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Byron Edgington

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Blogs by Byron Edgington

To leak, or not to leak...
6/24/2013 4:27:51 AM

Edward Snowden told us what we already knew.
Former, now officially fired, NSA contractor Edward Snowden had been living in Hong Kong. But it seems that Mr. Snowden has leaked away from the former British Crown Colony and fled to Moscow of all places seeking asylum. The developing international U.S. Vs former employee Snowden job is getting more interesting as each plane takes off and lands with him aboard, leaving diplomatic niceties and legal protocols in its wake turbulence. Not since Dan Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers have we had such a pursuit by this country against a fellow considered by some to be a whistle blower, by others a traitor, and with so little ground in between. Mr. Snowden caused a kerfuffle recently by allowing information to leak out, out of his own mouth via e-mails etc. that is, which revealed the depth and breadth of the government's intrusion into our privacy.

Proponents and opponents have quickly lined up in the debate that's ensued over this dustup, and once again the fog we see rising is taking on political as well as ideological colorations. My belief is that Mr. Snowden's offense is simply this: He announced that our privacy is more compromised than we ever thought, and this fact has outraged us because of its glaring truth. In other words he told us something we've collectively known all along, but were unprepared to admit. Indeed, we surrender our privacy and secrecy every day. I'm doing so as I write these lines. In an age of hyper-data mining, computerized records of every facet of our lives, from day of birth to long after we're cold and dead, if anyone truly believes a scrap of personal information is any longer unknown or unknowable, that person is at least terribly naive, possibly a danger to himself and others.
I agree that what Snowden did was illegal. He was a government employee, and as such he had a duty to not act on his own to disclose sensitive information. His was a legal, binding employment contract if nothing else, so the government has not only a right but a responsibility to prosecute him. But the other side of this tale, as the Pentagon Papers case proved, is that such revelations do in fact cause us as a nation to wake up to the realities around us, in this case warning all of us to be cautious with what we share, and where, and when. Such revelations stir public discussion, and that is, for my money, always a good thing. I believe I'll stop writing now.

