay.

   Fewer boats operate out of the town, landmarked by the Morro Rock, than when we first wandered into the water front for a supply of fresh sea food many years ago.

  But it is still an operating fishing port and I'm fascinated by the work and activity there.

  Tourists who flock to the embarcadero as well as locals have some great choices for fresh sea food and dining. Giovanni's and Tognazzini's are both sure bets.

   On an ancient trip up the coast, when we were still mid-westerners, I thought the "stacks" at the power plant were a blight on the sea front.  Now that we've been out here for several years, we've adopted the attitude of most of the locals and natives, they are part of the land and sea scape-a kind of marker on the coast.

  See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER-WILD

A TALE OF TWO WILDS

     A couple of viewing experiences for you this weekend, both occurring just a couple of hours from each other.

     One for meditation, the other for motivation, sort of.

the exquisite peace of Big Sur

the wildest ride ever in San Francisco

       have great weekend.  See you down the trail.

TAX PAYERS REVOLTED & SHAPES

WHO'S IN CHARGE

     At the edge of historic recession, millions unemployed or working poor and the IRS entertains itself for million$!

     Growls from the right, left and the apathetic.What prevents better governance and accountability? How can a judgement be rendered to let the tax man party away millions? No one thought of perception?!

      It is a perfect storm.  Bureaucracy, civil service, politicians and no accountability.  

      Where are the adults? Should we be in the streets?

SHAPES

garden compositions

    See you down the trail.

A GAY SLUR? AND GETTING AWAY FROM PEOPLE

WORDS

CUTTING BOTH WAYS

     Teaching us diplomacy and providing a way to keep us out of continual scrapes, fights and altercations, mom taught us the childhood adage

      "sticks and stones may break my bones-

       but words will never hurt me."

     How I wish that were still true.  Maybe it would be if only we all lived that reality.  But words have power and the meaning can hurt.

      An NBA star is in trouble and has been fined for something he said.  The phrase "no homo" derives from a black idiom, complicated by African American attitudes about gay life, but has mutated in use to where in the macho world of professional athletes it meant to imply something else and was not meant in disrespect, though it could be offensive to some.  No harm intended, but offense could be taken.  Such is the tyranny of political correctness especially in the hyper amplified world where big name stardom and social media meet. 

       I don't know if it is an improvement that we now are more aware of our language skills and word choices and sensitive to their impact, or if we have just netted ourselves in a time and place where, despite intent, a word or phrase can lead to a knee jerk type of social persecution.

      I'm inclined to think we must indeed be wise in our word choice, but still there was so much wisdom-and hassle avoidance, in that old childhood retort.

SO LET'S JUST GET AWAY FROM PEOPLE

Big Sur-Lime Kiln Canyon-One of the world's special places

    A simple pleasure is to hike from where water falls out of the mountains to where it runs into the Pacific.

  Here, words and language seem secondary.

  See you down the trail.

THE EXOTICS ARE BACK AND KITES OVER THE PACIFIC

 EXOTICS IN BLOOM

    The annual succulent show in San Luis Obispo again provides plenty at which to marvel.

My George Lucas inspired imagination sees a Jabba the Hutt type creature in repose, below. That would be Jabba with a punk  hair cut.

This specie, and its cousins, are especially interesting in that they resemble something barely alive.

KITES OVER THE PACIFIC

   Several miles north of Cambria on the Pacific Coast highway, the sky is frequently filled.

    For several years I've watched these extraordinary athletes and remain fascinated by this combination of surfing and sailing.

    The launching beach is a wide expanse of sand.

   Below, the view behind the beach.

   See you down the trail.