Tuesday, May 10, 2011

1984 Redux

Remember Big Brother? Remember the New-Speak? Remember the cameras and microphones and loud-speakers invading everything with the message of BB?

I saw something similar in 1977 when I drove through Portugal. It wasn't throughout the nation, but in Porto to the north, the streets of town were fitted with speakers on every street corner and the message of the administration was broadcast 24/7. That government collapsed shortly thereafter, but it is a chilling experience to have such power displayed.

So, what to make of this?

Alerts Pushed to Phones by Prez

There is so much to scream about there that it is hard to know where to start. Is warning folks a good idea? Well, it might be in some circumstances. I kind of like the tornado sirens in town, but they only go off for a good and pressing reason. I'm sort of on board with Amber Alerts breaking into a TV crawl or a radio broadcast or a freeway overpass sign.

I'll opt out of the phone alerts. It's my bloody phone and I'll accept inbound only from those with whom I wish to communicate. (Hint: sending advertising scam emails because I bought a product from you once is a good way to deter this repeat customer.)

But, apparently the system being proposed lets you opt out of all but the Messiah Messages! The defense is going to be that it will only apply to terrorism threats. But that is today. If the Bamster and subsequent leaders hold the link, what keeps them from using it for propagandizing in the future? "Don't forget to vote for Blessed Leader!"

Then there is the mandate that all cell phones will have the chip starting next year. But, what if I don't need a new phone? Is government going to issue new phones to those who can't afford them?

So, they told us that the healthcare insurance purchase mandate was a building block to enable the healthcare reform. Now, apparently the cell phone update to receive the propaganda dumps is mandatory to protect us from terrorists.

Scream! Open your window and stick your head out and yell at the top of your lungs, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

4 comments:

MagiK said...

I worked on rolling out the first Digital Cellular System in the USA back in the 1990's....Cell providers did not then need a "Special" chip to send out broadcast text messages to all their subscribers. This new Chip is for something they are not speaking about. If in 1999 Sprint PCS could send a text message to all its subscribers without a "special" chip why is one needed now? Comment 2. ALL tax payers will be paying for this "Service" but only the Urban and possibly the suburban tax payers will have any benefit at all from the service..rural people wont need this but will be taxed for it anyway. Comment 3. We will now have to spend more for our cell phones.

MagiK said...

Oh Comment 4, Judging from the higgldy piggldy nature of the Alerts disseminated formt his administration on the Osama incident...what makes anyone think their Cellphone invading information is going to be of any better quality? Or Accuracy?

Yeff said...

I use http://emergencyemail.org/ and am happy with it.

an Donalbane said...

If the admin would just give me their number, I could pre-program it into my phone so that if they text me, an automated response would tell them "Go [urinate] up a rope!"