NSA: fear of a black van

[n2doc]

Most of us are good citizens. And yet. What if the government is listening in, or watching, or scanning, and some algorithm triggers an investigation and some quota-happy g-man decides to make one of us a pet project?


By David Gewirtz

What are we afraid of, really? What is it about the NSA story that so pushes our buttons?

Most people, when confronted with those questions will express that their outrage is about their right to privacy, that government intervention is un-American, that spying is just wrong.

But that's not really it, is it?

What pushes our buttons is fear. We're afraid that something we do, something we say, or even the fact that we know someone will cause the full might and power of the U.S. government to descend down upon us and ruin our lives.

Most of us are generally law-abiding. Oh, sure. We might speed up to 66 in a 65-mile zone to get out of the way of a nutball driver. We might still have one or two MP3s from the early Napster days, but we've been buying all our music like good consumers ever since. We pay our taxes and while H&R Block might make an error, we'll pay any fees if we're required to.

more

http://www.zdnet.com/nsa-fear-of-a-black-van-7000019846/

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. A buddy of mine owns a bar right in the center of downtown Indy.

A few weeks ago I was sitting at his bar having a few drinks and then we decided it would be great fun to change the name of his bar's network name. We went into the office and changed the name of the network to "NSA Surveillance Van #2". There are literally hundreds of businesses within a mile of his location including banks, law offices etc. We had a great laugh knowing that many people would search for their or others networks over the next few days and find the "NSA Surveillance Van" network. As far as I know, he has not changed it. We laughed and drank and laughed some more!

Cheers!

[RC]

2. +10

Good show.