Privacy slowly dissolves

This evening I went to buy some generic Sudafed (pseudoephedrine) for the first time in a while. I already knew that they now stock it in the pharmacy, and I thought that was to keep people from stealing them easily to use in their methamphetamine labs.

While that's the motivation for the policy, the new policy is dramatically more sinister than that (which isn't particularly sinister; I don't have a problem with stores keeping high-shoplift items under tighter control.)

No. What do you need to do now to purchase pseudoephedrine?

• Provide a picture ID. Your name and address are recorded.
• Sign an electronic form.
• You are limited to 3.6 g/day and 9 g/month. Presumably this is enforced by the above items.

It's breathtaking what people are willing to give up in the name of "fighting" terrorism, crime, whatever. Individual, personal records kept. I suppose that this is one of the things that the pro-gun fanatics lose their heads about, but it's an awful lot harder to do harm to somebody with some decongestant pills than with a gun.

We sit by as we are increasingly monitored and controlled.

And I can't excuse myself either: I didn't complain.