How a Young IRS Agent Identified the Man Behind Silk Road (nytimes.com)

circletimessquare writes: Dread Pirate Roberts, who ran Silk Road, was identified as Ross Ulbricht by one agent googling, off work hours, in just two weekends in 2013. Many agents had been working on the case for a year or more, and since agent Gary Alford was new to the case, not FBI, and not technologically sophisticated, no one took him seriously for months. He escalated the discovery and became such a pest about it, one agent told him to drop it. From the New York Times article: "In these technical investigations, people think they are too good to do the stupid old-school stuff. But I'm like, 'Well, that stuff still works.'" Mr. Alford's preferred tool was Google. He used the advanced search option to look for material posted within specific date ranges. That brought him, during the last weekend of May 2013, to a chat room posting made just before Silk Road had gone online, in early 2011, by someone with the screen name "altoid." "Has anyone seen Silk Road yet?" altoid asked. "It's kind of like an anonymous Amazon.com." The early date of the posting suggested that altoid might have inside knowledge about Silk Road. During the first weekend of June 2013, Mr. Alford went through everything altoid had written, the online equivalent of sifting through trash cans near the scene of a crime. Mr. Alford eventually turned up a message that altoid had apparently deleted — but that had been preserved in the response of another user. In that post, altoid asked for some programming help and gave his email address: rossulbricht@gmail.com.

Comments

It's as old as search engines

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

People rarely realize how much stuff they put on the internet about themselves, willingly or not. Since the internet never forgets, it's usually quite easy to dig up a lot of information about almost everybody. All it takes is a lot of time and knowing how to look.

Do the exercize: try to unearth bits of information about yourself: it's scary how much you can find out (or rediscover) about yourself in a mere couple hours...

What surprises me here is that government agencies who should know better dismiss plain old search engine stalking as a valid method for finding out what someone is up to, or has done.

Re:It's as old as search engines

[Kjella]

Well, you just try to find out what my real name is, and do send me an email to inform me about it.

Kind Regards.
J

Your name is Will Smith. I guess those props were a bit too realistic...

Re:It's as old as search engines

[MightyYar]

You can disappear with some effort. I know someone who has been quite successful hiding in plain site from child support payments. Not something to brag about (not a friend). He gets found eventually - everyone makes mistakes, but he owns several properties, cars, boats, etc. You can hide things in land/property trusts and behind other entities. For instance, it is totally legal - in fact the practice predates "law" - to deed your house (or other property) in the name of a trust. This trust can have any name you wish, and the trust documents with the beneficiary on them are held by you, so they are not searchable.

Re:It's as old as search engines

[Dr. Evil]

"What surprises me here is that government agencies who should know better dismiss plain old search engine stalking as a valid method for finding out what someone is up to, or has done."

The NYT is trying to tell a story. There might be a nugget of truth, but I'm doubtful that the government agencies are so dismissive of old tech.

We work in an industry where we can raise red flags, calling meetings, send urgent emails, harass people in chat and in hallways and not have our ideas heard. I'm sure the IRS agent encounters the same. It's not just old tech. Could be not-invented-here, resources, sound reasons to dismiss the lead above his clearance (as the agent expected), internal politics... who knows?

Ticket systems are nice for this. IRS opens a ticket and assigns it to the FBI. Date, time, assignee and management oversight to see that it gets worked on eventually. Whomever closes the ticket without a good reason, only to discover it solved the case should look for a new job.

Re:It's as old as search engines

[MightyYar]

He's been found - but he had a good run.

Re:It's as old as search engines

[whoever57]

People rarely realize how much stuff they put on the internet about themselves, willingly or not. Since the internet never forgets, it's usually quite easy to dig up a lot of information about almost everybody. All it takes is a lot of time and knowing how to look.

If anyone ever figures out who that "Anonymous Coward" is, his life is going to be over!!

Re: It's as old as search engines

[arth1]

I assume you are using your real name at work?

Many people don't, because the names are either hard to guess the pronunciation of or spell for someone who is monolingual (like most Americans), or was misspelled or given creative spelling by their parents, or they were born in the hippie days and carry names like Sunflower Love.

Where I work, I guess around half of the workers go by their legal name in the phone directory.

