You could produce "Keeping up With the Kardashians" in super-HD, 3D, 240mhz video and project it onto an 40' OLED screen with a one-trillion-to-one contrast ratio, and I'm still going to gouge my eyes out with a rusty fork before I'll watch it.
Unregulated power *always* invites abuse. If an FBI agent knows he can just use one of these letters without needing to prove anything to court and that he will never have to answer for it, why *wouldn't* he use it for everything? I would be surprised if they even bothered with warrants at all anymore (except in high-profile cases that might invite media scrutiny).
A college degree is a helluva lot more than a "piece of paper" (with the exception of some of the more infamous "diploma mills"). If nothing else, it demonstrates that you're not a complete slacker and can at least show up to classes for several years. It shows that you can apply yourself in the long-term to projects and work that may not always be to your liking. It also shows that you can generally function in society, that you're not a quitter, that you at least partially have your shit together, and that you're not a fucking drop-out. All of those things cannot always be shown by some random jackass who just shows up and says "I wrote these programs. See what a great coder I am!" Being a good programmer is neccessary, of course. But showing you can be a good *employee* is also vital if you want me to hire you.
Don't worry, I'm sure they would never abuse the masses of information obtained on completely innocent customers not involved at all in this investigation. After all, they're the FBI. You can trust them. J. Edgar Hoover said so.
For every ISP like this who stood up to the feds, I wonder how many just caved and put their own business interests ahead of the civil rights of their clients?
The ironic thing about the Bush family is that, of all the evil and nasty shit they've done over the decades, it was the biggest semi-retard in the family who did the most damage by far. I guess once you're powerful enough, you don't even have to be clever or sinister anymore to rise to the top--just capable enough to read from a teleprompter and do what Dick Cheney tells you. That probably explains why so many brain-dead himbo and bimbo Kennedys are still in power too.
The good news if that if your missing daughter is a cute white girl, the media will eat it up. If not, don't expect much help from the FBI or anyone else.
The guy died in a plane paid for by Alaska's largest telcom, who he had helped to defeat a net neutrality amendment when he was a Senator (this was his famous "series of tubes" speech, whose nasty purpose people tend to forget because of its general silliness). And, had he have lived, he would have *continued* to help them fight net neutrality. So it's not like his evil crap was done with.
One way or another, he would have been doing bad shit until the day he died (and he was). So with someone like that, I don't think it's mean-spirited to wish that day comes sooner rather than later.
Ironically, he was being "lobbied" (aka bribed) even as he died. The flight was chartered and paid for by GCI, the biggest telcom in the state. Guess they figured that he could still help them get some favorable treatment from his old buddies in Congress. Or maybe it was payback for all the stuff he did for them when he was there, like his vehement opposition to net neutrality. It would seem that he was finally done in by one of his bribes after all.
Don't be daft. No one deserves to be raped, or robbed, or shot, etc. But there is a big difference between saying that and pretending that you are absolutely helpless and that such crimes always occur completely at random. I know there are certain neighborhoods where I'm MUCH more likely to get robbed. Now, sure, I should be able to walk down the street counting hundred dollar bills in such a neighborhood at 2 am and not get robbed. My actions don't EXCUSE the criminals who might rob me. But that doesn't mean that my own behavior wasn't foolish, or that it had absolutely no influence on the crime. Saying that my stupid behavior didn't contribute ANYTHING to my robbery is just fucking stupid. It wouldn't make it any less a robbery, but that's very different that saying that I bear no responsibility for my own foolish actions.
And 3 out of every 5 statistics is made up. Yes, real rapes happen. And yes, real false accusations happen too. The U.S. justice system presumes innocence. It should not fall on someone to prove they DIDN'T commit a crime just because it's their word against someone else's, with no other evidence against them.
And how many of your "educated" brethren stood up for those Duke lacrosse players and urged moderation or cautioned against a rush to judgment when Duke faculty members were actually failing them on their finals in retaliation and putting up wanted posters around campus? Not very fucking many.
rape wasn't even really taken seriously until the last 50 years?
Bullshit. Rape has been a hanging/death penalty/imprisonment level offense in the west for a very long time now. The only difference is that before the Enlightenment it was viewed as more a crime against a husband or father than a crime against the woman herself. In the early 20th century in the U.S., a woman's accusation of rape could and would get you very much killed very quickly (if you were lucky, they wouldn't burn you alive or torture you first), especially if you were black or an outsider.
I'm not talking about the Islamic world, I'm talking about the modern world. I'm sure you can find numerous references to Muslims claiming that Jinns have possessed their goats to produce bad milk too. That hardly makes the comments of those hillbilly Koran-thumpers mainstream.
But if you can produce mainstream commentators (and not just nutcases on message boards or tin-foil-hat blogs shooting their mouths off in anonymity) in the western world saying any such thing, then knock yourself out. The only time I've ever heard the SLIGHTEST criticism of an accuser was in the Duke case (and that only came much later, after it became abundantly clear she was a complete nutcase) and in the Kobe Bryant case (and only because there were some very suspicious circumstances there, and even then it was mostly only pro-Kobe fans and sports writers that dared questioned her story).
Slashdot Mirror
If you really want to know, you could always just call the CIA agent working on his car.
You could produce "Keeping up With the Kardashians" in super-HD, 3D, 240mhz video and project it onto an 40' OLED screen with a one-trillion-to-one contrast ratio, and I'm still going to gouge my eyes out with a rusty fork before I'll watch it.
