9/11 may not have been engineered by us, but the people in power certainly took advantage of it when it happened.

Thereby precipitating the most epic win imaginable against Western Democracy.

I honestly don't think they imagined the extent to which they would to undermine the society they were trying to shake. And if they did, that's truly scary.

That the 'authoritarians' (*cough* fascists *cough*) took advantage of that, we are not in disagreement about.

But either forcing them to, or giving them an excuse to, finally just fully take control ... I still say 9/11 was a game-changing event, because everybody immediately rushed to build the "at any means" surveillance society in the open.

These guys almost have express written permission for these kinds of abuses. The exact same abuses people were warning would happen while they were being passed. The PATRIOT Act had stuff in it which people said would lead to this kind of crap while it was being passed, because it was a knee-jerk response.

I argue that Western society post 9/11 is overtly different than it was pre 9/11. Some of the rot may have been there already, but it's come into the full light of day since.

Yeah I was going to say the same thing. You NEVER make a change that you don't have a way to backout to the previous operational state.

And, really, if you have something which Absolutely Has To Be There ... you make damned sure you have an environment you apply the changes to first. So that you can apply the changes and at least try to make sure stuff don't break without messing up the real one.

This is basic change management.

(And, yes, I am saying this without any context for this outage -- but, really, if you maintain a production environment for critical software, this is what you do)

we are going down a road that violates the very tenets of our nation's forming.

Going??? It's well underway.

9/11 was the most spectacular win for the terrorists, because they more or less kicked the foundations out from Western society, and have helped to create the worst form of surveillance state you can imagine.

This is the Stasi, the KGB, J Edgar Hoover, McCarthy, and cyberpunk all rolled up into one festering mass of shit.

or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort

Well, arguably these clowns have become the enemy of democracy, the Constitution, and the rights of pretty much every person on the planet.

No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

And, he's now confessed.

OK, fine, maybe it's not technically treason. But if the US isn't going to do some serious cleaning of house, it's only going to get FAR worse from here.

The rot at the upper levels of these agencies has created a mentality of "by any means necessary", and a complete indifference to the law.

If he just says "oops, sorry about that" and he and his subordinates aren't seriously punished, this shit will only get worse.

Fine, waterboard the son of a bitch, get the truth out of him that way.

He seems to think it's OK for other people.

This man can no longer be trusted, and if he isn't prosecuted and jailed for what he's readily admitted, democracy in the US is fucked, and the rest of the world won't be far behind.

You more or less have to assume the entire upper management of the CIA (and other TLAs) are all equally corrupted.

They've decided that the people overseeing them don't know what they're talking about, and taken matters into their own hands.

Treason indeed. And there's no way just one guy is responsible. The whole system has rotted into this.

Jail isn't going to do any good unless you put the whole agency in jail.

OK, fine.

If there is no oversight, and I don't mean a FISA court whose job it is to say everything is rosy, then you can't have an agency like this.

Having the CIA directly lying to congress about their activities, and actively spying on the people who are supposed to oversee them is something straight out of fiction -- only it's no longer fiction, they're doing anything they please, and no longer accountable to anybody.

Fuck, hit them up with a RICO suit. Do ANYTHING.

What next, he'll go into private industry as a security consultant for corporations? Oh, wait ...

This is bloody scary. Neither Americans nor the rest of the world signed up for a fucking security agency which is no longer under anyone's control except people who feel they can do anything they want.

It is. The next step would be for the Senate oversight committee to vote to refer the matter for prosecution. The question is whether they want to go down this road or not.

The way I see it, if they don't go for prosecution, they've more or less given these agencies carte blanche to violate the law, lie about it, and have no consequences.

Sorry, but I think this sounds like treason, or at the very least an indication that all of the assurances we've had that they're playing by the rules is a pile of shit.

So, the question of "do you spy on Americans?" "Are you in compliance with the law?" "Have you been using this information to make yourself rich?" -- every single thing they do pretty much must be distrusted.

Blatantly lying to Congress means they've reached a point where they don't give a shit.

This is madness.

Fuck the apology. Put him in jail.

At this point there is no choice but to assume that when the CIA and NSA say they're in compliance with the law, they're bloody well lying.

When they're outright lying to the people who oversee them, they've become a criminal organization.

It's disappointing to see that each eye is just 1/2 1080p because it uses a single 1080p phone display shared by both eyes.

Yo dawg, I hear you like specs ... I 'spec the specs for your specs aren't what you'd 'spec.

Just remember, just because the marketing department says something, doesn't mean carries the same meaning as you and I would assign to it.

"How have you made the world a better place this week?"

By having a terrific ass.

LOL ... Well, carry on then.

It's odd that people needed instructions on how to tape a filter to a fan?

Well, there was a market for a $1000 product ... apparently nobody else thought of it.

Yes, this is the low-tech solution, but if it works just as well as the expensive one ... it's a damned fine solution.

How have you made the world a better place this week?

More like people were overpaying by thousands of dollars because until now none of them had the simple idea to duct tape a filter over a fan.

Well, he went as far as confirming he was getting the same particle counts.

His solution was remarkably simple and really cheap. He strapped a HEPA filter to a fan and quickly began to enjoy clean air. A particle counter he purchased confirmed the filter was effective.

He's not saying "I just invented something revolutionary", he's just sticking it to the people selling over prices kit.

And in my book, that gets applause.

He straps a filter on to a fan and this is noteworthy? Ok then.

He got similar results to a $1000 product, and told everybody how to do it.

That is newsworthy.

I suspect there are a lot of people in places with a lot of air pollution who would really like to have this.

Kudos to this guy.