My conservative grandpa would be proud....

So I'm about as liberal as you can get. I thought. But then in class a few weeks ago, we were discussing some ethicky stuff and I left feeling like an old man who voted for Bush in 2004.

Access to information is fantastic, and really, its come a long way given the internet. But at what point, in order to open papers that may be closed for the wrong reasons, do you forsake your own ethics? (Forsake seems such a dramatic word, but I couldn't think of anything better)

Take this case: the tobacco papers.

There was information being hidden that affected peoples' health. The archivists decided to smuggle the papers out and release them. Go you! Seriously. Good job!

Here's where I get squeamish though. The Dead Sea Scrolls were closed off to scholars for a really long time. Any they shouldn't have been. It was stupid. But thats how it was.

So someone microfilmed them, signing a contract that it was for preservation purposes only and then decided that they wanted to release them, thus sacrificing their own ethical practices.

They should be open, yes. But is it something that drastically affects the well-being of mankind? No. So I dont think it was okay for them to go about it in the way they did.

Anyhow, I think I was the only person that thought so. People were talking about having collections of papers with private information and "accidentally" leaving them open to provide access. I don't agree.

And while I think Executive Order 13233 is a load of horse-shit and that the over/re-classification of records our government is partaking in is stupid and dumb-headed, there really is some information that does not belong in the open.

I went and saw the guy who writes the blog 'Secrecy News' give a talk (Steven Aftergood). He had a lot to say about the pros and cons of whistle-blowing/classified information that was interesting. He's been in some high-profile trouble himself. I always listen to trouble-makers more for some reason. Its a pretty interesting blog and he never seems to back down from a conversation, which makes me like him even more.

My brain is fried.