A Nation Of Snitches.

Like a broken clock is right twice a day, so sometimes even the tinfoil-hat crowd gets it right. And today is one of those times - they are rending their Reynolds Wrap® over PatriotApp, an iPhone app that, and I quote, "...allows citizens to assist government agencies in creating safer, cleaner, and more efficient communities."

And well the tinfoilers should be upset. This scares the hell out of me, too. We are at war, so I understand reporting possible security threats - but we already have an app for that.

It's called dialing 9-1-1.

So this app, with its buttons for reporting grave national threats like "Product Safety" and "Environmental Safety", seems to have little really to do with citizen participation in the War on Terror. It does, however, redefine patriotism in terms of being a willing agent of the state, snooping on and tattling on your neighbors. That's something more common to socialist thuggeries, not a free society and a free people.

That may be how the regimes in Cuba or North Korea define the being a patriot; it is not how we Americans understand it.

Further, by asking people to make judgements on activities where they are not qualified know if something is a threat or not, or only have a few facts, is downright dangerous. I mean, do we really want folks (say, an architect, or a green jobs expert...) hitting the 'Pandemic' button because they saw a bunch of people get sick in the shopping mall food court? Really? I mean, really?? Frozen yogurt does go bad, y'know.