Sometimes, the federal government listens to my phone calls.  Sometimes they record them.  Sometimes they just make a note of who I called.  This is called wiretapping, and it makes a lot of people mad. 

I, for one, couldn't care less.  If George W. wants to listen to my phone calls, he can go right ahead.  He might be sad to find that my phone calls are quite uneventful.  My life isn't very exciting, and my phone calls reflect this.  But if he wants to listen, I don't mind. 

I don't really see what the big deal is.  Actually, I do see what the big deal is:  The government isn't really supposed to invade my privacy.  It has something to do with one of my constitutional rights.  And if the government gets away with listening to my phone calls, they might take it a step further and listen to my brain waves.  And they might take that a step further and send me to jail for committing a crime before I actually commit a crime.  Hello, Minority Report.  And Tom Cruise.  He's weird. 

But I think the key word in the previous paragraph is "might".  The government might do a lot of things.  They might take away my right to vote.  They might prohibit the consumption of alcohol.  They might shut down the internet.  But they didn't.  They didn't do any of these things yet.  And I doubt they will.  I guess my point is that I'll be concerned with government wiretapping as soon as they do something that annoys me.  I don't care if they listen to my phone calls.  I don't care if they know my social security number (since they gave it to me) and my credit card numbers.  But if they publish my phone calls in a book, I might be mad.  If they write me a letter and tell me to stop pretending to know what I'm talking about, I might be a little peeved.  But until something like this happens, I say this:  "Wiretap me". #politics