There's your problem (or rather society's problem) right there: when the agency mission is sucking up as much information as possible, privacy of American citizens be damned, and then covering up for one another to reassure the American public, then that is something no one wants to aid, and the whole point of whistleblowing is to stop it.
Thats what the ballot box is for. The agency mission is generally an open thing.
We need whistleblowers to expose hidden wrongdoing, not to try to change policy.
Carrier IQ was pushed by the carriers, not NSA, and has zero relevance to the iOS 8 announcement as it wasnt something pushed by Apple in the first place.
Its also insane that a community of supposed geeks' biggest problem with Windows 8 is an easily fixable GUI element.
I mean this is supposed to be the community that loves Linux, bash, etc-- and Win8 also comes with PowerShell 4.0, which is seriously cool for anyone who knows what OOP is or has ever been plagued by having to deal with vbscript.
Dont get me wrong, the Metro interface is a serious PITA.
But seriously? In a lot of other ways, Win8 is just better than Win7, and theres ClassicShell to remove the one piece thats seriously annoying.
Honestly the only bit thats a real problem is the lack of OEM reinstall options. If everyone here is getting their pants in a bunch over a button thats seriously disappointing.
Slashdot periodically gives me nightmarish glimpses of a future, where netizens can do no more than regurgitate random buzzwords in no particular context or order.
Because we have a fairly strong system of government that tends to resist power grabs, and a culture that is heavily suspicious of government by default.
Forgive me if I dont think being in high school lit qualifies one to remark on the merits of literature. And frankly it isnt surprising that a highschooler holds a high view of himself and a condescending view towards others.
And-- its been about a decade and a half-- but as I recall there were significant themes of revenge, forgiveness, guilt, and so on in the book. It was also one of the first views I (and Im sure many others) got of puritan culture from a writer of the period.
Heck, when I was assigned to read, "The Scarlet Letter" in high school, it was immediately clear that it wasn't great writing. It was just 1800's porn.
Its good to know that you were such a fine literary critic as to dismiss one of the classic pieces of American literature in high school. Not everyone is certain of just how smart they are and how dumb everyone else is in high school.
We dont need the government to prevent people from lending risky people large sums of money. If they do that they go out of business (Or at least, thats how its SUPPOSED to work).
Of course when you have government regulation forcing a lending bureau to lend to those people, you have a bit of a problem.
There are primaries going on in the coming weeks in many states. If you are not voting in them, you shouldnt be complaining. If you ARE, you pretty much dont have a reason to complain about the voting in this country.
Protip, we have cycled leaders a number of times while Putin has remained in charge in Russia.
Quit encouraging apathy; if you think there is a problem go vote.
The Hague is not for POWs, its for war criminals (ie, someone has committed crimes against humanity). You dont take soldiers, terrorists, or other combatants there-- you capture them in a POW camp or you kill them.
So far you're only locking up foreign people without charges
SURPRISE! When you violate the Geneva convention by taking up arms against a nation without donning a uniform or fighting under an identifiable flag, you sacrifice most of its protections.
And when you take up arms against the US, you go from "US citizen with the right to trial in civilian court" to "foreign combatant subject to, at best, military tribunal".
Thats sort of how war works. Imagine the chaos if we had to try all WW2 POWs in federal court.
UK, Germany, Italy, Greece: Free speech in the gutter, you can literally be jailed for your political speech on Twitter. China, Russia, North Korea, Vietnam: You can literally be jailed for asking for a mult-party election. Austrailia: Thinks government controlled internet censor lists are a fantastic idea Pretty much anywhere in South America, for myriad reasons. Pretty much anywhere in Southeast asia (for myriad reasons) Pretty much anywhere in Africa (for myriad reasons)
Except for the part where the "secret police" you're talking about doesnt lock people up without charges, or for what htey say: we still have habeas corpus, the 4th amendment, the first amendment, and the ability to vote.
Slashdot is really obnoxious because it generally gets me to take awkward positions: Im pretty pissed about the NSA surveillance, but here someone has made such an absurd allegation that I have to fall back to defending the US.
Seriously you have to be phenomenally ignorant to compare the USSR and the US.
If they were going to lie about it they would have no need to use such tricky wording; they would simply come out and lie. I dont know of any reason there would be consequences for lying in a PR statement; lying isnt illegal.
Slashdot Mirror
The country in its "former glory" was also a 2 party system.
Sounds like you should be voting in primaries, then.
Good news, theyre going on over the coming weeks.
There's your problem (or rather society's problem) right there: when the agency mission is sucking up as much information as possible, privacy of American citizens be damned, and then covering up for one another to reassure the American public, then that is something no one wants to aid, and the whole point of whistleblowing is to stop it.
Thats what the ballot box is for. The agency mission is generally an open thing.
We need whistleblowers to expose hidden wrongdoing, not to try to change policy.
Carrier IQ was pushed by the carriers, not NSA, and has zero relevance to the iOS 8 announcement as it wasnt something pushed by Apple in the first place.
