Published Author's Prayer

Dear Lord:
You know how much I want my privacy and you have blessed me with obscurity.
Being a Number One Best Seller would have placed me in the limelight and I would have had to reveal things about my private life.  I might even have been asked to appear on a TV Program to promote my book and that would certainly have ruined my chances of remaining obscure.  For this I thank you.

Since you know all things, please forgive me for lying.  I do want recognition for my work and would love to be famous.  Can I have it both ways?

Amen.

No, Abe, you can't. Lots of famous people die young. Be content with your fifteen minutes; it will serve you much better than the demands that would be placed upon you as a famous person.

Shelagh, I agree.  I was responding to the numerous comments on the Social Security Thread and the privacy controversy.

Abe,

Perfect!

Abe, I think you're mixing apples and oranges. Name recognition for writing a book is not the kind of "privacy" being talked about. Well, it's not the kind I'm talking about. Tracking your buying habits, health records, listening in your phone calls, reading your emails, scrutinizing your taxes for political beliefs -why do you think a published author has signed up for this?

Well, I know I am tracked.  My personal information went public because I filed a fictitious name (as an author) to open a bank account.  My emails have been hacked.  My political beliefs are already public because I registered to vote.  As an author, my name is everywhere on most Internet social venues, in the newspaper, etc.  Putting my name out there and seeking book sales has put a lot of info into the universe that would not be there, even with the government doing their thing.

I think you nailed it, DK.  Cherry picking doesn't work.  Once you go public with anything, your privacy is gone.  Just posting on this forum is public.  Our comments/thoughts are exposed.  Privacy doesn't exist in today's world. 

In the military as well as government service, if you are required to have access to sensitive information, a background investigation is made.  They even interview neighbors and ask questions about you.  It is not a routine check with police or court records.  The higher the level of the clearance, the more the investigators dig. 

A job in the federal government may depend on the background investigation.  You can't hide.

I applied for a position with the city of Miami that involved high levels of financial responsibility.  The background check covered my lifetiime.  I had forgotten half of what was in the review.  I was glad I asked for and received a copy.

Abe and DK -PRISM is apparently doing "background checks" on everyone, not just people who apply for military and government jobs. So again, I fail to see the relevance of your defense.

6/21/2013

                  "  Fame, it's fickle , so long I've had you fame, I knew it
                     wasn't forever !"

                                                    Cheers.......Joe....

LC,

What is wrong with equality?  Every American is just as risky as the next.
Therefore keep tabs on all of them.

Alice, you make good sense.
I still don't see the paranoia about background investigations, security checks, etc.  Only people with something to hide should have fear and they are the ones that should be exposed.

It seems to me that the fear and paranoia is coming from the agencies who are secretly keeping tabs on a general populace, rather than the other way around.

They could admit what they are doing.   Honesty always helps.

Quote :

Alice, you make good sense.
I still don't see the paranoia about background investigations, security checks, etc.  Only people with something to hide should have fear and they are the ones that should be exposed.

Except that "something to hide" is a moving target. Check out this article:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/21/official-says-water-complaints-act-of-terrorism/2445071/

Maybe you'll be hauled to jail one day and held indefinitely without charges (you do know that police can now do that, thanks to the NDAA, right?) because you complained about water quality.

What's your opinion of that part of the NDAA, Alice and Abe? Did you have no problem with it when it was passed?

http://www.businessinsider.com/ndaa-americans-indefinite-detention2012-11

Some of us look at all these pieces and think maybe there's an agenda being put into place. Especially since it doesn't get a fraction of the attention that Kim Kardashian's tits and Lil Wayne's terrible music get. This is truly the Teflon presidency.

Quote :

Every American is just as risky as the next.

So why are mosques off-limits?

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/13/mosques-limits-government-snooping-2011-ibd-editor/

All right,  Maybe it is pay back time.  No one did anything when we built Gitmo.  It is still there too.
I never liked it.

The government is ridiculous.  The Congress is a disgusting waste of taxpayer money - and they are getting ready to go on July 4 break now.  The only time they pretend to work is just before a break - and still don't finish anything.

The Iraq War and everything associated with it is a travesty.  Out of sight, out of mind.  My heart breaks for all those whose loved ones on all sides of that horrid war were killed and injured.  I have to not think about it.  Even those poor men in Cuba all this time in limbo - no quick resolution - a long, seething one for them to build their anger and resentment even more.  There is no good solution.

The people that worry me the most, not that I'm afraid of them, just that I think they have a very wrong headed way of looking at things, are all of those who say that if I have nothing to hide, then it doesn't matter if the government (or whomever) digs around and finds out everything about me.

I see that as an extremely silly way to think, because once you begin looking at it that way, you will give up any right, allow any intrusion into your privacy, and not think anything about it, because you say you don't have anything to hide.

It's not about hiding anything, it's about giving access to your entire life to another person. Your life should be your business, and yet so many can't see it that way. What happens when the people doing the looking start telling you what you can and can't do, based upon what you have done in the past? Late with a few car payments when you were 22 years old, well, now you can never buy another car on credit. Dated a 16 year old when you were 18? Uh oh, sexual predator, and now on a list. Visited a museum in Germany in order to learn more about history. Sorry, but there's a good chance you're a Nazi so you have to be watched from now on.

Give them an inch and they will take a mile. We all know that is as true as any old saying in the world, so why are prepared to give them a mile, thinking they will never use what they learn against us?

E.Don,

What do we do about it?  besides isn't this info available now?
It is just not in one place.

E Don wrote:

It's not about hiding anything, it's about giving access to your entire life to another person. Your life should be your business, and yet so many can't see it that way. What happens when the people doing the looking start telling you what you can and can't do, based upon what you have done in the past? Late with a few car payments when you were 22 years old, well, now you can never buy another car on credit. Dated a 16 year old when you were 18? Uh oh, sexual predator, and now on a list. Visited a museum in Germany in order to learn more about history. Sorry, but there's a good chance you're a Nazi so you have to be watched from now on.

, E Don. The real fear lies in sacrificing freedom for the illusion of security.

I don't like it at all.  I have just given up to the inevitable.  I see no power to stop what has already gone too far.

I have a job interview next week.  If I succeed in the interview there will be a background check that includes a credit report and more.  I will be required to fill out a medical questionnaire to determine whether I need a physical.  They need my ss#, my driver's license # and all my previous names (that's one men don't have to contend with), etc.

I guess I can refuse the opportunity. Of course I won't because all that info is already out there - somewhere.

Who thought they had privacy?    I have never thought I had any. Once in an ER, a doctor came out in the waiting room brandishing an x ray and loudly announcing the results.  So much for privacy.

At one time Dave and I were confused with another couple and leans were attached to every piece of real property we tried to purchase.

What do you think is private about you life?

At this point, the data has been gathered.  The next question to ask is, "Who has access to it?" Then, "How will it be used?"  "How, and by whom, will it be regulated?"

The raw data, depending on who has access, who uses it, and how, can be interpreted many ways.  Rules and procedures will be established.  Who has a say in what the rules and regulations might be?"

These questions need to be asked, and open answers given.

I have nothing to hide.  My concern is what these agencies are hiding.

Good concern!