"It doesn't matter to me, I've got nothing to hide"

[JohnnyRingo]

I've heard this several times in the last week in answer to the Buxh wiretapping policies, and I'm sick of it.

Today I thought about what to say next time a self proclaimed conservative Republican mutters this Buxh boot licking phrase.

I thought how unusual it was to hear this brush off comment from someone who normally doesn't approve of:

Traffic Cameras
"If you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about".

Workplace Surveillance"
"If you aren't stealing, it won't affect you".

National ID cards
"If you aren't hiding anything, you shouldn't mind"

Gun Registration
"If you have a clean background, it doesn't matter"

Roadway Checkpoints
"If you're not drinking, you shouldn't mind talking to an officer"


From now on, I'm going to mention the above privacy issues and point out that the same argument was used to pass all of them.

If these paragons of GOP virtue truly have "nothing to hide", they can at least be consistent.

I'm so old, I remember when government was transparent, and personal lives were private.

[PassingFair]

1. I've heard this lately, too.

They are getting it piped into their brains SOMEWHERE....

When a guy at work said it to me last week, I told him:

"THAT'S THE MOST UN-AMERICAN THING I'VE EVER HEARD"

Went into a rant about freedom, illegal search and seizure, Hoover and MLK, et. al....

He wasn't expecting a negative response.

Weird.

[EST]

13. It's the stooopid ray...

Sure, the solar system travels around the galaxy about every hundred million years, or so. There are alternate bands of specific energy that, under prolonged exposure, cause the ion transfer at the brain's synapses to make the leap across their junctions more easily. Whether these bands of energy improve the functioning of the brains of higher intelligences and things get worse as we pass out of these areas or they retard that circuitry and creatures gradually "heal" from the effects on exiting the area is a matter of intense discussion, given that the only detectors we have discovered, so far, are the effects of each transition, ie, are people getting stupider or smarter, by how much, and is the effect selective?

Several authorities have shared a brief glance into their research on this vital issue and seem to find common ground in the projection of the arising of the human race, suggesting that the arrival of man into the hunter-or-gatherer stage or the transition from h-o-g to crop cultivation and modern society represents one of those very significant transitions.

This is still a very fertile area for research and further info will, no doubt, be available soon.

Infospot at BigShift Productions.

[TomInTib]

2. I have a different twist on this. I just ask them if it would be OK to...

set up a chair and video camera at the foot of their bed and follow them into the bathroom every once and a while.

We are talking about PRIVACY, for dog's sake.

[BattyDem]

3. If there is nothing wrong with those things ...

then why did this country waste so much time, effort, money and lives fighting governments who used those tactics to control and monitor their people?

[Hubert Flottz]

4. Who ever heard of a republican with nothing to hide?

I never!

[justabob]

5. Ask them

if it would be ok if the president was Hilary... or Michael Moore or whoever the right hates most that day. The thing about all these things they do is people forget that BushCo is setting precedents and there is no expiration date on them. Any who come after him will enjoy the same 'privileges', and so that needs to be taken into account. They need to imagine what it would be like if their worst nightmare came into power with the same abilities to spy on us.

[countingbluecars]

6. You are right.

Interestingly, I heard only one C-Span caller this morning use that excuse in regard to the government's request for Google records. Even those calling on the Republican line seemed concerned about the government checking on their internet habits.

[Dr.Phool]

9. Probably a lot of closet porn viewers.

Many hotels have said that they sell the most pay per view porn movies during religious or republican gatherings.

[BattyDem]

7. "It doesn't matter to me, I've got nothing to hide"

BULLSHIT! I say ...

"I haven't done anything wrong; I shouldn't be monitored!"

[Flabbergasted]

8. Medical Records?

Work History?
Criminal Records?
Credit Score?

[Democrats_win]

10. Why don't they use the same argument for OSHA or other regulatory agencies

They shouldn't mind the EPA or the FBI coming in and looking at their books because they've done nothing wrong.

Oh, they don't like the government telling them how to run their businesses, but the government can BE in our business. That makes sense doens't it? or is that doublespeak?

[tularetom]

11. If the admin asked the NRA for its membership rolls

do you honestly think they would refuse? What a great way for * to find out where a lot of the civilian-owned firearms in this country are located. I got in a great argument with all my NRA member relatives at xmas over just this very issue. They trotted out the old "if you haven't done anything wrong" argument and I responded with "If you haven't committed any crime with your guns then you shouldn't object to registering them with the government". Then I brought up the NRA thing. I don't think I convinced any of them but I'm kind of the patriarch and I taught a lot of them how to shoot in the first place so I think I got a few of them to at least think about the issue of privacy.

[Straight Shooter]

12. It isn't what you think; it's what the government *wants* to think.

Whether you think you have something to hide or not isn't the issue; the government can take anything you do and fabricate a case against you. When we fail to protect all, we protect no one.

Besides, the government is not my mother or my father and it's none of their damn business what I do.

[EST]

14. You have nailed it, definitively.

If someone, anyone has access to all your particulars, substituting any info at all is ludicrously easy.
Witness what happens with a stolen ID.
Our constitution, bill of rights, etc, are designed to insulate us FROM the govt, or other ruling body. LIke it or not, crooked people can be depended on to be crooks and the smarter ones will notice that being crooked on a far grander scale, for less effort, is more and more available the more power one accumulates or gains control of.
Consider the crooked cop-fudging the numbers, making quotas, getting revenge on a "suit" or someone of the wrong color all are easy to do, with little risk. Imagine that cop at the level of chief, city manager, mayor, governor or president with total information on you - going back to Alley-Oop diddling the upstairs maid - the potential for blackmail and bribery, alone, are very sobering.

[never cry wolf]

15. You're either for the Constitution, or you're against the Constituion

That phrase should be sung from the rooftops!