WE'RE ALL MAD HERE! TRACKING EVERYONE, EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE

  "When the state has the capability to know everything except the difference between right and wrong, it won’t end well."  Mark Steyn

If you want to see just a tiny microcosm of what surveillance can do, you need not look any further than the State of North Carolina.  The State D.O.T. and some of the higher ranking legislators are trying their level best to push HOT Lanes (High Occupancy Traffic) into this state, using private public partnerships.  Part of the deal is allowing infrared tracking of the occupants of vehicles in order to enforce the high occupancy goal of 3+ passengers per vehicle.  The idea is that the 3+ passenger vehicle will be subsidized by the State of North Carolina for being such good global citizens, lowering their carbon footprint by carpooling.  After all, how can the State know who to subsidize if they don't track and identify the good cooperators?  The proposal also includes taxpayer backing of the private corporate entity who would manage the HOT Lanes, so in case it goes belly up, guess who is on the hook?

Call me mad, but I don't really feel all that great about having any government agency or public-private partnership hiring people and buying equipment to track how many people are riding in my car.  The planet isn't dying and even if it were, my car is not to blame for it.  My driving habits are not to blame for it, either.  Since the catalytic converter and other modern technologies, our cars are barely, if at all, emitting anything.  But don't tell that to the political class or the bureaucrats and corporations who want to cash in on that false premise.  They might take a hatchet to your tires if you dare expose the truth to them.   You also don't want to tell the political class that the taxpayers should NOT be on the hook for this scheme.  If you try telling them that you will see steam emanate from their ears and words from their mouths you would not want your wife, children, or grandmother to hear.  If only they would take up the fashion again of wearing powdered wigs, we could watch as those wigs would blow off their heads! 

 Gratefully, we have some energetic patriots who have worked tirelessly over the last few months to stop this mad Hot Lane scheme.  They have not yet been able to stop the State from putting this plan into action, but this past weekend they did manage to get opposition to it into the North Carolina Republican platform.  Some of the steam emitting pols who promote this scheme are Republicans, and trust me, they are not happy fellows.  Poor babies might lose whatever kickbacks or campaign donations if they don't force the HOT Lanes on the public. The issue is still in progress and looks to be a done deal from the PPP side of things.  Those pesky patriot citizens are just gnats that must be swatted away.

Meanwhile back at the local Council of Governments ~~  you know, those 'crats who took HUD money to manipulate our lives:    The deal with them is using infrared cameras to assess whose house or building is emitting greenhouse gas emissions and then bring the hammer down on those poor civilians who just didn't tighten the glazing on their windows well enough or who should tear out their drywall and put in more insulation.  Oh goody!  More hirelings using our tax dollars to check up on us.   

Folks, it isn't just the NSA, or the IRS, or Verizon, or Google, or the EPA.  It's all of the above and many more... and they are moving in fast, into your life from all directions.  No, you didn't give them permission.  But such a little matter of the 4th Amendment isn't going to stop them now.  The debate is over...the 4th Amendment is dead. 

Cheshire Cat: What do you call yourself?
Alice Kingsley: Alice.
Cheshire Cat: *The* Alice?
Alice Kingsley: There's been some debate about that.
Cheshire Cat: I never get involved in politics.