Monday, June 10, 2013

Describing "Total Security"

This Englishman gets it.

...Fox News’s Kirsten Powers certainly seems to think that such widespread data mining is acceptable, asking critics on Twitter last week: “how r they supposed to know who to target before the data is mined to find suspicious activity? it has to be ‘blanket’ initially.”

This is an utterly terrifying suggestion, a principle that could be applied to almost anything in any place and at any time. Are we routinely to obtain warrants in order to search each and every house in a city so that we might know which house warrants even more thorough scrutiny? I rather think not. And yet if it is acceptable for the state to apply a single search-and-seize permission slip to hundreds of millions of people on the off chance that something might turn up, why not, say, to all the homes in Dearborn, Michigan?...

Why not?  Why doesn't the (R) majority in the Wisconsin legislature simply issue a warrant covering all the residences in Dane County, given the proclivities of that region?

...When I entered into arrangements with American Express, Google, and AT&T, I took a calculated risk with my privacy. I took that risk with American Express, not with the federal government; with Google, not with President Obama; and with AT&T, not the national-security services. Are we to presume now that all private agreements implicitly involve the state? And if so, where is the limiting principle? If I am to expect that private information I keep on a server run by a private company will be routinely accessed by the government without my knowledge, then why would I not also expect that private belongings I keep in a storage unit run by a private company will be routinely accessed without my knowledge? At what point did it become assumed in free countries that relationships between free citizens and free businesses were not sacrosanct?...

Umnnnhhh....those businesses are not "free."  They are wholly dependent on the license of the Gummint to operate, silly.  They're cooperating because the gun is to their heads, too.

And contra the vacuous "nothing to see here" blather from Krauthammer (etc.), here's a dose of reality:

...After analyzing 1.5 million cellphone users over the course of 15 months, the researchers found they could uniquely identify 95 percent of cellphone users based on just four data points — that is, just four instances of where they were and what hour of the day it was just four times in one year. With just two data points, they could identify more than half of the users. And the researchers suggested that the study may underestimate how easy it is....

You may call Snowden a traitor if you like.  Obama certainly will.  But if NSA can hire such a person, why can't they (or IRS, or EPA, or DHS) hire a lesser-grade voyeur?  One who has a certain dislike for you, or your spouse, or your children, or your political beliefs, and who can make your life Hell?

Oh, wait:  they already DID so.

Hmmmm?

4 comments:

  1. Saint Revolution6/11/2013 7:45 PM


    Explain to me, Kirsten Austin Powers Talking Head(Giver), how the hell we not only managed, but prospered, for two and a half centuries without this kind of unconstitutional criminal government super overreach...but suddenly now we need Gladys Kravitz NSA to poke their overpaid underworked neurotic paranoid delusional illegal unaccountable dicks into the glory hole of oligarchial tyrannical totalitarianism.

    Snowden, on the contrary, is not only NOT a traitor, but, in fact, is the penultimate patriot and revolutionary. Without firing a shot, Snowden has committed THE needed cold reboot of the mechanism of American intelligence, polling all I/O ports for proper port protocol 'round the world.

    Testicles the size of The Liberty Bell...each.

    I salute him.

    GodSpeed, Snowden.


    Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
    What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
    Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
    O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
    And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
    Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
    O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
    O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

    On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
    Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
    What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
    As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
    Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
    In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
    'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave,
    O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

    And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
    That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
    A home and a country should leave us no more?
    Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
    No refuge could save the hireling and slave,
    From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
    And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
    O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

    O, thus be it ever when free men shall stand,
    Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
    Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land,
    Praise The Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
    THEN CONQUER WE MUST, WHEN OUR CAUSE IS JUST,
    And this be our motto: "IN GOD IS OUR TRUST",
    And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,
    O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!


    My country, 'tis of thee,
    Sweet land of liberty,
    Of thee I sing;
    Land where my fathers died,
    Land of the pilgrims' pride,
    From ev'ry mountainside,
    Let freedom ring!

    My native country, thee,
    Land of the noble free,
    Thy name I love;
    I love thy rocks and rills,
    Thy woods and templed hills;
    My heart with rapture thrills,
    Like that above.

    Let music swell the breeze,
    And ring from all the trees,
    Sweet freedom's song;
    Let mortal tongues awake;
    Let all that breathe partake;
    Let rocks their silence break,
    The sound prolong.

    Our fathers' God to Thee,
    Author of liberty,
    To Thee we sing.
    Long may our land be bright,
    With freedom's holy light,
    PROTECT US BY THY MIGHT,
    GREAT GOD OUR KING.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Saint Revolution6/11/2013 8:34 PM


    Explain to me, Kirsten Austin Powers Talking Head(Giver), how the hell we not only managed, but prospered, for two and a half centuries without this kind of unconstitutional criminal government super overreach...but suddenly now we need Gladys Kravitz NSA to poke their overpaid underworked neurotic paranoid delusional illegal unaccountable dicks into the glory hole of oligarchial tyrannical totalitarianism.

    Snowden, on the contrary, is not only NOT a traitor, but, in fact, is the penultimate patriot and revolutionary. Without firing a shot, Snowden has committed THE needed cold reboot of the mechanism of American intelligence, polling all I/O ports for proper port protocol 'round the world.

    Testicles the size of The Liberty Bell...each.

    I salute him.

    GodSpeed, Snowden.


    Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
    What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
    Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
    O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
    And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
    Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
    O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
    O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

    On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
    Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
    What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
    As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
    Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
    In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
    'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave,
    O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

    And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
    That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
    A home and a country should leave us no more?
    Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
    No refuge could save the hireling and slave,
    From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
    And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
    O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

    O, thus be it ever when free men shall stand,
    Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
    Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land,
    Praise The Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
    THEN CONQUER WE MUST, WHEN OUR CAUSE IS JUST,
    And this be our motto: "IN GOD IS OUR TRUST",
    And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,
    O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!


    My country, 'tis of thee,
    Sweet land of liberty,
    Of thee I sing;
    Land where my fathers died,
    Land of the pilgrims' pride,
    From ev'ry mountainside,
    Let freedom ring!

    My native country, thee,
    Land of the noble free,
    Thy name I love;
    I love thy rocks and rills,
    Thy woods and templed hills;
    My heart with rapture thrills,
    Like that above.

    Let music swell the breeze,
    And ring from all the trees,
    Sweet freedom's song;
    Let mortal tongues awake;
    Let all that breathe partake;
    Let rocks their silence break,
    The sound prolong.

    Our fathers' God to Thee,
    Author of liberty,
    To Thee we sing.
    Long may our land be bright,
    With freedom's holy light,
    PROTECT US BY THY MIGHT,
    GREAT GOD OUR KING .

    ReplyDelete
  3. I see your posted your filth on Vox Day as well. Typical...

    ReplyDelete
  4. How much time does St. Nutjob invest in stringing together these juvenile screeds?

    ReplyDelete