Photocopying Michelle Obama's Diary, Just In Case

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Conor Friedersdorf has a good (and humorous) read in the Atlantic about the analogy that President Obama has settled on to explain his theory of the NSA surveillance controversy to reporters. 'The question is how do we make the American people more comfortable?' Obama said. 'If I tell Michelle that I did the dishes ... and she's a little skeptical, well, I'd like her to trust me, but maybe I need to bring her back and show her the dishes and not just have her take my word for it.' The analogy has been widely panned, and for good reason. Friedersdorf writes that he has come up with a much better analogy. What if 'Barack snuck into Michelle's closet one day, dug through her belongings until he found her diary, and photocopied it. Then he replaced the original, locked the copy in his desk, and didn't think about it much until she found out months later and furiously confronted him.' Admittedly, it isn't a perfect analogy either says Friedersdorf, 'but it comes a lot closer than Obama did to capturing the actual stakes in this debate, and the reason so many Americans are angry at him.'" In related news, Snowden's father disagrees that his son isn't a patriot: "My son has spoken the truth, and he has sacrificed more than either the president of the United States or Peter King have ever in their political careers or their American lives. So how they choose to characterize him really doesn't carry that much weight with me."

Comments

Analogy needs one fix

[Sepodati]

The analogy would be better if the diary was left out in the open, but closed, mind you, for everyone to see. You still shouldn't open it, but it is sitting right there and not locked up.

Or everyday the diary was handed off to a random member of the public to hold on to... and not open, of course.

Re:Analogy needs one fix

[hairyfeet]

Why bother with analogies in the first place when you are talking about copying some of the worst traits of oppressive regimes? We have seen time and time again how well the chilling effect works, after all it turned out when the wall fell and access to the actual records came out the STASI were "only" watching 10% of the population but that was enough to keep them in line,why? Because everybody thought they were the 1 in 10 and thus thought everything they did was being recorded and this constant scrutiny kept them in line.

I would STRONGLY suggest everyone here watch The End Of America by Naomi Wolf and please note this was made in 2007, BEFORE all this extra bullshit came out, and also note how many examples of what she calls "the playbook" of oppressive and non-free regimes is being played here even as we speak, the same kind of shit used by Uncle Joe and the crazy Austrian is happening right here in the USA folks. Now I personally believe it is because the ruling class knows we are gonna have a worldwide collapse that will make the great depression look like a flash crash and want the system of oppression in place in the hopes of being able to scare the peasants in line. Now personally I don't think it will work, once the checks that keep the peasants from starving disappear and it takes a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread the peasants won't fear because honestly they won't have anything to lose, but in any case you watch Wolf's video and look at the other warning signs and its pretty obvious that somebody at the top is pushing REAL hard to bring fascist police state tactics here and whomever is pushing this? Is obviously winning.

Patriotism

[bfandreas]

PATRIOTISM, n.
Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name.

In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.

Be wary when the word "patriotism" is being used. Whatever precedes or follows usually clocks in very high on the bullshit scale. It feels like it's being used to trigger a killswitch in the human mind.

Re:Patriotism

[Anonymous Coward]

We in The Netherlands at least of my age (41) associate the word "patriotism", hanging of a flag (outside of king's palace, military bases and on public holidays), and pledges of allegiance with Nazi Germany. We can't help it, patriotism and everything associated with it is scary.

Re:Another analogy?

[OzPeter]

Obama requests a sworn person to have a look at Michelle's diary + contacts etc

Except that the sworn person is likely to say to his (sworn) buddies .. "hey man, check this out".