As you type an instant message, send an email, or have a spirited phone call, have you ever wondered whether the U.S. Government is listening in? And, if so, would they understand that you weren’t serious when you said that you wished some politician would die before he or she could raise taxes again?

Dr. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood killer, has done more to assuage Americans’ fears about government surveillance than any official ever could.

The guy exchanged email with Anwar al-Awlak, an outspoken advocate of jihad who moved from suburban Virginia to his ancestral home of Yemen (source).

The guy posted pro-suicide bombing arguments to Islamic Web sites using his own name, “Nidal Hasan” (source).

The guy stood up in front of a group of U.S. Army officers and said that “non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.” (source; original slides)

Was this guy arrested? Harassed by federal agents? No. In fact, despite poor job performance, he was promoted to Major in the U.S. Army! Instead of summonses to tedious court proceedings, the government sent him paychecks.

The bad news is that the same government that determined Dr. Hasan was a prime candidate for military promotion is trying to teach America’s children math and English as well as run most of our health care system. The good news is that it would appear our free speech rights are stronger than we imagined.

[Separately, as noted in this Telegraph article, the incident with Dr. Hasan calls into question the efficacy of psychiatry:

Selena Coppa, an activist for Iraq Veterans Against the War, said: “This man was a psychiatrist and was working with other psychiatrists every day and they failed to notice how deeply disturbed someone right in their midst was.”

The American Psychiatric Association says that it is “science-based”. If the discipline demonstrably lacks predictive power, is it fair to say that it is somehow scientific? (I am not saying that I agree with Ms. Coppa’s assertion that Dr. Hasan was “deeply disturbed”, only that if expert psychiatrists could not predict that Dr. Hasan was likely to act on his stated beliefs, it would be nice to know what psychiatry can predict.)]