"Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the installation and use of the pen register was not a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, and hence no warrant was required." --Wikipedia
This is what I think the NSA is referring to when they talk about "meta-data" with regards to cell phone tracking.
In free societies, the government is not supposed to ban products arbitrarily.. The market decides the fitness of the options on offer, not the state. Banning only happens in countries making the bad assumption that politicians always know what's best.
The government is not banning incandescent light bulbs. They are setting efficiency requirements for light bulbs in order to lower energy use and as a consequence reduce green house gas emissions. More efficient incandescent bulbs like halogen can meet the new efficiency requirements. The government could have significantly raised electricity prices using energy taxes instead and accomplished the same thing. I prefer this, more targeted approach, in the same way I prefer increasing gas mileage requirements of new vehicles instead of raising gas prices by increasing taxes on gasoline.
CFLs are not the right product for all situations. Applications which require light for a shorter time such as bathrooms, closets, etc are better suited to non-CFL bulbs. Cold CFLs (unheated building in the winter) don't put out much light until they warm up.
Most people are not very good at considering long term costs, but conservatives and libertarians are especially terrible at it. As a result many of them want to privatize profits, but socialize long term costs. Lead in gasoline and paint increased short term profits and socialized the long term health costs. Prophylactic antibiotic use in farm animals increases short term profits and socializes long term costs of antibiotic resistance. There are many, many examples of this. How should the costs to society of additional health care, increased cases of asthma, lost productivity, etc of pollution from power plants be billed back to the operators of the power plants? How do we bill back increased costs of food stamp programs caused by Walmart and the fast food industry paying their employees less than a living wage? It is a vexing and complex issue. Phasing out incandescent lightbulbs seems to me to be the most practical and low harm solution to the specific issue of lighting.
I don't expect to be able to purchase a vehicle anonymously. I am not trying entirely prevent the government from knowing where I live -- that is not practical. I signed a lease on my apartment, I get a paycheck, I have utilities in my name, I have a car registered in my name. None of those things allow the government to track where I go and what I do as part of a "surveil the entire country" program.
If the government thinks I'm a "bad guy" and specifically targets me then I'm screwed no matter what I do. Unless I'm the target of a criminal investigation they have no valid reason to know where I go, what I buy, or who I communicate with.
Can you describe a method where some agency like the NSA might do bulk/automated tracking of cash *and* linking that cash back to an individual person and purchase?
Maybe the only way to win is to not play the game (at least as far as the internet and cellular is concerned). They can't track my internet usage if I don't use the internet, they can't track my location if I don't have a cell phone, they can't track my purchases if I use cash. I'm not ready to give up the convinces of modern technology yet, but each day I get closer. I have drastically reduced my trackable activity though. Eliminated almost all online shopping, eliminated almost all debit card usage, and leave my cell phone in one place most of the time and use my it far, far less. Never used social media web sites so no big loss there. Amazon has lost hundreds of dollars of my business. My bank and VISA have lost income from transaction processing fees because I don't use my debit card much anymore.
The money.cnn.com story you linked to is from November 16, 2009. Here is a link to a story on the same topic from Dec. 3, 2013 http://projects.propublica.org/bailout/list Notice how the more recent one includes repayment information.
You realize the NSA could be controlling US politics right now like J Edgar Hoover and we'd have no clue?
Considering the surveillance capabilities of the NSA, the lack of oversight, and that power always corrupts, I think we should assume the NSA is influencing politics in ways which benefit the NSA or specific people within the NSA. I suspect the NSA's main concern regarding this is making sure there is no proof.
To be perfectly clear, I am FINE with the end result of the parents being gunned down in a standoff with SWAT for not having their kids vaccinated. Even if the kids get caught in the crossfire. It sucks, but forced vaccinations (backed with the full force of the law: eg do it or get killed by agents of the government) for those with no medical conditions that would prevent vaccination should be the norm.
It is posts like above which remind me I'm really all *that* crazy.
Public schools already require vaccinations. It would not be difficult to require private schools require them as well. It is in the health insurance companies financial interest to require children on insurance policies to be vaccinated. Government funded assistance programs, such as food stamps, head start, etc could require children receiving benefits to be vaccinated. The few who slip through could be treated in the same way as parents who refuse medical treatment for their children i.e. a court order. There are many many ways to get kids vaccinated without resorting to SWAT teams.
I think Obama has two options which would benefit everyone. 1) Resign: maybe Biden, being an old white guy, will get more support from moderate Republications. 2) Advocate the exact opposite of what he believes: the Republicans, Tea Party, and Fox News will then push for the opposite of what Obama is advocating and so, inadvertently, push Obama's agenda.
