On Mon, 30 Dec 2013 14:58:08 -0500, Warp wrote:

> Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
>> I will, however, grant that as a white male in the US, I am not subject
>> to "stop and frisk," being asked to provide documentation of
>> citizenship,
>> etc.
> 
> OTOH, you *are* subject to the countrywide surveillance by the NSA of a
> scale that even the former Stasi would have been jealous of...

Well, allegedly, I am - but the amount of data in that database is 
staggering, and mining databases of that size isn't a trivial task, even 
with the kind of computing power available to the NSA.  But yes, that 
certainly *is* a valid point.

My larger concern (though certainly the surveillance is problematic) is 
that by casting such a wide net, these agencies will actually learn about 
threats too late.  Allegedly just like 9/11 - the reports say that the 
attack was known about and predicted, and there was advance knowledge for 
it, but the analysis wasn't complete until after the event was done.

You can only scale up computing power so much to mine that amount of data 
- and processing power isn't the limitation, bus speed and storage device 
speed are.  By being less discerning, these agencies (IMHO) make us less 
safe rather than more safe - but they're really good at telling us about 
stuff that's already happened.

But that's really a different topic than the supposed "police state" we 
live in because of abuses by a minority of TSA personnel and cops.  Like 
I said, I live here, you don't.  My experiences are more relevant than 
the tidbits you pick up in the news, which only call out the worst 
exceptions to the rule.  It's not like every cop in the US is walking 
around looking for someone to tase or shoot, which is what it seems your 
impression of life in the US is like.

Most cops are decent, hard-working people just trying to make their part 
of the country a little safer - while not having to take on doing too 
much paperwork.  The same is true for most TSA personnel.

But ho-hum experiences with the vast majority of cops and TSA personnel 
aren't newsworthy, so nobody hears about them.

It's like going to a support forum and then saying "this product sucks" 
based solely on reading about people who have problems, and not taking a 
sample of those who never have a problem at all.

Jim

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