tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post2366573845263850686..comments2024-03-28T23:57:50.103-05:00Comments on Bayou Renaissance Man: Big Brother is watching - and it's not doing a damned bit of goodPeterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10595089829300831372noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-50070942842661773502018-11-28T10:53:52.128-06:002018-11-28T10:53:52.128-06:00What makes surveillance so bad is not because any ...What makes surveillance so bad is not because any of us necessarily have illicit or unsavory activities and elements to hide<br />...it's because people and authorities are often very prejudice and judgmental, and have the mindset of censors---that is, often tending to misunderstand things and mistakenly seeing undesirable elements in even a lot of basically innocent and innocuous activities and words. Especially when it comes to anything different or unusual. The more idiosyncratic something or someone is, the more suspicious most people get of them.<br /><br />And there's the tendency of those in authority to put a negative spin on anything that appears to them as being "suspicious" in nature.<br /><br />That's why privacy is important. So one can go about their own activities without the fear of being thwarted by meddling types who might interfere with them based on some extreme, unfounded and paranoid notions. <br />So one doesn't get so bogged down by having to worry about whether or not their lifestyle might be viewed as somehow being "offensive" or "undesirable" by some individual they have no ties to in any way.Tal Hartsfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05077424958233740898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-71266600486640835202018-11-27T13:20:19.172-06:002018-11-27T13:20:19.172-06:00Old NFO, exactly. The 'far-right' i.e. any...Old NFO, exactly. The 'far-right' i.e. anyone or anything to the left of center are the current bogey-men in the UK. However, ask the questions 'How many people have they murdered?' , 'How many of them have been convicted of involvement in a organised child abuse ring?' and the answer is deafening silence. I despair of my country, do not yours go the same way.BadFroghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00051102067870927677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-46716625786020878762018-11-26T14:53:35.477-06:002018-11-26T14:53:35.477-06:00Agree with Aesop, and every time we've 'tr...Agree with Aesop, and every time we've 'tried' proactive actions, it's been shut down by the loony left... One interesting note on the Brit program, it apparently ONLY goes after far-right concerns, nothing on the left or muslim jihadist... sighOld NFOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16404197287935017147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-80210173448659722292018-11-26T11:17:17.805-06:002018-11-26T11:17:17.805-06:00Granting the main point about the futility of watc...Granting the main point about the futility of watching children's homework to prevent radicalization, let's be honest, Peter:<br /><br />Put that $60B number into perspective:<br />How much are the <i>cartels</i> spending to fight the war on drugs, how much are they <i>making</i> annually, and what happens societally if our spending goes to zero dollars per annum?<br /><br />What's the cost per annum in lost productivity, law enforcement, mayhem, murder, hospitalization, and just general deaths, when we stop doing anything? What's the annual dollar cost of a "Just Say Yes" program? I really want to know.<br /><br />And what's the actual alternative to what we're doing?<br /><br />It's possible to lie with figures.<br />Quoting that $60B number with none of the suggested context is how that can be done.<br /><br />It's like decrying the annual Defense budget, without noting the overwhelming bulk of it goes to pay <i>salaries</i>, not to buy weapons or blow people up, even in war years.<br /><br />If the Netherlands spent €60B annually on dikes and levees and everyone still gets their feet wet, but if they spent €0 instead, and then everyone drowned, you can perhaps note the problem with comparing apples to oranges without any context, or with calling a given amount of expenditure a failure because it hasn't reached perfection.<br /><br />I won't even get deeply into the farce of calling this a "war" on drugs, when we've avoided the perfectly obvious solution of carpet-bombing Columbia and Bolivia with B-52 Arc-Light strikes, and strafing the boats and planes loaded with drugs entering our territory, until the problem stops. How about we give that a try, if we're going to call this a war?<br /><br />Let alone standing the dealers here up against a wall for the first offense. Ideally, right at the ports of entry.<br />Heads on spikes at the Tower of London seems to have curbed the recidivism of traitors there since 1078AD or so; what say we give that a go?<br /><br />So, how much do Singapore and Saudi Arabia pay for <i>their</i> anti-drug programs?<br /><br />When we spend $60B a year on <i>those</i> approaches, and they're still bringing the dope in on armored tank caravans across the border, call me and we can talk about it being an actual war.<br /><br />This is a prayer meeting on drugs, an office conference on drugs, a government make-work program against drugs.<br />What a shock, bureaucrats only ever get paid; doing useful and functional work, not so much.<br /><br />War implies we're blowing the stuffing out of someone. We've done no such thing, since forever. Aesophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07834464741531503378noreply@blogger.com