According to Sam and Jim Commenting on things that irk us off, make us laugh out loud or just seem too weird too believe According to Sam and Jim: Who Loves Ya', Uh, and Listens To You? Our Gov't of Course

Friday, June 21, 2013

Who Loves Ya', Uh, and Listens To You? Our Gov't of Course

So, our government has admitted that spy drones are flying over the U.S. checking up on us loyal citizens to make sure we remain loyal and don’t become terrorists. And all this time Sam and I thought the noise we were hearing overhead at night was rotor wash from helicopters flying out of Joint Base Lewis McChord on routine training missions. Shows you how easily we can be fooled, eh?

I love The New Yorker Magazine cartoon shared with me this morning on Face Book by my Bellingham Herald newspaper friend John Stark. The PC Vey (hope I got that name right) cartoon shows a man and a woman seated on a couch watching television. The guy says, “I don’t mind giving up the appearance of privacy to live with the illusion of safety.”

That’s a tee-hee. Of course Sam and I feel if you don’t have anything to hide you shouldn’t be worried about drones anyway. The only problem we can see with them is if they become so numerous they become bothersome like a bunch of bees buzzing our picnic fried chicken.

Sam and I are a little bit concerned about being caught in a case of mistaken identity is all. I was ironing some shirts this morning - bless my (NOT) for teaching me that skill - and I got to wondering what would happen if one of those faceless drone operators tucked away in an underground command bunker in Washington, D.C. mistakenly identified me as a Chinese laundryman. We’re highly concerned that the Chinese are spying on the U.S. these days, so Sam and I can imagine the hysteria spreading like a McCarthyism Red Scare and next thing we know there’s a knock on our front door. When I open the door, Sam, as he is wont to do, barks loudly at the drone hovering there and the dang thing DUMB bombs us. Thanks Sam!

Don’t laugh, it could happen!

Now the really strange thing to Sam and me is the fact that so many people in this country seem to be surprised by the level of American spying going on internationally and domestically. The U.S. has been spying on somebody somewhere since it became a country. George Washington asked Congress to establish a “secret service fund” for clandestine activities - primarily against the British. Paul Revere reportedly was one of this country’s first “intelligence” operatives.

During American’s Civil War both the Union and the Confederacy spied on each other. Hot air balloons - the forerunners of drones - were used regularly to monitor troop movements and regiment size. In those days those balloons weren’t for taking your girlfriend on a surprise ride and plying her with cold roast duck and champagne.

When the United States entered WWII, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Office of the Coordinator of Information, which became the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which eventually morphed into the CIA. Author W.E.B. Griffin writes some pretty good fiction about the people who worked for the OSS during WWII.

Unfortunately, poor analysis of intelligence, collection gaps and bureaucratic confusion about what was happening in our country’s relationship with Japan resulted in the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Does poor analysis of intelligence, collection gaps and bureaucratic confusion on the part of our spy agencies sound familiar (aka WMDs in Iraq)?

Well, poop on drone planes. Sam and I have nothing to hide but unjustified fear itself.


No comments:

Post a Comment