wiki leaks

Secrecy is the cornerstone of all tyranny. Not force, but
secrecy...censorship. When any government, or any church, for that matter,
undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not
see, this you are forbidden to know," the end result is tyranny and oppression,
no matter how holy the motives. Mightily little force is needed to control a man
who has been hoodwinked; Contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free
man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not
anything. You cannot conquer a free man; The most you can do is kill him.--
Robert A. Heinlein, Revolt in 2100

i am having trouble believing the cacophony of voices i am hearing complaining about the latest revelations from wikileaks. from hillary clinton, (who let's face it is just doing barack obama's bidding,) to a hack of a cornell law professor; william a. jacobson, myriad commenter's have been decrying wikileaks for making public so much secret or classified information.

this is a fundamental issue because as heinlein so aptly pointed out, secrecy is part and parcel to tyranny. in america too often we are told we cannot know certain information. if you have seen 'loose change,' you have an idea about the conspiracy theories around the 9/11 attacks on new york city, the pentagon and united airlines. what we can absolutely know about those theories is that they serve as a reminder there is too much secrecy in our government.

did america stage thee events of 9/11? i doubt it. is there a good reason america could not see the video footage from the shell station across the street from the pentagon? i doubt that, too.

are there things in the wikileaks documents that could damage our national security? perhaps. does that possibility outweigh whatever good could come from the wikileaks documents? no. given the level of secrecy currently practiced in our government, (to say nothing of the tacit permission granted by our press,) and in order to avoid the fate heinlein implies wikileaks is absolutely necessary.

so don't let anyone tell you wikileaks is somehow bad or harming america. that is crap. at this point wikileaks is covering for the poor journalism in this country. wikileaks is real news getting out in spite of the public's watchdog being paid to sleep in.

because we still can't know parts of the warren report, because the united states army tried to give us a completely fabricated version of pat tillman's death, because of the downing street memo, because of judith miller and scooter libby, because of 16 words in a presidential address, and so on and so on and so on, wikileaks is important and needs to be defended.

mark, olivia...and pam

did i tell you the one about mark and olivia and pam? (it's kind of classic.)

one day mark let me know that he wanted to change his name. i objected of course.

"why would you want to change your name, buddy," i said? "your mother and i picked that name out. "it's your grandfather's name, too, you know."

he just insisted that he wanted to change his name. so i asked what he wanted to change his name to and to my horror he replied, "pam."

pam? what the hell is pam?! since when do gender crises begin at three?

a few days later my wife tells me mark wants to change his name to pam. she was as puzzled as me. jokes followed about my son being gay and i'll tell you, i really considered it. i thought about all it would mean. i imagined his life, (and my life in relation.) my grandchildren disappeared before my eyes.

in a way i suppose it was a healthy consideration for me. i know i am going to love my son for the rest of my life no matter what. and while i do not consider myself homophobic i do recognize that some aspects of that lifestyle can be difficult, more difficult than perhaps a straight lifestyle, (as it were.) so there is a part of me that sincerely hopes mark is not gay.

several days later mark again insisted he wanted to change his name to pam.

"damn," i thought. (this thing is not going away.)

so on friday i had some pizza and salad brought in for my team at work for lunch and as we sat around a big table in the warehouse chatting it up i told my story. i was sharing about how i was a little bit worried but mostly just thought it was funny that my son had been asking to change his name to pam.

"pam," i highlighted? not just a girl name but an out-of-fashion, girl name.

just then a girl sitting across the table who i had just hired and who was spending her first day with us chimed in. "does he watch olivia?" she said.

i answered in the affirmative and the new girl went on to tell us how her little guy also watches olivia and on a recent episode a new girl had joined olivia's class named olivia. at first the new girl was known as olivia 2 but it was all too confusing for olivia and so, she decided she wanted to change her name to, (you guessed it,) pam. (in the back of my mind i actually recalled the episode ever so slightly.)

everyone at the table began giggling including me. and in a way i was also relieved. yes, mark had gotten this idea from olivia, (and latched onto it.) 20 minutes later i emailed my wife to let her know where mark had gotten that "pam," thing, so she could also be relieved.

gender crisis averted, (for now.)