Government secrets

Access to information is easily accessible, yet we live in an age of secrets. There are limitations on what the public knows about the government’s activities. There are a lot of documents the government keeps classified. Classified documents come from the Central Intelligence Agency, State Department, Department of Defense, White House, National Security Agency, and Federal Bureau of Investigation. The government has classified documents about the Iraq war, UFO’s sightings but, the government has also released secret documents such as, post-World War II government documents.
There are a lot of people scattered across the federal government with the authority to classify documents. They come from the Pentagon, CIA, Agriculture Department, and Environmental Protection Agency. In 2004 alone, “15.6 million documents were classified”, about “125 documents a minute”. The classification of documents are “costing about $7.2 billion” of the United States tax dollars every year.
The actual definition of a “secret document” is one that contains information whose disclosure would seriously damage the national security of the United States. What qualifies as a secret? It can be just about anything. Sometimes, documents are stamped secret to protect individuals or departments from embarrassment; like the CIA’s classification of its discovery of a plot to attack Santa Claus. Items that have been classified for years include foreign leaders’ birth dates. Even access to the Pentagon’s employee telephone directory now is restricted.
Most of us agree that some information should be withheld from the public for national security reasons. But what would you classify and for how long?

resource:
Increase in the Number of Documents Classified by the Government
By SCOTT SHANE
Published: July 3, 2005
Washington post

Retort: How the media has ruined Halloween.

The commentary was good. This past Halloween I saw children in groups of two or three collecting candy and creating mischief. Many children participate in Halloween, but the child’s parents are paranoid about strangers giving candy to their children. Many parents do not like to see their child harmed, but they need to let their child have fun. However, I never heard of single case where a child was abducted by a sex offender during Halloween. I believe it is the parent(s) that ruined Halloween by convincing children that all people they do not know are dangers.

I agree with you about the media’s portrayal of sex offenders at Halloween. The media reports about stories that capture attention of adults. Most of the media’s stories are about sex, corruption, abuse, and disasters. However, I never saw a child in my life watch an episode of a news broadcast. So, parents believe what they hear on television and it corrupts them. If you want to watch depressing shows turn you televisions on the news.

http://cherdeman.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-media-has-ruined-halloween.html