UPDATE: What Is The REAL Threat To Privacy?

In the wake of an article claiming the National Security Agency is engaged in an illegal “domestic spying program,” NSA’s director, Army General Keith Alexander responded to questions before a Congressional panel.  Responses to my post by Wired and Glen Beck’s The Blaze were vastly different.

What Is The REAL Threat To Privacy?

There is a lot of fear mongering by … well … mongerers of fear over the establishment of a new National Security Agency data center in Utah. This new center is supposed to be proof that “Big Brother” is intruding on our private lives. Not only are these rants neurotic, they obscure the real threats to privacy.

The Lies Men Tell…

A couple of days ago I wrote a piece about a “toxic attitude towards women” in which I spoke against those who demean women in public service by referring to them using offensive – reprehensible – language. Noting some of the more prominent violators on the national stage, I also pointed to a South Carolina blogger whose website is a cesspool of such rhetoric. I also called him a liar. Responding to my post on his site today, he validated my last point.

Obama’s Million Dollar “Man”

Following my previous post, I want to share this video produced by the conservative women’s group ShePac.

WARNING: Some of the language is explicit.  (But, apparently, that’s “OK” because it’s “comedy.”)

Words!

Politics have never been civil. Not completely, anyway. Whether lies about opponents, spin and distortion about one’s own record, fanciful voting or creative funding of campaigns, politics is nasty stuff.

If one were to psychoanalyze American politics, you would find a very adult subject confined within a juvenile process. It seems we can’t discuss things political without first becoming defensive, then outraged followed by mounting attacks on things irrelevant to the subject. Ultimately, we get to name calling.

The Truth About Waterboarding

The recent debate among Republican contenders for the presidency concentrated on issues of foreign policy and national security. Among the questions posed to the candidates was their positions on torture and waterboarding. The responses were clear and, from some, disappointing.

Gingrich Daughter: Setting The Record Straight

My father, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, has been in politics as long as I can remember. And as long as I can remember, media coverage about him has contained misstatements of facts. The vast majority are simple mistakes that are easily corrected, understood and rewoven into an ongoing storyline.

Not so simple: U.S. spy agency trying to go mobile

Troy Lange knows that just mentioning cellphones is enough to give security officers heartburn at the National Security Agency.

Lange, as the NSA’s mobility mission manager, is developing a smartphone that he wants to bring inside the super-secret U.S. spy agency to access classified information and apps while on the move. He wants it to work as easily as any of the smartphones those that are so ubiquitous in the outside world.

Goodbye al Qaeda’s Rose

Comedian Martin Short says “Goodbye” to Osama bin Laden.

Slandering American Law Enforcement

In a scathing screed attacking American law enforcement, New York millionaire Howard Rich tries to paint a picture of massive Gestapo-like tactics on a nationwide scale by chronicling a few extraordinary and unfortunate events.