Obama's Bullying Becoming ... Transparent

This morning, I noticed the following blurb at Instapundit: "Most Transparent Administration in History Releases Completely Redacted Document About Text Snooping." It may surprise many people that an administration that spends so much time preening about "transparency" would do this. But it makes perfect sense when some of its other actions are considered, like using the IRS to intimidate political opponents -- or obtaining months of the phone records of a large news agency.

As I wrote over a year ago, regarding the fad of "transparency":

Ayn Rand once rightly pointed out that privacy is a hallmark of civilization. Those who truly appreciate this, but won't stand up for privacy, risk opening themselves up to all kinds of mistaken suspicion and plain old bullying about anything they happen to do that might be misinterpreted -- or "misinterpreted".

and

Where the minutes of a meeting might once have served a legitimate purpose -- as a memory aid for those for whom the meeting was a concern -- they now serve as an ammunition depot for anyone with an ax to grind to seemingly base an allegation of wrongdoing or bad intent on reality. Predictably, transparency laws have had a stifling effect on debate in the corridors of power...

Of course, since federal regulations and the tax code  manufacture criminals, who needs misinterpretation? 

Barack Obama's fascistic record of introducing government control over every aspect of our lives that he can provides the clue. If, as he wrongly sees it, the government should run everything (individual knowledge or opinion be damned), who else has the right to or need for information? Barack Obama not only fails to see a double standard, he sees this prying as moral and necessary. Whether the people who populate this country are Americans, who understand that civilization is founded on privacy -- or are not, and regard themselves as part of a collective -- remains to be seen. Perhaps there is hope, given that even Massachusetts Democrats are upset enough to draw parallels between Barack Obama and Richard Nixon.

To paraphrase a character in an Ayn Rand novel, "Run for your life from any man who tells you that privacy is evil. That sentiment is the leper's bell of an approaching blackmailer." There is no legitimate reason on earth for the government, absent objective evidence that the information might solve a (real) crime -- or is relevant to a court proceeding or national defense --  to compel (openly or not) a private citizen to disclose personal information.

-- CAV