For those that don't know who don't know who Vincent Canfield is (I didn't), it is worth reading up on the man as he is a fascinating if not controversial person with a flair for raw/abrasive humor and a confrontational manner. He faced extradition and criminal charges in Germany [0] and his email service, cock.li, was at the center of the terrorist hoax against US schools [1].

[0] https://twitter.com/gexcolo/status/715640881651564544?lang=e... [1] http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-story-of-cockli-the-sit...

I would like to respond to a few comments:

> Why do we only hear stories about this from the US and not from China or Russia? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13454966

As a proud US citizen, I understand the slight you are feeling. It's as if we are continually being picked on and singled out for every misstep. In these types of thread I always see comments like:

> USA: make East Germany great again. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13454689

> Yip. Traveling to the US is ironically the one place where I'd be concerned about my rights & freedom. Their tourist harassment force really needs to relax. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13455194

Which infuriate me! But, we (as US citizens) should be held to the highest of standards because at times what we preach as a country is contradicted by our actions. It's not good enough to say, "Well, this is an isolated incident," or "Look at what x_country does." To justify abusive over reaching actions by our government based on what another country does is not logical or constructive. What we need to do is improve ourselves as a country and by doing so maybe set an example for others.