More about TMI...

I've finished "IBM and the Holocaust". It's worth a read if you want an example of where pure greed and lack of conscience can lead.

What keeps coming back to me is the ease with which the Nazis were able to find their prey. This included not just the Jews but other "undesirables" such as homosexuals, gypsies, etc.

It was all about the census information the Germans had. Even in newly occupied nations they were able to utilize that data. At times the effectiveness depended on the cooperation of the indigent peoples, in the case of France the roundup of Jews was severely hampered by the deliberate inaction of one man while in the Netherlands it was highly effective due to the happy collaboration of a numbers crunching fool eager to show off his skills.

But if the information was available it was used.

I think of how much personal information we provide outsiders on a routine basis. Insurance companies, doctors, etc. all ask questions that at first glance don't pertain to their job. I admit the data may suddenly and unexpectedly prove useful, a good example being when my second son was born back in '85. He had poly cystic kidneys and lived a total of 30 hours, literally dying in my arms.

If I say his mother and I were preoccupied with things, it would be understandable. We didn't worry about a lot of stuff during that time, including having the boy baptized. Yet a Catholic chaplain showed up and gave him a baptism before he passed on. That was due to my (very nominal) religious affiliation being a matter of record with the military hospital we were at.

I believe that incident could be used as proof that what many of us might consider too much information can sometimes be used in a beneficial manner. Whatever. I'm not worried about that kind of usage.

Citing the example of Nazi Germany gets tiresome sometimes, but in so many ways it validly showcases how evil can be perpetuated. So I'll go to that particular well again and note how the Brownshirts ran rampant over any perceived enemies of the Nazis and Hitler. They were supposedly unconnected in any official capacity with Der Fuhrer, acting on their own.

Don't we have the beginnings of the same when we read of SEIU thugs intimidating known opponents of Obama? How about the violent gays who actively sought to penalize supporters of California's Prop. 8? Those are just two recent examples.

Where do they get the information they need to show up at someone's doorstep or place of business? The answer of course is "information available to the public". Thats a fairly accurate response right now, doing a Google search can work quite well in that regard.

But in coming times where will the "true believers" of any government endorsed cause get the names, addresses, phone numbers, work information of naysayers? Will it come from health insurance information supplied to the government by federal mandate and ostensibly "leaked" to the right people? How about IRS information? Census data from expanded questionnaires (remember the flap over the last census in that regard?).

Germany's Jews (back to the Nazis again) were singled out not exclusively because of where they lived or worshipped. The "Final Solution" was also applied to Jews who had converted to Christianity, the offspring of such Jews, the grandchildren of such Jews (who might not even know "Grandpa" used to wear a yarmulke). Remember that everything done at that time was also legal.

Sometimes I lie awake at night, wondering just what the hell will happen. This isn't the same world I grew up in, nor the one I knew even ten years ago. Things are changing and very quickly. Quite often I'll finally fall asleep while asking God for the protection of my children.