Wasn't the whole war on terror theater about NOT taking care of the systematic problems?

Well, in all honesty, there was a lot of information floating about concerning PRISM. Various ISP workers reporting that suddenly some government goons come in and install some sort of hardware in some rooms and how their admins are suddenly no longer allowed to even open that door, let alone enter the room or even look at whatever is installed there.

Also, PRISM isn't quite something that goes public. There ain't no big event (well, now there is, but earlier, there certainly was not) that would make people go "hey, waitasec, so THAT's what this weird stuff was about", something that would nearly certainly have happened after 9/11. How many admins at ISPs were wondering what's going on in those rooms but kept quiet since they had no reason to risk their job over what is potentially nothing? How many people saw or heard something weird going on in their work place and shrugged it off as some odd refurnishing jobs? It's not like people saw what PRISM was about.

I guess it isn't hard to argue that it was kinda impossible to keep 9/11 itself secret so no people would start connecting the crashes to the "weird stuff" they saw earlier. And how many of them would keep quiet if they're not directly involved?

As much as I'd like to support your conspiracy theory, I think you overstate the ability of the US government.

Seeing is believing. In this case, quite literally so.

Sheldon, shut up.

In other words, come Sunday we get the proof that the whole security theater is pointless and we can go back to having a private life?

Too bad that those civil liberties are considered the pest plants by those harvesting.

Hmm... considering that Bin Laden's goal was (allegedly) the destabilization of the USA along with its bankruptcy... Damn that guy was a strategy genius. And one in psychological warfare, too.

That bastard really accomplished all his goals for this war. He read his enemies like an open book and played them like a violin.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is genius. I don't like him or the development any more than any other sane person, but you have to admire that, whether you like it or not. He knew the weak spot of the US is the combination of greedy leaders and fearful followers, mixed with an industry ready, willing and able to exploit both, and he knew how to use that to his own goals.

Brilliant. But why does brilliance in leaders always come packaged with being a complete asshole?

Probably not at all. People by definition assume others are like they are, and when they themselves are crooks and lying bastards who wouldn't allow them to exist if they had a choice, they assume that others are just like that. Combine that with the psychological need to overcompensate and you're set.

That works for governments as well as it does for superiors in the work place. The more he assumes that you're a slacker, the more likely he is one himself. The more he wants to "measure" your progress, the more likely he himself has nothing to show.

And the more a politician goes on about the importance of "family values" and "morals", the more likely he's cheating on his wife with some 12 year old boy.

Not to mention that odd notion that information is best shared with others to multiply it. Who wants information to become more? Scarcity is the rule of the market!

*smug grin* You needn't give me what I already have had for a long, long time...

Yup. I noticed that devs tend to be truthful. Really insane bunch of geeks.

The fun fact is that the opposite is true. It's not like there's any shortage on pipe dreams.

The same applies to pretty much all professions. It never ceases to amaze me what salaries managers command with little if any reason for it.

That's available now. Irradiated meat is available, but not widely sold. There are some tricks to preserving taste, one being to vacuum-pack and freeze to -30C before irradiation.