Re:It's as old as search engines

[AK Marc]

You are presuming anyone was looking for him. I know a guy who simply doesn't pay. He has a job, pays tax to the IRS in his real name. He rents, rather than owning, but doesn't try to live off the grid. The only time he was "caught" was when he was 3 years overdue and an arrest warrant was issued. He was arrested, held until he paid the back payments, then released. He's never made a child support payment, just a jail bond once (or whatever they call it). He's the stereotypical deadbeat dad. No need to hide, nobody's looking.

Re:It's as old as search engines

[MightyYar]

Naw, they were looking. Found him when he got married to someone not as careful as he.

Re: It's as old as search engines

[EdwardFurlong]

Vote? Ever get a traffic ticket or any been charged in a crime? Get married/divorced/ been part of a civil lawsuit? Any lost funds you don't know the state is holding? Some of it really depends who is looking, how much they have to go on etc.

Re:It's as old as search engines

[Eunuchswear]

Everyone needs to teach their children that it's ok to not pay child support? Before or after you abandon them?

Re:It's as old as search engines

[Megol]

I think that is a bit much for someone that can't bother to provide for their child - sure he is a sociopathic asshole and should be punished in some way. But castration (so that he can't spread his seed any more) is more fitting.

Re:It's as old as search engines

[aminorex]

If you transact on the bitcoin blockchain, you are giving up all hope of effective privacy. This IRS guy started out by picking off SilkRoad users by tracing blockchain transactions. Ulbricht was a lucky strike, due to Ross's opsec failures, and did not depend on transaction history, but the little fish he picked off were all victims of the public transparent blockchain.

That's why I think the future of free enterprise lies in opaque blockchains with cryptographic privacy guarantees built-in by default. Anything else leaves you open to blackmail, extortion, or, at the optimistic best, tracking in the manner of facebook/google/et-filia.

I transact in Monero whenever possible for this reason. Particularly if the value of my XMR holdings were to rise dramatically, I would not want my identity tracable through linking to exchange transactions. Whenever I want to spend bitcoin, I do so through xmr.to or shapeshift.io, spending XMR at market XMR/BTC exchange rates.

Re:It's as old as search engines

[anti-disney]

I googled my name and found 3 web sites that provide my name, address, and telephone number. One even had a map on how to get to my house. So much for having unlisted numbers. These sites refused to take down my information. In fact one site even told me I have to join their site for $19.95 a month in order to have control of what information they post about me even though I didn't give them my information and did not authorize them to publically publish my name, address, and phone number.

Re:It's as old as search engines

[rpstrong]

It is 'Anonymous', you insensitive clod! And why are you bouncing my replies?

Re:Probably a lie

[Calydor]

He would if he was hiding behind seven proxies.

Old school?

[CCarrot]

"In these technical investigations, people think they are too good to do the stupid old-school stuff. But I'm like, 'Well, that stuff still works.'" Mr. Alford's preferred tool was Google.

"Old-school": I do not think that word means what you think it means...either that, or I'm ancient school *sigh*

Re:Old school?

[PopeRatzo]

"Old-school": I do not think that word means what you think it means...either that, or I'm ancient school *sigh*

I prefer to think of myself as an ancient alien.

Re:Old school?

[AK Marc]

Thetan?

Clearly

[rmdingler]

It is probably accurate to assume the seasoned agents were using illegal wiretapping colllection pots and posing as customers on Silk Road.

This story indicates the surveillance state, and much of its collection efforts, are even less necessary as long as the detectives are willing to put in the work.

Re: Clearly

[Anonymous Coward]

If society knew how law enforcement really operates, there could/would be a "revolution", but not for the reasons you think. Everyone would be mad they are paying people to do almost nothing for a whole career. The war on cops of any kind is only cementing that attitude with LEOs. Why work or even try when its a thankless job and you could become a CNN star regardless of if you were really at fault.

Re: Clearly

[sparkeyjames]

Perhaps that perception and or reality is based on the fact that they now use their gun before their brain? Incompetence exists at all levels of government and law enforcement. When the resultant outcome of contact with law enforcement is less justice and more death it's time for a reexamination of methods and the types of people involved.

Re: Clearly

[hvm2hvm]

I don't get it, what attitude do they have with Low Earth Orbits?

