In its effort to counter the fallout from the leaks of the NSA’s secret spying on people, the administration has handed out a set of talking points to its friends in the media and in Congress so that they don’t have to go through the chore of trying to figure out for themselves why they are comfortable with an authoritarian government.
Mike Masnick puts the talking points under a microscope.
A judge in Texas has ordered a psychic to pay a couple $6.5 million for the harm she caused them by telling police that a mass grave containing 25 to 30 bodies was on their property.
But the major question is why police would act on the basis of information provided by psychics. Surely there must be someone in the police department who could have pointed out that psychics are useless people who prey on the gullible and desperate?
This is another consequence of the magical thinking promoted by religion.
What worries me is that president Obama might try to divert attention from the NSA spying story by some sort of military adventure, say in Syria, the way Bill Clinton bombed a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan in 1998 when he was being besieged by the Monica Lewinsky scandal. No one was punished for that crime either. [Read more…]
He says that he has been busy on a new set of stories that will be released soon. I for one am eagerly looking forward to it and I suspect that the elites who run our government and other major institutions are quaking in their shows wondering what other of their activities are going to be revealed.
Greenwald expresses astonishment (that I share) at how people could defend the secrecy that has been exposed.
How can anyone think that it’s remotely healthy in a democracy to have the NSA building a massive spying apparatus about which even members of Congress, including Senators on the Homeland Security Committee, are totally ignorant and find “astounding” when they learn of them? How can anyone claim with a straight face that there is robust oversight when even members of the Senate Intelligence Committee are so constrained in their ability to act that they are reduced to issuing vague, impotent warnings to the public about what they call radical “secret law” enabling domestic spying that would “stun” Americans to learn about it, but are barred to disclose what it is they’re so alarmed by? Put another way, how can anyone contest the value and justifiability of the stories that we were able to publish as a result of Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing: stories that informed the American public – including even the US Congress – about these incredibly consequential programs? What kind of person would think that it would be preferable to remain in the dark – totally ignorant – about them?
The NSA spying revelations show that Congress and the president have decided that the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution (“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”) can be ignored. [Read more…]
While perceptions and treatment of the LGBT community by the general public have undoubtedly improved in recent years, they still feel some stigma, as a new Pew survey reveals. [Read more…]
One of the great fantasies inspired by Ayn Rand’s book Atlas Shrugged is that the real producers in society can bring society to a grinding halt by simply withdrawing their services. In the book they are so tired of the fruits of their labor being taken by the moochers and looters that they carry out their threat and retreat to a remote place called Galt’s Gulch. [Read more…]
Watch this dramatic video from security cameras of a narrow escape by two people and a dog from a runaway car that was careening along the sidewalk behind them. What tipped off one of the people to look back and see the danger was the signal given by the guide dog.
You can read the full story here.