Public Photos / Private Photos

Personally, I have never been a fan of having mu picture taken. Thus, a visual record of my life ended for the most part after high school, with the exception of an occasional photo with the children. As it is, I make sure that their pics stay on my computer, with only a few exceptions. It's especially important in the information age.

Pictures and videos that previously may show up on the news once or twice are spread worldwide in days, if not hours. Whether it's President Bush dancing in Africa or Teddy Kennedy attempting (and failing) to sing, anyone has access to any video clip, audio clip, and picture ever translated into a digital format.

The flap with Barack Obama's Somali picture is a perfect example of the power of the information age. Twenty years ago, the picture might have not even made it to the public eye, except maybe in the tabloid rags. Today, it's linked to or posted on an assload of sites. Which means anyone who runs for public office can never have a questionable picture taken. Ever. The mayor of Arlington, Oregon suffered just such a fate, with suggestive pictures leading to her recall.

The relative ease of people to access and spread pictures over the internet through sites like Facebook and MySpace makes privacy a thing of the past. I continue to see various stories cautioning people on what they put online. And if you have a webcam, and you let yourself out there for anyone to see, as an ex of mine found out, only bad things can happen. Come to think of it, I still have copies of the pics that got emailed to me by some guy on the East coast somewhere.

We also have everybody in the world with a camera phone, half the houses in the country with camcorders, entire shows dedicated to filling the air with videos of people doing stupid things, and the Girls Gone Wild guys getting girls to show us their tits (and much much more).

The point is that if you have any sense in the world, you will protect your identity, avoid the cameras, and not do too many things online that can lead the nutballs to you. Especially the Ron Paulistas. I, on the other hand, want to give them and the Nader nerds a few bitch slaps just for being themselves. Game on, losers.