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So I went to Borders and damn, there’s the camera right there. I’ll go shop at Barnes and Noble. I’d go to a local bookshop, but the big corporate bookstores have run them all out except Book Trader, which is very small. Online, my purchases are tracked too. Libraries are now supposed to turn over your circulation records without your permission or a subpeona under the Patriot Act (although Congress is trying to fix this). Everyone is SO interested in what I’m reading. Maybe I’ll just download Delicious Library and scan it all in so everyone knows for sure and can stop sneaking around.
I was at an event where an older woman was teaching pre-teens about manners. She began talking about the Internet, and warned them, in her European accent, not to type the words “President Bush” and “kill” in the same email, even as a joke. Because you wouldn’t want your parents to have to open the door when the FBI came to find you. My first response was pity. What has this poor woman been through that she must tell children this? Later I thought, she didn’t have to scare kids that way. They might have nightmares about the FBI showing up. Then I started to think about the FBI showing up, at the doors of many “Reds” during the First World War. Going through people’s writings and personal books because they were suspected of being subversive. (And I am subversive. The Green Party shows up on a website listing “Red” organizations.)
So, no need to worry about them showing up at your door. Just go shop at Borders.]]>
