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[misko27]

Jesus Christ it's like they're trying to kill the internet economy.

Or the internet entirely.

That's it, isn't it? They're scared of the internet and trying to kill it.

Given it would be approximately on par with the Debt Ceiling in terms of economic damage, it's safe to say they do not want to do that. The government is not the incompetent villain in a children's cartoon guys. They do not do evil for the sake of doing evil. Even the crazy countries have a vested interest in maintaining power. Countries that don't do not exist anymore, because their power was broken; it's as simple as that. I know many of you may not believe this, but people other then people opposed to the government use the internet. The Government uses the internet (Obamacare says hello). The government invented the freaking internet. And it is in fact an extension of the real world, not a free utopia of ideas. The whole western world in logged on now. Governments will do what they do, which is use it to their advantage, which must be curtailed. But saying destruction is pointless alarmism.

I mean you might as well have said the government was trying to ban books. Not certain books mind, all books. Ever. Not even China does that. No one does that, at all; only the Nazis were close to holding that position. Go back to China. Take a look at how they're internet world is: Continuously bubbling, sufficiently angry rhetoric being relatively swiftly expunged, various foreign sources not able to be accessed by people in China, at least legally. Compare that to their book industry. Similar no? The US is not even remotely approaching the level of internet watching in China, let alone actually acting on their information (The primary complaint in the IC about the NSA's policies is that they collect too much data to even use.). China has over two million people on their internet police force actively patrolling the internet. Given the differences in population, That would approximately equal to the population of Detroit.

The government is not coming to blow up your laptop. They will operate as insidiously as they have before, you are just more aware of it.

[Sheb]

Given the differences in population, That would approximately equal to the population of Detroit.

I think I just found out how to save Detroit. More seriously, the US got what, 850,000 people with top secret clearance working on intelligence? Granted, not all of them are working on internet stuff, but Detroit only has a population of 700,000.

[Bouchart]

They can't do internet security work in Detroit because the hooligans there have already ripped all the copper wiring out of the walls.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Ripped it out of the walls before it was even put in?

Hooligans are known time wizards.

[Descan]

I was being facetious.

[Bauglir]

Ripped it out of the walls before it was even put in?

Hooligans are known time wizards.

Their experience with fisticuffs grants them exceptional skill when determining who assumes the role of Time Master, and their resilience to pain lends them an advantage during the slap phase.

[Evil Knievel]

In this thread i found
this interview with Tuss Rice. Sounds quite unbelievable, all of this, but I really lost belief in my judgement long ago, too.

Here is a quote of the initial post with an exert

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The original NSA whistleblower, Russ Tice, who is a former intelligence analyst for the U.S. Air Force, Office of Naval Intelligence, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and NSA, claimed in a June radio interview with Peter B. Collins and Sibel Edmonds that the situation was far worse than the public was aware of at the time.

It's looking more and more like he was telling the truth.

Here's an excerpt:

"They went after high ranking military officers. They went after members of congress. The Senate and the House - especially on the intelligence committees, and on the armed services committees and judicial. But they went after other ones too. They went after lawyers and law firms. Heaps of lawyers and law firms. They went after judges. One of the judges is now sitting on the supreme court that I had his wiretap information in my hand. Two are former FISA court judges. They went after state department officials. They went after people in the executive service that were part of the White House - their own people! They went after anti-war groups. They went after US companies that do international business around the world. They went after US banking firms and financial firms that do international business. They went after NGOs like the red cross and people like that that go overseas and do humanitarian work. They went after a few anti-war civil rights groups...

Now here's the big one. I haven't given you any names. This was in summer 2004. One of the papers that I held in my hand was to wiretap a bunch of numbers associated with a 40-something year old wanna-be Senator from Illinois. You wouldn't happen to know where that guy lives right now, would you? It's a big White House in Washington DC. That's who they went after. And that's the President of the United States now. And I could give you names of a bunch of different people they went after that I saw! The names and the phone numbers of congress. Not only the names but it looked like staff people too, and their staff. And not only their Washington office but back home in their congressional offices that they have in their home state offices and stuff like that. This thing is incredible what NSA has done. They've basically turned themselves - in my opinion - into a rogue agency that has J Edgar Hoover capabilities on a monstrous scale on steroids."

He also names others who have been spied on--including Kucinich, Leahy, Feinstein, and Alito.

[SalmonGod]

This one is delicious.

The NSA has a program for spying on videogame communities, claiming that the anonymous communication over video game networks could be taken advantage of by terrorists.

The program hasn't turned up any sufficient proof to suggest that these games see any operational use in terrorism, and... that's actually the justification for the program... 

Notably, the Guardian stresses that the NSA document never gives evidence that terrorists are using video games to plot schemes and attacks. However, it claims that Xbox Live, Second Life and World of Warcraft accounts were found to be associated with the IP addresses and email addresses of Al-Qaida terrorists.

Of course, this was not enough to be considered proof -- which is why the document suggests that online games need to be monitored. "Only then can we find evidence that Games and Virtual Environments are being used for operational uses," it reportedly reads.

These games need to be monitored for evidence that they need to be monitored.

This is the type of subject that tends to attract slippery slope arguments.  I understand that such style of argument is considered logical fallacy.  Gentlemen, I admit that in this case, that was indeed a fallacy.  The slippery slope was actually an avalanche.  The rabbit hole was a canyon.  We're falling into that abyss in a whirlpool of circular logic, riding an avatar of paranoid megalomania.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Or possibly a bunch of NSA employees like being paid to be gamers.

[Aklyon]

I could see a way to make it sound like SL needs to be monitored. But really, WoW?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

There is not enough money on Earth to convince me to voluntarily play Second Life all day.

[SalmonGod]

Or possibly a bunch of NSA employees like being paid to be gamers.

Even more ridiculous and amusing, yet not the least bit comforting.

[Frumple]

Yeah... I'm not entirely sure if it's less comforting for those sorts to be competent... or not. Because, shit. If they're competent, at least we get something (security, conceptually anyway) out of the steady erosion of freedoms and whatnot. If they're not, then. Damn. What the hell? All societal underpinning sodomy without a single happy ending in sight. Not even a bitter one filled with tears. No happy endings at all in NSOAP land.

[Flying Dice]

Or possibly a bunch of NSA employees like being paid to be gamers.

Even more ridiculous and amusing, yet not the least bit comforting.

You have to admit, though, it fits. Certainly better than being paid to read peoples' emails.

[Max White]

Single, young, male, social outcast, easily brainwashed, willing to dedicate self to fanatical beliefs.
Lets face it, WoW players fit the profile.