Of all of the crazy scandals, is the NSA most dangerous?
Is anyone frightened about the NSA now? Most of us have seen episodes of 24 where CTU and Jack Bauer get the information through hacking and interrogation. But since the "whistleblower" revealed the capabilities of the NSA, does anyone beside me think that leaves the U.S. more vulnerable to attack? I HATE the thought of the government spying on me (I consider the bastard a traitor), but him leaking uber secret capabilities for the world to know is scary. Thoughts?
__________________ "Great men are forged in fire. It is the privilege of lesser men to light the flame . . . whatever the cost"
2006 is sort of a red herring date. That is when this specific type of surveillance started. Abuse of networks and the internet goes back to at least Clinton, there have been illegal wiretaps for as long as there have been phones and the American government has a rich history of infiltrating and breaking up any domestic group they aren't happy with.
What's wrong with the government spying on its own people? That's what governments are supposed do--it's why we elect them. They keep us safe from ourselves. I'm terrified of myself. God knows what I'm capable of.
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
I have a question. As far as we know has this information been used in untoward ways? The danger that it could be is enough reason to force it out into the public eye or stop it all together but what I've heard is that in US history these types of things generally don't get abused. A lot of attempts to abuse the PATRIOT Act were shut down by the system itself.
__________________
Graffiti outside Latin class.
Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
A juvenal prank.
we don't know, yet. it is likely there is data stored on innocent people and behavioral profiles built from those, but I haven't heard of any specific, egregious violations.
that being said, it's also true that these advanced surveillance powers have little impact on law enforcement's ability to catch terrorists. almost all cases are broken up by tips from the community and basic police work. the best cases that we can point to tend to look closer to FBI entrapment than "al Qaeda"
My first thought was that the government knows all of my porn searches.
I'm very much against what they're doing, I think it's an invasion and not warranted under any justification involving stability or safety. I think the fallout - or lack thereof - will be interesting. Despite my philosophical disgust with the practice, I'm well ware that little is likely to change, and I have a hard time getting super upset about things that I can't meaningfully influence. Of course, my opinion isn't anything out of the ordinary, and actually seems to be the majority opinion in the general public. But the sources from which I form that opinion may bias my experience.
Prior probabilities tell us that we should moderate our posterior beliefs not that would she should ignore evidence. We can debate the prior and how to weight the likelihood but datamining can still provide us with useful knowledge. Indeed, the base rate fallacy applies to all crimes and all evidence (its been called the prosecutor's fallacy, actually) but only post-modernists would use that as a reason to reject all criminal justice proceedings.
For example: In that Goldcare's thouhgt experiment. 60 million people, containing 10000 terrorist. The machine is 90% sensitive and 90% specific.
A member of the accused population has a 1 in 1000 chance of being a terrorist.
A member of the accused population is six times as likely to be a terrorist (because there is a 1 in 6000 chance of a person in the general population being a terrorist).
These are not competing pieces of knowledge. The challenge is to pick which one is more useful for what you're trying to do. An investigator is making a better use of time and money by investigating the accused population rather than the general population. A prosecutor is making a mistake if they use it as reason to convict someone.
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This has been downloaded 30 time(s).
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Graffiti outside Latin class.
Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
A juvenal prank.
No see, the president is a democrat, so government spying is clearly, objectively bad.
There are stories of people in Germany going through their Statsi files after the reunification and discovering that the government had kept tabs on them because they'd stolen a bicycle when they were kids.
__________________
“Where the longleaf pines are whispering
to him who loved them so.
Where the faint murmurs now dwindling
echo o’er tide and shore."
-A Grave Epitaph in Santa Rosa County, Florida; I wish I could remember the man's name.
No one intelligent can call Obama left-wing anymore. Secret private contractors fulfilling the Neocon John Poindexter wet dream? The Great Enabler and his corporate Clintonoid loyal opposition aren't communists, they're just the ****** (as in bundle of twigs and root of the word fascist) part of the Fasces and the Republicans are the axe blade.
__________________ Land of the free, home of the brave...
Do you think we will ever be saved?
In this land of dreams find myself sober...
Wonder when will it'll all be over...
Living in a void when the void grows colder...
Wonder when it'll all be over?
Will you be laughing when it's over?
KMC Community Forums
Jun 11th, 2013 06:37 PM
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