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Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

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Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is a socially regressive policy and why are Libertarian candidates prone to them?

A socially regressive policy is something like making abortions illegal. Libertarians aren't socially regressive, it's the conservative part that is

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Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, that guy. He's even know over here. (Journalists like to pick out the most 'interesting' persons). That guy scares me. You also vote for judges? Would it help if there was a maximum someone could get voted for? Like with your president?

It's ideal for most judges to be elected to life terms. That limits concerns about them needing to serve the politics of the minute to get re-elected. They can take principled stands without worrying about being thrown out. The Supreme Court has routine stood up to both Congress and the President, and they can only do that because they can't be removed (except under extraordinary circumstances of corruption).

It is ideal for some judges to be elected to life terms, but not most. This is because community standards change, and most judges don't have the scrutiny the Supreme Court is under.

Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#213

Has anyone come up with a solution? From my POV I see three things happen in what seems to be a never ending cycle: 10 OMG why did you not know about these terrorists, how could you have missed this?! 20 OMG now you are profiling _____! That is unfair just because they are ____ 30 OMG you are invading the privacy of everyone! GOTO 10 The goal being: only criminals/terrorists have their privacy invaded and everyone el…

You can't please everybody.

You, as a government, have to choose one of those states. I personally prefer a government that will choose to stay on line 10, especially because profiling everyone will not prevent terrorism at all, unless it's in an orwellian dystopia.

And I prefer buildings blowing up once in a while to the alternative, even if one of my family or myself get killed on the explosion.

Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is a socially regressive policy and why are Libertarian candidates prone to them?

A socially regressive policy is something like making abortions illegal. Libertarians aren't socially regressive, it's the conservative part that is

Outlawing murder would be something I consider moving in the right direction (pun intended)

Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A socially regressive policy is something like making abortions illegal. Libertarians aren't socially regressive, it's the conservative part that is

Outlawing murder would be something I consider moving in the right direction (pun intended)

I wasn't making a point on either side of the issue, just giving an example of a socially regressive policy

Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is a socially regressive policy and why are Libertarian candidates prone to them?

A socially regressive policy is something like making abortions illegal. Libertarians aren't socially regressive, it's the conservative part that is

I do find it funny how abortion even rises to the level of audibleness in the conversation. We have a government that is consuming massively more of the GDP than ever, is grabbing more and more power at every turn, is subsidizing every kind of bad behavior from international banks to a horribly corrupt food stamp program of epic proportions.

Even if you hate the idea of illegal abortions, aligning yourself with "big government" in any way would seem to be a foolish move. Every day, you're building a government that's powerful enough to do whatever it wants. That means that when the right christian republican is in the White House with Congressional support who decides to make illegalizing abortion his issue... he/she does it. Just like Progressives have wanted government healthcare for the last century and then when they had a slim majority in Congress for 2 years with the presidency, they rammed through Obamacare and now we're all stuck with it.

Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#218
post #107

OpenPGP and similar strong encryption methods are widely considered unbreakable (with the current technology) and available as easy-to-use software packages. Is there any similar software which enables easy encrypted VoIP-style calls? So if you want to keep a secret from the government, why bother to use non-safe communication methods (public telephone network etc) at all? Aren't people who actually pose a threat to…

The problem with OpenPGP is that it only encrypts the contents of the communication. The identities of the sender and receiver, as well as the time and other info are still vulnerable. This communication "metadata" is exactly what the article is referring to.

Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't actually think voting for judges and sheriffs is a good idea at all. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Arpaio

Oh, that guy. He's even know over here. (Journalists like to pick out the most 'interesting' persons). That guy scares me. You also vote for judges? Would it help if there was a maximum someone could get voted for? Like with your president?

In New York, most judges are elected to 14 year terms. There are a few exceptions, but mostly for traffic courts or administrative judges.

They do run in partisan elections, but they are limited with regard to claims they can make about opponents, and a non-partisan commission evaluates the overall qualifications of each judge.

Are there issues with politicalization? Absolutely. But don't make the assumption that election == politics, and appointment != politics. An elected judge at least nominally is accountable to the people. The examples where this system doesn't work well is usually when machine politics corrupt the process of electing judges. If the judge was appointed, chances are they would be accountable to nobody at all.

Re: Confirmed: The NSA is Spying on Millions of Americans

#220
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You reckon people are going to revolt? I have serious doubts about that.

Only when the social contract is violated will there be revolt. That contract, roughly 75 years old now, is currently on death notice, being funded solely by a printing press. Simply put, the promises can never be met. If interest rates on US debt were just a mere 5% (reasonable given the risk), the $800+ billion per year in interest would instantly 'bankrupt' the government (whether that default occurs directly or v…

Can the US government really go bankrupt, though? I thought that was a central point that Reagan, Cheney, and Obama have made. It doesn't matter how much we spend because federal debt means nothing. The creditors can't really call it in without mutually assured destruction. Our debt is a WMD and no one in their right mind would pull that trigger.
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