Freedom!
Dear Friend,
As we welcome in the new year, freedom is singing its sweet music in far off Iran, where the younger generation simply refuses to accept tyranny over their lives any longer.
When I watch these brave souls fighting this tyranny in the streets of Tehran and elsewhere, I realize that freedom is really what I am all about.
Without true freedom, you would not be able to live your true, natural lifestyle. You would be a prisoner of the common, accepted manner of living. True freedom is the liberty to be you, without so much as a “by your leave” to anyone else.
In order to be you, you must be free.
Freedom is rising around the world, yet in Western countries it is on the wane.
Don’t believe me? Consider the following brief quotation from Judge Andrew P. Napolitano’s excellent book, A Nation of Sheep ((c) 2007 Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee USA):
Imagine that the FBI wants to know more about you because you just happened to call your cousin who is studying abroad in, say, Nairobi. This one call raises a red flag within the NSA wiretapping database. Due to one simple call, any FBI agent can write his own search warrant not only to your cell phone provider, but to any company you associate with, in any capacity. The agent, who could be a saint or a rogue, will know everything about you. The amount of your last annual bonus? THEY KNOW! Your company password to log in at work? THEY KNOW! The ATM fee you accepted at your local corner deli? THEY KNOW! The attractive new co worker you Googled? THEY KNOW (and could give you her phone number)! Afraid of pain, so you go to the new sedation dentist in town? THEY KNOW! Lactose intolerant? THEY KNOW (because you use your credit card to pay for groceries and prescriptions)! Didn’t make your high school varsity basketball team? THEY KNOW! Sent a Christmas package to Grandma marked “Fragile”? THEY KNOW! Late returning a library book in college? THEY KNOW! Just sped through a yellow light? THEY KNOW (and have the picture to prove it)! They will know whom you are contacting and who is contacting you, and precisely where you are located at any given point of time. If you went to Disney, you can be sure they now have your fingerprint on file [Disney now requires an electronic fingerprint for admission to their parks]. And if you had a mole removed from your back and it came back as possibly cancerous, they know that too! They have more information about you stored digitally than you probably have stored about yourself.
Creeped out yet? You should be.
Freedom is under siege all across the US and in Europe. If you really are dedicated to being in charge of your own life, and that of your family, I urge you be be aware, and be alert.
Let us hope and pray that 2010 will see a new awakening for freedom in the West at least a shadow as bright as we today see in Iran.
Happy New Year!
Hugh
