Googly, Googly… revisited… Facebooky… Facebooky…

How is anyone surprised by the “Big Reveal”, in every entendre imaginable, from Facebook that ALL OF YOUR INFORMATION WAS USED IN A WAY THAT YOU DON’T LIKE… AND THEY TOOK YOUR FRIENDS INFO TOO… BECAUSE YOU LET THEM.

How is the news?

We’ve been talking about this for over 5 YEARS!  It’s now 032118…

And, I’m always fashionably late to the party!

Where have you been?

(Update 091113: Yesterday, Google lost a similar decision to the one below.  It was on Appeal before the Ninth Circuit.  The Folks at EPIC are happy… but doesn’t the this story make more sense and a seem little less conspiratorial now that we know the NSA has been collecting all of our data and doing so with the aid of our allies?  Originally Posted 072712)

“In April, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission fined Google, saying the company “deliberately impeded and delayed” its investigation into Street View.

It’s unclear what, if any, penalties would be imposed on Google by Britain’s ICO or regulators in any of the 10 other jurisdictions in which the company had wrongly retained Street View data.

“We need to take a look at the data… There’s all sorts of questions we need to ask,” an ICO spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity because office rules prohibit him from being named in print.”

The above quote and where I decided to begin and end it may seem a little confusing, but there is a point…

Today we find out that Google has not destroyed/deleted all of the street view info it was caught collecting in Britain. Keep in mind, when I say “street view info” that includes wi-fi networks and names, e-mail addresses and various and sundry other items of information having nothing to do with a street, or the view from it.

Here’s the fun part however… Britain’s regulators, the IOC, are very “upset”. There has been aplenty “tough” language directed at Google for this blatant breach. Yes… they are terribly, terribly upset don’t you know.

While Google has apologized, it is clearly not enough for the IOC.  In all fairness it’s not enough for me either but here’s the punch line; the IOC is demanding to see the information for “forensic analysis”.  Seriously… You Brit’s are Brilliant!  “Yes, yes, I will need to see all the pornography you have so I can determine if it is actually pornography.  I will also need plenty of time to review it… alone…”

So why did I take the above quote from where I did?

Without question Google was harvesting the same information here in the U.S. that it was in Britain.  No doubt about it.  And the U.S. is watching closely what is going on across the pond… very closely.  But why?

If the IOC is successful in gaining access to the Google information for “forensic analysis” because Google has been very, very bad… then U.S. regulators will not be far behind the Google spanking bandwagon.  What red-blooded, privacy cherishing, citizen wouldn’t want Google to be punished for collecting a bunch of info it shouldn’t have?

Well… this one.  If punishing Google requires the government seeing all of the intel, I would prefer Google to get away with it and we can deal with them in the market place.   Think about this for a second, who would you rather have possessing your secrets, a private company answerable to the legal system or a government answerable to no-one?

The monster under my bed has always scared me the most by whispering “don’t worry…  I’m from the government and I’m here to help…”.  Now he’s muttering “googly… googly..” and my parents still don’t believe me.

Your freedom is directly correlated to your ability to live your life anonymously.  If you care.

Apparently, like the rest of the planet, I may just elect to drink myself to sleep.  Unlike the rest of the planet I will only do it late at night… straight from the bottle… in front of a full length mirror… crying…

NSA disguised itself as Google to spy, say reports  (link added 091213)

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The Most Brilliant Counter-Intel Op Ever?

No Matter how this exposure of the NSA’s ability to Spy turns out, could it be considered the most brilliant Counter-Terror Operation ever devised?

Where do we stand now?  The entire world is aware that everything they do will be archived by the National Security Agency (No Such Agency) and used to determine their threat to the United States.

In other words, it’s not that their cell phone is compromised…. it’s that EVERYTHING they own, and do, is compromised.

Talk about disrupting the enemies communications, and forcing them to modify their behavior!  Modify it to what, bump passes and one-time pads?

Brilliant!

If there was ever a way to strike fear into the hearts and minds of those who wish you harm, this would be it.  The only way to fertilize that fear would be to tell them we’ve been doing it for a decade… And, we have done that too.

There must be a shortage of Depends in certain Asian Countries right now.

