Here are many things you don’t need to believe to celebrate Christmas

Recent Comments

• Jason { Erich, I originally was going to respond to your reply to my earlier comment with something akin to "It's not the same thing as the Nazi's!" But I've been thinking about your comment lately and I think I understand where you're coming from as well as tempered my own stance after some serious thought. I think it would help us to define the extremes of the debate before moving on. You, based on my comment, made the comparison to the willingness of Nazi officers to be complicit in genocide to the duty of someone entrusted with classified to report it if they think it is wrong. We likely all agree that the Nazi officer SHOULD speak out (It's not an all or nothing belief, at least with me). But let's imagine a scenario on the other end of the spectrum in which some misguided individual reveals the plans to raid... } – Jun 18, 12:50 PM
• Erich Vieth { 21 Facts about NSA Snooping that everyone should know. http://www.activistpost.com/2013/06/21-facts-about-nsa-snooping-that-every.html } – Jun 17, 11:26 PM
• Erich Vieth { Common Dreams presents the entire transcript from today's Q & A. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/06/17-1 } – Jun 17, 11:06 PM
• Erich Vieth { Jason: You wrote: "You agreed to keep the secrets of the job regardless of how they may clash with your own ideals or ethics." Would you apply your own principle to members of the SS in Nazi Germany? I'm looking for a meaningful conversation. I don't we've had anything approaching a meaningful national conversation regarding America's Surveillance State. And yes, I do believe that the public has been kept almost completely in the dark. I believe that the NSA has been caught in blatant lies. I don't believe there are any meaningful checks and balances in the system (See Amy Goodman's interview of James Bamford, which I just posted on). I also believe in the spirit of the Fourth Amendment and, that Amendment is still on the books, and it does not contain any exception for "terrorism." } – Jun 16, 11:09 PM
• Jason { I disagree with this guy's status as a whistleblower. Its not "whistleblowing" to divulge classified information. It's a crime. You agreed to keep the secrets of the job regardless of how they may clash with your own ideals or ethics. Imagine if everyone just decided it was ok to reveal classified because they felt it was a "bad" secret. My guess there would be a spectrum, in every case, from the majority feeling that it was a bad secret that should have been revealed ...to possibly the majority feeling should have been kept secret and now we are all less safe because our enemies now know this information. But it's not up to a vote! Do we build a statue to the man if 51% of people agree that he should have talked but put him in jail if only 49% think it was a good idea? This man's actions... } – Jun 16, 7:13 AM
• Erich Vieth { I would like to know the truth about the NSA. I would like to turn the NSA inside out. To what extent are their employees and operatives able to read our private emails and listen to our phone calls? To what extent do they retain data demonstrating the people I choose to contact? Ad homimem attacks on Edward Snowden serve only as distractions to much more important issues. What, exactly, are America's spies doing as part of their jobs? It's time to peel back the secrecy on both the process of electronic surveillance and the laws and oath of secrecy preventing the American public from knowing the extent to which their privacy has been violated. Last year, 483,236 private contractors had top-secret security clearances, compared to 791,200 government employees, according to a report by the office of the Director of National Intelligence. It appears that many of them have been... } – Jun 15, 10:17 PM
• Michael Morris { Love his response. I feel like our non-representitive government is a disease and has many repercussions throughout society that can be indirectly linked to Americans' increased sense that they lack any kind of a say in decisions made in our name. } – Jun 14, 8:37 PM
• Galane { Back in the 80's I heard a bit on the Dr. Demento show by an Australian comedian. I only remember a few bits where he'd say "I'm tough!" and the audience would respond "How tough are ya?" then he'd reply "I'm so tough, when I go to a fancy restaurant I don't order steak Diane I order steak Steve!" "I'm so tough, when I go to the beach I kick sand in me own face!" "I'm so tough, my poo-poo scares flies away!" Anyone know who? } – Jun 14, 3:47 PM
• Planetary Paul { Full version of the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yaqUI4b974&feature=em-subs_digest } – Jun 14, 7:46 AM
