I truly dislike having to identify myself. I resent having to whip out a credit card or a piece of ID to get an account at Blockbuster Video (in fact, I wouldn't); I do not like having to prove I am who I say I am.

I do not like the government being able to track me via credit cards, checks, ATM cards, bank accounts, car payments, or travel plans. I do not care for the idea that the FBI has a file on me, just like they reputedly have a file on everybody else in the country -- someday, I will request my file, and find out what they know about me.

I don't anticipate it to be much. I am not a rabble-rouser, although I do certainly have my opinions and an more than willing to broadcast them from the rooftops. I have discussed assassinating political figures in public. I wonder, in fact, if there .was. an attempt on Clinton's life in Dallas back in November '93: gods know that if I were an assassin, I would have tried for then and there. The symmetry would have been glorious. Young Democratic President assassinated thirty years to the day after JFK, the nation's golden boy. I'm relieved it didn't happen, but I would have had to have appreciated the balance therein.

I'm not particularly a conspiracy theorist, although there are times when it is extremely tempting. I do think the government pays more attention to us than we think; a friend of mine claims to have seen his FBI file, in which it stated he was more aware than most, and knew that the government kept up on postings to Usenet and kept note of radicals online. Frankly, I have no reason to disbelieve him: I despair a little to think he's probably telling the truth.

I don't believe the government created AIDS. I don't think someone has already found out how cold fusion works and is keeping a hat on it. I don't .think. I believe that aliens landed on earth in 1959 and the government's been involved in a massive coverup the last forty years. Part of me wants to believe that one, I think.

Me and Mulder. I want to believe.

I .do. think that the goverment can blow it out its collective ass when it comes to my travel plans. Oh, no! I might be a terrorist! If the government weren't watching my every move, I might blow up somebody's plane!

Well, yes, I suppose I might. I can't imagine why on earth I'd do that, but I assure you, if I were going to, I wouldn't be dumb enough to be checking onto that flight either, buddy. I don't think there's anything I'm passionate enough about to kill myself for. Dead is very permenant, you know.

But no. The government has to watch over me, because I am not mature and responsible enough to know that blowing up a plane is a Bad Thing.

Now that's really dumb. Terrorists are entirely mature and responsible enough to know that blowing up a plane is a Bad Thing. That's why they do it. But just in case, the goverment will watch every step I take, to make sure one of those steps isn't down the long road to depravity that would cause me to blow up a plane.

Incidentally, did you know that it takes about thirty seconds to find a copy of The Anarchist's Cookbook online? There's a copy at http://tivi.eunet.ch/chnews/cookbook/index1.htm. I assume it's the real thing; I've never looked for it before just now. I was curious to see if it was as available as I thought it was.

Hn; I thought it would be better written than this. I'm a little disappointed. Maybe it's not real.

It doesn't matter if it is or not. *sigh* I simply dislike a world where I have to present at least one form of ID to get on an airplane or to cross a border. The issue of credit-tracking can be avoided by avoiding banks; unfortunately, in this day and age, it's very difficult to purchase a house if you don't have established credit, and for some reason, all sorts of governments, local, state, federal, get really antsy if you just decide to build a house out in the middle of nowhere. They think somebody owns that land.

Good gods, I sound like Pocahontas in the Disney movie. "You think you own whatever land you land on / The earth is just a dead thing you can claim / But I know every rock and tree and creature / Has a life, has a spirit, has a name."

Bah: even if I'm quoting Disney, my point is that it's ludicrous that I can't put up a house somewhere and not be bothered. I understand the government's reasoning there; gods know we need to preserve the wildernesses that we have left. But -- and I speak from experience here, having grown up in Alaska -- I promise you, one house does not destroy a wilderness.

Oh, but then more people move in, and next thing you know, it's a community, then a town, then a city, then, for God Almighty's sake, a suburb, and you've ruined it all.

Sorry; I don't have an answer for that. I'm not claiming I have a way to make it all better, but I don't like where things stand. Part of me doesn't care if the rest of the world goes to hell in a handbasket, frankly. Just let me do my thing. I'll clean up after myself, won't poison the water table, won't blow up any planes, won't build a suburb. I promise. No really, I mean it.

Just get off my back.