freezer

Should you let him in?

This article is funny enough that I thought it was a joke. Seriously. The chief of police in Houston, Texas wants to install cameras in private homes, requiring them as part of the building permit process for apartment complexes, for example.

My head is seriously spinning. I just reread Orwell’s 1984 about a month ago, so this is all fairly fresh in my mind.

Does this person not recognize how chilling it would be? His claim is that as long as each person abides by the laws, there should be nothing to worry about.

Um.

Hello!? Is this thing on?

What about people who do not break the law but do not want to be watched by some random police officer? I can’t imagine how a person with a shy bladder would react to the presence of a video camera in his or her bathroom.

*cough*fourth amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America*cough*

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how often religion leads to conflicts between groups of people. We’ve got everything from burning churches in the USA to riots killing people over comic strips elsewhere in the world.

Why?

Why would any deity or group of deities desire or require that people hurt each other? I can’t imagine a universe in which that makes any kind of rational sense. Belief is fine. Belief is good. Belief that your One True God commands that you harm other people… something about that just doesn’t seem healthy or sustainable.

Call me crazy if you must. I don’t mind.

I just don’t get it.