Gah! Should I look under my car when I leave tonight?

the fuck?!

Why does this black helicopter keep flying over my house?

It’s uncivil and indecent to post this picture. Naturally the decider has to have a database of all communications so he can protect us from the terrists, and you are unserious to pretend otherwise.

I can’t do it. Excuse me while I hurl.

Meanwhile in other news.

Chairman Dean is probably doomed. The immense power of the homosexual lobby is going to run Dean out of the DNC soon if he doesn’t kowtow to the homosexual agenda.

Dean is completely right in standing up for marriage.

Of course, he will have to cave in to the people who want to create a new kind of marriage between homosexuals who want to use their perversion as a way to leech off of taxpayer money.

How much does that have to do with the “choke points” the telcos want to create once they abolish Net Neutrality? I guess I’m asking, does that diagram represent choke points the government already has for complete surveillance, or choke points it wishes it had?

They’re the current ones, actually slightly out of date.

As for net neutrality.

It’s not really a big deal.

The people who oppose reforming telecommunications at this time are either socialistic or naive.

ISPs are overregulated when it comes to neutrality.

As well, the power of the free market will punish those companies which overregulate.

“Every so often, I like to go to the window, look up, and smile for a satellite picture.”—Steven Wright

Every so often, I like to go to the computer, go online, and say hi to General Hayden.

“As well, the power of the free market will punish those companies which overregulate.”

Gary Ruppart is Pastor Swank in “The Kaye Grogan Story”

So is it too crazy-leftist-conspiracy-theorist of me to wonder how coincidental it is that the telcos agreed to help the government with illegal wiretapping and surveillance around the same time that new legislation is pending that will give those same companies unprecedented control over the flow of information on the Internet?

Or is it just the new reality for the reality-based community?

sorry, that last was me.

good question.

ease off. it’s just, like, a corporate demo. one of those Potemkin things.

hey, didn’t Potemkin run the secret police?

So is it too crazy-leftist-conspiracy-theorist of me to wonder how coincidental it is that the telcos agreed to help the government with illegal wiretapping and surveillance around the same time that new legislation is pending that will give those same companies unprecedented control over the flow of information on the Internet?

You know, man, there was a farmer had a dog, and Bingo was his name-o.

Nah, the anti-net-neutrality stuff is just regular lobbying and regulatory capture by the telcos.

First they get the Internet declared an information service rather than a common carrier.

Then they bribe a few big-business-lovin’ Republican congressmen with power bottoms and power boats.

Then they bend us over and pound our asses.

Well, I’m just saying something here, but the notion of quid-pro-quo is pretty well established in many circles.

You know, man, there was a farmer had a dog, and Bingo was his name-o.

You know, you’re right: that was far more nuanced and stylish than “Bwhaha.”

Hey, I can see my blog from here!

Meanwhile in other news.

Iran has basically declared war on us though that letter.

It was a letter inviting Bush to convert to Islam. And if he doesn’t, then Iran will attack America.

The fact is that Bush must respond forcefully to Ahmadinijad’s threat. We do not have time to seek permission from the UN. We have the capacity to neutralise all high-value targets within 48 hours. We have 50,000 Chick Tracts at the ready, and we must use them.

Okay, who let Bush get hold of the Spirograms?

I think my hypothetical blog is being monitored by the NSA.

Or should I have said Spy-rograms?

Okay, who let Bush get hold of the Spirograms?

SpiroGRAPH.

Meanwhile in other news, the fact is Ruppert is glad someone might be monitoring his communications. It’s the closest thing he has to a friend.

SpiroGRAPHS! (Slaps forehead). Thanks Mikey.

A spiroGRAPH can be used to draw a Deltoid.

Deltoid is run by one Lambert.

Corrente is, er, was run by one Lambert.

Coincidence…or conspiracy?

And just how is Spiro Agnew involved?

The NSA is a Pentagon agency. It is the US military spying on American citizens. Try this little rewrite on for clarity:
“The United States Army has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans.”

I’m actually not as down on the President as everybody else seems to be these days, but I laughed so hard when I saw that diagram, that my bladder nearly burst. Maybe I’m just getting too old for this:

Squirt (sung to the tune of Hurt)
Dr. BLT & Nine Inch Snails
http://www.drblt.com/music/squirt.mp3

Spin Art!!!!!!1

Why is it that if I squint a little, I see a nascent radiation symbol in that chart?

(ring)(ring)

Hi, Grandma. Thanks so much for the birthday gift check. Yeah, I deposited it N.S.A.vings account. Osama my friends are going to see a movie tonight, I think I will go too.

Hey, what was that, did you hear those clicking sounds?

If U evar want 2 C Corrente again, you pull teh pic now.

Hi, Grandma. Thanks so much for the birthday gift check…

Huh. That reminds me of a similar problem in medical diagnosis relating to Bayes’ Theorem. Even if the accuracy of the test is high (unlikely correlating something like terrorism, but let’s just pretend), the rarity ensures that total population testing doesn’t make sense due to false positives. Add to that the sheer enormity of the data set, and the amount of effort you need to got to to check on a possible terrorist, it makes me think that trawling for terrorists would be a ginormous waste of time?
(See this handy applet for a quick, dirty intro to Bayes’ Theorem).

But far be it from me to tell you people how to spend your tax dollars…

And further, if I know this, surely fancy-pants network-theorist with no conscience might have mentioned it to the criminals they work for?

