An open letter on punctuation

( Dear Internet... )

Shill

ladyjaida says:

This may or may not be for a project that may or may not take place in the near or far future of my college career. But look: it's a bird! It's a plane! It's a quick, easy survey! And I'm asking -- all right, screw asking; I'm begging -- you all to just give a link in your journals if you've the time or inclination, in order to best spread the word and engender as broad a range of response as possible. Many thanks!

*sigh*

I have realized today that all of the days when I felt like I didn't have a muse, I was mistaken; she was merely unresponsive. Today I think she's absent, which worries me, because I have work to do when I get home.

Also, I'm waiting for something noticeably good to happen today. I know this will get me accusations, even in the privacy of my readers' own minds, of being selfish and having standards that are too high; so be it. I still want something significantly good to happen.

Meh.

So I've seen a few people linking to this today.

Let's get one thing straight: this is not the Secret Service (or the FBI, or whatever government agency you choose to have a conspiracy theory about) watching or monitoring journals.

anniesj posted something that was, by her own admission, inflammatory about the current President of the United States. Someone else, whose identity - last time I checked - had not been revealed, reported this to the FBI. The FBI reported it to the Secret Service. The Secret Service went and paid anniesj a visit to see what was going on.

At no time were anniesj's First Amendment rights infringed; she took down the post in question of her own volition. At no point did the FBI or the Secret Service monitor anybody's journal, at least with regards to this incident. The FBI received a report of what someone believed (or wanted the FBI to believe) was a threat against the President. The FBI did their job and notified the Secret Service. The Secret Service did their job and went to investigate.

Keep in mind that we are less than a week away from a national election. Keep in mind that there are thousands of people who genuinely want to see George W. Bush or John Kerry dead and who have the resources to do the job. Keep in mind that the Secret Service has to figure out who they are and hope desperately that they're not missing anybody and that they can find out in time if they have. Quite frankly, the fact that the Secret Service paid anniesj a visit - and that after some quick reconaissance determined that she was not, in fact, a threat - makes me feel safer, because it means that they are doing their job well and thoroughly.

So let's not start any more conspiracy theories or make any more 1984 references than we absolutely have to, okay, folks?