Listening to NPR radio reports and reading news accounts,
growing daily, of the George Zimmerman murder trial may help to get us off the
NSA Big Brother story. My only reaction to that latter story is to ask the question:
Who would you trust least
with all this growing body of personal information—Microsoft, Apple, Google and
Verizon, or the NSA? I’ll tell you my
answer is not the NSA. All of these
organizations have zero ethical principles, but my sense is that the profit
motive produces far nastier outcomes than anything likely to emerge from NSA
(not that they are pure of heart mind you).
But the Zimmerman trial may prove even more interesting and
potentially more lasting in its effects. One of the things that occur to me is that Trayvon Martin would have been within
his rights, under the Stand Your Ground law, to shoot Mr. Zimmerman, since
Zimmerman was in fact the aggressor. So
it will be fascinating to see how that scenario is played out before the jury.
The other thing I keep thinking, however, is that the law
itself declares Florida to be a Free Fire Zone. Anyone traveling to Florida has
to be aware that they might be shot and killed by any of the heavily armed
crazies who live there. Traveling there might be akin to traveling through Afghanistan. It will be interesting to see what effect the
law has eventually on Florida’s tourist industry. Tourism in Florida . . . sort of like an ad
that tries to sell the beauty of traveling through the Northwest Province in
Pakistan, the crazy zone.
We’ll see, but if people are sensible, they will reconsider
their travel plans and perhaps refuse to venture below Georgia.
TaTa Florida . . .
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