The Apolitical Activist, Ch. 10

The Special July 4th Patriotic Edition:

A very special "Fuck You" goes out this holiday to Steve Wozniak

You told CNN that "I felt about Edward Snowden the way I felt about Daniel Ellsberg"

Who are you freaking crapping?

You might be a computer genius but you certainly aren't a historian.  You should concentrate on what you know best:  like using Apple to evade U.S. Taxes by setting up dummy corporations in Ireland and transferring American jobs to China and thereby supporting a real totalitarian regime--rather than wading into the Edward Snowden quagmire.

As an aside, I could be dead wrong about this and if the government is involved in a massive cover up, and Snowden is a hero, then I will readily admit that I am wrong to Mr. Snowden.   But you Mr. Wozniak, who are presumably reading the same news stories as I am are a total douche bag.  Makes me want to throw away my Apple and buy something from Google.   Google knows the hard way about the threat of Chinese hacking into American corporations.   Sergey Brin, being a somewhat removed refugee from another totalitarian state (e.g. the Soviet Union) can appreciate (or certainly his ancestors can appreciate) the relative freedom of this country vis a vis the two countries that Snowden is presumably running to help him out in this case.  Where is Snowden going to try to seek asylum next?  North Korea?  Iran? 

If Snowden truly was a hero, he wouldn't have given the interviews he did to Chinese Newspapers.  Enough said.  Again prove me wrong Edward.  Otherwise, you are likely growing up in a hurry in the real world without the shelter of your geeky American life your cushy $150k a year job.  If you sleep with dogs, you get fleas--and you have picked the wrong bedfellows.   Now, though it probably wasn't your intention, you are being used for propaganda from Russia and china as a smoke screen of their much more intrusive violations of freedom.  

I'm trusting Obama on this one.  There is always a place for heros and whistleblowers like Daniel Ellsberg.  But Snowden is neither. We live in an age where some wacko or religious nut can totally throw a monkey wrench into the economy with an act of terrorism.  It makes sense to do the monitoring as has been disclosed in the news media.   It really comes as no surprise anyway.  If you think you have an expectation of privacy in anything you do on the Internet or on you cell phone, you are living in a dream world.   The Internet is like your trash you put outside for collection.  The police can search your trash without a warrant if its outside your house.  California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35 (1988).   And the Internet is a big pile of trash, including this blog.