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Oh my gosh, Burt! I just read your sig line. Kim Kardashian is having a baby?!?
Well why didn't you say so in the first place?
Well why didn't you say so in the first place?
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For you Facebook and Twitter cheerleaders:
This passed - Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Big surprise in the Land of the Free.
In a nutshell: The U.S government and its law enforcement would be able to receive mountains of information from companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, and also your cell phone carrier simply by requesting it, no subpoena required. They would be able to use the information they gather for whatever purpose was deemed necessary, with NO LEGAL consequence.
Also important is that the scope of this bill is NOT confined to US residents. The US government would be able to get information about anyone in the world that has a Facebook, Google or Twitter account.
The thing I love most about technology is how utterly disruptive it can be. Personally, I'm not fond of the idea of being in some government database somewhere, but the reality is there's very little I can do about it. At the same time, if a private individual wanted to create their own database and start putting the government into it, there's not much they could do about that either, and the smaller organization is at great advantage because they understand the technology (because they built it) and can be much better about allocating resources.
At a fundamental level, no matter how serious the government is about going through and organizing data because of the size of the organization they will have to spend more money, time and computing power to derive information from it than a private company. You or I don't need to submit forms in triplicate, or have department meetings to decide how the tables will be laid out, or what form the queries have to be put into. Even then, good luck finding field agents who can even put together a wildcard SQL query, if there is one, he will probably soon find employment in the private sector because he's tired of dealing with all the droolers who can't. Bureaucracies are not known for creating strong work ethics or original thinking, because neither is rewarded.
The biggest issue I have with this is that it's a waste of taxpayer dollars that will make zero impact on current crime. At the same time, while the federal government is tight on money it will take resources away from actually busting criminals so they can sit around doing lengthy analysis of people who are not criminals.
Case in point, would this database have tracked the unabomber? He's a guy who lives in a cabin in BFE, when he chooses to strike, he gets on his bike, buys a bus ticket, and mails a bomb.. What caught him? his typewriter. What about the 9/11 hijackers? DB Cooper? The symbionese liberation army?
Nothing good can come from this. People should have a reasonable expectation of privacy. The potential for misuse far outweighs the benefits of an omniscient, totalitarian government.
I think government organizations, and private companies that do contract work for them, need to be accountable to the people. I don't trust black budgets, and don't believe an honest justification for them can be made.
It looks like programs like this need to be defunded, but we know that won't happen. I trust individuals with firearms because they continually show sound judgement in their ownership and use. I cannot say that the federal government has shown responsible behavior with its use of troops and weapons.
States do a good job, largely, regarding use of force and exercising restraint. I've never been a big states rights fan, but I really worry about federal powers going out of control. They will hurt people. Surveillance twists people up in ways that aren't good. And power will be misused for ridiculous, petty, personal reasons by those who wield it.
At this point, there is nothing we can do to change the political scene. We have no legitimate representation. Get to know your neighbors, help people out whenever you can, stockpile food and tools, work on your garden. As the government transforms further into a nightmare state, quality of life will become increasingly tied up in local affairs, how well you get on with the people around you, and how valuable you are to them.
We already have something like 2 million people in prison right now. New ATF plans won't exactly reduce this number. I think our material standard of living is so high that it is difficult to see how hard life is for those on the bottom. There seem to be a lot more people on the bottom these days. Keeping records of them won't help anything.
The Unibomber was located when his family got suspicious and contacted the authorities. The typewriter linked the bombings, but the FBI couldn't locate it. Now if it had been registered ......