We seem so surprised that our privacy can be compromised.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. Call me cynical, but I don't know whether that will work.

Right now there is a big uproar about this issue (as there should be). So maybe some legislation will get passed purporting to limit the government's access to phone and other records. I don't think this will happen because the GOPers and some Dems like the Information State, because, you know, terror! But anyhow, let's say such a law actually is passed, and we all breathe a huge sigh of relief and go back to texting about our sex lives on our cell phones and telling everybody on Facebook about our colonoscopies.

But what if the NSA just keeps doing what it's been doing (whatever that is; we aren't even sure about that)? Since it's all totally double top secret, how would we ever know? Maybe they don't even tell the President unless some terror thing comes up where we have to invade someplace, and maybe not even then; they could just say they got some information. These intelligence agencies seem to operate by their own rules and they don't tell anybody anything. So it could just keep going on and we won't know.

So we can demand that it stop, but how will we know that it really did?