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Utah Considers Cutting Off Water to the NSA’s Monster Data Center

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Re: Utah Considers Cutting Off Water to the NSA’s Monster Data Center

#31

Post by [deleted] »

optimusclimb wrote: post #25
thizzbuzz wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not convinced that the NSA has any purpose. What do you think is necessary about the NSA?

Possibly one of the most naive comments I've ever seen on here. We keep a military at the most basic level - so that another country can't send a boat full of troops over here, or airplanes filled with troops - invade us - and take over. In other words, basic protection against normal acts of war. Imagine if you, thizzbuzz, suddenly awoke tomorrow and found out the dictator of some small European country died, and yo…

[deleted]

Re: Utah Considers Cutting Off Water to the NSA’s Monster Data Center

#32

Post by optimusclimb »

optimusclimb wrote: post #25
thizzbuzz wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not convinced that the NSA has any purpose. What do you think is necessary about the NSA?

Possibly one of the most naive comments I've ever seen on here. We keep a military at the most basic level - so that another country can't send a boat full of troops over here, or airplanes filled with troops - invade us - and take over. In other words, basic protection against normal acts of war. Imagine if you, thizzbuzz, suddenly awoke tomorrow and found out the dictator of some small European country died, and yo…

Since HN is not transparent about downvoting, other than that only certain users have the ability - I'd love the feedback on the reasons for the down votes.

How a country could exist without an organization that pays attention to what the rest of the world is up to towards the goal of keeping itself "secure" is beyond me. What I wrote was a fictional circumstance which I thought explained to others how you'd arrive at this conclusion - i.e. answering the question that was asked.

Re: Utah Considers Cutting Off Water to the NSA’s Monster Data Center

#33

Post by optimusclimb »

slavik81 wrote: post #30
optimusclimb wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly one of the most naive comments I've ever seen on here. We keep a military at the most basic level - so that another country can't send a boat full of troops over here, or airplanes filled with troops - invade us - and take over. In other words, basic protection against normal acts of war. Imagine if you, thizzbuzz, suddenly awoke tomorrow and found out the dictator of some small European country died, and yo…

The United States somehow managed to survive for 176 years without the NSA. The country could probably get along well enough without them, if it had to.

It survived 158 years without an FCC but we still eventually needed that.

Re: Utah Considers Cutting Off Water to the NSA’s Monster Data Center

#34

Post by optimusclimb »

[deleted] wrote: post #31
optimusclimb wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly one of the most naive comments I've ever seen on here. We keep a military at the most basic level - so that another country can't send a boat full of troops over here, or airplanes filled with troops - invade us - and take over. In other words, basic protection against normal acts of war. Imagine if you, thizzbuzz, suddenly awoke tomorrow and found out the dictator of some small European country died, and yo…

[deleted]

Glad to retract the first sentence of that if it hurt your feelings, but honestly how do you envision running/protecting a country without an organization with a similar mission statement in the modern world?

I'm a peaceful person, but not all of the world is. You just can't ignore that. Even if you're Switzerland, you don't want to essentially keep your ears open for people sending coded messages about their potential plans to bomb Switzerland?

Re: Utah Considers Cutting Off Water to the NSA’s Monster Data Center

#35

Post by optimusclimb »

twombly wrote: post #26
optimusclimb wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly one of the most naive comments I've ever seen on here. We keep a military at the most basic level - so that another country can't send a boat full of troops over here, or airplanes filled with troops - invade us - and take over. In other words, basic protection against normal acts of war. Imagine if you, thizzbuzz, suddenly awoke tomorrow and found out the dictator of some small European country died, and yo…

Part of the reason people would even want to send a boat full of troops is because of the way our military interacts with the rest of the world. It's an unfortunate situation to be in but that doesn't mean it needs to continue forever. If we would just scale back the size of our military presence it would definitely be safer for everyone.

While I agree with you that much of our foreign policy causes us problems, I see that as orthogonal to the need for such defense even if we were to change said policy(ies.)