Re: Clearly

[AK Marc]

Add to that almost all felony arrests are made in traffic stops. People get into the system, often not even knowing it themselves. Then sit dormant until someone runs them and stumbles across it. Police don't go to houses to arrest people. That's too risky, and people who know they are wanted do things like move.

If there was a requirement to notify all wanted people, people who have a silly traffic ticket from 5 years ago they forgot about would deal with it before they get arrested for it. But the police fear that letting someone they aren't looking for that they are wanted would cause them to take more steps to not be found, when nobody would deliberately find them either way.

In many cases, they know exactly where they are, and run contest winner scams to draw them in, assuming they wouldn't come in if told the truth. But the thing is, they never tried, they just assumed all people are evil. Same as when they are pointing a gun at an unarmed person. Sure, they may not have a gun to shoot back, and may not be guilty of whatever they were stopped for, but they are evil, like everyone else, and you kill them then, or they kill you tomorrow. So shoot away, it's best for everyone.

Re:Clearly

[radarskiy]

This story *actually* indicates that plain old investigation enough to catch criminals who depend on the magic properties of bitcoin, since doesn't have any.

You don't need crazy illegal wiretaps when you are looking for dumb criminals.

Re:Clearly

[Tom]

This exactly.

Like many middle managers, people in the police force are a victim to the technology panacea problem. Convincing salesmen tell them that this or that toy will solve all their problems and they believe it.

But the fact of the matter is, tools that really reduce your work by a large amount are invented once in a lifetime. You know, the wheel. The steam engine. That kind of stuff. The new product from Cool Tech Inc. is almost certainly not among them, no matter what they promise. It might be cool and super-useful, but if you think it will replace real, hard work, you are delusional.

Re:Clearly

[rtb61]

You missed what this story really indicates, there is more of the Slashdot, first post thing going on, then anything else. User the internet long term memory to trace down ideas to the original generator of those ideas, the first poster who sets the idea off. Those people who are least likely to make childish mistakes but still get caught up in being first, someone always has to be first, so it is all about the time track of new ideas, not where they have spread to but where they have originated. A story more about those who hack the wet wear via the internet, rather than hacking the software or the hardware. Make not mistake, a whole lot of wet wear hacking happens on the internet and they can always track the originators, those real first posters. Doesn't stop them from being still being hacked and chasing rainbows, the more you have, the less you have, information overload ;).

Re:Clearly

[Eunuchswear]

This story indicates the surveillance state, and much of its collection efforts, are even less necessary as long as the detectives are willing to put in the work.

No, this story indicates that Google is the surveillance state.

Re:Clearly

[anti-disney]

That's why they would rather you not know. The real purpose of the surveillance state isn't to catch terrorists as the Department of Homeland Security and your politicians claim it is for. It is a "tool" that they can use to go on fishing expeditions to find people who are breaking the law, not just terrorists. Prior to the Patriot Act a lot of the things in the Patriot Act were attached to other bills to fight the "war on drugs". After 9/11 they saw a great opportunity to pass laws that normally wouldn't pass.

Re: Probably a lie

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly. Its probably true that the guy posted it on the forum, bc everybody does mistakes, but I hardly believe its the way the gvt found out about ross ulbricht. This explanation is most probably a parralel construction used to hide the way the govermnent really identified his identity. Once you have the email you can simply google after the address plus "Silk road", and probably the forum turned up back then. Then they thought of this nice little story.

Young IRS Agent

[fustakrakich]

What, are we supposed to see this guy as some sort of hero or something? Forget it..

Re: Young IRS Agent

[fustakrakich]

Your definition of "illicit" is capricious and arbitrary, and quite fickle...

Re:Young IRS Agent

[fustakrakich]

The "right thing"? Please! What is the "right thing" when you're doing the devil's work?

Re:Young IRS Agent

[fustakrakich]

If they went after criminals, I would say no, but their work is political, which is of the devil.

Re: Young IRS Agent

[fustakrakich]

So you are a "statist", that changes nothing.. You only express an opinion. The gun does the real talking.

Re:Young IRS Agent

[gnasher719]

What, are we supposed to see this guy as some sort of hero or something? Forget it..

