Does anyone remember the Iranian hostage crisis? Showing my age. I feel older than that. Anyway, back then we gave a shit. I was too young to understand the politics behind it, I'm sure it was a bunch of bullshit too, but at least America gave a shit. We counted every day our citizens were held hostage. Now our self appointed leader doesn't even pretend to give a shit as the hostages get their heads chopped off. America is numb. See Garden State, a great movie which speaks in a subtle way about how numb we have become. There is a great opening sequence where the main character seems bored as the plane he is on is crashing--one of the most disturbing images ever put on film. Don't be fooled by the Hollywood ending, it is really a lie told to herself by the female lead. The thing about these cameras is that they are saying it is to prevent terrorism. Since when has Chicago been a target for terrorism? Actually, we haven't had one terrorist attack in America since 9/11. This can not be acredited to Bush, because there wasn't one foreign terrorist attack on US soil BEFORE 9/11 either. If you think about how Bush dropped out of the anti-missile treaty, abandoned Middle East peace negotiations, and began the war rhetoric right from the start of his coupe, it's my guess 9/11 was a message to HIM, not to America. The fact that we haven't had any other terrorists incidents in the States since then probably means that whatever the people who we are pissing off are planning is going to be one big thing, not a stupid suitecase in a hallway that can be caught by some pipe dream called a spy network, but something big and well thought out. I imagine when it happens it will be too late, and there isn't a spy camera that can stop it. Maybe a change in policy can stop it. Maybe promoting love, understanding, the desire for peace, or diplomacy can stop it. But violence only leads to more violence. I really believe it is only a matter of time. How big does it have to be to snap Americans out of the spell? Also, just to rant without any direction whatsoever, it is funny that those right wing religious nuts said that 9/11 (clearly an act of man) was a messge from God to the gays or the pro-choice people, but I don't hear shit from them how all these hurricanes (clearly an act of God) is a response to the sin of rigging Florida's elections, putting in a war-monger who has cast this world into a never-ending downward spire of hate and contempt toward human life. Watch how easily the spy network malfunctions when it by chance catches a police officer kicking the shit out of a defenseless kid.