Comics is not the only thing Ted Rall is good at. His columns are great for putting the current state of things into perspective

After a few brief decades of social progress the United States has lurched back into the dark ages of torture, concentration camps and police harassment of its scapegoats and undesirables–current members: Muslims, blacks, gays, leftists. The result has been to remind us why the right to be left alone in our homes, cars and e-mail is still necessary.

A grand irony is that individuals, who need more protection than ever thanks to the ease of information access and transfer in the electronic era, are losing what few privacy rights they have to government officials who, despite drawing salaries from us taxpayers, are acting increasingly secretive. Even as Congress approved the once unthinkable renewal of the Patriot Act’s “library provision,” which grants government spooks access to your business records, medical files, purchase records and library borrowings, an Associated Press survey found that “states have steadily limited the public’s access to government information since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.” Out of the thousand-plus laws passed by state legislatures concerning information access since 9/11, nearly two-thirds “restricted access to government records, databases, meetings and more.” The rest made access easier or had no net effect. Hungry for more irony? Government officials say they’re keeping records–our public records, which we pay for–private for our own sake. “There’s a push by government that every time Joe Citizen’s name is mentioned in a government document, it’s an inherent threat to Joe Citizen’s privacy if that document is mentioned,” says Charles Davis of the Freedom of Information Center.

Read this entire piece in it’s entirety here . He does one hell of a job painting the picture of what our country has become today.