So you think your life is private??? Drones are changing that.

May I begin today’s post by letting my concerned reader know that my blood pressure is amazingly low, thanks to daily exercise. Also, not suppressing emotions, opinions, upset, actually assists the body in fending off disease. So at this rate, I’m going to do as I plan, and die in my own bed at the ripe ole age of 96.

And to the couple of people who tweeted rude things about my article on people raising up rude children because I sardonically used the word FUCKING in the opening paragraph of that blog, two things. One, that’s exactly why I used the word at the time that I used it, to drive home the point. And two, telling people how you think they should live their lives in keeping with how you choose to live your life is quite rude. The normal everyday expectation of people leading with their manners first, not lying, saying please, and thank you isn’t under the same umbrella as saying the word fuck. In your opinion it might be, but there are many cultures where the f-word is used in everyday language. So again, opinions are one thing, but cutting in front of somebody in line, not acknowledging somebody holding a door for you, rude. Rude in every country, in every language.

A.N.Y.W.A.Y moving on…

Is anybody else out there freaked out with this whole drone business? I mean I am. It is totally creepy, and in my OPINION a huge invasion of privacy. Like GIGANTIC invasion of my privacy, and my rights. Why is it up to somebody I don’t know as to whether or not you can capture photos of me, my home, my kids, my anything without my consent? I don’t get how this is a thing that is allowed.

In the last few days I’ve seen more people launching their drones into the air than I ever have. Today I witnessed a kid, about ten, getting ready to send his up in the air, and I asked Yannick; “how is this a thing??? Like why are people allowed to simply send their drones into the sky and capture whatever the hell they want at any given time???”

He responded to me; “there is a fine line between your civic freedoms of being able to purchase consumer goods, for your own personal entertainment, and then violating other people’s civic freedoms who don’t want to be observed by your personal drones. Add to that the safety concerns of unregulated flying objects, the solution might be to register all users and drones, along with setting a minimum age.”

But as of right now, there is no mandate, no laws, no structure as to the when, how, where, and who can have these things. Which has me asking: how is one person’s desire to amuse themselves more important than my God given right to my privacy??? Also, not sure about what’s happening in and around where you live, but in Toronto, this past December, one was flying recklessly around Billy Bishop in Toronto. This combined with other instances of drones being unsafely near airports, and aircraft prompted a nine kilometer no fly zone for drones around Toronto airports. Check out the new recreational drone rules, as of March 14th, 2017 here www.tc.gc.ca.

So all that’s good for Toronto, and aircraft, but what about those of us just walking around, or in the case of this defending champ world class skier, who almost got taken out by a falling network television drone, how does this help us? And furthermore, what would the recourse for us everyday folk be should a drone come crashing down on top of our heads??? Would we even survive it??? So many questions, with zero answers. I mean as it stands currently, nobody needs a license to own, or operate one, nor are they are registered. So again the question is how are any of us protected? Well in America so far none of you/us are. But I guess the upside of this is if one crashed in our backyards the drone owner wouldn’t even know where it went down. Which would then make you the owner of the drone and all the content captured on the camera. But, with this new federal law they just implemented, days ago, at least Canadian drones will have owner information printed right on them, which might help your next of kin sue their asses off should their fallen drone shatter your skull while you’re window shopping.

As you know, my brother and sister-in-law are visiting with us, so of course I asked her what her thoughts are on the matter. She had many; like me she finds them to be completely weird and creepy, and since she’s watched documentaries on the subject she has a lot of fact to back up her concerns. She asked me; “you know that there are currently one million drones up in the sky over the USA over just America. ONE MILLION drones hovering capturing data all day every day from one million specific people, without their permission??”

To which I replied; “NO. No I did not.”

If you want to know more about this scary, unconstitutional practice you must watch the documentary she told me to watch, Citizenfour from HBO, which is where this, more than likely, by now, outdated stat comes from. Either way whatever the number is, either government or personal drones up in the sky, collecting information on me, on you, on anybody without our consent is some fucked, up not okay, creepy not business.

The question becomes, with the FAA prediction being that by 2020 we will have SEVEN MILLION drones up in the sky in America ALONE, how do we stop it? And if we cannot flat out stop it, how do we protect ourselves, and our privacy, and who’s rights are more important??? The drone owner who may very well just be using it for shits and giggles, or ours, the non-drone owners???

Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.