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More Blogs by Byron Edgington
• Off Ramp: Weekly Short for 12/01/2014 - Saturday, December 6, 2014
• Weekly Short Story - Saturday, November 15, 2014
• The Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life, $1.99 for Kindle - Tuesday, November 4, 2014
• The Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life, 99 cents for Kindle - Sunday, November 2, 2014
• 99 cent sale starting 11/7 - Monday, October 27, 2014
• Interview: Mike Petersen, Killer Book Marketing - Tuesday, October 14, 2014
• Audio Review_The Unheralded King - Sunday, October 5, 2014
• Audio Book Reviews - Wednesday, October 1, 2014
• SkyWriting: Essays on the Art and Craft of Aviation - Tuesday, September 16, 2014
• Silent Sky: From 9/11/202 - Thursday, September 11, 2014
• Great stories and a chance to help - Monday, August 25, 2014
• The Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life, $4.95 for Kindle - Saturday, August 23, 2014
• SkyWriting: Essays on the Art and Craft of Aviation - Monday, August 11, 2014
• Book review: There I Wuz - Monday, August 4, 2014
• Lip smacking mystery - Tuesday, July 22, 2014
• Book review: The Silver Star - Saturday, July 5, 2014
• Book Review: Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses - Sunday, June 29, 2014
• Free author promo - Monday, May 19, 2014
• Looking for flying tales - Wednesday, May 14, 2014
• Nerds of Ohio unite! My review of Best of Ohio - Friday, May 2, 2014
• Pilots/Crews I need your stories - Tuesday, April 29, 2014
• FREE Download--excerpts from SkyWriting - Monday, April 28, 2014
• I'll publish your flying story - Monday, April 28, 2014
• E-book just .99 cents - Saturday, March 8, 2014
• My aviation memoir is on sale this weekend, March 8/9, just .99 cents Saturday! - Friday, March 7, 2014
• e-book sale this weekend - Wednesday, March 5, 2014
• The Sky Behind Me, 99 cent sale - Tuesday, March 4, 2014
• Call for submissions - Thursday, February 13, 2014
• Catching up - Thursday, February 6, 2014
• Brrrrr! - Monday, January 6, 2014
• Radio Interview tonight - Wednesday, December 4, 2013
• Is it done yet? - Wednesday, November 27, 2013
• Writing a memoir? Check into this: - Friday, November 15, 2013
• From where I sit - Tuesday, November 12, 2013
• Daily Very Short Writing Tip - Thursday, November 7, 2013
• 'To be' or to find a better verb... - Monday, November 4, 2013
• Take a hike! - Thursday, October 31, 2013
• to publish or not to publish - Wednesday, October 30, 2013
• The Sky Writer - Friday, October 25, 2013
• Free sample of The Sky Behind Me... - Thursday, October 17, 2013
• The new world of PCS - Wednesday, October 16, 2013
• Hump Day--Getting over the himp from writer's block - Wednesday, October 2, 2013
• The Three 'tells of book promotion - Monday, September 30, 2013
• We're all mad here--writers take heart - Thursday, September 19, 2013
• How to get the writing off dead plumb: The Writer's Tool Box - Monday, September 16, 2013
• Smashwords author interview 9/5/13 - Thursday, September 5, 2013
• writers, you may want to stand up for this - Tuesday, September 3, 2013
• Writers: Rights, responsibilities and reinventing the flat tire. - Thursday, August 29, 2013
• How to write good - Monday, August 26, 2013
• Book trailer: The Sky Behind Me... - Friday, August 23, 2013
• Author (Self) interview - Thursday, August 22, 2013
• Common Core Standards: Back to Literature? - Tuesday, August 20, 2013
• George W. Bush and other mistakes - Thursday, August 15, 2013
• welcome home - Wednesday, August 14, 2013
• Book review: Bargain With Fate Book RTwo Sage trilogy - Tuesday, August 13, 2013
• I love Harry Reasoner - Thursday, August 8, 2013
• Readin', Ritin' and Wreal Estate--book selling & uts challenges - Tuesday, August 6, 2013
• Book review Friday: Dementia, by Hans Peter Braendlin - Friday, August 2, 2013
• I'm a writer--I write. Sometimes I rant. - Thursday, August 1, 2013
• Memoir as travelogue - Monday, July 29, 2013
• Small presses are back - Thursday, July 25, 2013
• New Book Project: The Emergent Sky - Tuesday, July 23, 2013
• The book biz--short version - Monday, July 22, 2013
• What do you want? - Thursday, July 18, 2013
• The Sky Behind Me at half price--add value - Tuesday, July 16, 2013
• Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics - Monday, July 15, 2013
• Blog is my co-pilot - Thursday, July 11, 2013
