sadly, the majority of people are stupid and their stupidity is being used against them. worse yet, their stupidity is being used against those who aren’t completely stupid.

the *playground* has too many *sticky* *camper*, it’s time to go *outside* to *pretty space*

Generally, laws are there to influence people to not harm others, or themselves, through the possibility of punishment. If you are actively violating law(s), you are probably harming others, and/or yourself. Although some may have some childish rationalization about it that they use to mollify their conscience.

If you are stupid enough to use open email as a way of communicating with others about your illegal activities, you are too stupid to be allowed to circulate in society, because your very presence there (given your level of stupidity) will degrade society. I would rather have you in jail for your illegal activities than to have you drooling on my shoes (a metaphor, in case you are one of them) wherever we cross paths.

What the NSA is doing, is to just make it somewhat more tedious for “terrorists” to operate, much as the Secret Service makes it very, very difficult, though not impossible, to assassinate the President. The dangerous “terrorists” already know about encryption, and the many other ways from which they may choose to communicate covertly.

Some rambling: I would assume, they (both the NSA and Secret Service) do stumble across a drooler now and then. Only a true drooler would ever think it would be in any way beneficial to assassinate the president, or to kill a bunch of innocents, as the “terrorists” are wont to do. Though some are more technically literate than others, and would be able to function covertly. Now, more focused rambling.

Anyway, it is important that both the droolers and those who are able to operate very covertly be thwarted, and that is what the NSA is attempting to do. I don’t know what some people may be buying on the internet, or putting in their emails and texts that they are fearful that “Big Brother” will discover, but the NSA uses filters much as Google does to target relevant emails etc. No one is (nor could be) reading all that stuff, and no one cares what it says, unless it trips a filter. Hint, don’t buy 12 tons of ammonium nitrate, or discuss bombing an embassy. Then someone may read it.

I know that it is really the “principle” of the thing (intrusion into our privacy) that gets people riled up, but in the end, THE INTRUSION IS NOT GOING TO STOP (figger it out, DUH!), as long as there are serious “threats” out there. The NSA doesn’t care about “your” emails etc., or even about your privacy, that they are actually not violating, because they aren’t actually reading your emails, but they do care about “threats”.

This is where it starts to get sticky, because the definition of what a threat is can change. But I see no way that it can come to include my purchase of 2 pounds of organic alfalfa seeds for sprouting, or bathroom scale – my most recent internet purchases. That’s about as insidious as it gets for me, and about as insidious as it ever gets for most people. That is not going to trip any filters I can imagine, and so, none of the stuff I do on the internet is ever going to be read by anyone, and even if it is, I don’t care. I don’t do things that harm people (violate laws – well, you know, generally). I just don’t want bombs going off around me. If I ever do decide to blow up an embassy, I’ll encrypt my emails.

If you discuss things in your emails that you would find embarrassing (cute little love notes etc.), no one at the NSA is ever going to read them. If I were to send such things I wouldn’t care if they did read them, as I’m not particularly bashful. If you’re a porn perv – and a pornography “obsession” is a perversion (rather, the result of a sort of mental illness) that is not good for your peace of mind, and being such, harms you – or you are an internet stalker, bent on maltreatment of others, then the filters may (and perhaps should – it bears discussion) come to include such activities. But the real question, again, is where will it stop?

Well, none of us really knows the answer to that question, except that it will not stop until the “government” wants it to. And who is the government? Ultimately, it’s you. So, do keep complaining, but get real about it and quit sniveling about if the government could potentially know what you buy on the internet, or what web sites you visit or what’s in your innocent emails. Potentially – they don’t read your emails, though they could. With a little effort, I could probably capture your email.

The real thing is to work on getting some sort of reality based controls put in place, for when it gets to the point that the NSA finds that its “intrusions” are no longer worth the effort. Then “they” will allow us to put effective control measures into place, but as long as “they” believe they can “protect” the U.S. by doing what they see as necessary, the intrusions will not stop, and personally, I don’t want them too. It would be very dangerous for the current level of “intrusions” on our privacy to stop just now. I don’t want bombs going off around me. Do you? Devil’s advocate, signing out.