Objectively, there is very little down-side to this Spying except the scouring away of any idea American Citizens might have that they live in a Country which preserves and protects their freedoms.  Just a small detail…

So what’s going on with Clapper et al. coming out of the dark corners to defend it?  As a friend of mine out it; “The NSA does not have a process for Press Releases.”

The real reason the Progressive Elitists among us are out defending the Domestic Spying on the American Public is the fear that the entire operation could fall victim to our outrage.  And, they’re right.

But, public complacency typically wins in the end.  Our track record on caring about the erosion of our rights is dismal.  It is my prediction the NSA will be allowed to continue doing whatever they want.  We might get an “I’m Sorry.”, if we’re lucky.  And, you’ll decide you’re OK with it.

You will keep volunteering your private information for all to see.  It is how you elevate yourself above your friends.  It is how you demonstrate your life is better, or you care more about everything, or you “feel” everything more than anybody who has ever lived.  Your Ego will not allow you to preserve your privacy.  So you will tolerate the Government keeping an electronic file on you, and your friends, and your family… just in case they decide you did something wrong, sometime down the road, or whatever.  (But remember that you are responsible for what you disclose to the world.  You have no right to be upset when you post every detail of your life so 12-year old Chinese Doctoral students can do the same thing we are doing to ourselves, only 12,000 miles away.  But you can’t help yourselves… you think everybody should know who you are.  So don’t be surprised when they do.)

The Onion once had a bit on Facebook being the greatest CIA operation ever devised… were they being funny?  Apparently not.

While public information is… well, public.  It is the stuff that we do not disclose to the public which is being gathered by those who desire our trust.

Let me ask you, how would you feel if you found out your spouse was tapping your phone?  Your parents?  Your neighbor?  How would you feel if your boss was reading your e-mail on your home account?  How would you feel if your kids were auditing your credit card transactions?

So why should we accept that it is OK for the Government to do it?  Are the people behind the computers not our friends, parents, children, neighbors, etc?  The “logic” we are being asked to accept is bizarre in its construction.  The idea there must be “a balance between our security and our rights” is directly out of the Tyrannical Government Handbook.  Our rights come before our security… and we are secure because of those rights.

The only issue here… we should not, can not, must not, allow our own Government to Spy on us.  It is unconstitutional.  The fact that we are doing it to ourselves undermines everything this country was founded on, and thus everything we believe to be true in terms of civil liberties.  If we condone this, we officially have no rights.

In other words, if we do not stand up and demand this Domestic Spying be stopped… immediately, then all bets are off.

And, it may not be tomorrow, next week or next month but there WILL be a time that this country’s security apparatus is used to oppress the population.  This is not up for debate by intelligent individuals with a modicum of historical knowledge.  When you have a specific Ideology which demands Centralized Government and the ability to enforce it, oppression is not as far away as one would like to think.

Examples abound… and contrary to what the average, over-inflated-self-esteem drunk, citizen might think, we are not so different from all the other humans occupying this planet.

But like I started, taken at face value… this “Whistle-Blowing” could actually be the greatest Counter-Terror Operation ever executed.

I’ve always said, “If you’re going to be a Socialist then be the best Socialist you can be.”

Here’s to those doing a great job!  Cheers!  (Ever wonder why the Soviets are all drunks?)

This Country Made You!

There is a disturbing idea floating around out there that one should be forever grateful for their success because “this country (U.S.) made them”.

On the contrary… you made this country.

Unless you have fully enlisted somewhere in the spectrum of Socialism… this country did not make you any more than the serial killer who decided NOT to kill you because you picked the wrong onion in the produce aisle is responsible for everything you did with your life from that moment on.

The United States is a gift to the world not because it is the creator of success… it is a gift to the world because it does not impede it. (Well at least is doesn’t do every imaginable thing to impede it… yet… give the Left time.)

So to all of you, particularly those who consider themselves “Conservatives”, think very carefully about what you are saying. Then, refrain from saying it.  If you aver that we as individuals owe an allegiance to the United States I would rather offer that the United States owes an allegiance to the individual (you).

The undeniable success of this country is not by decree from above… it is by the ingenuity and ambition that each individual has brought to the table on their own behalf… from below.

