#545 Terror-able

Terrorism is a weird thing. And it makes people do weird things.
As Roosevelt said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
Or as my kid once said, “Fear can be scary.”
If only because us poor imperfect humans do unreasonable things when we’re scared. Like the whole interrogation thing.
Lawyers for the current administration recently characterized what many people call torture as “enhanced interrogation.” It was then pointed out by others that the last time the term “enhanced interrogation” was used by an official body was by, um, a certain government in Germany during World War Two.
Apparently, said government felt they had an urgent and necessary need to enhance interrogation so that they may protect the Fatherland.
Fatherland Security, as it were.
That’s why our founding fathers warned that Freedom isn’t free, but it ain’t worth a plug nickel if you purchase it with inhumanity.
Another interesting example our fearful world is this story. It appears that a Wal-Mart employee, perhaps a little nettled by the rigors of customer service, posted a joke on his Myspace website that if every Wal-Mart were bombed the collective IQ of America would rise precipitously.
The next day at work security arrived, took him to the office to be fired by management, and then escorted him to the parking lot.
He protested it was only a joke.
But apparently Wal-Mart has an enhanced paranoia when it comes to joking employees. They’ve seen what damage to a reputation over-the-edge, stressed out, overworked workers can create.
God forbid that people who were once described as going postal should now be described as going Wal-Martal.
As this maligned and mistreated ex-employee now has even more reason to do.
But worse, I suppose, is that somehow someone at Wal-Mart Central monitors Myspace for jokes about Wal-mart and then decides from those jokes who is a threat to the sanctity and security of the bastion of Always Low Prices.
And you thought Myspace was just a place to preen, posture, act out, vent, and troll for friends on the internet.
Take a snapshot of this with your cellphone kiddies; it’s a new place for enhanced surveillance.
America ya gotta love it