"Formerly sealed documents from a lawsuit against AT&T for allegedly helping the National Security Agency spy on Americans' communications without a warrant were released in redacted form Thursday, and confirm the legitimacy of documents published earlier by Wired News..."
I don't know about anyone else, but the fact that one of the oldest and largest telecommunications companies in the world has the ability to directly tap supposedly "private" conversations (be they between people or computers) is downright fucking SCARY.
Which leads me to explaining the title of this post... 22 years ago, it was 1984. Allow me to quote the aforehyperlinked (is that a word?) page here (emphasis is mine):
"In the novel 1984, George Orwell depicts a dystopia with his use of a futuristic setting while incorporating the fear of technology. A dystopia is a society where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives. In a dystopia, social and/or technological trends have contributed to a corrupted or degraded state of deprivation and oppression. Governmental tyranny and an exploitation of the people are also prominent in a dystopia."
Hmm, sounds familiar... if you read the article, it appears that NSA has finally said "fuck civil liberties - we're The Government; we can do whatever we like and you can't do shit about it cuz it's all in the name of national security."
Stupid! I'd bet $100 right now that the next major "national security" incident turns out to be the product of some goverment-hired or government-contracted employee who nobody knew was actually working undercover for Fred's Fearless Freedom Fighting Force who runs out the door and down the street with some laptop containing the name, address, social security number, blood type, and penis/breast size of every legitimate American in the country.
Suddenly, establishing tighter security around the Mexican border doesn't seem like such a bad idea... if it weren't for the backlash it caused - what's the fucking point, anyway? We build a fence, they build a tunnel. We set up security cameras, they hop over in the dark. We patrol the border in 4x4's; they learn the patrol routes and sneak through when the gas-guzzling government SUV is a mile and half away.
Unfortunately, that seems to be something our government is never going to learn - even the most innocent-looking, well-behaved feline might still sneak in your room while you're sleeping and eat your pet gerbil - it's the law of nature: survival of the fittest...
I bittersweet irony when the time comes that somebody finally looks up, frowns, and plants a steel-toed boot square in the nuts of Big Brother Bush and Papa Bush for interfering with the lives of hard working citizens (who don't need to start a fucking war to earn a bit of extra cash). But I disgress.
My wife and I are having marital troubles... although if this AT&T/NSA thing turns out to be nothing more than the tip of the iceberg, I imagine there'll be much bigger things to be worrying about... like where to hide when Bush's political tap-dancing earns his a nuclear tomato impacting him right in his big fat head.
Our nation is but rolling, seething mass of ignorance and stupidity... and the part that sucks the most is that 99% of the population is too ignorant and/or stupid to realize and do something about it.
Ah, despondence... thy name is me.
----------------------------------
Postscript:
So was that incoherent enough for ya?!? Huh?!? Was it!??#?!$ Serves you right for reading the blog of a scatterbrained software developer!$!$%!# Ya like that??!??$%! Ya want some more?!$?
Too bad... ;-) Maybe later.
----------------------------------
References:
Wired News: Court Filing Confirms Spy Docs
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71008-0.html?tw=rss.index
Wired News: Whistle-Blower's Evidence, Uncut
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70944-0.html
EFF: Class-Action Lawsuit Against AT&T
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/
CNN.com: Theft of vets' data kept secret for 19 days
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/23/vets.data/
MSNBC.com: Violence against border agents at record pace
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7997408/
I don't know about anyone else, but the fact that one of the oldest and largest telecommunications companies in the world has the ability to directly tap supposedly "private" conversations (be they between people or computers) is downright fucking SCARY.
Which leads me to explaining the title of this post... 22 years ago, it was 1984. Allow me to quote the aforehyperlinked (is that a word?) page here (emphasis is mine):
"In the novel 1984, George Orwell depicts a dystopia with his use of a futuristic setting while incorporating the fear of technology. A dystopia is a society where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives. In a dystopia, social and/or technological trends have contributed to a corrupted or degraded state of deprivation and oppression. Governmental tyranny and an exploitation of the people are also prominent in a dystopia."
Hmm, sounds familiar... if you read the article, it appears that NSA has finally said "fuck civil liberties - we're The Government; we can do whatever we like and you can't do shit about it cuz it's all in the name of national security."
Stupid! I'd bet $100 right now that the next major "national security" incident turns out to be the product of some goverment-hired or government-contracted employee who nobody knew was actually working undercover for Fred's Fearless Freedom Fighting Force who runs out the door and down the street with some laptop containing the name, address, social security number, blood type, and penis/breast size of every legitimate American in the country.
Suddenly, establishing tighter security around the Mexican border doesn't seem like such a bad idea... if it weren't for the backlash it caused - what's the fucking point, anyway? We build a fence, they build a tunnel. We set up security cameras, they hop over in the dark. We patrol the border in 4x4's; they learn the patrol routes and sneak through when the gas-guzzling government SUV is a mile and half away.
Unfortunately, that seems to be something our government is never going to learn - even the most innocent-looking, well-behaved feline might still sneak in your room while you're sleeping and eat your pet gerbil - it's the law of nature: survival of the fittest...
I bittersweet irony when the time comes that somebody finally looks up, frowns, and plants a steel-toed boot square in the nuts of Big Brother Bush and Papa Bush for interfering with the lives of hard working citizens (who don't need to start a fucking war to earn a bit of extra cash). But I disgress.
My wife and I are having marital troubles... although if this AT&T/NSA thing turns out to be nothing more than the tip of the iceberg, I imagine there'll be much bigger things to be worrying about... like where to hide when Bush's political tap-dancing earns his a nuclear tomato impacting him right in his big fat head.
Our nation is but rolling, seething mass of ignorance and stupidity... and the part that sucks the most is that 99% of the population is too ignorant and/or stupid to realize and do something about it.
Ah, despondence... thy name is me.
----------------------------------
Postscript:
So was that incoherent enough for ya?!? Huh?!? Was it!??#?!$ Serves you right for reading the blog of a scatterbrained software developer!$!$%!# Ya like that??!??$%! Ya want some more?!$?
Too bad... ;-) Maybe later.
----------------------------------
References:
Wired News: Court Filing Confirms Spy Docs
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71008-0.html?tw=rss.index
Wired News: Whistle-Blower's Evidence, Uncut
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70944-0.html
EFF: Class-Action Lawsuit Against AT&T
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/
CNN.com: Theft of vets' data kept secret for 19 days
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/23/vets.data/
MSNBC.com: Violence against border agents at record pace
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7997408/
No comments:
Post a Comment