He found a dangerous criminal without doing anything even borderline illegal, so we should all very much appreciate what he was doing. If you think that he didn't get himself into the line of fire but acted from the safety of his desk, well, we don't want heroes, we want results.

Re: Young IRS Agent

[Anonymous Coward]

You fragile Americans don't even know what's a real violent criminal (you know, the likes of those your drug war created on the south side of the river). If some one have done something productive against the drug war was DPR and the silk road.

Re: Young IRS Agent

[fustakrakich]

You repeated what I just said.

Re:Young IRS Agent

[fustakrakich]

"Dangerous criminal"? I hope you're kidding...

Re:Young IRS Agent

[AK Marc]

He reduced the taxpayer burden. Why do you hate an efficient government?

Re:Young IRS Agent

[fustakrakich]

He reduced the taxpayer burden.

I doubt that very much, but I'll let you know when I file if I see any reduction.

Re:Young IRS Agent

[KGIII]

Eh? Well, he may have enabled adults to think for themselves and allow consenting people to purchase products that let them feel happy for a time. It might have encouraged individual thought or action. I'd say that's pretty dangerous! We can't have people taking control of their own bodies and minds. Think of the children!

Re:Young IRS Agent

[AK Marc]

Taxes and the burden are unrelated. The debt masks the burden. And the $1M or so he may have saved would have been $0.003 cents or so per taxpayer. So no, you'll not notice a single government worker saving $1M. But if all of them saved $1M, then you'd notice.

Re:Young IRS Agent

[fustakrakich]

This guy is small potatoes. If you are going to be serious about the tax burden (which this isn't), look to the leaders of the financial industry that sucks up all our currency out of circulation, not some punk free lancer that is statistically invisible. It's bullshit propaganda. Well, whatever, better luck to the next guy. In fact I'll bet the void was filled within minutes after the shut down. The "Soviet Union" still needs "lipstick and toilet paper". I hope you understand the analogy.

Re:Young IRS Agent

[fustakrakich]

Any and all attempts to politicize what the IRS does can be traced to and blamed on politicians and those who handle them.

Yes, enforcement is politically directed, and thus the IRS is politicized, its public mandate notwithstanding.

Re:Young IRS Agent

[anti-disney]

Edward Snowden also did what he felt was the morally correct thing to do when he revealed illegal wiretaps by the US Government. Look where he is now: hiding in Russia to avoid being prosecuted by the US Government for blowing the whistle.

And Alford blew ...

[PPH]

... how many FBI investigations?

It's possible that the FBI already knew who Ulbricht was. Or just didn't care, preferring to pursue the criminal groups using Silk Road rather than bringing the system down. But the IRS philosophy is to chase nickels in front of a steam roller. To them, the crime is the money. Not the drugs, weapons and other contraband being exchanged.

This is why many many law enforcement officials don't like sharing information with the IRS. Tip a terrorist off that he's being watched because he forgot to report some income and he goes underground.

Re:And Alford blew ...

[gtall]

And if the IRS did concentrate on the drugs, weapons, and contraband, you'd be whining about them overstepping their bounds. They are interested in financials because they are the IRS. What about this confuses you?

Re:And Alford blew ...

[PPH]

And if the IRS did concentrate on the drugs, weapons, and contraband,

Then they wouldn't be the IRS. They'd be a federal law enforcement agency that could prioritize their investigations to go after serious crimes. And they wouldn't be little fiefdoms, stepping on each other's toes with one group going after drugs, another after weapons, money, terrorism, etc.

Re:And Alford blew ...

[david_thornley]

As long as you report that drug, illegal weapon, and contraband income on your 1040 form., the IRS is fine with it. Actually, you can probably get by with reporting only some of it, if they can't prove how much income you got from illegal activities.

Re:Probably a lie

[Computershack]

Never underestimate stupid.

It's all up there on the screen

[hidflect]

It took me 2 hours to source a supply of Testosterone in Australia just using Google. Correlating and using limits will find you just about anything. Not everything is on Google, of course. In fact, in recent years I'm finding Google has less and less interesting information and content as web sites shut it out. The other search engines aren't any better. But it does lead you to doors like forums.

Re:It's all up there on the screen

[AK Marc]

There's too much horse racing in OZ to not find testosterone easily. Though calling all the vets in the phonebook asking who's willing to deal would probably work out poorly in the end.