Don’t mistake what I’m saying for an inability to be grateful… I am grateful.  I’m grateful that politicians have yet to figure out how to stifle every bit of ambition and innovation in this country through their never ending drive for graft.  I’m grateful that occasionally someone speaks up when a politician attempts to create barriers to entry protecting his, and his friends, business interests from competition.

I’m grateful to see someone like Mark Zuckerberg become so successful so quickly that the very people who would have liked to claim credit (politicians who shoot at everything that flies and take credit for everything that falls) were behind the curve and can only cry and stomp their feet when those with the drive and imagination legally avoid their tax schemes and barriers to entry.

I’m grateful that our soldiers and servicemen take an oath of allegiance to the U.S. Constitution and not “America” or “The United States”.  As the latter do not identify the specific values our founders intended, but morph into and out of the limitations set forth by them.

You should be grateful too… and when you say it’s “wrong” when one of them wants to leave the country to escape the unreasonable tax burden built on the idea that every dollar our politicians spend is imperative to the well-being of everything, then I believe you need to rethink your premises.

Let’s remember who made what and the philosophy this country was created upon.  (Start with Locke and Montesquieu then move forward… please.  It’s more important than the latest sequel at the theater.)

Facebook Shrugged?

Has Ayn Rand struck again?

Is Mark Zuckerberg playing the role of Francisco De Anconia?

Is Facebook filling the role of De Anconia Copper?

Was all of this an ingenious ploy to puff up a company to such a degree that all of the Limousine Liberal Establishment, and the herd of useful idiots, would run to throw their money at it?

Are there really “investors” out there who buy businesses with no business model?

Could it be possible that the joke is on them?

Can he get away with the same scheme twice?

Will they really let him do it again on the NYSE?

What will happen when they finally figure out they’ve been taken?

Stay tuned for next weeks show to find out…

Same Face time…

same Face channel…

“If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater the effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders — what would you tell him to do? I don’t know. What could he do? What would you tell him? To shrug.”  – Francisco de Anconia

Invisible

I have always seen my freedom as directly correlated to my ability to live my life anonymously.
So I have a question; what has happened to our freedom?
It seems to me we are creating a world where only those willing to give up all of their privacy and throw out to the world every last detail of their existence can operate easily. Anybody who doesn’t want the world looking at them and what they buy and where they go and who they know and when they do all of these things are suspected of… something.

It’s my opinion that we are losing control of our private lives and thus our freedom. We have willingly given up our ability to truly be free for the convenience of credit cards and tracking cookies. We have volunteered to have our personal information made available to everyone via Facebook and public tax records. (But, by golly, we guard our social security number…) Now we seem excited about doing the same thing with our medical records… we ignore Echelon and Carnivore… we see the Patriot Act as triumph of bipartisanship…  when does it end?

It’s one thing for Google to collect all of your movements around the web… and Apple tracking your actual movements through your phone… it’s another to have government officials demanding that information, and getting it.  We have forgotten that the supercomputers are crunching every e-mail and phone call we make.  I don’t mean to make anybody paranoid… just aware.  I think we are watching each other more than those who watch us.

It’s my view that the people we have given the power of force should get our greatest attention and are the only ones who should sacrifice their privacy.  I expect them to resist as we see when police arrest citizens for video taping them, or our Attorney General of the U.S. refusing to release documents about our program arming Mexican drug cartels.  Their behavior is no surprise, it is our complacency that is shocking.

The founders knew this would always be a problem the citizenry would have to be equipped to deal with.  The intent of the second amendment was to keep the government, at all levels, honest and on track. It is effective only because those in power never know where or who those they might oppress are at any given moment.  It works on the principle of your invisibility.  It is an amendment designed to instill fear into those who might wish to conduct themselves in an unsavory/illegal manner.  It really is that simple.  (I can sense the fits the Leftists are throwing right now.  “He said FEAR… ahhahhh!!!!!”  The Left’s idea that the second amendment is about duck hunting simply illustrates their ignorance.  But this is understandable because Socialism relies on the population fearing the government, not the other way around.)  A citizens lack of invisibility negates this much-needed and very positive influence over our leaders.
As I see it, we are charging towards the edge of the cliff and cheering…  while vlogging on YouTube about how the journey affects us spiritually.
I think we should stop, take a step back, and pay a little more attention to the direction we’re headed.