freshwest
freshwest's JournalAgreed. There was a Glenn Beck fan who was threatening to kill Democrats for voting for the ACA.
He left a ton of filthy-mouthed, voice mails to them and their staff, threatening them, their families, etc. Finally he got arrested after an investigation showed he had means. He thought that blocking his Caller ID meant he really was anonymous. It is to laugh! All calls are recorded as far as the numbers involved and stored, to be retrieved within a short time span before they are deleted. They are kept is for billing purposes, not because a drooling corporate or government employee gets off on it. Could it be misused - of course it could. But we volunteered for that and a lot more.
We AGREE to this when we sign up for a service, and we freely GIVE our most important information. One IP or phone search easily connects to a computer's OS and active programs being run, street address, name and thus to billing. From there the social security number, credit files and all of that are available.
I don't get upset about these reports because they are the tip of the iceberg. And the cams on the computers? And when does the computer go offline? And even the ability to listen to the sound inside a room, via the the input mike on the phone or computer? Don't get me started, LOL!
What is technically possible will be done, has been done since the 1950's.
We live more in a technocracy than anything else. And millions of Americans make good money creating and maintaining the infrastructure for this, and think they're very clever. Not going to talk them out of it.
IMO, it's not about patriotism, doing good or evil, it's a paycheck. Mankind, not only Americans, love all of the ways that we use technology. It's hyped to us and we love it. What I think of this is irrelevant, we have voted for this by purchasing these things.
The problem is not just a weirdo at the NSA collecting data. It's all the data mining social networks, those for corpoations, the traceable gadgets we use, and our addiction to corporate entertainment.
I was reading a while back how Comcast kept record of what you watched on TV. Not only that, a motion sensor to see if anyone is in the room with the TV, to pull up a program list they think they want for them.
I worked in communications and know the conveniences we love are not private by virtue of the technology. People love wireless, it is not possible without encryption to keep that secure. People love putting their story up on youtube and elsewhere. Yeah, and the government didn't need to put a boot on anyone's throat for it, either.
So we built this. Yup, we did it.
Sanders Applauds White House for Taking Social Security Off the Table in Deficit Talks
November 27th, 2012
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=cf62b3c8-54a6-4ace-ab5a-8996e7d16441
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014319000
Thanks, Pro Sense. As far answering Fox Noise, they should read this:
Ezra Klein: Why rich guys want to raise the retirement agehttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/24/1164336/-Ezra-Klein-Why-rich-guys-want-to-raise-the-retirement-age
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/11/21/why-rich-guys-want-to-raise-the-retirement-age/
From FourScore's post which is long enough to explain this to anyone who wants to know why it will stay off the table for the good of all:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021876309
The principles most of us understand, and the Confederates were against that.
Those who are suppressing the vote are not on the side of those that opposed slavery. The Voting Rights Act should be kept in place with as much force as possible. The ststes opposing have learned nothing from the 14th Amendment, and don't support what it did. I won't quibble about your screen name who is my favorite person of the era, and the view of the others. The link to the VP of the Confederacy about their philosophy, explained going back to the Founders that the South opposed racial equality which many consider the intent behind the Constitution, as a living document, regardless of the events of the time. The people who are against voters and equality should be treated as going against the government and values of the USA. No excuses. EOM.
The problem of home schooling, despite access to the public library in communities or the internet,
and only if the parent is so inclined to stress science, reasoning and history as opposed to religion, is lack of public infrastructure still. Public schools have provided for science laboratories and other ways to test one's ability and desire for critical thinking skills and scientific experimentation. This was the gift of the New Deal, using shared resources to fund the Commons where all could learn.
I was fortunate to grow up in the era of government sponsored R & D, where the knowledge gained was applied universally. The schools I attended were built by the WPA, gorgeous, large building with all kinds of vocational, arts, physical education facilities as well as well-equipped lab classrooms that were designed into the buildings.
Some of the most whacked out wing nuts are the result of home schooling with religious and anti-government overtones, due to isolation and too many times, physical and sexual and even what I'd term religious abuse. These are not producing well rounded individuals who are willing or able to function in an increasingly diverse society. In fact, many are groomed to live their entire lives separate from and in opposition to the larger society. This is where the secessionist and fortress mentality has emerged, with their belief system justifying crimes on the people they do not consider part of their world.
The world that Carl Sagan is describing in the OP is feudal in economic, social and scientific constructions. I want no part of it and it wants no part of me. I am its enemy, the fossil Rush disdains, the evil one Beck warns his benightedly followers about, and among the ones they want to die off, or be killed. No time to rest.
Yes, I was just discussing the forces that confront us are actually the ones who opposed the nation
that the Founders sought to set the groundwork for.But then, we should know that Rust Never Sleeps.
That's your and my fortunate situation. Children in areas that turned education over to corporate or
religious based schools would punish your child for speaking against the way they are seeking to structure society.Examples of this are:
Louisiana's bold bid to privatize schools
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014134247
Louisiana to give $700K to schools run by a "prophet" who also runs a school for "prophets"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021094886
BACKFIRED: Louisiana GOP Angry That Muslims Can Use School Vouchers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002904834
That's just what I found at first search here at DU on one state only, but this is nation wide. And the reputation that some religious schools have had for turning out well-rounded scholars, is no longer the case.
Ann Romney called for all public schools to be closed, that all children should be in religious schools. This has been a constant chorus for twenty years or more, with aversion to emigrants and minorities of all kinds. It was abetted by well-funded campaigns by those who sought to break the power of secular and progressive ideas. In doing so, they gained the power of media and promulgated many lies about what goes on in public schools.
They are getting bolder, now taking public infrastructure and not paying for it, and building their own little fiefdoms where none can say nay. I applaud your work with your daughter, but the state of education in part of this country is just as bad if not worse, than Carl Sagan predicted, and they are pushing into all the arenas of public infrastructure with libertarian ideology and religious dogma.
We had a moment in time, and have been and are being, pulled back to the darkness of superstition and stupidity. With Obama in office stressing education and trying to fund more teachers and public works, being resisted by those who already profit from privatization, we're in danger here. I do not imply that we will fail in our work to save what so many have worked for so hard and for so many years.
Enjoyed chatting with you.
The attack on public schools has been an attack on scientific literacy and reasoning.
The failure of people to support learning of objective scientific method was facilitated by media appealing to human emotional indulgence and sentimentality. Science fiction at one time inspired technical achievement then went into pushing scenes from medieval life and magic as romantic.
The dumbing down of the USA was achieved by slashing public institutions and giving R&D to international corporations. They possess the means of space exploration and other high achievements, which no longer exist in the public sphere due to demonizing the government.
Now that such knowledge is the sole property of the private sector, the interest of humanity and the planet have been disregarded in their quest. They have put up the No Trespassing sign to the public and its government, which accepted it as part of the None Of Your Business mentality.
We've been indoctrinated to accept the rule of corporations free of regulations or forced to operate in the public good. This was done by appealing to human venality.
Time is not on our side in this. The Carl Sagan quote I found here somewhere may have come from this book:
This world as we know it is only just one brief moment that appears to us to be an endless horizon of time ... this time grants comfort ... and this comfort breeds complacency ... and from complacency stems ultimate stupidity and eventual destruction.
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