They spied on Christian and Jewish orgs in the 60s
on
Want Freedom?
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· Score: 1
Unfortunately, there are a great many short-sighted people who think it's just dandy that there are more searches, who want to unleash the FBI/CIA/NSA to spy on U.S. citizens, and who think there's really no problem with indefinite detentions without trials or public disclosure at any time.
Why? Because they assume they'd never be targeted.
So many of them don't remember how Christian and Jewish organizations, especially those involved in the anti-war movements of the 1960s in the U.S. were habitually spied-upon by various governmental agencies. They don't remember how Hoover would've made Ashcroft look like an amateur. How the IRS oddly seemed to go and audit "certain kinds of people".
These folks all seem to think, "hey, I'm a white, heterosexual, upstanding Christian family man/woman, they'd never come after me!"
They don't realize that all it takes is one pissed off neighbor who's just joined TIPS to phone in with the 'tip', "That next door guy was talkin' to a buncha dark-skinned people, speakin' some kinda jibjab feruhn language!"
What really gets me is we keep seeing these silly polls about how a majority of people don't mind more security measures. Or how they're cool with the U.S. going to war with Iraq. Or how they think it's fine to pass laws saying this is a Christian nation, English only, and don't you dare even look at the flag cross-eyed.
Every damned one of them forget that the Founders, who were wiser men than we knew, passed those Amendments and wrote the Constitution knowing full well that someday, people would be stupid enough to throw away their rights because someone else said it was "necessary."
I do dearly hope that one day we'll look back upon this and be able to laugh... but I've a feeling there's going to be a lot more injustice, a lot more people imprisoned on nothing more than an Attorney General's say-so, and probably a lot of bodybags coming home from overseas before we're able to reverse and clean up this mess.
Yeah, maybe they'll go after the foreigners, and the Muslims, and the antiwar protestors first.
Actually, my "mouse" of choice isn't a mouse at all, but a Logitech Trackman -- the kind with the thumb-ball, as opposed to the larger ones (think Kensington) operated with the finger-tips.
Keeps my hand in one position on the desk, and the thumb is made for the sorts of rotational motions that the wrist and fingers simply cannot emulate as well. Moreover, it's a lot less effort.
I also use a "natural"-style keyboard, usually the M$-brand. I've found that the hand and wrist positioning works much better on these than on traditional keyboards.
Someday though, I've a feeling that learning the Dvorak layout will be a good idea...
I got one of these Aeron babies, and for me, it was worth every penny.
I'm a writer. I spend hours and hours at the keyboard. Hell, I'm in that overpriced Aerons more than I'm in my own bed.
I've also got a funky back condition, with almost no lumbar curvature. I needed the damned chair, and after I got it adjusted right, a whole lot of pain went away.
Yeah, maybe buying Aerons for the entire staff of a startup wasn't exactly a sound business decision. But as someone pointed out, that kind of decision was also often accompanied by other money-burning financial decisions, like extravagant offices, free auto leases, on-site massages, catered staff meetings and whatnot.
Having an entire office of Aerons became a status symbol, rather than what it should've been -- a good ergonomic decision to help keep people healthy and happy. But like I said, we could pick just about any stereotypical extravagance of the go-go/boom-boom late 90s Internet startup frenzy and say much the same thing.
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Unfortunately, there are a great many short-sighted people who think it's just dandy that there are more searches, who want to unleash the FBI/CIA/NSA to spy on U.S. citizens, and who think there's really no problem with indefinite detentions without trials or public disclosure at any time.
Why? Because they assume they'd never be targeted.
So many of them don't remember how Christian and Jewish organizations, especially those involved in the anti-war movements of the 1960s in the U.S. were habitually spied-upon by various governmental agencies. They don't remember how Hoover would've made Ashcroft look like an amateur. How the IRS oddly seemed to go and audit "certain kinds of people".
These folks all seem to think, "hey, I'm a white, heterosexual, upstanding Christian family man/woman, they'd never come after me!"
They don't realize that all it takes is one pissed off neighbor who's just joined TIPS to phone in with the 'tip', "That next door guy was talkin' to a buncha dark-skinned people, speakin' some kinda jibjab feruhn language!"
What really gets me is we keep seeing these silly polls about how a majority of people don't mind more security measures. Or how they're cool with the U.S. going to war with Iraq. Or how they think it's fine to pass laws saying this is a Christian nation, English only, and don't you dare even look at the flag cross-eyed.
Every damned one of them forget that the Founders, who were wiser men than we knew, passed those Amendments and wrote the Constitution knowing full well that someday, people would be stupid enough to throw away their rights because someone else said it was "necessary."
I do dearly hope that one day we'll look back upon this and be able to laugh... but I've a feeling there's going to be a lot more injustice, a lot more people imprisoned on nothing more than an Attorney General's say-so, and probably a lot of bodybags coming home from overseas before we're able to reverse and clean up this mess.
Yeah, maybe they'll go after the foreigners, and the Muslims, and the antiwar protestors first.
But, as always, that's just the beginning...
The show still has that hideous theme song.
Actually, my "mouse" of choice isn't a mouse at all, but a Logitech Trackman -- the kind with the thumb-ball, as opposed to the larger ones (think Kensington) operated with the finger-tips.
Keeps my hand in one position on the desk, and the thumb is made for the sorts of rotational motions that the wrist and fingers simply cannot emulate as well. Moreover, it's a lot less effort.
I also use a "natural"-style keyboard, usually the M$-brand. I've found that the hand and wrist positioning works much better on these than on traditional keyboards.
Someday though, I've a feeling that learning the Dvorak layout will be a good idea...
I got one of these Aeron babies, and for me, it was worth every penny.
;-)
I'm a writer. I spend hours and hours at the keyboard. Hell, I'm in that overpriced Aerons more than I'm in my own bed.
I've also got a funky back condition, with almost no lumbar curvature. I needed the damned chair, and after I got it adjusted right, a whole lot of pain went away.
Yeah, maybe buying Aerons for the entire staff of a startup wasn't exactly a sound business decision. But as someone pointed out, that kind of decision was also often accompanied by other money-burning financial decisions, like extravagant offices, free auto leases, on-site massages, catered staff meetings and whatnot.
Having an entire office of Aerons became a status symbol, rather than what it should've been -- a good ergonomic decision to help keep people healthy and happy. But like I said, we could pick just about any stereotypical extravagance of the go-go/boom-boom late 90s Internet startup frenzy and say much the same thing.
Still love my chair though.