• ridiculous to sublime - Wednesday, July 10, 2013
• commo, criticism & culture in Asiana 214 crash - Tuesday, July 9, 2013
• Asiana 214--poor weather might have prevented this accident - Monday, July 8, 2013
• Book Binding - Friday, July 5, 2013
• Notable deaths 4th of July - Thursday, July 4, 2013
• The Blue and the Gray - Wednesday, July 3, 2013
• Life Du Soleil - Monday, July 1, 2013
• takeoff part 2 - Friday, June 28, 2013
• Takeoff - Thursday, June 27, 2013
• Decorative English - Tuesday, June 25, 2013
• To leak, or not to leak... - Monday, June 24, 2013
• Separation of church and state - Friday, June 21, 2013
• Plus ca change... - Thursday, June 20, 2013
• book promotion - Wednesday, June 19, 2013
• Tom Wolfe was right - Monday, June 17, 2013
• ...can't treat stupid. - Friday, May 31, 2013
• Birds do it, bees do it... - Thursday, May 30, 2013
• Aviation & Medicine--safety last? - Wednesday, May 29, 2013
• Happy Birthday GKC - Tuesday, May 28, 2013
• day of remembrance - Monday, May 27, 2013
• Lady Hooker, my initiation ceremony in Vietnam - Friday, May 24, 2013
• distribution - Tuesday, May 21, 2013
• Marriage Equality: Cleared for Takeoff - Thursday, May 16, 2013
• dead monk seals in Hawaii - Monday, May 13, 2013
• Free download - Thursday, May 9, 2013
• Free sample - Tuesday, May 7, 2013
• May 4th 1970 - Saturday, May 4, 2013
• Entitle-tude - Thursday, May 2, 2013
• dateline Columbus OH: 5/01/2313 - Wednesday, May 1, 2013
• How to Fly Good #4 - Monday, April 29, 2013
• aviation--a very small club - Thursday, April 25, 2013
• Traveling Light - Tuesday, April 23, 2013
• Marathon Bomber - Monday, April 22, 2013
• women in aviation - Friday, April 19, 2013
• Aviation and life: Shared conundrums - Wednesday, April 17, 2013
• Misperceptions & helicopters--How to Fly Good #3 - Monday, April 15, 2013
• Helicopters: A Primer - Thursday, April 11, 2013
• Justitia - Wednesday, April 3, 2013
• You gotta laugh - Tuesday, April 2, 2013
• opening day 2013 - Monday, April 1, 2013
• Fearless - Friday, March 29, 2013
• Equality under law - Monday, March 25, 2013
• Once a missionary, always a missionary - Friday, March 22, 2013
• ten years--and for what? - Wednesday, March 20, 2013
• come to the hills - Monday, March 18, 2013
• stones - Thursday, March 14, 2013
• Lucy & the football - Wednesday, March 13, 2013
• Separation of church & state - Tuesday, March 12, 2013
• Escape Fire - Monday, March 11, 2013
• Cycles are things we ride, like it or not - Friday, March 8, 2013
• Iraq + 10 years - Thursday, March 7, 2013
• A book at the public library - Wednesday, March 6, 2013
• A Radical Idea - Monday, March 4, 2013
• Power Rangers - Tuesday, February 26, 2013
• Take a starving writer to lunch - Monday, February 25, 2013
• Our legal code is 200,000 pages--Cyrus Cylinder 1,000 words - Friday, February 22, 2013
• A note on a napkin - Thursday, February 21, 2013
• New Book Project - Wednesday, February 20, 2013
• TWSB The World's Shortest Blog, Post #1 - Tuesday, February 19, 2013
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• Violence against women - Friday, February 15, 2013
• Reading - Tuesday, February 12, 2013
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• Writing contests--Scam or Opportunity? - Tuesday, January 15, 2013
• The Big .99 Cent E-book sale - Monday, January 14, 2013
• Unintended consequences - Saturday, January 12, 2013
• The power of words - Friday, January 11, 2013
• Boys will be... Excerpt from Chapter 11 The Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life - Thursday, January 10, 2013
• Why we write memoirs - Wednesday, January 9, 2013
• The Big TSBM 99 cent sale! - Tuesday, January 8, 2013
• Nobel Prize for Literature - Tuesday, January 8, 2013
• Air Medical Accidents - Monday, January 7, 2013
• Byron Edgington Bailey Prize winner for prose in 2012 - Sunday, January 6, 2013
• Looking Back--Looking ahead - Saturday, January 5, 2013
• OOOPS - Friday, January 4, 2013
• Featured New Release - Thursday, January 3, 2013
• Whither Serials? - Wednesday, January 2, 2013
• HNY '13 Don't 'should' on yourself - Tuesday, January 1, 2013
• Hauoli Makahiki-ho (Happy New Year in Hawaiian - Sunday, December 30, 2012
• Old man and the scythe - Thursday, December 27, 2012
• Excerpt from The Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life - Wednesday, December 26, 2012