So I had The Talk with my teenaged son tonight

[MannyGoldstein]

He was on his computer, web chatting with someone - when I walked in, he was typing something sarcastic and silly to be funny.

I told him that we can't do that anymore. Henceforth, anything silly and funny must be tame and lame. In all likelihood everything that we enter into any major web site, or say on the phone, is being recorded by our government. Probably nobody's reviewing it now - but in a few years, when you get busted for something stupid, or an acquaintance gets busted for something stupid, or you want to get a good job... someone will take a look, and that someone will probably have zero sense of humor. Or the next White House administration will just start scanning all of the stored data left by their predecessor, looking for anything interesting.

He's my son: I want him to have a good life, but I have to wonder where this is all going.

The Predator Class and their well-paid politicians are carefully regulating the economy to keep the 99% on the edge of disaster, and thus afraid to fight back lest they be gently pushed into the abyss. And now they have a security infrastructure and apparatus to further clamp down on dissent, the means to find thoughtcrime so it can be nipped in the bud.

Wow. Things have changed since I was a kid.

[LittleBlue]

1. First

In a Manny thread

[Cali_Democrat]

2. Huh?

He was on his computer, web chatting with someone - when I walked in, he was typing something sarcastic and silly to be funny.

I told him that we can't do that anymore.

You told your kid he can't type on the computer anymore?

[MannyGoldstein]

3. Yeah, that wasn't so clear.

I updated, thanks.

[sheshe2]

26. Hi Manny, sheshe2 here~

How about that awesome win last night! Senator Markey goes to Washington! Massachusetts is awesome~

We showed the world that Boston is Strong!

I can't contain my excitement and that is so wrong on your post! Sorry~

So to your OP.

Blessing to you for your son. I never had children. However I have nieces and nephews that are close enough to be mine. Yikes I even have great nieces and nephews now. I know the need to love and protect.

So here is my question to you.

If it is so very dangerous now for you son to post on the internet and he now must be tame and lame when he does, well I ask you, why are you posting. They are listening to you too. Yikes they are even listening to me.

When I found out about this six years ago, that President Bush had been doing this for years, illegally, yup I was concerned.


However the concern has now escalated ten fold. Thanks to Snowden and Greenwald for informing us. I firmly believe that we should set a date to set ourselves free of this illegal???? spying that our President is doing.

I suggest that we all, right now agree that we will shut down our computers, our cells our ipads our iphones
and our blackberries or what ever other toys we own.We need to protect ourselves. we need to do it now~

Shut down date should be agreed upon, however I suggest it be the next full moon. Any thoughts?

Respectfully sheshe2~

Thanks for your time~

[blue neen]

4. My son and I talked tonight, also.

We rejoiced in the fact that his gay friends will now be able to marry.

We marveled at Wendy Davis' filibuster last night in Texas to defend women's rights.

[MNBrewer]

20. If they live in the right state, and don't move to the wrong one

[sibelian]

28. ....

.....




What's that got to do with Manny's OP?







Weird thing to say.

[MADem]

32. I'll bet that was a grand conversation! nt

[dhol82]

5. I remember

from the 60's onward I would answer my telephone by saying 'J. Edgar Hoover sucks' - obviously on the assumption that my phone was bugged.

Things have changed?

[elleng]

6. Sounds like my Dad,

who kept me from attending MLK's March on Washington. Thought Dad was wrong then, and think this is wrong. Things haven't changed so much: Dads can still be wrong.

[MannyGoldstein]

7. I *think* I'd encourage him to aid and abet civil disobedience

Last year I took him to check out Occupy Boston.

Even in Nazi Germany, oddly enough, the vocal dissenters were safe for a long while because if they "disappeared" people would know why.

I'll have to think about it.

It's the little, day-to-day things that worry me more.

[MADem]

8. How do you know that your child won't end up at the top of that Predator Class food chain?

If you really want your kid to have a good life, unplug the computer and go camping, or something. If you're lazy, send the child to Outward Bound.

Nothing wrong with telling children to be smart on the internet, and guard their privacy, but banging the gloom and doom gong?

