As anyone who follows me on Twitter knows, I\u2019ve been in a particularly bleak mood this last week. I\u2019ve attributed part of my poor mood to the moon in perigee, but that is only part of the truth. Another is that I am sorely afflicted with realization that my naturalized home, the USA, is losing its way. To me, the United States is a nation that holds the rule of law and personal freedom to be sacrosanct.<\/p>\n
Apparently, this vital truth is no more. Perhaps I am na\u00efve.<\/p>\n
Edward Snowden brought down that house of cards with his revealing the appalling extent of the NSA\u2019s illegal and immoral surveillance of innocent people, quite literally, everywhere.<\/p>\n
What happened to \u201cprobable cause<\/em><\/strong>\u201d? Mr. Snowden has my utmost respect now, and let me be the first to tell you that he always will. I don\u2019t care what evidence of law-breaking the government stacks against him \u2013 and yes, I chose the word \u201cstacks<\/em>\u201d with deliberate intent.<\/p>\n However this filthy affair of a government that has lost its way eventually turns out, Edward Snowden did the morally correct thing \u2013 he refused to remain silent in the face of grievous and excessive abuse of governmental powers.<\/p>\n Yes, he may have broken the letter of some law, however he did so in order to reveal a moral miss-step by an abusive and intrusive security agency that has chosen to break a far more binding code \u2013 namely the Constitution of the United States, the Fourth Amendment of which states, \u201cThe right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.<\/em><\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n Try and twist it as you will, I will simply read the words written \u2013 they require no interpretation.<\/p>\n Sadly, I expect the government to continue down the path of shame they have chosen. A path of spin, where they attempt to distract the Citizens of this great country from their blatant disregard for our Constitution. The rest of the world isn\u2019t falling for it, what makes them think their own Citizens will?<\/p>\n As for you, President Obama, I am shocked that a former Constitutional lawyer such as you can be so misguided you resort to making speeches in support of this indefensible action by a rogue security agency. For shame!<\/p>\n I am not a law-breaker, and I do not advocate the breaking of just laws. Indeed, I once instructed my eldest daughter that when one chooses to live in society, one must abide by society\u2019s rules \u2013 regardless of how ridiculous those rules might be. If recollection serves, I said something along these lines, \u201cIf society passes a law stating you may not wear yellow on a Wednesday, then you may not wear yellow on a Wednesday. You can\u2019t choose which laws you\u2019ll obey, and which you will ignore \u2013 if you don\u2019t agree with the law then lobby to have it changed, but obey it until you succeed in having it overturned.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n So how can I now openly support a man who has broken certain laws? Simple, Mr. Snowden\u2019s moral code bound him to reveal a particularly egregious violation of every single United States Citizen\u2019s Constitutional Rights. The US Constitution is the supreme law in these United States \u2013 nobody may break its binding moral code, and that nobody includes whatever government happens to be in power.<\/p>\n Mr. Edward Snowden is a Hero in my book, and should be lauded as such by every law-abiding US Citizen.<\/p>\n With passage of the \u201cPatriot Act\u201d, the US government overstepped its bounds \u2013 it crossed a line clearly drawn in the sand by the most sacred document of this nation. It is time for our government to hang its head in shame and repeal that foul and unconstitutional law. President Obama had the chance to let the \u201cPatriot Act\u201d lapse. What a sad day for America and the entire free world when he succumbed to the siren song of power perceived, and held the US Government above its own laws\u00a0\u2013 by re-signing the bill into law.<\/p>\n For shame\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As anyone who follows me on Twitter knows, I\u2019ve been in a particularly bleak mood this last week. I\u2019ve attributed part of my poor mood to the moon in perigee, but that is only part of the truth. Another is that I am sorely afflicted with realization that my naturalized home, the USA, is losing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[205,292,295,386],"class_list":["post-2854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-heavy-stuff","tag-illegal-surveilance","tag-nsa","tag-obama","tag-snowden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}