Miscellany: Big Brother is watching you...on the road...

There's a lot of things that are sacred in the American consciousness - baseball, an honest day's work, Thanksgiving. One of the most sacred, though, is the open road. Sad to say we're seeing U.K.-style surveillance sweeping the country, and those vast stretches of American road are no different.

For miles and miles, there are these ugly, imposing cameras mounted on concrete towers. They symbolize a lot of what's happening in America, good and bad. On the one hand, they can be used to spot accidents, catch kidnappers, and just check on the weather. On the other, of course, are more questionable ends, like tracking where Joe Dissident is driving at 3 AM.

I don't know. It is a public thoroughfare, that vast stretch of road through Florida that goes from Gainesville to Miami. I'm used to seeing the billboards for Disney, the signs hawking various unseemly foods and forms of entertainment. I just can't help wondering, though - who's watching?