• Erich Vieth { Why be concerned about the Surveillance State? Moxie Marlinspike offers this thought at Wired: "If the federal government had access to every email you’ve ever written and every phone call you’ve ever made, it’s almost certain that they could find something you’ve done which violates a provision in the 27,000 pages of federal statues or 10,000 administrative regulations. You probably do have something to hide, you just don’t know it yet." http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/06/why-i-have-nothing-to-hide-is-the-wrong-way-to-think-about-surveillance/ } – Jun 14, 12:21 AM
• Erich Vieth { Jim: It does seem impossible to achieve any progress is one is a skeptic of skeptics, in other words, wedded to a position regardless of the facts. } – Jun 12, 2:51 PM
• Jim Razinha { Excellent...though all the links to "skepticalscience.com" are a non-starter for the target audience....they being skeptics of skeptics, and all. } – Jun 12, 10:14 AM
• Erich Vieth { Bertrand Russell's proposed 10 Commandments: 1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything. 2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light. 3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed. 4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavour to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory. 5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found. 6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you. 7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. 8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent that in passive agreement, for,... } – Jun 11, 7:21 PM
• Erich Vieth { Therefore, it seems that we ALL agree with President Obama on this critical issue. } – Jun 11, 12:32 PM
• Erich Vieth { More commentary on the odd alliances taking shape on this issue: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/11/nsa-leak_n_3421415.html } – Jun 11, 12:28 PM
• Mike Morris { Most embarrassing Obama quote I can recall. I just hope he realizes how embarrassed he should be for uttering these words. It's becoming pretty clear that Obama's presidency will be seen as a huge missed opportunity for real change. And he squandered that opportunity for what? Respect from the political class in Washington? Pathetic. } – Jun 10, 9:01 PM
• Ben { Greenwald. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/10/glenn-greenwald-mika-brzezinski-nsa_n_3414722.html } – Jun 10, 12:58 PM
• Erich Vieth { Financial inequity continues to rise in the U.S. http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/16849-us-inequality-now-literally-off-the-chart } – Jun 08, 8:23 PM
• Christian Evolution { Good post here. I had a similar path to Ehrman and try to help folks understand the depth of the Bible. One interesting group of stories is in Genesis regarding Abraham and Isaac. Here it is if you want to check it out http://www.christianevolution.com/2013/06/bible-inerrant-wife-sister-narrative-genesis.html } – Jun 08, 1:57 PM
• Erich Vieth { Planetary Paul - thanks for the tip. I can't get over the beauty of these patterns, and the powerful demonstration of emergence. } – Jun 07, 11:15 PM
• Erich Vieth { And one or more people risked life in prison to get this out to Americans, I'm afraid. Based on Obama's logic, writing this story violates the Espionage Act of 1917 because it tells "terrorists" that we are listening to them ... and, oh, year hundreds of millions of innocent people. } – Jun 07, 11:10 PM
• Planetary Paul { I see I can't include a URL in the body text apparently. Search for "Chladni plates" to get to all sorts of info on them and video's. } – Jun 07, 3:37 PM
• Planetary Paul { Chladni plates are great! I spent a fair amount of time constructing the classic ones that you exite with a violin bow. At some point I had a clamp to fixate round, square and random shape glass plates in any position. The sand patterns varied wildly. I also made a fluid Chladni plate by mounting a large glass bowl on a lab stand and filling it with denatured alcohol, the blue kind. When exiting the rim of the bowl transversally with the violin bow, the alcohol surface would erupt with tiny clear drops that would float to the quiet regions on the blue surface, forming a beautiful four pointed star at the ground frequency. When exited transversally with a frequency generator and motor, I could make all kinds of spectacularly beautiful stars! Because of all the alcohol vapour, this was also a highly dangerous experiment :-/ } – Jun 07, 3:35 PM
• Brynn Jacobs { Thanks Erich. I didn't see this Washington Post article in time to include it in the post, but it's extremely relevant as well: US Intelligence mining data from 9 leading internet firms Quite stunning that NSA has direct access at the server level to at least the following internet firms: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple } – Jun 07, 6:48 AM
• Erich Vieth { Brynn: This is spot on. Thank you. I Love the quote by Neil Richards. If they didn't have the information they couldn't abuse it. Similarly, because they have that information, they will abuse it. History is an objective observer. } – Jun 06, 11:19 PM