Unregulated power *always* invites abuse. If an FBI agent knows he can just use one of these letters without needing to prove anything to court and that he will never have to answer for it, why *wouldn't* he use it for everything? I would be surprised if they even bothered with warrants at all anymore (except in high-profile cases that might invite media scrutiny).
A college degree is a helluva lot more than a "piece of paper" (with the exception of some of the more infamous "diploma mills"). If nothing else, it demonstrates that you're not a complete slacker and can at least show up to classes for several years. It shows that you can apply yourself in the long-term to projects and work that may not always be to your liking. It also shows that you can generally function in society, that you're not a quitter, that you at least partially have your shit together, and that you're not a fucking drop-out. All of those things cannot always be shown by some random jackass who just shows up and says "I wrote these programs. See what a great coder I am!" Being a good programmer is neccessary, of course. But showing you can be a good *employee* is also vital if you want me to hire you.
Don't worry, I'm sure they would never abuse the masses of information obtained on completely innocent customers not involved at all in this investigation. After all, they're the FBI. You can trust them. J. Edgar Hoover said so.
For every ISP like this who stood up to the feds, I wonder how many just caved and put their own business interests ahead of the civil rights of their clients?
Nonsense! I have plenty of choices. I can choose to let AT&T fuck me, or I can let Comcast fuck me.
I tried traveling faster than the speed of light, but ran out of gas.
Not to worry. Ultimately Winter took the fall.
It's nice to see someone put their Asperger Syndrome to use for a noble purpose.
Fucking top-poster
Wait a minute, an unemployed aspiring actress in L.A.???? Sounds fishy to me.
*He* would have nabbed all those civil rights leaders who've been kidnapping our citizens!
The ironic thing about the Bush family is that, of all the evil and nasty shit they've done over the decades, it was the biggest semi-retard in the family who did the most damage by far. I guess once you're powerful enough, you don't even have to be clever or sinister anymore to rise to the top--just capable enough to read from a teleprompter and do what Dick Cheney tells you. That probably explains why so many brain-dead himbo and bimbo Kennedys are still in power too.
I suggest you start with every major corporation in the United States. Then you can move on to every politician they "lobby" (aka bribe).
The good news if that if your missing daughter is a cute white girl, the media will eat it up. If not, don't expect much help from the FBI or anyone else.
The guy died in a plane paid for by Alaska's largest telcom, who he had helped to defeat a net neutrality amendment when he was a Senator (this was his famous "series of tubes" speech, whose nasty purpose people tend to forget because of its general silliness). And, had he have lived, he would have *continued* to help them fight net neutrality. So it's not like his evil crap was done with.
One way or another, he would have been doing bad shit until the day he died (and he was). So with someone like that, I don't think it's mean-spirited to wish that day comes sooner rather than later.
Ironically, he was being "lobbied" (aka bribed) even as he died. The flight was chartered and paid for by GCI, the biggest telcom in the state. Guess they figured that he could still help them get some favorable treatment from his old buddies in Congress. Or maybe it was payback for all the stuff he did for them when he was there, like his vehement opposition to net neutrality. It would seem that he was finally done in by one of his bribes after all.
Don't be daft. No one deserves to be raped, or robbed, or shot, etc. But there is a big difference between saying that and pretending that you are absolutely helpless and that such crimes always occur completely at random. I know there are certain neighborhoods where I'm MUCH more likely to get robbed. Now, sure, I should be able to walk down the street counting hundred dollar bills in such a neighborhood at 2 am and not get robbed. My actions don't EXCUSE the criminals who might rob me. But that doesn't mean that my own behavior wasn't foolish, or that it had absolutely no influence on the crime. Saying that my stupid behavior didn't contribute ANYTHING to my robbery is just fucking stupid. It wouldn't make it any less a robbery, but that's very different that saying that I bear no responsibility for my own foolish actions.
And 3 out of every 5 statistics is made up. Yes, real rapes happen. And yes, real false accusations happen too. The U.S. justice system presumes innocence. It should not fall on someone to prove they DIDN'T commit a crime just because it's their word against someone else's, with no other evidence against them.
So you're fighting bigotry with even meaner-spirited bigotry?
And how many of your "educated" brethren stood up for those Duke lacrosse players and urged moderation or cautioned against a rush to judgment when Duke faculty members were actually failing them on their finals in retaliation and putting up wanted posters around campus? Not very fucking many.
You only *think* you're enlightened.
Bullshit. Rape has been a hanging/death penalty/imprisonment level offense in the west for a very long time now. The only difference is that before the Enlightenment it was viewed as more a crime against a husband or father than a crime against the woman herself. In the early 20th century in the U.S., a woman's accusation of rape could and would get you very much killed very quickly (if you were lucky, they wouldn't burn you alive or torture you first), especially if you were black or an outsider.
Here is a nice essay on that very subject.
I'm not talking about the Islamic world, I'm talking about the modern world. I'm sure you can find numerous references to Muslims claiming that Jinns have possessed their goats to produce bad milk too. That hardly makes the comments of those hillbilly Koran-thumpers mainstream.
But if you can produce mainstream commentators (and not just nutcases on message boards or tin-foil-hat blogs shooting their mouths off in anonymity) in the western world saying any such thing, then knock yourself out. The only time I've ever heard the SLIGHTEST criticism of an accuser was in the Duke case (and that only came much later, after it became abundantly clear she was a complete nutcase) and in the Kobe Bryant case (and only because there were some very suspicious circumstances there, and even then it was mostly only pro-Kobe fans and sports writers that dared questioned her story).