Uh, that “Gary Ruppert” above was me.

Meanwhile, in other news.

Gary Ruppert continues to post long strings of one-sentence paragraphs.

Judging by his three comments in this post, he fills most of them (in this case, two) with off-topic comments (that is, comments having nothing to do with the actual subject of the main post).

The third is a piece of Adam-Smith-said-it I-believe-it that-settles-it wishthink the likes of which I’ve seldom seen.

I saw it just this morning, though, in one of my local papers.

The usually intelligent Charley Reese was saying that the reason labor unions have failed to make any inroads among Wal-Mart employees is that Wal-Mart employees just don’t want to unionize.

This is an odd statement for him to make, as most of the times he’s demonstrated such a gaping blind spot have been about either the Confederacy or the “religious” right.

“It was a letter inviting Bush to convert to Islam. And if he doesn’t, then Iran will attack America.”

Hey! Isn’t that basically the Ann Coulter doctrine, turned on us?

Isn’t that basically the Ann Coulter doctrine, turned on us?

What goes around, comes around. It’s the circle of poop.

Actually, Gary didn’t read the letter, because if he had he would have found that it says nothing fo the sort. Ahmadinijad did not ask Bush to convert — quite the opposite. He asked him to uphold the values taught by Jesus. Justice, human rights, respect for life, peace, security, prosperity — values which Ahmadinijad claims are common to all monotheisms, including Islam. (I pause to note here that this is complete bullshit).

If Ahmadinijad can be read as advocating conversion to anything, it’s probably Bahai or some other hippy universalist religion. (An improvement, but still bullshit).

Gary, you can READ a copy of that letter here.

Elendil, Yglesias had a nice piece on false positives back in January.

And by january, I of course meant This piece from December.

Thanks Pooh, that’s a much clearer explanation.

I love Kabuki, but my Obie is in the wash, damn.
I actually thought this was a diagram of Bush’s brain. “Delusional” represented as blue in this photo.

I find that hard to believe, Anonymous (if that is your real name). Not enough blue.

Don’t mean to stomp on any jaunty aluminum chapeaus, but we (Corrente) moved to a new ISP today and the FDL link overwhelmed the bandwith allottment.

It’s so good to know somebody cares, though. Sniff.

BTW: Jiggavegas, the USA Today article says:

“The three telecommunications companies are working under contract with the NSA, which launched the program in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the sources said.”

So all those booty calls you made in 2002 are in the NSA’s DB.

(ring)(ring)

Hi, Grandma. Thanks so much for the birthday gift check. Yeah, I deposited it N.S.A.vings account. Osama my friends are going to see a movie tonight, I think I will go too.

Hey, what was that, did you hear those clicking sounds?

[ring ring]

“Hi, Dave. Hey, I’m opening that box on the table.”

“No, Colin, don’t! It’s a present for someone.”

“There’s a tag. It says it’s for Matt?”

“Yeah, see, Colin? For Matt, see?”

[hilarity at NSA as 10,000,000,000 gig master hard drive reformats]

that was as good as a Borge routine.

That diagram is actually the splash pattern from President Bush hurling after consuming an entire bottle of Nyquil.

The fact is, that diagram is actually the splash pattern from President Bush hurling after consuming an entire bottle of Nyquil. Oh wait, let me correct that.

Ooh. Sounds much more authoritative. Or is that authoritarian?

Damn. And I previewed that and everything. Just pretend you never saw it, and look at this version:

That diagram is actually the splash pattern from President Bush hurling after consuming an entire bottle of Nyquil. Oh wait, let me correct that.

The fact is, that diagram is actually the splash pattern from President Bush hurling after consuming an entire bottle of Nyquil.
Ooh. Sounds much more authoritative. Or is that authoritarian?

I think I better cut down on the Nyquil myself.

“Yeah, see, Colin? For Matt, see?”

It’s a shame that we can’t submit blog comments to bash.org.

Hmmm, Gary Ruppert for President. That does seem to have quite a nice ring to it. Gary, we admire your boldness in the face of the left-wing attack machine.

Oh my god, gavin. That sentence got funnier each of the four times I read it.

to quote a famous idiot, BWAHAHAHAHA!!

And, to quote an infamous genius (namely, Gary Ruppert):

“But far be it from me to tell you people how to spend your tax dollars…”

Re: Gavin and his \”C DOS RUN\” joke.
I\’ve never said this on the interwebs before, but you sir, are a genius, and you owe me a new keyboard.

“…but you sir, are a genius…”

I’m sure that by now we can all agree that “genuis,” is a synonym for “Gary Ruppert.”
Gary, we love you! We wish we could be you!

All these Dr. BLT (hearts) Gary Ruppert comments are really nauseating. Get a room, guys!

A room? Please! There are no rooms, and there is no room on this planet for common sense conservatives any more. We’re lucky if we can find a nice quiet spot under a bridge somewhere, and not to engage in the sorts of activities you have in mind either. Those kinds of suggestions come from the gutter, not from under one of our troll bridges.

God, this victimization shit is starting to remind me why I hated BLT.

Your hate allows us to hold on to the “victim” label. Without that hatred of yours, we have no excuse. That being said, the fact that you needed to be reminded why you hated BLT suggests that even for a brief moment, you may have allowed a little tenderness to creep inside your soul, and replace the hate. That’s a good sign. You’re not a lost cause.