You can't reductio ad absurdum a minimum wage like that.
$15 is well into the realm of the absurd.
Its also insane that a community of supposed geeks' biggest problem with Windows 8 is an easily fixable GUI element.
I mean this is supposed to be the community that loves Linux, bash, etc-- and Win8 also comes with PowerShell 4.0, which is seriously cool for anyone who knows what OOP is or has ever been plagued by having to deal with vbscript.
Dont get me wrong, the Metro interface is a serious PITA.
But seriously? In a lot of other ways, Win8 is just better than Win7, and theres ClassicShell to remove the one piece thats seriously annoying.
Honestly the only bit thats a real problem is the lack of OEM reinstall options. If everyone here is getting their pants in a bunch over a button thats seriously disappointing.
Slashdot periodically gives me nightmarish glimpses of a future, where netizens can do no more than regurgitate random buzzwords in no particular context or order.
Oh wait thats slashdot, circa today.
Because we have a fairly strong system of government that tends to resist power grabs, and a culture that is heavily suspicious of government by default.
The Nazis performed experiments on their POWs, as I recall. Unless Im mistaken thats one of the things we put them on trial at Nuremburg for.
Forgive me if I dont think being in high school lit qualifies one to remark on the merits of literature. And frankly it isnt surprising that a highschooler holds a high view of himself and a condescending view towards others.
And-- its been about a decade and a half-- but as I recall there were significant themes of revenge, forgiveness, guilt, and so on in the book. It was also one of the first views I (and Im sure many others) got of puritan culture from a writer of the period.
.... Only to crash when some script kiddie uses a drive by java exploit to serve all of the killbots with adware.
Heck, when I was assigned to read, "The Scarlet Letter" in high school, it was immediately clear that it wasn't great writing. It was just 1800's porn.
Its good to know that you were such a fine literary critic as to dismiss one of the classic pieces of American literature in high school. Not everyone is certain of just how smart they are and how dumb everyone else is in high school.
Is that really all you have? That we should do it to them, because (you believe) they're doing it to us?
Do you actually understand what it is that the CIA does? Because it sounds like you're arguing that we should have a foreign intelligence branch.
Im no Obama fan, but AFAIK hes prosecuted one whistleblower.
remember the little girl who needed an organ transplant? she was told no and they actually had to bring it to court to save this girls life
.... by jumping her in line for a poorly suited transplant, possibly costing another person their life.
That had to be one of the biggest medical travesties this year.
We dont need the government to prevent people from lending risky people large sums of money. If they do that they go out of business (Or at least, thats how its SUPPOSED to work).
Of course when you have government regulation forcing a lending bureau to lend to those people, you have a bit of a problem.
There are primaries going on in the coming weeks in many states. If you are not voting in them, you shouldnt be complaining. If you ARE, you pretty much dont have a reason to complain about the voting in this country.
Protip, we have cycled leaders a number of times while Putin has remained in charge in Russia.
Quit encouraging apathy; if you think there is a problem go vote.
The Hague is not for POWs, its for war criminals (ie, someone has committed crimes against humanity). You dont take soldiers, terrorists, or other combatants there-- you capture them in a POW camp or you kill them.
So far you're only locking up foreign people without charges
SURPRISE! When you violate the Geneva convention by taking up arms against a nation without donning a uniform or fighting under an identifiable flag, you sacrifice most of its protections.
And when you take up arms against the US, you go from "US citizen with the right to trial in civilian court" to "foreign combatant subject to, at best, military tribunal".
Thats sort of how war works. Imagine the chaos if we had to try all WW2 POWs in federal court.
Gitmo is only used when you take up arms against the US. Ive got some news for you: last time folks did that (the civil war) we shot them.
UK, Germany, Italy, Greece: Free speech in the gutter, you can literally be jailed for your political speech on Twitter.
China, Russia, North Korea, Vietnam: You can literally be jailed for asking for a mult-party election.
Austrailia: Thinks government controlled internet censor lists are a fantastic idea
Pretty much anywhere in South America, for myriad reasons.
Pretty much anywhere in Southeast asia (for myriad reasons)
Pretty much anywhere in Africa (for myriad reasons)
We also have a democracy with multiparty voting, where 3rd party candidates dont tend to mysteriously disappear.
Seriously who is writing these posts? Are you all fresh out of high school or something?
Except for the part where the "secret police" you're talking about doesnt lock people up without charges, or for what htey say: we still have habeas corpus, the 4th amendment, the first amendment, and the ability to vote.
Slashdot is really obnoxious because it generally gets me to take awkward positions: Im pretty pissed about the NSA surveillance, but here someone has made such an absurd allegation that I have to fall back to defending the US.
Seriously you have to be phenomenally ignorant to compare the USSR and the US.
If they were going to lie about it they would have no need to use such tricky wording; they would simply come out and lie. I dont know of any reason there would be consequences for lying in a PR statement; lying isnt illegal.