I hate to say this but most, if not all, HTTPS proxies will do certificate/domain checking to verify that the cert is in fact valid. At my previous job I maintained a WebSence proxy/web filter for the company. I would get complains all the time when a site would become unaccessable because the site did not renew their certificate before it expired, and WebSense would block it.

My parents did the same thing. Their electric utility called an offered it to them (I don't remember if they needed to pay anything extra) and they came an installed it on the electric meter.

Just keep in mind that you still need to protect phone/cable lines as well, but i think it's a good idea, if your utility offers it.

In your link, it states that

The FBI, local/state PD are not part of DHS, so they would need a warrant, consent, or probable cause (this includes terrorism) in order to conduct a search, even with-in 100 miles of the border.

Yea, that was one of the reasons i have been thinking about virtuals. But, it would also make it a bit more painful to admin.

Is it just me, or does any body else think of Prey by Micheal Crichton when they hear bout 'swarm bots'?

I think that is the craziest part! I love how we (the tax payers) are going to have to pay for the wiretaps, personal to comb though the wiretapped info, and cost of court cases that are brought. All so that the corporations can continue to make money by having us buy their products, and not have to pay to gather the evedince against those they deem pirates.

Ding, Ding, Ding.... we have a winner, give this man a prize!

That a firewall would stop the "NSA backdoors" from being opened on a networked device.

Umm... isn't that what they make firewalls for? To block any unwanted incoming/outgoing traffic? (unless of course the firewall it's self has a backdoor, in which point it would be pointless to use it in the first place)

They do?? Every ISP I ever had the dis-pleasure of paying always gave me a public IP, that i could ping, ssh, etc. to.