HNSM

This is a horrifying NO SHIT! moment.

Snowden: NSA Workers Routinely Share Your Nude Photos

It's No Longer A Question Of If Or Why

Spy agencies in covert push to infiltrate virtual world of online gaming

This morning The Guardian published an article, linked above, that details attempts by the NSA and the GCHQ, a British intelligence agency, to covertly monitor communications inside various online video games. The monitoring included such well used online platforms as World of Warcraft, Xbox Live, and Second Life.

There gets to be a point where you start to wonder if people are doing things for a legitimate and worthwhile purpose, or if people are doing things just because they can.  I have reached that point with the NSA.  In the article, it is said that it is possible that terrorist organizations could be using online video games to communicate with eachother, but that there was no evidence that such activity was taking place.  So why would the NSA be monitoring people playing online video games?  What is the real reason?  Because they can.

If the NSA is doing things just because they can, what else are they doing?  To what extent does the NSA's monitoring of the internet go?  I believe it's no longer a question as to if the NSA is watching me, the question is what have they seen, and what have they documented me doing?

I Know They're Watching, And I Like It

Top-Secret Document Reveals NSA Spied On Porn Habits As Part Of Plan To Discredit 'Radicalizers'

According to an article on The Huffington Post, the NSA is gathering information about the porn habits of so called "radicalizers", and, given the tactics the NSA is reported to use, it can be safely assumed that the NSA is gathering information about the porn habits of everybody.  So the NSA knows the porn habits of everybody, including me.  So the NSA knows what porn I am watching.

I have mixed emotions about this.  While I feel that this is an invasion of my privacy and that my porn habits are of no one's business unless I am doing something illegal, I also feel a little bit of a kinky twinge.  Someone is looking at me when no one is supposed to be looking at me.  I am doing dirty things while someone is surreptitiously watching me.  That's like exhibitionism taken to a whole new level.

So, thank you NSA for giving me another source of sexual thrill.  Now, kindly, get the fuck out of my business.  Call me when you actually find out information that can help people, like where a missing person is or who the fuck moved my goddamn cheese.

Gassed

I went to last nights TNA Impact tapings held at the Maverick Center in West Valley City.  As a result of the great show that was put on and the good time I had at the great show, I am somewhat gassed this morning.  So, I'm going to post this.  This video articulates many of the concerns that I have about the NSA and the recent revelations about their data collection.

OnioNSA

Despite the reputation it has as our shadowy overlord who knows all that we do, the National Security Agency may be dummer than we think.  On Friday, reports started circulating about the NSA attempting to hack Tor, The Onion Router, a service which provides it's users with the ability to hide their online activities.  The NSA is motivated to hack Tor due to Tor's use by dissidents, terrorist, political activists, and people looking to download the latest episode of Homeland.  However, it now appears that the NSA first started to hack Tor in a way that is just plain stupid.

Over the weekend, a source revealed to this publication that when the NSA first attempted to hack Tor, what they were actually attempting to hack was onions.  Yes, onions,  a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium.   This source, who wishes to remain anonymous, revealed that when the NSA learned that "Tor" stood for "The Onion Router", they took that name literally and assumed that Tor derived it's capabilities from an onion's ability to make a grown man cry, which is something that the NSA has failed to do up to this point.

NSA's attempts to literally hack onions may explain the video posted above.  In it Anthony Gucciardi, as well as his two camera operators, attempt to approach the newly build NSA Data Center located near Bluffdale, Utah.  While it appears that this video was tailor made for the online conspiracy theorists out there, a look into Anthony Gucciardi's reveals something else.  Mr. Gucciardi is a contributor to several websites, including MarthaStewart.com.  In fact, Mr. Gucciardi is credited with creating this recipe for Spring Onion Soup.  This publication's anonymous NSA source also revealed to this reporter that, in addition to a large and secretive computer facility, there is a large onion patch on the massive complex staffed by the NSA.  This, our source asserts, is the real reason why Mr. Gucciardi wanted to approach the NSA Data Center, and that Mr. Gucciardi was using conspiracy theories as a cover.

When reached for comment about this story, NSA Deputy Director John C. Inglis was only heard to have said, "How the fuck did you get this number?"

The Pot Calling The Kettle An Infringement On Your Civil Liberties

In the ongoing controversy about the NSA gathering information about everyone at every time and at every place, the ACLU recently filed a lawsuit against four of the top officials in the Obama administration.  The case, known as ACLU v. Clapper, asks a federal judge to declare the program, which was recently made public by the ex-patriot Edward Snowden, unlawful, stop the program entirely, and eliminate all record gathered by the program.  On Wednesday, this controversy took an interesting turn.

On Wednesday, Wisconsin representative Jim Sensenbrenner filed an amicus brief with the court in relation to this lawsuit.  In this brief, Rep. Sensenbrenner writes:

"The vast majority of the records collected will have no relation to the investigation of terrorism at all. This collection of millions of unrelated records is built-in to the mass call collection program. Defendants’ theory of “relevance” is simply beyond any reasonable understanding of the word. And it certainly is not what amicus intended the word to mean."

"Defendants do not explain why Congress would have enacted such meaningless provisions. The bulk data collection program is unbounded in its scope. The NSA is gathering on a daily basis the details of every call that every American makes, as well as every call made by foreigners to or from the United States. How can every call that every American makes or receives be relevant to a specific investigation?"

To summarize, in this brief Jim Sensenbrenner makes the case that the NSA mass data collection program is too broad and infringes on a person's civil liberties.  This is an interesting opinion coming from the guy who wrote the Patriot Act.  Yes, Representative Jim Sensenbrenner is the representative who introduced the Patriot Act, a law which some would argue is too broad and infringes on a person's civil liberties.

In other news, Representative Ryan Pot (D-FL), pictured above with the blue background, was overheard engaging in an argument with Senator David Kettle (D-NE), pictured above with the beige background.  The two were arguing about the colour of Sen. Kettle's suit.  Rep. Pot was heard to have said:

"Look, I understand you making that mistake, but the simple fact is, that colour is black.  I don't claim to be an expert in many things, but I do know my colours, and, Ryan, that colour is, without a doubt, black."