Getting paranoid...

The other day, my purse was stolen. Someone came right into my office, grabbed my purse and took off.

Someone later found it in the women’s restroom. It had obviously been rifled through, but nothing was missing, … except my cell phone and my lipstick case (with my very favorite lipstick!!!).

OK, the cell phone I kind of get. I paid a hundred and some-odd dollars for it, so maybe it’s worth something at a pawn shop or who knows where. But the lipstick case really baffles me.

Then I got to thinking about the USA PATRIOT act and how the feds can now do “sneak and peeks” where they just go in and search and get out without ever telling the person whose privacy they just violated. They can even take things ?where the court finds reasonable necessity for the seizure.? I got this creepy feeling. Suddenly, I started wondering why didn’t they steal my credit cards? Why didn’t they take my checkbooks or my drivers license or my long distance phone cards? All of which were missing the last time my purse was stolen.

I don’t know why anyone would want to investigate me, asside from my anti-government, anti-corporate, anti-media-control views and activism. Well, ok. I guess I can see a reason why, but I’m sure there are much bigger fish to fry than a simple webmistress who occasionally attends peace marches.

Still, I despise the fact that my beloved country has become the kind of place where worries like that easily creep in.

Wow, I wonder how people who were already paranoid are dealing with all this. You know what I mean, those people with the tinfoil hats and anti-anal-probe underwear?

But I digress… the point is that I should not have to be afraid that government agents might burglarize me. Nonetheless, it is a fact that they could if they wanted to, if they could convince a judge that they had a good reason. Any reason they might make up will probably be considered a “good” reason to most judges, who basically tend to rubber stamp traditional warrants, so why not sneak and peeks as well?

Here’s an analysis of the PATRIOT act with regard to sneak and peek searches, Sneak and Peek Search Warrants and the USA PATRIOT Act .