The number of bizarre, outrageous, infuriating, and baffling stories flooding the news cycle over recent weeks is so surreal that one could be excused for thinking the online parody site, The Onion, had somehow taken over the mainstream media. The stories provide more compelling evidence as to why big government is dangerous to not only liberty, privacy, and constitutional rights, but to plain common sense. Some stories stoke fear about the rising tyranny of big government, as if they were ripped from the pages of George Orwell’s prophetic novel “1984”, while others show a level of such confounding incompetence that one wonders why we ever feared such idiots seizing control of the reins of power.

The truth is somewhere in between. While it is clear that there are those within the upper echelons of government that have conspired to seize power and spy on their fellow citizens, it is also clear that the majority of the abuse inflicted by government on those it “serves” comes from the crushing weight of a federal bureaucracy that is fully entrenched with little fear of being fired; wielding power over their fiefdoms and their helpless subjects therein simply because they can.

Here are just a handful of the stories we’ve heard of late, each one a testament as to why every American should fear the enormous and metastasizing power of government in our lives, and why we should all fight to take a chainsaw to the size of government, regardless of political philosophy or party affiliation:

• In news that broke a few days ago, it was revealed that the National Security Agency has, in the name of keeping us safe from terrorists, been collecting private communications data (cell phone, email, social networking, etc.) on virtually all Americans. According to breaking reports from the Washington Post and the Guardian, PRISM (a super-secret data mining program run by the NSA) allows agency analysts to access private user messages and other user data from major tech companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and YouTube. Initial reports claimed the NSA had direct access to the companies’ servers, although the companies now deny those allegations (then again, considering the backlash they could expect from users’ outrage at the invasion of privacy, it’s hardly surprising that they would deny it).

Think of what that means. The NSA is not spying on those for whom a warrant has been obtained, or those suspected of terrorism. ALL Americans. Considering that we are still neck deep in the IRS scandal, in which the agency has been exposed for targeting Obama’s political opponents for harassment and intimidation, is it not terrifying to think that every one of us has been spied on for years? For what purpose? This type of activity is in blatant violation of the letter and spirit of the Constitution, and reeks of the type of tyranny seen under the totalitarian governments of Stalin, Hitler, and Mao, where the government considers every citizen a threat. Like those totalitarian government, Obama is determined to control the flow of information, whether by courting favor from fawning, supplicant “news” outlets like the New York Times or MSNBC, or by threatening opposition press, as happened with Fox News reporter James Rosen. In Rosen’s case, they not only went after him, labeling him as a co-conspirator to treasonous acts for simply reporting the truth, but they spied on his parents as well.

This type of intrusion and spying is not just going on at the federal level, but even in our own schools. In Polk County, Florida, young schoolchildren had their irises scanned (the equivalent of an optical fingerprint) as part of a “student safety” program, and it was done without school officials getting the permission of the parents, or even notifying them! This information is controlled by a private company contracting with the government for the purpose of building an enormous database of student information, from biometric data to school records to who knows what else. The government is indoctrinating and training our youth to accept the most egregious invasions of privacy without a second thought. This is a de facto destruction of Fourth Amendment rights, accomplished with barely a whimper.

• In a reverse display of the axiom that no good deed goes unpunished, it seems that in the Obama administration, clearly unethical and often illegal deeds go rewarded with promotion. The woman in charge of the IRS’s Tax Exempt division, Sarah Hall Ingram, which targeted innocent Americans for intimidation and abuse, has not only NOT been fired, she has been PROMOTED to head the IRS division that will be enforcing the ObamaCare law. Need heart bypass surgery, or maybe just a hip replacement? I suggest you stop supporting conservative causes and start writing checks to the Democrat National Committee. Otherwise, you may find that you don’t qualify for those needed services.

• If you think I am kidding about that, then you haven’t heard the story of Sarah Murnaghan, a 10-year old girl dying from cystic fibrosis, who has less than a month to live unless she gets a life-saving lung transplant. Her doctors have said that they can modify an adult lung to transplant into her body, which would save her life, but ObamaCare regulations will not allow her to be moved from the pediatric waiting list to the adult waiting list. That move would not place her ahead of anyone, as HHS Secretary Sebelius falsely claimed, but would only place her on that list in order of priority of need; but at least she would have a chance.

Liberals and the media mocked those that claimed ObamaCare would usher in “death panels”, but what we have now, with ObamaCare giving enormous power to the Health and Human Services Secretary, is a “death czar”. Imagine the despair and anguish Sarah’s father felt as he stood before Secretary Sebelius, pleading for her to use her power to waive that rule so that his daughter might live, only to hear her dismiss his pleas and deny his request, callously declaring that “someone lives and someone dies,” and that his daughter was not important enough to save. Imagine the fury and despair that you would feel if it was your child whom doctors said they can save, but some pencil-pushing, bean-counting bureaucrat overruled the doctors and effectively sentenced your child, your wife, or your mother, to death. On the other hand, I have a feeling that if it was the child of Jay-Z and Beyonce, or the grandchild of Democrat mega-donor George Soros, that child would immediately go to the top of the list.

Even as it manipulates and lies to push Congress to pass stricter gun control laws, the Obama administration is selling F-16 fighter jets to Egypt, which is controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood…the same Muslim Brotherhood that seeks the destruction of America and Israel and the worldwide implementation of Sharia law.

The stories are endless. Susan Rice, who blamed the Benghazi terrorist attacks on a YouTube video, has now been promoted to National Security Advisor. Senior Obama administration officials have secret and/or fake email addresses they use to avoid exposing their back-room dealings to Freedom of Information Act requests. Eric Holder won’t resign despite being neck deep in corruption. A 5-year old who brought a plastic cap gun to school was interrogated for hours until he wet his pants, and then suspended for ten days.

These stories are just the tip of the iceberg, but they show clearly that powerful government is a danger to us. And it would be wrong to lay this at Obama’s feet, though he deserves enormous blame and criticism. The NSA spying program has been in place since the end of the Bush administration, and was justified under the same rubric as the PATRIOT Act, which was passed with wide bipartisan support, signed into law by Bush, and renewed and expanded by Obama. If we continue to allow such government expansion and abuse, then no matter how horrific the abuse, we’ll have gotten what we deserve.