I would like to think all the geeks at the NSA are looking for work in the private sector, but there will always be a enough collaborators for the NSA to function. There is no single way to "take down the NSA". Congress needs to de-fund them, people need to refuse their job offers, cities need to deny them building permits, high level officials need to go to jail, the supreme court needs to grow some balls, the FISA court needs to be disbanded, a Church Committee type of investigation needs to happen, etc, etc, etc. The NSA might be helping to protect the USA in some ways, but the actions they have taken in the past and the things they are doing right now they are making the population distrust their government even more than they already do.
I don't think the USA is on the verge of collapse, but United States history is littered with incidents of major abuse of government power. These abuses include treatment of Native Americans, specifically deliberately infecting them with smallpox, breaking of treaties, and forced relocation. The FBI's COINTELPRO program. Police misconduct in the civil rights movement. McCarthyism. Internment of american citizens of Japanese descent. Torture, extraordinary rendition, secret prisons, and detainment without trial in the "war on terror". Sentencing disparities between being convicted of possession of powder cocaine.vs. possession of crack cocaine. This list is just off the top of my head, I'm sure with a little research I could find many more. These things are failures in our ideals, to be regretted and remembered, to remind us of what can happen.
I'm the OP, I was referring to the mid-70's to mid-80's. My impression, looking back, is of "pity those poor hungry people with so few rights and an oppressive government who get sent to Siberia if they complain" than the full blown cold war paranoia of the 50's and 60's.
When I was growing up we were told some of the reasons the Soviets were so terrible is because people could not travel without "their papers", the Soviet government spied on its own citizens, the Soviets put people in secret prisons, the Soviets put people in prison without trial. Sounds a lot like the USA today. In the USA today these bad things seem mostly to be limited to "special circumstances", but they set a scary precedent. There are many great things about the USA, but pretending the bad stuff doesn't exist doesn't help the country, it undermines it.
The fines go up over time by 2016, the penalty will be at the greater of 2.5% of taxable income or $695 per adult and $347.50 per child (up to $2,085 per family). After 2016 fines increase with inflation.
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You are talking about a pen register.
"Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the installation and use of the pen register was not a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, and hence no warrant was required." --Wikipedia
This is what I think the NSA is referring to when they talk about "meta-data" with regards to cell phone tracking.
Cite your source. Most of the hits in my search were for the recent FDA announcements, but I did find http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/45/Supplement_2/S137.long which seems to contradict your claim.
The government is not banning incandescent light bulbs. They are setting efficiency requirements for light bulbs in order to lower energy use and as a consequence reduce green house gas emissions. More efficient incandescent bulbs like halogen can meet the new efficiency requirements. The government could have significantly raised electricity prices using energy taxes instead and accomplished the same thing. I prefer this, more targeted approach, in the same way I prefer increasing gas mileage requirements of new vehicles instead of raising gas prices by increasing taxes on gasoline.
CFLs are not the right product for all situations. Applications which require light for a shorter time such as bathrooms, closets, etc are better suited to non-CFL bulbs. Cold CFLs (unheated building in the winter) don't put out much light until they warm up.
Most people are not very good at considering long term costs, but conservatives and libertarians are especially terrible at it. As a result many of them want to privatize profits, but socialize long term costs. Lead in gasoline and paint increased short term profits and socialized the long term health costs. Prophylactic antibiotic use in farm animals increases short term profits and socializes long term costs of antibiotic resistance. There are many, many examples of this. How should the costs to society of additional health care, increased cases of asthma, lost productivity, etc of pollution from power plants be billed back to the operators of the power plants? How do we bill back increased costs of food stamp programs caused by Walmart and the fast food industry paying their employees less than a living wage? It is a vexing and complex issue. Phasing out incandescent lightbulbs seems to me to be the most practical and low harm solution to the specific issue of lighting.
According to this site the average price/kwh has been steadily increasing, doesn't look like it accounts for inflation though. http://data.bls.gov/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?series_id=APU000072610&data_tool=XGtable
I don't expect totally anonymous. What I expect is more anonymous than using my debit card.
Are you saying there is no point in using cash?
I don't expect to be able to purchase a vehicle anonymously. I am not trying entirely prevent the government from knowing where I live -- that is not practical. I signed a lease on my apartment, I get a paycheck, I have utilities in my name, I have a car registered in my name. None of those things allow the government to track where I go and what I do as part of a "surveil the entire country" program.
