Saturday, January 18, 2014
I don't know why we expect like we still have privacy
Maybe BB can explain why the Government needs to collect 200 million text messages a day. What a banal undertaking! The operative principle is despite ethics or legality Government does what it wants. This aside what is the practical value of this NSA program called "Dishfire"? none that I can see. Obama as usual fails to inspire or lead.
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My guess they are looking for that 'needle in a haystack', dunno, maybe sorting out
ReplyDelete'twin towers', 'Mongolian embassy' and stuff. Can't imagine sorting through 'Hey,
Donna, watcha doin?', "I'm at 6th and Birch", 'R U happy-Me 2'. Only Snowden
knows for sure.
Since thanks to Mr. Snowden the NSA programs are common knowledge now and terrorists aren't stupid the NSA programs should be working in the terrorists' favor. All they have to do to throw Dishfire off is to keep texting about that Mongolian embassy whereas that's really code for another embassy in another country or maybe a bus depot in Spain.
DeleteThe other thought is this use of metadata, if you put morality aside makes brilliant sense on a purely mathematical level. To use simply hardcore math, computer programming, algorithms, advanced mathematical theories etc. to combat and foil terrorists is a fascinationg technological capability so my question is this: if the government can do this how come they can't design a decent website???
ReplyDeleteActually, the gov't doesn't do that stuff, they hire private contractors. The contractors designed the flawed website, sift our texts and gave us Ed
DeleteSnowden.
BB I know that. I'm talking about gov't in a casual, loose, generic and general sense. We commonly say "he divorced his wife" even though technically the attorneys did it.
DeleteI'm thinking that the private sector is hiring former NSA
ReplyDeletespooks?
Don't think Amazon has a good idea at all. It's like when you buy a book on say Google Play and they send back to you Recommended Reading based on your purchase and sometimes it's so off the mark you just laugh.
DeleteDid I see your area under another blizzard?
ReplyDeleteThis winter has become very disruptive. It's not that these are the biggest storms I've ever lived through but Yonkers doesn't prepare the roads. So the other day I just go straight home from work since it started snowing earlier than forecast then yesterday I just stayed home and caught up on some ebooks. All Yonkers does is send you an automated telephone message during inclement weather saying alternate side of the street parking has been suspended but meters are still in effect. God I remember more major storms than this but I was able to get out 'cause they plowed the roads but this year I don't know if there's some type of labor dispute going on but I don't see many plows doing their thing. I don't know why I'm paying taxes.
DeleteYonkers didn't piss off Christie's people, did they?
DeleteNo but de Blasio is now being accused of deliberately not having the Upper East Side plowed early enough and soon enough. It's funny how Yonkers never wants to give up the meter money. Driving around in Yonkers recently and I see more and more red-light cams everywhere esp. along Central Ave. Just one big surveillance city.
DeleteIt seems Yonkers has 42 plows for 700 miles which should be adequate. Often,
Deletehigh density urban areas with street parking become problematic with deep snow, though. In the Great Plains along the interstates, you see
gates with a sign "Turn back at this exit: Highway closed due to snow".
Considering that semi trucks sometimes get buried in drifts, that seems
reasonable. Maybe Yonkers needs some 'closed for the duration' signs?
That looks good on paper. Again I got off early the day of the forecast snowfall and it was snowing earlier than expected. Not that much snow on the roads when I left but enough but it should have been easier to get home than it was. There was a time when the issue of rock salt being bad for the environment was much discussed but where I come down on this is human safety is more important but what do I know I'm just a conservative.
DeleteRock salt: grew up with that. My first car, a 1951 Ford Coupe, was so
Deleterusted out you could see the road through the floorboards. The chlorides
of magnesium and calcium are a bit better, causing melting at lower temps than rock salt, and they even have some organic stuff that is much better (and expensive) Out this way, they use sand and permit studded tires, which also has disadvantages. I'm thinking, Z-Man, you need a
Zamboni.
Down here tjey brine the roads.
ReplyDeletePickling the roads, that's interesting. I just wish Yonkers would pick one of the many options and stick with it.
DeleteThey picked the red light camera option and are sticking with it.
Delete& in NYC they're going with speed cameras and are using the excuse of the growing number of pedestrians there being hit and killed by cars. Why don't they just have it mandatory to install a camera in your car as well to make sure you buckle up and comb your hair.
DeleteIt seems the personal weapons community is greatly upset by the NFL refusing to run a TV ad during the super bowl. Frankly, I would rather see the gun industry use those millions to help the victims of mall shootings.
ReplyDeleteI generally hate all the attention devoted every year to those Super Bowl ads. But the raunchy ones are ok? Having said that there's a reason you're not addressing why gun rights is such a strong movement in this country and part of the blame imo goes to the gun controllers themselves. The right to self-defense resonates with the American public, it emotionally meshes with us so if I were a strategist for the gun controllers I'd be saying you have to address this right to self-defense by putting something else on the table. Saty sometime back mentioned mace or sprays and things like that and that's what I mean but generally it seems to me gun controllers seem to believe if we got rid of all guns crime would just magically disappear. So how do the gun controllers say how to handle the next mall shooting besides heading for the nearest restroom or AC vent? It's like they want us to accept our victimhood.
