As we were driving in my car, My daughter Marina said

M "So George Orwell is your favorite author"
R "yeah I guess so why ? Are you reading something by him ?"
M "No I'm remembering 1984 a great book, especially for paranoid people like us."
R "Shhhhh" pointing at a vaguely microphone shaped bit of my car."
M "Your countrymen are listening to you."
R "Well actually they do record it when I talk to my mom [capsule summary of the NSA scandal]. It's getting hard to be paranoid these days.

I am delighted that my daughter appreciates Orwell, less delighted that she refers to *our* countrymen as "your countrymen" and worried about the fate of the paranoid. I mean I suppose there is some psychological reason they believe crazy things that no one else takes seriously, and whatever they get out of it they risk losing as George Bush et al model the world after their fantasies.

With this in mind, I was seriously worried by the Deibold story in the Washington Post. Next are they going to write an article about the beneficial health properties of tinfoil hats ?