Big Brother Comes To Your Radio, TV, Cell Phone, and Game Console
Big Brother Comes To Your Radio, TV, Cell Phone, and Game Console
I admit that Alex Jones annoys me. He’s bombastic, loud, crude, and most of the time he acts like a government disinformation source. He tends to look at the worst possible scenario for what the government does, and then go totally into left field explaining why things are bad. That being said, he will on occasion, get my attention with one of his stories. Yesterday, he did one that began to set off a few alarm bells.
It appears that the United States Government is bringing a new Emergency Broadcast System on line. We’ve all heard the test announcements on the EBS. They have a tone, and then tell us if this had been an actual emergency we would have gotten info on what to do. This system was built to warn us if we were about to be nuked, but is now used for emergencies of many types. Personally, I have no problem with this particular system. If I’m about to be vaporized or hit by a tornado, I would like to get those last few seconds to tell my loved ones and my own ass goodbye. The new system is apparently a different kettle of fish altogether.
Apparently, the new system will take the new EAS into your cell phone, wireless providers, game consoles, and other type media, to give the government the ability to tell you when things are going south. The first test of this new system will be President Obama telling you it’s a test.
Well, la de freaking da. I don’t need big brother interrupting me playing Kill Zone 3 to tell me that there’s an imminent attack by Al Qaeda on some unspecified American target. The fact that our Multimedia providers will have no choice but to play these announcements also gives me the willies. I woke up with a headache after contemplating all the ways an unscrupulous government could play with a system such as this.
Alex Jones gives a 15 minute summation of what he thinks about this system here. While I don’t agree with everything he says in his rant, he does make a few good points.
I recommend that you watch and pick up the main points.
1) The government will be able to pre-empt broadcast media.
2) The word in the industry is that they want to do it for extended periods
3) There is no definition of what constitutes a NATIONAL EMERGENCY
To add fuel to the fire, this little gem comes to us courtesy of the FCC. To say that I don’t want my cell phone talking to me with the President’s latest message is an understatement. I don’t even like my cell phone. I carry the damn thing because my work requires that I have one. To hear our beloved leader’s voice speaking to me from my right front pants pocket is grounds for tossing the damn thing into the river.
There are a couple more items I’d like to look at. There’s an old fable by Aesop that states that familiarity breeds contempt. The more of these announcements that we hear, the more we tend to tune them out. A great article on just that fact can be found here.
I’d also like to point out that the federal government spent millions on a Tsunami alert system on the west coast to warn folks about incoming tidal waves. It’s a great idea and could save lives. There’s only one minor problem. When they built the system, they never included funding to maintain it. Now, we have a system that doesn’t work in multiple jurisdictions in the Northwest because there is no money to operate it. In times of economic stress like we are in now, where is the money coming from to fund this program?