DeleteWe need be aware of the odd metrics . The folks running out for the latest 50rd mag assault rifle for 'protection' already have an arsenal
Deleteand are just adding to it. Read through the gun blogs; it is a mind-set and
they are incensed about even background checks. It appears the majority of folks have no guns, want no guns and just sort of ignore the
ugly side: a firearm for every man, woman and child in the US. NRA points proudly (but mistakenly) to Switzerland, which has only 0.5 per person. It is a no-brainer: more guns, more gun deaths. There is no
short term solution. But, given Darwinian probability, over the long term
the argument-shootings, accidents and suicides will reduce the ownership. Only in the world of Kafka, would folks argue after every
mass murder-we need more guns.
That wasn't my point. My point is there's a reason why the gun rights movement is so strong in this country and it has to do with the emotional appeal of being able to and having the right to defend yourself and your family. So my other point is it would be wise and politically practical for the gun controllers to address the issue of how best to defend ourselves. Krav Maga, just put something on the table.
DeleteIMO, in a modern civilized society, no one should have to worry about self-defense...sorta sad, really. So, you packin heat along with your smartphone yet?
DeleteI grew up on the old Bruce Tegner self-defense books and you'd like him BB as in one section on guns he made a pretty good case why most folks shouldn't have them but it didn't come across as all gun controlley the way it is today. While I agree with the gun controllers in many areas I just wish they'd be more than how to crawl under a desk.
DeleteIt is the context: during the Revolutionary War, over 7 years of combat
Deleteagainst the British, 8000 patriots were killed by gunfire. Last year, 33,000
people were killed in the US by firearms. (the charts show that by 2015,
gun deaths will pass traffic accidents in terms of lethality). You ask a good question; what to do when in a threatening gun situation? Could it be that if you went for your sidearm you would become the first victim?
Could it be you would be a hero, kill the guy and save lives? Would old
Schwartz across the way pull his too and the affair turn into an OK Corral?
Police are trained how to deal with such, most of the rest of us are not:
there are some snap judgments to be made. My neighbor is a concealed carry guy and told me, "If I use my gun, no matter what, I will be in court"
which is part of the CC carry lesson plans. I can certainly see a person living in a crime-ridden neighborhood wanting one for protection; I have problems with the guy who has a few dozen, but needs an assault rifle
for more security. Being in the business, you learn the folks; almost all
are collectors who like to shoot on the weekend, they keep their stuff
under lock and key..but even they think the NRA is the only thing between
them and the US Gestapo, ya know?
That is the key why so many Americans are for the Second Amendment, they feel without their guns the US Gov't would take over the country. Even many otherwise mainstream and respectable conservatives deep down feel this way too. I've been pondering this scenario and I honestly think there's a 50/50 chance it could happen. Would at least be tempting for the government in such a case to slowly encroach more and more on liberty. Folks with guns kinda keeps the gov't honest although by no means is it a perfect situation.
DeleteYou are probably right. I was sorely tempted when Darth Cheney was in office.
DeleteHe's had countless heart attacks and yet if it were your average uncle he'd be dead by now. Call it CheneyCare.
DeleteIt may be that in a few years, folks won't be carrying firearms for defense.
DeleteWe will have our personal drone hovering overhead.
I'm sure Cheney has one.
DeleteAmazon is planning delivery by drone: of stuff you haven't ordered yet.
DeleteThe day is coming when your smart phone will turn you in for zipping through the intersection on orange.
I've never really understood what yellow meant. Guess it's a judgement call. I've never understood alot of things like for most of my life I always thought the colon was the lower and last part of the large intestine before it hooks up with the rectum. Now when I bing it it turns out to be the whole damn tubing of the large intestine. When did this happen?
DeleteThat's like something changes at work and you never got the memo. First I thought somebody had hijacked wiki. Pondering this today, a woman shows her cleavage. I'm assuming that's to attract the male of the species and yet she's not gonna want every man that's gonna take a peak. It's kind of contradictory, what kind of signal is this and how do you interpret it? Wrong man/stalker, right man/date night.
DeleteIt has been said that women dress for women, sort of a keep up with the Jones type thing. I'm thinking cleavage-wise, maybe it is 'if ya got it-
Deleteflaunt it'...like if Z-Man had a Ferrari.
Mind you I'm not coming at this from a puritanical angle but is there some sort of official explanation somewhere? I can't think of a really comparable thing that men do like put a sock in your trousers.
DeleteThere is talk of bringing back the medieval codpiece, if you are looking to
Deletestart a trend . You could be the talk of the workplace, ya
know?
The guy I saw in a Barnes & Noble one summer day could've used one. Sittin' there reading his book and he had on shorts and his legs were crossed and his rather manly pouch was just dangling there.
DeleteI guess you answered your cleavage question: he was on the make.
DeleteI got that sense when I saw him comfortably in the chair reading away. I once worked with this older black seagood mgr., average looking but he kept coming over to our area and replaying some cell phone messages from various women (e.g. "I want you in me right now") and so my mgr. and I were discussing this because he was no Tom Selleck or Billy Dee Williams that's for sure. My boss goes it has nothing to do with selection, quality or whatever else on his part just he'll go along with any desperate woman with the Need. I mean yeah it makes sense in a way but I've been kinda holding back:)
DeleteThe Huckabee libido thing?
DeleteI think where we run into problems is there's so much thought that should go into Sex but we just fall into it. Esp. today with the pool of diseases out there and constant variant mutations of it not to mention the old problem of unwanted pregnancy so I really think this seafood guy really didn't care about any of that and just went with the flow. Huckabee, you know what bothers me about this whole pc thing, getting on people's cases for saying the wrong or stupid thing? Instead of everyone constantly getting all worked over everything just see people luck Huck as a comedian. Laugh, chuck it off, make dinner. I don't get angry when famous people say stupid things, I LOVE IT!
Delete