Re: Utah Considers Cutting Off Water to the NSA’s Monster Data Center

#36

Post by nkurz »

optimusclimb wrote: post #32
optimusclimb wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly one of the most naive comments I've ever seen on here. We keep a military at the most basic level - so that another country can't send a boat full of troops over here, or airplanes filled with troops - invade us - and take over. In other words, basic protection against normal acts of war. Imagine if you, thizzbuzz, suddenly awoke tomorrow and found out the dictator of some small European country died, and yo…

Since HN is not transparent about downvoting, other than that only certain users have the ability - I'd love the feedback on the reasons for the down votes. How a country could exist without an organization that pays attention to what the rest of the world is up to towards the goal of keeping itself "secure" is beyond me. What I wrote was a fictional circumstance which I thought explained to others how you'd arrive a…

My downvote was because you led off with an unnecessary personal insult to a new user in response to a polite and legitimate question. He created an account a week and a half ago, has made a few high quality comments (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8614442), and I wouldn't want to see your rudeness drive him off, or worse, encourage him or others to respond in kind. The rest of your response was on-topic and well-argued, although like some of the others I think you might be unnecessarily equating the need for the NSA as a separate agency to the need for any form of foreign intelligence gathering.

Re: Utah Considers Cutting Off Water to the NSA’s Monster Data Center

#37

Post by thizzbuzz »

optimusclimb wrote: post #34
[deleted] wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

Glad to retract the first sentence of that if it hurt your feelings, but honestly how do you envision running/protecting a country without an organization with a similar mission statement in the modern world? I'm a peaceful person, but not all of the world is. You just can't ignore that. Even if you're Switzerland, you don't want to essentially keep your ears open for people sending coded messages about their potenti…

No, not if it means spying on allies or even enemies.

My feelings are not going to get hurt over an internet comment. And you were downvoted because your response to me was over-the-top condescending. I took the bait and made an inflammatory response in return, but I've since deleted it.

Re: Utah Considers Cutting Off Water to the NSA’s Monster Data Center

#38

Post by thizzbuzz »

nkurz wrote: post #36
optimusclimb wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since HN is not transparent about downvoting, other than that only certain users have the ability - I'd love the feedback on the reasons for the down votes. How a country could exist without an organization that pays attention to what the rest of the world is up to towards the goal of keeping itself "secure" is beyond me. What I wrote was a fictional circumstance which I thought explained to others how you'd arrive a…

My downvote was because you led off with an unnecessary personal insult to a new user in response to a polite and legitimate question. He created an account a week and a half ago, has made a few high quality comments ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8614442 ), and I wouldn't want to see your rudeness drive him off, or worse, encourage him or others to respond in kind. The rest of your response was on-topic and…

Thanks! I've been on HN for 4 or 5 years though, I just make a new throw-away every few months. It will take a lot more than that to scare me off!

Re: Utah Considers Cutting Off Water to the NSA’s Monster Data Center

#39

Post by optimusclimb »

nkurz wrote: post #36
optimusclimb wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since HN is not transparent about downvoting, other than that only certain users have the ability - I'd love the feedback on the reasons for the down votes. How a country could exist without an organization that pays attention to what the rest of the world is up to towards the goal of keeping itself "secure" is beyond me. What I wrote was a fictional circumstance which I thought explained to others how you'd arrive a…

My downvote was because you led off with an unnecessary personal insult to a new user in response to a polite and legitimate question. He created an account a week and a half ago, has made a few high quality comments ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8614442 ), and I wouldn't want to see your rudeness drive him off, or worse, encourage him or others to respond in kind. The rest of your response was on-topic and…

Thanks for the feedback. I wrote the first sentence because the question I was responding to was in my head akin to saying we should get rid of the police across the board because of what happened in Ferguson.

It might have been fine on other forums, but I see that I would have been better off letting the rest of my answer stand on its own merits (or not.) Will keep that in mind going forward.

Re: Utah Considers Cutting Off Water to the NSA’s Monster Data Center

#40

Post by venomsnake »

kristopolous wrote: post #4
GordonS wrote: post #2

It's a nice thought, but it'll never happen. It'll be a 'matter of national security', supporters will be branded 'terrorists' or other such nonsense.

Don't let them control the narrative. The discourse they have is absurd. Their system not only doesn't work but creates haystacks so big that needles get deeply hidden and no real intelligence happens. The rationale for the spy-everyone story is such an implausible fantasy. We have to stop letting people get away with saying it without being challenged. This needs to stop.

It is even worse. The amount of data NSA stores makes them an even juicer target for infiltration, subversion and otherwise gaining access to data they have collected.
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