If the government thinks I'm a "bad guy" and specifically targets me then I'm screwed no matter what I do. Unless I'm the target of a criminal investigation they have no valid reason to know where I go, what I buy, or who I communicate with.
Can you describe a method where some agency like the NSA might do bulk/automated tracking of cash *and* linking that cash back to an individual person and purchase?
Maybe the only way to win is to not play the game (at least as far as the internet and cellular is concerned). They can't track my internet usage if I don't use the internet, they can't track my location if I don't have a cell phone, they can't track my purchases if I use cash. I'm not ready to give up the convinces of modern technology yet, but each day I get closer. I have drastically reduced my trackable activity though. Eliminated almost all online shopping, eliminated almost all debit card usage, and leave my cell phone in one place most of the time and use my it far, far less. Never used social media web sites so no big loss there. Amazon has lost hundreds of dollars of my business. My bank and VISA have lost income from transaction processing fees because I don't use my debit card much anymore.
The money.cnn.com story you linked to is from November 16, 2009. Here is a link to a story on the same topic from Dec. 3, 2013 http://projects.propublica.org/bailout/list Notice how the more recent one includes repayment information.
Are you advocating people more or less say "I give up. You win." to governments?
Considering the surveillance capabilities of the NSA, the lack of oversight, and that power always corrupts, I think we should assume the NSA is influencing politics in ways which benefit the NSA or specific people within the NSA. I suspect the NSA's main concern regarding this is making sure there is no proof.
It is posts like above which remind me I'm really all *that* crazy.
Public schools already require vaccinations. It would not be difficult to require private schools require them as well. It is in the health insurance companies financial interest to require children on insurance policies to be vaccinated. Government funded assistance programs, such as food stamps, head start, etc could require children receiving benefits to be vaccinated. The few who slip through could be treated in the same way as parents who refuse medical treatment for their children i.e. a court order. There are many many ways to get kids vaccinated without resorting to SWAT teams.
Wouldn't failing to get your child vaccinated be covered under existing child endangerment, reckless endangerment, or public endangerment laws?
My evil scheme is working! -- NPR listener
I think Obama has two options which would benefit everyone. 1) Resign: maybe Biden, being an old white guy, will get more support from moderate Republications. 2) Advocate the exact opposite of what he believes: the Republicans, Tea Party, and Fox News will then push for the opposite of what Obama is advocating and so, inadvertently, push Obama's agenda.
I should have looked before I posted. . Looks to me they could come very close to the formula.
Couldn't a mass spectrometer be used today to figure out the formula of WD-40? It seems to me you are simply advocating security through obscurity.
I would like to think all the geeks at the NSA are looking for work in the private sector, but there will always be a enough collaborators for the NSA to function. There is no single way to "take down the NSA". Congress needs to de-fund them, people need to refuse their job offers, cities need to deny them building permits, high level officials need to go to jail, the supreme court needs to grow some balls, the FISA court needs to be disbanded, a Church Committee type of investigation needs to happen, etc, etc, etc. The NSA might be helping to protect the USA in some ways, but the actions they have taken in the past and the things they are doing right now they are making the population distrust their government even more than they already do.
I don't think the USA is on the verge of collapse, but United States history is littered with incidents of major abuse of government power. These abuses include treatment of Native Americans, specifically deliberately infecting them with smallpox, breaking of treaties, and forced relocation. The FBI's COINTELPRO program. Police misconduct in the civil rights movement. McCarthyism. Internment of american citizens of Japanese descent. Torture, extraordinary rendition, secret prisons, and detainment without trial in the "war on terror". Sentencing disparities between being convicted of possession of powder cocaine .vs. possession of crack cocaine. This list is just off the top of my head, I'm sure with a little research I could find many more. These things are failures in our ideals, to be regretted and remembered, to remind us of what can happen.
I'm the OP, I was referring to the mid-70's to mid-80's. My impression, looking back, is of "pity those poor hungry people with so few rights and an oppressive government who get sent to Siberia if they complain" than the full blown cold war paranoia of the 50's and 60's.
When I was growing up we were told some of the reasons the Soviets were so terrible is because people could not travel without "their papers", the Soviet government spied on its own citizens, the Soviets put people in secret prisons, the Soviets put people in prison without trial. Sounds a lot like the USA today. In the USA today these bad things seem mostly to be limited to "special circumstances", but they set a scary precedent. There are many great things about the USA, but pretending the bad stuff doesn't exist doesn't help the country, it undermines it.
The fines go up over time by 2016, the penalty will be at the greater of 2.5% of taxable income or $695 per adult and $347.50 per child (up to $2,085 per family). After 2016 fines increase with inflation.