hyperventilator

Apparently this is post is being heavily flagged. For what reason I cannot fathom.

Or pg is trying to slow the site down to delay Eternal September. Keeping it painful to use on mobile would seem to accomplish that.

As a peaceful protest / 4th Amendment exercise, please consider attaching an encrypted file with EVERY email you send from now on. It's easy enough to do using TrueCrypt. It needn't be a file the recipient needs to decrypt, or keep. You needn't even remember the password. If everyone did this every time they send an email to anyone, it would flood the Internet with literally millions, then billions, of encrypted files, thereby demonstrating our resolve to maintain some level of privacy, and protecting most if not all of us "fish" in the "school" from the "sharks" who prefer to eat us one at a time (a la Edward Snowden and Ladar Levison). When fish in a massive school move together in coordinated ways, it frustrates predators. If this idea seems worthwhile PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE

This accomplishes three things. 1) It makes you familiar with encryption for when you actually need it. 2) It increases the cost of surveillance and 3) It gives you an opening to discuss the topic with non-tech friends when they ask about your gibberish attachment.

As long as you define very silent as running stories every other day.

This story os everywhere BBC, NYT etc. Pretending there is a media blackout undermines credibility.

There is no need for conspiracy, if media companies thought they could sell more advertisements you can be goddamn sure they would. They'll print anything to sell papers. The demographic really interested in the details of this are probably not who they are selling ads to.

Do you not beleive the Germans are in on it?

Having more people on the government dole actually makes the problem worse. We need less government, as little as possible, and more self reliance. Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient be rid of it.

I disagree. We are making progress towards a more free society. Would I like to see more progress, of course and so would most people but they are not going be in favor of trashing the economy and putting their families at risk over a theoretical increase in progress. I do agree that laws cannot be secret for obvious reasons, but I am not sure you can have no secrets.

You drastically overestimate the government. The US gov can be taken down from the inside if the people want to. They don't want to. Every human alive today has more power at their fingertips than a King a hundred years ago, but go ahead and believe that this is the worst it has ever been, it is a popular fantasy.

> democracy is impossible with such an unworthy populace

Not impossible but imperfect, and it always will be so get used to it.

Virtually everything run by the government is to some extent botched. I can't think of a single department that is run properly, yet so many people claim the NSA knows everything. Sure they do.

If you think this is just an American problem you are deceiving yourself.

They could keep him longer if they were able to decrypt, assuming it was gov files.

So as long as your encryption can hold up for nine hours you can travel via London.

drivebyacct2 you are hellbanned.

>Partner is the only gender neutral way of expressing this thought

Not really. Significant other does the job fine and cannot be confused with a business partner.

Even Russia, who is more than happy to see the West twist in the wind, has said Snowden should stop leaking state secrets, presumably because they also don't want their secrets leaked.

Which countries are not complicit?

That's the thing about depression, when you are sad for no apparent reason it is absolutely maddening. Then when something bad does happen you almost feel better because now you have a legitimate reason for the way you are feeling. It is a very bad feedback loop.

Thanks. And here is a productive way to protest.

As a peaceful protest / 4th Amendment exercise, please consider attaching an encrypted file with EVERY email you send from now on. It's easy enough to do using TrueCrypt. It needn't be a file the recipient needs to decrypt, or keep. You needn't even remember the password. If everyone did this every time they send an email to anyone, it would flood the Internet with literally millions, then billions, of encrypted files, thereby demonstrating our resolve to maintain some level of privacy, and protecting most if not all of us "fish" in the "school" from the "sharks" who prefer to eat us one at a time (a la Edward Snowden and Ladar Levison). When fish in a massive school move together in coordinated ways, it frustrates predators. If this idea seems worthwhile PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE

You can pretend that this is just an American problem as long as you realize you are just pretending. Is there an EU country that is not complicit?

>demanding an end to the unconstitutional NSA spying.

Spying on on Europeans, Australians etc. is clearly constitutional. So where does that leave us? Other nations hating America because their own governments want access to the data but can pawn off the blame. Brilliant.

>Missile Command embodied the Cold War nightmare the world lived in

The reality that at any moment, without warning, we could all be incinerated in a fireball made for some serious "live for the moment" scenarios. Playing Missile Command at that time was quite surreal. No matter how well you do you lose all you cities.

>Go beyond the US Constitution

Yes. But now your are talking about a world government. Do you think the one you hate would not have a major role? If they didn't have a major role would that really be a world government? Your country could try to negotiate anti-spying treaties, but your government is likely complicit. Maybe there is a seed for world governance here, but more likely politicians will play both sides as they always do.

You will not make things more efficient by having them run by the government, you will only create another unfunded mandate. While it may seem that it is free if the government pays for it, obviously someone pays. The least cost effective way to run something is through a government bureaucracy, that should be pretty clear by now.