Nick_sr,
Great post and if I may say, you never have to qualify your thoughts with a preface on your citizenry. Canada, America, whatever, we're all people and we're entitled to our beliefs. :-)
What you touched on, with the tragedy of the train laden with 50,000 gallons of oil, parallels what I mentioned earlier, namely the result of privatization. Since Reagan and Thatcher, we've been told to hate ourselves through our governments and that the private sector is the solution. Deregulation has led to banking crisis, industrial disasters (remember Texas?), food poisoning, increases in blue collar worker deaths (when they can find a job), outsourcing of jobs, mercenary armies, and intelligence gathering, and look how well it's all turned out.
How far do we have to lower the bar before we realize we've been hoodwinked? We have to opt out of the sharing of personal information but back in the '70s it was illegal to even consider it. A piece of paper denoting a company has more rights than the average citizen and none of the criminal liability. When was the last time you heard of a company getting the death sentence, do time in prison, or get a pap smear or colonoscopy? That train company will just get a fine and keep on keeping on.
The lions share of intelligence gathering that the CIA and NSA conduct is of the commercial variety, not the citizen variety. Yes, they can and do prevent terrorism and keep the bad guys in check, but they also share our personal info for commercial and marketing purposes and to interfere with our rights.
The people who work for the privateers who now do the watching are former NSA and CIA spooks who still have connections. Recently, Coca Cola was at odds with PETA and a former spook offered to go get the government folder on PETA for Coke to use. Great system, huh?
All the best,
Nonoise