Oops

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

"...altoid asked for some programming help and gave his email address: rossulbricht@gmail.com."

Whoopsie.

Re:Oops

[gweihir]

Which does not sound credible to me. On almost all sites where you ask this type of questions, you ask anonymously or with an account, but giving a plain-text email will both not get you responses to it and will get you a lot of spam to it instead.

My take: Parallel construction (i.e. law enforcement criminally lying under oath) and some way to keep Ulbricht quiet about it. Possibly done to hide criminal and possibly unconstitutional snooping practices.

Re:Oops

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

My take: Parallel construction (i.e. law enforcement criminally lying under oath) and some way to keep Ulbricht quiet about it. Possibly done to hide criminal and possibly unconstitutional snooping practices.

Yes, it's certainly possible that's what happened, but sometimes the answer is just that people are careless, stupid, lazy, or sloppy. It's hard to be perfect, but it only takes one tiny mistake to fuck it all up....and I can tell you from personal experience that fucking up is easy to do. lol

But who knows- it could easily be a combination of the two or just plain illegal activity by the cops. We'll probably never know for sure.

Re:Oops

[AK Marc]

I remember USENET from the '90s. I started on it from college. Every post tagged with my real, traceable, and valid email. There was no anonymity. Some persisted with that, even in less public forums. He was asking for programming help, not necessarily for anything nefarious. At that point, he may not have even realized he was going to do something nefarious with it.

My take: Parallel construction

There's little the FBI couldn't do without a warrant, so parallel construction wouldn't be necessary. The best theory I saw someone else post here is that the FBI knew it was a one-man operation, and sending that message wouldn't make a difference, so instead they were running it, capturing all, and using the intel to go after the little guy trading on Silk Road. Why take down a lone shark, when you can take out the entire ocean?

Re:Oops

[Jack Griffin]

Which does not sound credible to me.

My take: Parallel construction (i.e. law enforcement criminally lying under oath)

How does this get modded up? Just because you thought something up doesn't make it so. Luckily for us our legal system requires a little bit more evidence than what you happen to think on the day.

Re:Oops

[Jack Griffin]

Yes, it's certainly possible that's what happened,

It's also not possible, which is why we have courts. Rather than simply guessing, we get each side to present actual, verifiable evidence rather than pure speculation...

Re:Oops

[Jack Griffin]

There's little the FBI couldn't do without a warrant, so parallel construction wouldn't be necessary.

You can't say that in here. Everything the cops do is evil and subversive and they all hate you and want to eat your babies.
Whatever the question is, parallel construction is the answer....

Re:Oops

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

It's also not possible, which is why we have courts. Rather than simply guessing, we get each side to present actual, verifiable evidence rather than pure speculation...

Ain't nobody got time fo' dat shit!

Re:Oops

[david_thornley]

Also, the guy wasn't an FBI agent. I can break into your home and find the evidence of that little "ring" you have going on, turn it over to the police, and it's perfectly admissible. I can be prosecuted for burglary no matter what happens to you.

Re:Oops

[AK Marc]

An IRS Special Agent has the exact same powers as an FBI Special Agent (special agent, being the standard agent). The IRS runs in guns drawn and all that like an FBI raid when they take down someone. There was a guy at work that had filed 10 years worth of 10+ tax returns (all fraudulent) and the IRS came in like stormtroopers to take him away for hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax fraud. An IRS special agent can do anything an FBI special agent can.

But all that's irrelevant. The conspiracy theory is that the IRS agent didn't "do" anything. The FBI already did the work, and didn't want anyone to know they did it or how, so the IRS agent got the "credit". So your incorrect complaint that the IRS is powerless would support my rebuttal of that argument, not contradict it.

Re:Oops

[david_thornley]

And one thing neither an FBI nor IRS special agent can do is enter a private home without a warrant. Doing so would screw up any case they had. I, on the other hand, could break into the guy's house and look at his financial records, and that evidence is admissible in court. I've committed breaking and entering or burglary, of course. If I do so under any official auspices, such as a promise not to prosecute me, it counts as a government action.

Re:Probably a lie

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Pretty much everything the FBI and the NYT says is a lie. Does anyone believe that Ross Ulbricht would just go chatroom to chatroom posting "Have all you guys heard of my super secret illegal website?!"

