Apple vs. Rednecks

I go back in memory to a scene in Forrest Gump. A scene where Forrest reveals to the lady at the bus stop, that Lt. Dan had invested his money from Bubba Gimp Shrimp into some fruit company. After which Forrest became richer than Davy Crocket. Apparently that has come to pass as reality for those at Apple of late and more.

Two recent headlines grab my attention.

U.S. balance now less than Apple cash

Steve Jobs is now more liquid than Uncle Sam. While it’s highly unlikely that President Barack Obama is looking to ask the founder and chief executive of Apple Inc. for a loan, it became a fact as of Thursday afternoon — the world’s largest technology company now has more cash on hand than the most powerful democracy on Earth has spending room.

And yesterday there was this.

Police assisted Apple in search of man's home

San Francisco (CNN) -- Police officials said they helped Apple investigators, who searched a man's home here recently. They were reportedly looking for a prototype of the next iPhone that an Apple employee left in a bar in San Francisco's Mission neighborhood, according to CNET. Apple had contacted the police claiming the prototype is invaluable, the report says.

Once again, an Apple employee has lost one of their yet to be revealed marvelous new toys and Apple does what? I am sorry, maybe I am the only one left in this country that sees the problem here. Probably not, but you wouldn't know it by watching or reading the press in this country. The simple facts are these. The last time I checked, there was this thing called a Constitution and a Bill of Rights? And somewhere in that document is this clause known as the fourth amendment.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

That clause has always seemed to confer protection against intrusive searches and seizures by government, except under specific circumstances. There are requirements like "probable cause," supported by an "oath or affirmation" and "particularly describing the place and things." These are the requirements before the government can come to your home and search either you or your property. At least is would seem so, but apparently we are operating in a new era of constitutional law and personal rights in this country.

Apparently? If you as a company (to borrow a phrase or two): "have more money than Davy Crockett or the US Treasury?" Then you can do as you damn well please as it concerns the liberties and rights of everyone else. Once again I apologize, but am I the only person that sees a problem with "police officers" going with employees of Apple and violating every tenant of the fourth amendment?

There are no constitutional protections of our individual rights as it concerns private citizens actions toward or against us. If another private citizen violates our individual rights? That is usually covered by either criminal or civil law and all manner of remedies and sanctions against said individual immediately attach. But what of the government violating our individual rights? What was it again in the constitution that prohibits that?

Of yes, it is the fourth amendment of the Bill of Rights. It's right there in plain english. The government cannot intrude upon our right to privacy or our property except upon issuance of a warrant, based upon an oath or affirmation, outlining specifically what and who is to be searched or seized. And there is that sticky requirement of probable cause.

None of that was done in this case that I can see. Employees of Apple 'with the assistance of officers of the San Francisco police department,' went to someone's house and these same officers of the San Francisco PD, stood by while the employees of Apple searched someone's home for the lost miracle device, supposedly lost by some errant Apple employee who apparently "left the damn thing in a bar!"

Not only was no warrant issued for this search, but those involved admittedly declined to even file a report (affidavit) after the fact to report what is supposedly missing and who they believe might be involved. And agents of the San Francisco police department accompanied them while they did it.

The entire US Constitution and Bill of Rights just went out the window in this case. What was the point of the San Francisco police officers being present during this search, if not to apply coercive pressure by their presence on the resident to allow agents and employees of Apple to conduct a search of the premises. Am I the only person in America this morning that sees a problem here?

Am I the only person in America who sees the clear violations of the US Constitution and the complicit conspiratorial actions of a government agency with a private company to completely ignore the protections of the fourth amendment in abject violation of an individual's rights?

Edmund Burke notably once said: "All that is required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." I am of the opinion that there is an abundance of evil afoot in this country presently and there is an overwhelmingly obvious absence of anyone compelled to stand up and say so.

Jeff Foxworthy defines being a Redneck as: "the glorious absence of sophistication." What then is the definition when we see the glorious absence of duty to protect our rights from oppression? Who is responsible for that sacred trust? What is the mechanism to infuse righteous anger into the people when their rights have been and are being violated both piecemeal and on a daily wholesale basis by our government? My recollections seem to point me back to that same document. However, this time the governance of rights are found in the first amendment. Specifically, the clause that states:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

So, is that the key to the transformation we are now witnessing in this country? Certainly congress has made no law prohibiting the exercise of free speech or the freedom of the press, but then again the press has done and is doing absolutely nothing to stand up for the rights of Americans being violated by our government on a daily basis.

The press, the media, those specifically entrusted with the constitutional right to insure that 'our constitutional rights' as citizens are protected from incursions by our government into our privacy, has abdicated their sacred trust. Those responsible for sounding the alarm and for calling out the people to collectively prevent these violations of our freedoms from happening, have seemingly eased themselves into the shadows of collusion and allowed our rights to die quietly in the darkness of a collusive evil that now permeates this nation.

America has stood idly by while our rights are systematically being destroyed. While our children's education has systemically been dumbed down to the point of as Jeff Foxworthy might say: "a glorious absence of sophistication." America has been been led to the present destruction of our liberties and we now are being led to the edge of the great abyss of totalitarianism, by those who were entrusted with protecting us from our government and from the abuse of the freedoms that we supposedly hold so dearly.

America is dying a death by a thousand cuts and this is but one more example of how that death is being accomplished.  Steve Jobs may have stepped down and he may be dying of cancer, but he has created a megalithic entity that has assumed power over us all. Which begs the question in all seriousness, what about the devices that they are selling to Americans? Will these devices one day become the network of a collective consciousness that not only links us all, but also binds us all to the chains and shackles of lost freedom and a big brother government that we have time and again been warned of.

I for one happen to believe Edmund Burke. I for one happen to believe that his words were prescient.