I don't understand.

Didn't W assure us that Big Brother would only eavesdrop on terrorists, and not whack off while listening to Americans having phone sex?

There's no way he said that with a straight face.

Here's a snippet for you.

''We are not trying to be Big Brother,'' Mier said. ''We just want to watch the areas in the public lots where there's a lot of vehicle and pedestrian traffic.''

In other words, "We are not trying to be Big Brother; we just want to watch the areas where people are."

If it didn't include the entire subscription base of RADAR magazine BEFORE, I'm guessing it does NOW.

Frightening stuff.

According to a senior government official who served with high-level security clearances in five administrations, "There exists a database of Americans, who, often for the slightest and most trivial reason, are considered unfriendly, and who, in a time of panic, might be incarcerated. The database can identify and locate perceived 'enemies of the state' almost instantaneously." He and other sources tell Radar that the database is sometimes referred to by the code name Main Core. One knowledgeable source claims that 8 million Americans are now listed in Main Core as potentially suspect. In the event of a national emergency, these people could be subject to everything from heightened surveillance and tracking to direct questioning and possibly even detention.

[H/T 2 Survivalist News via Bear Ridge Project.]

Life In Post-America Linkfest: 8/20/08.

Barack Obama sees no correlation between legislating paid sick leave and nanny-state liberalism.

Big Brother Is Warrantlessly GPS-tracking You.

The Card Check Bill, coming up soon in Congress, would abolish the secret ballot in unionization efforts.

What? A Texan wants to park his F-150 in his own driveway? Oh, THE HORROR!!! [H/T 2 Dickster's Random Thoughts.]

Clive homeowner fights back against the uniformity-loving Pleasantvillians by declaring his yard a "nature preserve."

ENFIELD NY breaks lease on communications tower property, plans to sieze it via eminent domain.

Paducah smoking ban makes casualty of eatery.

MA State Rep introduces ban on Rent-A-Pets.

Meanwhile on Nanny Island . . .

Staten Island to fine businesses for opening their doors while running the air-conditioner.

Slate asks the same question I did.

How does the government know Americans are driving less?

Start hoarding novelty lighters now, folks.

They'll be worth a fortune on the black market soon.

The National Association of State Fire Marshals is backing an effort to ban novelty lighters across the country...

How long 'til the "light-easies" start popping up? Or the gang wars over novelty-lighter turf? Will the gangs identify themselves by the lighters they sell in the back alleys? Instead of the Bloods and the Crips and the Latin Kings, will we have the Opus The Penguins and the Bent Over Bare-Assed Santas That Fart Flames?

Define "sometimes."

From an article on people being arrested for smoking in Fayetteville:

There is also a smoking ban in private vehicles that sometimes carry children.

It's bad enough that the children don't have to be actually present at the time you are smoking in your car for you to be arrested, but what if once, six years ago, you took your brother's kid to school? Does it mean you can never smoke in your car again?

What if the previous owner of your car used it to ferry little curtain climbers around town? Can you never smoke in it, even though you don't plan on letting children anywhere near it?

WHO wants to meddle in my lungs.

That's not a question, by the way.

The World Health Organization offers up a plan that will surely make both of Arkansas former governors now in the national spotlight (especially Nanny Huckabee) stain any nearby blue dresses.

The WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2008 urges governments to adopt six “tobacco control policies” — raise taxes and prices of tobacco; ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship; protect people from secondhand smoke; warn people about the dangers of tobacco; help those who want to quit smoking; and monitor tobacco use to understand and reverse the epidemic.

1. When did words stop having meanings? Tobacco is not an "epidemic." If I stand next to tobacco, I am not going to "catch" tobacco. Further if you stand next to someone who is smoking, you are not going to "catch" smoking unless you choose to.

2. Note that individual choice does not enter into their equation.

3. I hate one-worlders.

Hands off my lungs, Health Nazis!

In a related note, smoking bans cause unemployment.

You'll take my crab rangoons when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.

MS lawmaker proposes ban on selling food to the obese in restaurants.