Yes, I think it's entirely possible. Some people are just plain stupid even when they're smart*, and some people have a hard time thinking forward in time.

Or, more likely, he may just not have given much thought to covering his tracks, especially early on.

So yeah, although the FBI and NYT do indeed lie, I think it's quite plausible that he made some mistakes that led to his unmasking.

-

*Ben Carson, for example. He's supposedly a skilled brain surgeon, and yet he's a complete fucking imbecile about literally every other subject in the known universe. For example, here are just a few of the things he's said:
"The pyramids were used to store grain." Err, no.
"Israel's Knesset should just move to a 2-party system." Err, no.
"The Earth is 6,000 years old." Err, no.
"Satan created the Big Bang." Err, no.
"Gayness must be a choice, because prisoners who are raped come out gay." Err, no.
"Obamacare is worse than slavery." Err, no.
"Planned Parenthood is a plot to kill black babies." Err, no.

Re: Probably a lie

[slasher999]

Most likely true. Criminals only need to make one mistake. The likelyhood they will never make that mistake is pretty low. Eventually law enforcement angencies will see that mistake if they are looking for it - time is on their side, not the side of the criminal.

Amusing

[ArchieBunker]

How the tax collection agency goes after this guy and not the FBI. Shows the real priorities of Uncle Sam.

Re:Amusing

[Jack Griffin]

How the tax collection agency goes after this guy and not the FBI.

You know that the tax collector's job is to collect tax right? How do you think they should do that, just sit at home and hope everyone pays up?

Shows the real priorities of Uncle Sam.

Er, it is widely understood that the government needs money to function, and it collects that money via tax.
Take off the tin foil hat. This guy was breaking the law, made a rookie error and got caught by the people whose job it is to catch crooks. He deserves what he gets.

You can't do someones job for them

[RichMan]

The silly stuff of pride and self preservation means you can't do someone's job for them.
You show that they (and possible the massive task force behind them are "useless").

It is a stupid system. The whistle blowers should get a nice reward for saving further wasted money. And yes it is possible those in charge get a black mark for not following whatever lead it was. Overall from the top, the system should adjust and continue to reward these outside sources of information as good competition against an inside system going soft.

Re:Probably a lie

[Anonymous Coward]

Well I agree on most of what you said, but
"Obamacare is worse than slavery." -- It is slavery. You are forced to buy something (therefore you *must work* for the means to do so). At least with income taxes, you can get away without having an income.

"Planned Parenthood is a plot to kill black babies." -- Err yes. The original intent was to set up PP offices in the "dregs of society" so they wouldn't reproduce. I'm glad they've gotten better...

Re:2600

[basscomm]

darknrt

Gesundheit.

Re: Probably a lie

[jgfenix]

That guy probably played an old version of Civilization.

Re: 2600

[basscomm]

I think you mean "ermagherd darknrt"

That reminds me... I haven't played a Legend of Zelda game in a while.

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[account_deleted]

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Because he's black

[bigsexyjoe]

Gary L. Alford is black. That probably contributed to them not believing him.

Re:Because he's black

[circletimessquare]

where do you conspiratards come from? do you coordinate somewhere or is slashdot just organically channeling a large population of you mentally deficient losers?

context matters here

[laurencetux]

hint LEO is not Low Earth Orbit or a specimen of Panthera leo but a

Law
Enforcement
Officer

and given that there seems to be a lot of Spineless Brainless Gits getting badges you might in some areas depend more on your neighborhood "citizens forum" for actual public safety.

and given the number of folks that have been a Guest of the State[ |s] of %list of state[ |s]%
in said neighborhoods they are a bit jumpy to begin with.

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[account_deleted]

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Re: Probably a lie

[circletimessquare]

When the fuck did Slashdot get taken over by conspiratards?

The govt is malignant, but stupid. To ascribe such cunning to it is hilarious.

Re:Probably a lie

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

I just wanted to point this out, because while I believe that most gays are born that way and are not making a choice, it can definitely be a learned behavior.

1) Anything can be a learned behavior, but that still doesn't prove Ben Carson's point. I know people that hated raw oysters, just hated them...but after enough exposure and trying them, they developed a taste for them. Most people are the same way with beer and liquor- very few people take a their first swig of whiskey and yell, "I love this shit!".

