Slashdot Mirror
Top Secret America
mahiskali writes "The Washington Post published an immense interactive website today, detailing the companies and government agencies currently doing top secret work in the United States. Everything from counter-IED operations to human intelligence is touched upon. Citing various interviews with 'super users' and through exhaustive analysis of public records for over two years, this interactive site allows users to peer into the guarded world of top secret intelligence. With more than 854,000 people currently holding a TS clearance, has the defense and intelligence world grown too big, too fast? Or has this large growth served us well, exemplified by no successful terrorist acts on US soil since 9/11? How can we judge the success of these programs, when much of it will never be known by the general public?"
Preventing a Shinto temple at Pearl Harbor wouldn't be an infringement on the first Amendment. The Shinto can have their temple, almost anywhere, so long as it doesn't offend the families of the men and women who were murdered at Pearl Harbor. The freedom of religion does not include freedom to offend other people with your religion. (I wish the court system would teach that lesson to the fruitcakes from that Westboro Baptist "church".)
Ditto a Mosque at Ground Zero.
And, BTW - my dad served in the Pacific. He was shipped home in a basket, and spent more than a year in the hospital before he learned how to walk and to take care of himself again.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Then, I might point out that blowing up a mosque might offend you, but unless you are standing in the mosque, it hardly harms you.
Let's stop quibbling here. Much of Islam is at war against the United States. Much of Islam slyly supports Al Queda and other militant groups that claim to represent Islam. Allowing a Mosque at Ground Zero would be the equivalent of allowing the Emperor of Japan to plant his Rising Sun flag on the USS Arizon monument.
There will be no mosque at Ground Zero, unless and until Islam takes control of those extremists that claim to act for Islam. Some redneck will be around to destroy any mosque. Care to make a wager?
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br