Are you worried about your rights being violated?  You are in the minority apparently if you answered yes.

Sprint, it turns out, has been routinely handing over GPS information on its customers to law enforcement for some time. So commonplace is the practice that Sprint has setup an automated system for law enforcement to check on subscriber whereabouts (apparently even without a court order).

Sprint coughed-up GPS information to law enforcement eight million times last year. Not on eight million users, Sprint is quick to point out. Rather law enforcement can request GPS information on any particular user every three minutes for up to 60 days. (After that Sprint doesn’t say what happens.)

And Sprint isn’t the only one handing out information about you.

Yahoo and Verizon also provide law enforcement access to customer information. Neither company will discuss the nature or extent of law enforcement surveillance for fear their customers would be “shocked” or “confused” by what types of surveillance law enforcement is permitted. Verizon further justifies its secrecy in the matter saying it doesn’t want to commit resources to dealing with customers that might be concerned with its practices.

The willingness, if not eagerness of companies, such as Yahoo and Verizon, and Comcast and Cox Communications, to ‘rat’ you out is easily explained: they get paid for the service they provide. Comcast, for example, in 2007 charged $1,000 for the first month of a wiretap, and $750 each month after. Cox Communications charges $2,500 for a 60-day pen register/trap-and-trace order, with each successive 60-day interval going for $2,000. Yahoo wouldn’t divulge its pricing scheme, claiming it was “confidential commercial information.” All-in-all, it’s better than 30 pieces of silver.

(Law enforcement’s activities here may well be legitimate. But how can we be certain if, as it appears, there is no system for accountability?)

Is it me, or has President Obama already taken more vacations since taking office than most people take in 20 years?  He seems to be picking nice vacation spots to travel – with his family in tow – to push his takeover of healthcare (and take away our freedoms).

Do that many people really drive their kids to school?  My summer 13 minute drive to work becomes a 30 minute drive the day school starts back for kids.  Maybe it’s a Greenville, SC thing.  I don’t know.

When did we become entertainment directors for our children?  If you don’t have something planned for when their plans don’t pan out, they whine and complain about being bored.  Maybe I should get them a job working on a farm somewhere every time they complain about that.  It sure kept me busy when I was a kid.

Why do people buy lottery tickets expecting to win eventually while never believing they will be in an auto accident or struck by lightning when the former is much more likely than both the latter?

Is there anyone left in government who doesn’t believe that it’s the government’s job to run every aspect of our lives?

Does anyone except those claiming to be improving the economy actually see the economy improving any?

Americans in particular are so used to freedom that we freely give out information that can very easily be used against us.  For instance, security questions to change email passwords can be found on most people’s personal websites or blogs or even just by asking them.  Hey, what’s your mother’s maiden name, etc…

Be careful out there.