So yes, behavior can be learned, but that's not really what he was saying. And I still don't think the pyramids were used to store grain, unless every archaeologist and Egyptologist in the world is wrong. And I don't think Obamacare is worse than slavery. (Full disclosure: Obamacare literally saved my life. Literally. So I'm a bit hard-pressed to come up with bad shit to say about it.)

2) I hope your situation and your well-being improves, and that you're able to have a better life, however you choose to live it. I mean that sincerely.

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[account_deleted]

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Re:Probably a lie

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

It may not prove what he exactly said, but it does prove a similar point. The whole justification that "I was born this way, so that makes it okay" is flawed. You are provably born a boy or a girl or black or white. You are not provably born gay.

I don't give a shit if it's learned or not. If it's between two or more consenting adults, that's all I care about.

That's all anybody should care about unless they're a busybody who likes to poke their nose into someone else's business.

The fact is that most of us don't get to pick what we like, including our attraction for sex. If you disagree, tell me- when did you decide to be straight? You didn't. You were born with a heterosexual attraction, and are incapable of understanding that some other people weren't.

Alford blew the operation

[aberglas]

By posing as customers the FBI could put lots of people in Jail. But Alford insisting that they arrest Ulbrict they just got one head. Not good for the KPIs. Not good at all.

Two words: Parallel Construction

[Marful]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:Two words: Parallel Construction

[circletimessquare]

one word: conspiratard

to see dark plots everywhere when the simple and obvious explanation doesn't have enough dank memes

Re:Two words: Parallel Construction

[Jack Griffin]

More words you probably like:
Bitcoin
3D Printing
Drones
The year of Linux on the Desktop
Beowulf Cluster

Just because "Parallel Construction" in the latest Slashdot buzzword, doesn't mean you have to find any excuse to use it...

Just Fucking Google It

[dlenmn]

It's not too hard to find the post that the IRS agent found:

https://bitcointalk.org/index....

If interested, please send your answers to the following questions to rossulbricht at gmail dot com

In fact, it the post was simply there. It didn't have to be preserved in another poster's response.

I leave that as an exercise to the reader to find the posts where altoid (Ulbricht) promoted the Slik Road.

But never mind the facts; I'm sure the FBI just faked the post...

Re:Probably a lie

[Anonymous Coward]

How about this—you can opt out of health insurance, but then you never get care without prepaying. Ever. Because the cost of uninsured emergency room visits runs into the billions of dollars—of which the cost of paying for that is tacked onto the cost of care/premiums of those who do pay. A vote for being uninsured is a vote for asking everyone else to subsidize you while you don't pay your share.

Re:Probably a lie

[vel-ex-tech]

Bump. Not sure about the Planned Parenthood thing.

In fact, Obamacare is currently forcing me to buy insurance because the penalty of going without, even though I currently have no access to medical services, is greater.

I have next week off, and I will make a very serious effort to get medical care. There's "religious objection!" and in addition to that, I may also be being held guilty for denying women's health services due to Obamacare in the first place! If I fail, well, I have until the end of March 2016 and then I can only hope the ensuing drama will at least get a headline or two.

What a fucking stupid law. I used to have no trouble getting medical care or getting my meds. Now, it's "religious objection!" Now it's "you pro-rape misogynerd invader rapist who wants to control women's bodies!" Now, they've shut down my access to the international pharmacy I had been using for the past 14 years. My doctor retired and I get sandbagged at the scheduling desk. I'd love to play nice, but I'm fucking paying fucking money for fucking nothing! My employer is paying even more fucking money for even more fucking nothing!

Re:Probably a lie

[Anonymous Coward]

If you have no income, then the insurance is free under Medicaid. Even if it isn't (the state by state rules for Medicaid are weird, and I won't swear there aren't some states where the literally zero income folks are somehow not eligible), anyone with income below the tax filing threshold isn't subject to the mandate, nor is anyone who would have to pay more than 8% of household income per person. It's exactly like income tax in that way; if you don't earn, you don't owe.

Re:Probably a lie

[Eunuchswear]

Pretty much everything the FBI and the NYT says is a lie. Does anyone believe that Ross Ulbricht would just go chatroom to chatroom posting "Have all you guys heard of my super secret illegal website?!"

