What you assume I know is not the proper approach.
I’m not assuming anything. It’s quite clear. The only other logical conclusion is to believe that you are ill-intentioned, and that would be very uncharitable of me.
I have been studying this subject for a long time.
You aren’t the only one.
But its like saying you’ve been studying sin a long time. You can talk about the situations, conditions, decisions and mechanisms that lead to it, but the fact of the matter is that a sin is a sin. And you don’t seem to understand that domestic spying on citizens without a proper warrant is illegal and immoral.
Aside from improvements in technology, people are fundamentally the same as they were in Medieval times. The only difference being we have air-conditioning.
Sufficient quantitative change can lead to qualitative change. No, an automobile is not just a fast horse. It changes cities and human societies. Domestic intelligence of the old kind does not even compare to modern signals intelligence employing complex computer “intelligence”.
You are kidding yourself if you believe that kings before could accumulate, categorize and summarize data on so many is so little time before recent times. You are kidding yourself if you think that the technology doesn’t fundamentally change the situation, especially in its danger to a free democratic republic.
Mr. Snowden is a question mark. He should have been arrested by some official body but the fact that he hasn’t means anything he’s said or revealed is suspect.
So, let me see- Both Snowden’s supporters and critics have accepted the veracity of his information, including the U.S. government itself, but you still refuse to acknowledge it? Again, it sounds like you arbitrarily believe what you like, based on your what you want, not on objective reality.
No, I just don’t believe my rights are in danger.
No, you still don’t understand- your rights are not merely “in danger”. They have already been violated and continue to be violated everyday. If you do not believe in the rights guaranteed to citizens in the U.S. Constitution, our founding legal document, then what do you define as the principles behind our “country”?
And I don’t approve of fostering distrust towards an agency who has had some of it’s members die in the line of duty while in the service of our country.
So you don’t approve of checks and balances?
Nobody is saying that haven’t been good and courageous people in the CIA who actually have served admirably. But it is clear that the organization has become unaccountable and needs to be reigned in and follow the fundamental law of the land.
In today’s world we have enemies that require extraordinary means to gather intelligence.
What enemies? We’re safer than we’ve even been, domestically. Stop listening to the mainstream media. If “extraordinary means” denotes breaking the U.S. Constitution EVERY DAY and violating EVERY citizen’s right to privacy (among others), then that should be way too “extraordinary” for anyone who gives a darn about our laws, our Constitution and our liberty.
This is exactly why there will never be another revolution, far too many people side with a tyrannical govt instead of their fellow citizens. LOL
It’s incredible. I’d rather be stuck with Protestants and even atheists who appreciate what the U.S. is based on and are willing to fight for it than Catholics who are willing to subject themselves and subject others to constant violation of their God-given and Constitutional rights. People who constantly excuse and explain away tyrannical and unaccountable government behavior are called “useful fools/idiots” for a reason.
Our founding fathers would be rolling in their graves if they got glimpse of what this country is like now.
Personally, I think they’ve been rolling non-stop for the past century.
Agreed. I know its said that many of them were deists, but I really hope some of them ended up in Heaven and are interceding for us. Maybe I’ll ask “St. Franklin” or “St. Washington”, among others, to help us, because we need all the help we can get!