May I Have a Blue Pill, Please?

Maybe it's just the winter blahs.

Maybe it's the approach of a milestone birthday.

Maybe it's just a desire to be free from the knowledge of what lies ahead, both individually and for Western Civilization (such as it is at present).

Whatever it is, I find myself reduced to shaking my head over stories like this one, in which Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell says:

***... in order to accomplish his plan, the government must have the ability to read all the information crossing the Internet in the United States in order to protect it from abuse. Congressional aides tell The Journal that they, too, are also anticipating a fight over civil liberties that will rival the battles over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
***

Thinking that this excerpt had to be a misquote, tonight I read the article about McConnell in the current New Yorker (note: link is to interview with article's author; article itself not available online).

It wasn't a misquote.

Then, as I was drafting this post, Drudge had this linked story posted:

Senior British police officials are talking to the FBI about an international database to hunt for major criminals and terrorists.

The US-initiated programme, "Server in the Sky", would take cooperation between the police forces way beyond the current faxing of fingerprints across the Atlantic. Allies in the "war against terror" - the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand - have formed a working group, the International Information Consortium, to plan their strategy.

Biometric measurements, irises or palm prints as well as fingerprints, and other personal information are likely to be exchanged across the network. One section will feature the world's most wanted suspects. The database could hold details of millions of criminals and suspects.

The FBI is keen for the police forces of American allies to sign up to improve international security. The Home Office yesterday confirmed it was aware of Server in the Sky, as did the Metropolitan police...
***

Of course, last Friday, the US Department of Justice filed this amicus brief in the Heller case, leading noted Second Amendment lawyer David Hardy to remark on the Republicans' long-time political tendency to "screw your friends and appease your enemies." The brief, with its plea to remand the DC gun law at issue to the lower court for further proceedings and retain the remainder of Federal gun laws, is disturbing enough:

***
...the Second Amendment, properly construed, allows for reasonable regulation of firearms, must be interpreted in light of context and history, and is subject to important exceptions, such as the rule that convicted felons may be denied firearms because those persons have never been understood to be within the Amendment's protections. Nothing in the Second Amendment properly understood - and certainly no principle necessary to decide this case - calls for the invalidation of the numerous federal laws regulating firearms... (at page 8, Summary of Argument paragraph B)
***

But what is truly appalling is the number of attorneys, other auditioning Quislings, and assorted fools who continue to insist that the Heller case will yield a result that will be anything other than disastrous for freedom. Read the comments on the DOJ brief around the blogosphere and gun fora - if you can stand it.

Forgive the vernacular, but we are so totally hosed.

Doesn't anyone else see that by legitimizing the overwhelming majority of plainly unconstitutional Federal, state, and local gun laws ("shall not be infringed" simply does not leave much wiggle room for "valid" gun laws), the Heller decision will permit every damned Federally-funded jack-booted thug to claim "the Supreme Court said this was OK"?

Has anyone else consdered the timing here? Consider the following realities:

1) widespread financial meltdown, including rampant inflation, dollar devalution, and a likely major stock market "correction";

2) ever-tightening visual/telephonic/internet surveillance conducted by government;

3) a full Presidential candidate field consisting entirely of socialists (with one notable, although nonviable, exception;

and

4) an upcoming SCOTUS majority holding that the 2A's "shall not be infringed" language actually means that the RKBA is "subject to reasonable regulation in furtherance of important governmental objectives".

I keep trying to wake up from the coming nightmare.

I keep trying to find the blue pill that will allow me to forget all that is happening.

I cannot do either.

Damn it all.