![[illustration (link to home page): logo (dental floss box on squarish mango background)]](/wp-content/themes/beatrice/images/t-square.gif "link: transcendental floss home page")
![[photo (link to home page): Larrabee State Park, WA (landscape)]](/wp-content/themes/beatrice/images/masthead-2009_tea-garden.jpg "link: transcendental floss home page")
![[image: random tagline] title=](/wp-content/themes/beatrice/images/taglines-only/rotate.php)
![[button (internal link): transglobal floss]](/wp-content/themes/beatrice/images/transglobal-active.gif "Transcendental Floss Recommends")
Sunday 
27 July 2008
can you hear this?
the spaceneedl computer underwent some changes this week.
which is to say, it suffered a massive, irreversible breakdown. the silence of the ensuing news blackout was deafening. and for a short time, i discovered i could actually hear myself think. i know, crazy, right? anyhoo, i clearly heard the low sound of a country in much the same state as my computer.
(really, try it sometime. it’s amazing the things you hear when you can hear yourself think.)
driving an evening rush hour through downtown seattle, i tried to coordinate logistics with mrs. spaceneedl. the kids were here, she was there, i was someplace else. pick-ups had to occur by 6:30 p.m., or the earth would tip off its axis.
it was at that moment that every one of seattle’s finest showed up. from out of the woodwork, they appeared on foot, on bicycles, in cars. i was absolutely certain that all of them were zeroed-in on the now-illegal call originating from my cell phone.
“dear, i gotta get off the phone right now,” i said. it wasn’t until later that i became angry at the upside-down premise:
how is it that the government can listen in on my phone calls, and read my emails, even confiscate my computer without a warrant or probable cause — but i can’t make a simple phone call from my car?
welcome to the neo states of america.
mind you, i understand that cell phoning while driving is inherently risky. as are eating, smoking, applying makeup and any one of a million behaviors that drivers engage in every day. how is it that a phone call is subject to special legal scrutiny and penalty?
and how is it that we lowly citizens are held to a higher standard than a government that allegedly works for us?
i was moved to put up a scathing post on the subject when i got home, but the computer would not cooperate. i paced, and fumed in silence. really, i could hear the actual fuming. it sounded a bit like smoke rising from a virtual junkyard.
i now have a new computer. it contains all the unimportant data resident on the old computer, as well as some new unimportant stuff. as of this moment, it’s working the way it’s supposed to.
you’ll be happy to know mrs. spaceneedl made her way home without incident, the little spaceneedls were picked up on time, and the earth continues on its merry axis. oh, and i can no longer hear myself think.
the nsa, perversely, continues to listen to everything it wants.
perhaps they can hear me encourage them to fuck off.
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
permalink
The mobile phone law is silly. It isn’t the holding the phone to your ear that makes it dangerous. It is that people often times shut off the one thing they shouldn’t and that is paying attention to driving. Handsfree and bluetooth and all that doesn’t help. If holding a phone is dangerous, perhaps we should outlaw coffeee/soda/etc and burgers /doughnuts to be held while driving. Of course, if it was purely the conversation on the phone that was dangerous, we should outlaw talking or listening to the radio in a car. No. What really should be illegal is driving while stupid.
I’ve been taking the bus to/from work lately and while on the road I can see the people in their cars commuting. People are on the phone - with or without handsfree. People are eating and drinking. People are reading. People are arguing with each other. People are rocking out. Very few people are actually paying attention to driving.
What this law in WA and CA will do is pull over people holding a phone to their ear. Will it reduce the wrecks caused by driving while stupid? Of course not.
The NSA/CIA/FBI police state stuff is of course more criminal. Hopefully the little spaceneedls will wonder what the hell we were thinking in the early 21st century allowing the government such powers. Stasi started out with the same good intentions.