Well, apparently he "admired the free-market economist Ludwig von Mises and the libertarian politician Ron Paul", so, yes, I'd believe he could do just about any fucking stupid thing you could imagine.

Re:Probably a lie

[Megol]

Lol. That would imply that being heterosexual is also a choice - which it of course isn't. There isn't a choice to be a hetero/homo-sexual (which of course is on a spectrum so nobody is 100% either way), there is a choice how to live.

Re: Probably a lie

[Grishnakh]

Have you been taking an extended break from this site? You've been here long enough that you should know better than almost anyone how much it's gone down the toilet in recent years.

Re:Probably a lie

[alexgieg]

PP was a project of of eugenicists back in the day. They didn't want to outright kill blacks, but they wanted blacks to have less children than whites and thus, over time, for their relative (and maybe absolute) numbers to decrease in comparison to that of whites, thus "whitening" American society. A "soft genocide", so to speak.

The Wikipedia article on PP's founder provides more details about her views. Which, it is important to note, aren't the current view of PP.

The same agency who found Al Capone

[anti-disney]

You better watch out for the IRS! It seems they are able to catch people who have found ways to evade the FBI and other law enforcement authorities. Remember that if you are getting a refund on your taxes, don't file a tax form to claim this refund or the government will find out where you live.

Re:Probably a lie

[david_thornley]

Assume that some homosexual behavior is learned. I know a lesbian who was molested by her brother when she was young, and I don't have a control specimen to see if the control group would have wound up lesbian. She may have learned to be lesbian because of her experiences, for all I can tell. Do you think lesbianism was therefore a choice freely made? (I know other lesbians with, as far as I can tell, no such backstories.)

You're also not addressing the possibility that some homosexual behavior may be innate. I never made a decision to be heterosexual. I just started noticing girls, and would have dated some if I'd had the social skills. From what I've read, some people just start noticing people of the same sex in the same way.

There are two people on this planet who's sex life is my business: my wife and me. I don't care what any other consenting adults do in private.

You make claims that many LGB people are creepy, and also that it is usually a sign of deep mental disturbances. If you are correct, why bring sexual orientation into this? People with deep mental disturbances can be creepy, regardless of anything else.

Re: Probably a lie

[cthulhu11]

Curious. The only bit I see is a reference to not wanting radicals to falsely accuse them of that.

Re: Probably a lie

[cthulhu11]

International pharmacy ?? WTF are you on about ?

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Re:Probably a lie

[ancientmyth]

I think i remember that altoid guy!

Re:Probably a lie

[david_thornley]

Drunk driving makes driving more dangerous for me, and is responsible for a significant part of the accident rate. Driving while tired or distracted is also bad, but harder to prove. Truck drivers normally have limits on how many hours they can work in some amount of time (and don't obey them, but that's another issue).

I do not think I have a right to interfere in behavior just because I don't like it. It has to have a probable harmful effect on children or non-consenting adults before I consider it moral to prevent it. It's not a universally shared view, but it's mine. This means that I don't want to interfere with prostitution or drug use, as long as everyone's an adult. This doesn't mean that I don't want help for prostitutes leaving the vocation or addicts trying to kick the drugs, of course.

We're going to have prostitution (and I do not consider prostitutes as a class to have low morals). We're going to have drug abuse. Trying to enforce laws against them does not work. Given that, it seems obvious to me that legalizing and regulating is the way to go. Currently, prostitutes work below the law, meaning they have very few legal protections that they can actually use. I don't want any class like that in society.

Lots of prostitutes don't really want to be prostitutes, but are pressured to stay, either by threats or by needing the money. This applies both to the illegal and the legal ones: until fairly recently, the social standard was that the husband would earn money, and the wife would keep house and provide sex. Until sometime in my lifetime, a husband raping his wife was perfectly legal. A marriage ceremony would in some cases simply be a long-term prostitution contract.

So, if we legalize and regulate prostitution, we automatically give prostitutes a better life, and in addition make it easier for them to change careers. If we address problems of poverty, we get a lot fewer women feeling forced into it. If you don't want a loved one becoming a prostitute, do something to help her through whatever problems she's got.