Musings 118--Big brother has a long reach...

It is amazing the amount of freedoms that we have lost since 9-11. Most of us don't have a clue as to where the long reach of the government arm will turn up next.

We all know that if you use the internet, you are probably being spied upon--in the name of national security, of course.

Most of us realize that any large deposits of cash or withdrawals of cash from a bank--over $10,000--results in you being reported to the feds.

We have all heard about the Homeland Security people wanting to check library records. What we read and what we look at are very important to Big Brother.

However, not many of us know that paying off a large amount of one's credit card debt will get you investigated by Homeland Security. (See Link)

Reporter Bob Kerr of the Providence Journal writes an eerie story about a transplanted Texan by the name of Walter Soehnge. In a nut shell, Walter paid over $6,000 on his JCPenney Platinum MasterCard and got investigated by Homeland Security. Apparently, if you send in a payment that is deemed too much larger than your minimum payment the card company has no choice but to notify the Feds.

Beware, all you folks who wish to pay off your credit card debt and hope to do it in a lump sum when you hit the lottery. You have now been warned.

I wonder what other long reaches Big Brother has that we don't know about. But then, why worry? Bush jr. and his boys are only looking for terrorist...well, how about looking at who is about to manage our largest American seaports. Of course, that's just common sense.