Pressure Cookers, Backpacks and Quinoa, Oh My!
How my family's Google searching got us a visit from counterterrorism police
by Michele Catalano [Former music contributor at Forbes, freelance writer published in The Magazine, Maura Magazine and at Boing Boing]
It was a confluence of magnificent proportions that led six agents from the joint terrorism task force to knock on my door Wednesday morning. Little did we know our seemingly innocent, if curious to a fault, Googling of certain things was creating a perfect storm of terrorism profiling. Because somewhere out there, someone was watching. Someone whose job it is to piece together the things people do on the internet raised the red flag when they saw our search history.
[see Michele's blog for the remainder of her account as well as an additional update]
Ever wonder what it'd be like to live in a Police State where every single one of your keystrokes are being stored by the State - for your own protection of course! You know, because your an *insert citizenship* and we do this for the good of the *insert abstract concept*. Welcome to XKeyscore, another State-run Income Tax paid-for spying on YOU program that you had absolutely no idea was going on. Yes, look Right while the Left steals your wallet and look Left while the Right steals your watch. Oh, and regarding how your civil "servants" are protecting your civil liberties by spending 'your' gun in the face income 'tax' to help 'you', well well, it looks like the four of the biggest servers are located in Australia. How nice of the Aussies to lend a helping hand.
Yes indeed, go on down and pull the lever for O-blah-blah or Mittens. Giltard, Kevinator, The Mad Abbott (no, these aren't WWF stars, they're actual politicians). Yes, you do have a say. Yes, 'your' politicians are there to serve 'you'. Oh, but do make sure you pay your income tax. Because, if you don't pay, you'll be tossed into a rape-cage like this Political Prisoner was jailed for attempting to stand up for his constitutional rights in the land of "FREE" United States. Someone's got to pay for all those free roads. May as well be you.
How my family's Google searching got us a visit from counterterrorism police
by Michele Catalano [Former music contributor at Forbes, freelance writer published in The Magazine, Maura Magazine and at Boing Boing]
It was a confluence of magnificent proportions that led six agents from the joint terrorism task force to knock on my door Wednesday morning. Little did we know our seemingly innocent, if curious to a fault, Googling of certain things was creating a perfect storm of terrorism profiling. Because somewhere out there, someone was watching. Someone whose job it is to piece together the things people do on the internet raised the red flag when they saw our search history.
[see Michele's blog for the remainder of her account as well as an additional update]
Ever wonder what it'd be like to live in a Police State where every single one of your keystrokes are being stored by the State - for your own protection of course! You know, because your an *insert citizenship* and we do this for the good of the *insert abstract concept*. Welcome to XKeyscore, another State-run Income Tax paid-for spying on YOU program that you had absolutely no idea was going on. Yes, look Right while the Left steals your wallet and look Left while the Right steals your watch. Oh, and regarding how your civil "servants" are protecting your civil liberties by spending 'your' gun in the face income 'tax' to help 'you', well well, it looks like the four of the biggest servers are located in Australia. How nice of the Aussies to lend a helping hand.
Yes indeed, go on down and pull the lever for O-blah-blah or Mittens. Giltard, Kevinator, The Mad Abbott (no, these aren't WWF stars, they're actual politicians). Yes, you do have a say. Yes, 'your' politicians are there to serve 'you'. Oh, but do make sure you pay your income tax. Because, if you don't pay, you'll be tossed into a rape-cage like this Political Prisoner was jailed for attempting to stand up for his constitutional rights in the land of "FREE" United States. Someone's got to pay for all those free roads. May as well be you.