As we see “Awfully Ignorant” (seriously, how can AI really stand for “Artificial Intelligence” with a straight face?) exploding across the States and the planet, things continue to get strange.

The entire AI craziness is, we believe, directly tied to the entire Data Center controversy. Whether the opposition to massive data centers is being pushed (or at least triggered) by the CCP (or Russia, or the Iranians, or “just” Soros and Bill Gates) or is the latest tactic by the Woke, environists, and Luddites, it is clearly now a significant issue in thousands of communities. As well as an incredible display of cognitive or mental dissonance. You use AI, you use your smart phone, you spend all your time on social media and streaming movies and television series, but you are totally against the infrastructure and consumption of power and water necessary to furnish you those wonderful things.

Of course, this is again (as with so many things) not new. Here is a great example of how people can completely miss the obvious and behave stupidly. It applies to government, private business, and every other part of society.

Remember that today, there are virtually no privately-run passenger railroads. (And those that are private are pretty much tourist lines that really don’t go anyplace for real, like the Black Hills’ beloved 1880 Train or the Silverton & Durango in the Four Corners.)

The cartoon (which comes from a correspondent, Bob M.) reminds us of a foolish and costly trick pulled by a certain (unnamed) State government.

Dear reader, you may not know that virtually every State requires that any sort of mining operation (including sand and gravel and even picking up pretty rocks for landscaping purposes) have a permit. And of course, permits go hand in hand with fees, both for getting the permit, and for annual renewals and reports.

Our nameless State had such a scheme. For small mining operations, the annual fee is only (!) $300. For bigger ones (measured by size in acres, not actual production) it is nearly $800 (and of course, frequently goes up). Once upon a time, that State had offices in several different locations scattered across the State. You could fill out your report and take cash in hand and go to one of those offices, pay and get a receipt and know you were good for another year. Or you could write a check (on real paper!) and put a 50-cent stamp on an envelope and mail it with the printed, signed report to one of the offices or to the capital.

But in the era of Information Management and Financial Security, that is not acceptable. Most offices except in Capitol City were closed, and NONE of the offices could accept either a hard copy of an annual report, much less a paper check or (Heaven forbid!) a paper check or greenbacks.

In fact, when one small operator (literally a mom-and-pop sand and gravel mine) mailed their report and check in, the State office rejected it and turned around and mailed it back. And sent a warning that the operator was “in violation of your permit” and subject to legal action.

The “easier and more convenient” replacement was requiring the operator to go online and establish an account (different from the permit account) with login and password and then fill out the report online. And then go to the State Treasury office online and establish yet another account so that they could pay online. There were two ways that they could pay: an “eCheck” or by credit/debit card. If you paid by credit or debit card, you had to pay a “convenience fee” of almost $20 in addition to the 300 or 800 bucks. And you had to verify that your bank would actually make the payment to the Treasury this way. (They didn’t all do it, at least at first.)

To us, it was the “convenience fee” that really frosted us about the whole deal. And the insult of actually mailing the rejected paper check.

But this is typical of government, and businesses, and especially businesses that contract for the government. Supposedly it lets government agencies “streamline” their operations. And it reduces the potential for theft – especially by government employees. While shelling out all kinds of money to government contractors, and placing greater and greater burdens on the regulated community: truly private business and private individuals.

So the entire business of IT, AI, surveillance, “convenience” and more can be summed up in the idea that government control increases, together with opportunities for people in and supporting government can get more power, more wealth, and more excuses for arrogance.

An afterword: we do understand and share the concern that surveillance cameras (Flock, etc), AI, data centers, and networks are tools that are easily used by government (and enemies of liberty in general) to increase their power and control over individuals, families, and companies. They can be tools of tyranny, and this is to us a reason to be leary of them.

At the same time, we note that the group which can least be trusted to really protect us as individuals, families, and small companies is all those government agencies that those who are AI-phobes and data-center haters want to give the power to control or do away with them. Yet another example of mental dissonance.