Thursday, January 16, 2014

George Orwell With A Twist

     

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On January 14, 2014 the New York Times reported:

WASHINGTON -- The National Security Agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows the United States to conduct surveillance on those machines and can also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks. While most of the software is inserted by gaining access to computer networks, the N.S.A. has increasingly made use of a secret technology that enables it to enter and alter data in computers even if they are not connected to the Internet, according to N.S.A. documents, computer experts and American officials.

More from the New York Times

My opinion:

A more appropriate designation for the NSA (National Security Agency) would be the SS (Secret Service) and it is the most dangerous current threat in existence to individual liberty for the United States of America, and perhaps, eventually, for the entire population of Earth itself.

I understand that President Obama will issue some new guidelines on Friday to curtail government surveillance, but it is clear that he believes the NSA has a right to use modern technology to gather and store information from any source in order to ensure security for the nation.

What such actions by the NSA will do, even though Obama says his administration would never do it, is to allow this government agency to gather and store data that can be used to suppress and negate any and all protests by the citizenry. Even if Obama is sincere and correct, these stored data will still be available (by law) to a future governing body that is not so trustworthy as is Obama's. Imagine what a Richard Nixon type regime could and probably would do with such information.

Think about it.

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Did You Know . . .?

Human Beings are the only primates whose numbers are not in decline.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1997, comedian and TV star Bill Cosby's 27-year-old son Ennis Cosby was murdered after he stopped to fix a flat tire along California's Interstate 405 in Los Angeles. The 405 is known as one of the planet's busiest and most congested roadways. A Ukrainian-born teenager, Mikhail Markhasev reportedly high on drugs, approached Cosby to rob him but when Cosby took too long to hand over money he was shot and killed.

Ennis Cosby was the third of Bill Cosby's five children and said to be the inspiration for the character of Theo Huxtable on the hit TV sitcom "The Cosby Show."

In August 1998 Markhasev, then 19. was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of  parole, plus 10 years for first-degree murder and attempted robbery.

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WORD FOR TODAY

subjugation
noun
the state of being kept down by unjust use of force or authority; oppression

Subjugation is one of many types of injustice in the world. It has to do with one group of people dominating another group by taking away their freedom. When slavery was legal in the U.S., that was a clear-cut case of subjugation: African-Americans were forced to live without rights, under the control of their white owners.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


(born January 16, 1950)
Debbie Allen is an American actress, dancer, and choreographer. She is perhaps best known for her work on the 1982 musical-drama television series Fame, where she portrayed dance teacher Lydia Grant, and served as the series' principal choreographer. She is the younger sister of actress Phylicia Rashad.



(born January 16, 1973)
Josie Davis is an American actress, best known for her role as Sarah Powell in the television sitcom Charles in Charge from 1987 to 1990.



(born January 16, 1989)
Yvonne Zima is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Sheila Carter's daughter, Daisy Carter on The Young and the Restless.



(born January 16, 1985)
Renee Felice Smith is an American actress best known for portraying Nell Jones on NCIS: Los Angeles.

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Whether it's rude or not, multitasking is probably ruining your brain. You should stop.
--Kevin Drum

NASA TV

   

2 comments:

  1. I wouldn't mind being bugged or cyberattacked by Josie or Yvonne. Then again, President Nixon's squad kept track of me (true), so the NSA's software may likely be mingling right now with my legitimate software. Sorry, Super-Secret Agents. Just an old man dreaming. It's Gene's fault for putting them here!

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    Replies
    1. Write those old man dreams down, Anthony. Post them on your site. Write 'em down!

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