Adam G. Van Kirk.com

Should telecommunications companies receive immunity for their participation in government surveillance programs?

We live in interesting times. We have the ability to monitor almost any traffic in an effort to try and prevent almost any form of terrorist attack. We could line our streets with cameras and pay citizens to watch for any sign of trouble and report it to the proper authorities. If we wanted to, we could execute anyone caught contributing to terrorism in any way. Surely that would stop it, right? Surely we would justify such actions by weighing the cost in human life of executing criminals versus the countless innocent lives lost in countless acts of terrorism. Sounds plausible to me.

The only problem with such a notion is that it violates the principles of freedom upon which this country was founded. Believe me, I really hate to use the “our fathers” argument. It’s really the only thing that seems to pack a punch, though. Our forefathers (and mothers) believed in us, but more than that, they believed in freedom. They knew that freedom isn’t free. They knew that it must be fought for, and at times requires the loss of life. Sometimes I think that there are few things we today would risk our lives for, but they did it without thinking twice because they believed in freedom.

I’m less concerned about the telecom companies having immunity for it than I am with the government itself having immunity. Who holds the watcher’s watchers responsible for their actions? Whether we live in a free society or a police state, the cost of freedom is still the occasional loss of life. Either abide by the law or change it by legal means. Don’t give retroactive immunity because it creates divisiveness and encourages anarchy.

I just woke from a dream in which there was this grand hall. I recall flying through it as though riding in a tiny helicopter or as though I were floating about. This hall was attached to an old, Victorian style house full of mysterious rooms which were in turn full of mysterious things. Attached to the back of the house was the Grand Hall. It was definitely “older” than the house to which it was attached. There was an open roof at the very top of the hall the size of what I will call the dance floor, and the whole hall was covered inside and out with ivy and moss after decades of apparent neglect. It was two stories and there were old stone pillars holding up the second floor and the partial roof. Statuary littered the hall, and in fact the statue in the very center of the hall may look familiar to some of you:

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Want an honest and long lasting relationship? Make sure you and your partner can recite these five statements.

• I can live without you, no problem
• My love for you will definitely change
• You’re not everything I need
• I won’t always hold you close
• You and I aren’t one

There really isn’t much more I can add to this, so go check it out!

Threats of the war are
Knocking at our door
It’s the coming horror picture
of heroes on the floor
The taller monster of hate
To smother our hope or love here
But I have faith because
I know that you believe

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I know it sounds weird, but I really can’t stand it. It’s especially unpleasant when a styrofoam cup is involved. Beer isn’t so bad, but soda being poured into a styrofoam or plastic cup just rubs me the wrong way. It just sounds dirty and wrong, and I can’t explain why. Please tell me I’m not crazy? Please?

Soda Being Poured

I just saw people playing frisbee outside and playing in the grass while enjoying the 67 degree weather. It’s January 7. There’s something very wrong in the state of Indiana. For the record, I believe it’s colder in Iraq right now (unless Kenny tells me otherwise) and they’re pretty much all desert over there.

So I was talking with Adrienne yesterday as I got in the car, and I spat out the following:

“I don’t know how people don’t wear seatbelts. If I’m not wearing a seatbelt, I feel like I’m going to die! Not die in a car accident, just literally fall over dead.”

Hilarity ensued.

On my way home from work tonight, I watched as countless snow drifts floated by and snow devils swept around. I got to thinking about how quiet it is around here. This of course is ironic considering I live in a noisy apartment building on the bustling campus of Purdue. When I say quiet, I mean the kind of quiet that comes with feeling a yearning for community. Again, I find it ironic that I live in an ever changing city of 30 or 40 thousand students (during school sessions, of course) and yet it feels like nobody really knows anyone else. I think of all the people going to class, walking by each-other and not saying hello. Heck, I live in a building with 12 apartments and I couldn’t tell you the first name of anyone but the student manager.

It seems to be a societal thing, this voluntary solitude. With the proliferation of the internet and nearly instantaneous communication with nearly any corner of the globe (I can IM my buddy in Iraq as though he’s across the street from my cell-phone) it’s as though people have forgotten the need to nurture their local communities. I can’t say I’m not guilty, of course, but I wonder where it will all end? Will we get to a point where everyone’s minds are linked in some massive neural network and nobody needs to actually talk anymore? It seems like the only people we really communicate with are those we encounter on a daily basis anyway (coworkers, fellow students, church and club members, etc.) and the art of striking up a conversation with a total stranger is lost.

I feel like I should be going out to the coffee shop and making some new friends, but I’d probably just weird people out because I’m a stranger trying to strike up a conversation with them. That and the internet’s more entertaining; and have you seen the price of coffee these days?

I was going to bitch about all the diamond and jewelry commercials that happen this year until I stumbled upon this little gem. I don’t agree with everything said here, but I do think the outcome is worth reading the whole article. You’ll have to look past the seemingly overwhelming nefative tone of the article to catch the good stuff. Essentially it says that we aren’t happy because technology is enabling us, perhaps even forcing us, to be unhappy. I’m going to be re-reading this one for awhile to catch what I missed by skimming over it the first time.

7 Reasons the 21st Century is Making You Miserable

One thing you’ll discover about me is that there is little I dislike more than false advertising. A few years back, I got suckered into the TV offers that were touting a free credit report with an actual credit score. All I got were lighter pockets and useless pages of data that didn’t include an actual credit score as offered. The good thing is, the party responsible for those ads was sued. The bad news is, it didn’t put them out of business.

Let me get to the point. There’s a place where you can actually get a truly free credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies once per year. Stretch it out and every four months you can have a report filled with useful data. There still isn’t an actual credit score, but it’s a step in the right direction. Someone should award them with the domain name another company has but doesn’t back up. Get all the info at:

Annual Credit Report