That's like saying "We've got trouble....right here in River City! With a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for POOL!!!!"

Odds are, those "PTB" (such a silly catch-all, as irritating as "First World Problem" in its pretentiousness), if they ever bother to look, will think it's YOU, not your kid, chatting foolishly like a teen, for whatever reason. Unless your kid pays all the bills at your house, that is...

[sibelian]

29. "banging the gloom and doom gong"

Ooooh! What a lovely, pithy sounding phrase...

[TlalocW]

9. I had the talk with one of my teenaged nephews a few weeks ago...

Except it was, "Kirk versus Picard."

(Picard)

TlalocW

[Hydra]

10. I see there are people who don't agree

But I think you're right, and it's sad that it is so.

Watch what you say- Big Brother is watching, and you never know when he'll come to visit...

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. And some are ok with that

[MNBrewer]

22. some actually get off on it

because they believe that Barack Obama (D) will be in the Oval Office, FOREVER.

[HiPointDem]

33. they work for the surveillance state

[liberal_at_heart]

12. all mellinials need to know whatever they do on the phone or on the internet can cause

trouble for them later on. Those pics you think no one will ever see can come back to haunt you, and now so can organizing a protest or talking about smoking marijuana.

[Poll_Blind]

13. +1

(with a reservation only if you seriously instructed your son to stifle himself, something I think/hope you were probably being facetious about)

PB

[JoePhilly]

14. Had that discussion with my son about 10 years ago

Better late than never.

[emulatorloo]

24. Touché

[Brigid]

15. Has your son read "1984" yet?

That ought to give him the idea. I hear it's hitting the best-seller lists again lately.

[KittyWampus]

16. Sure you did. Cool Story, Bro.

[opiate69]

35. !

[Fantastic Anarchist]

37. You struck out swingin' with that post, eh?

[Fantastic Anarchist]

38. Shuuto!

Yu Darvish throwing the Shuuto pitch.

[Fuddnik]

17. I've been there. And it wasn't even this bad then (1970s-80s)

They used to have to notify someone within 90 days after a court approved bug or tap was REMOVED. The place where I worked got those notices every 90 days for about 2 years.

I found an FBI bug in my apartment, after I was followed by a couple of agents. And I wasn't even a target of the investigation. They were on a fishing expedition for the guy I worked for. I had people I knew were informants trying to talk me into all kinds of stuff.

Think you're not doing anything, and have nothing to worry about? WRONG. If those guys get a bug up their ass, they'll fabricate a case against you in a heartbeat.

That's when I first read James Bamford's "The Puzzle Palace", just to try to understand their capabilities. And I've read everything he's written since.

Technology was pretty much in it's infancy back then. And even then the NSA tried to stay at least 5 years ahead of the state of the art.

Add private contractors, corrupt greedy politicians, ex spooks, and generals to the mix, and you have a horror story brewing right in front of you, that you won't even acknowledge.

Nah, it can't happen to you. You're special.

[tblue]

18. "The Talk" I had with my kid was

"If you are at a party (or anywhere) and an intoxicated (or not) young woman is being abused, get her the hell out of there."

Maybe I need to tell him to be careful on the computer too. But he's a pretty cautious & gentlemanly kinda guy already. He's certainly more judicious and grown up than I am a lot of times!

[TexasTowelie]

19. Cave for rent!

No electric
No sanitation connections
No garbage collection

(wouldn't want to give up any DNA by accident)

[Lady Freedom Returns]

21. ...

[limpyhobbler]

25. how much?

just kidding

[JoePhilly]

27. !!

[alfredo]

23. The only real change is who holds the reins. I remember when

The church controlled much of the political and economic power. They wouldn't allow us to shop on their holy day. They also said nobody can sell or use alcohol on any day. My religion didn't have a prohibition against alcohol, why should my life be regulated by your religion.


The government and the business world had its measure of power, but the ones that really impacted our daily life was those self appointed mouthpieces of God.



Corporate Tyranny, is not as demanding as religious tyranny. Still bad.

[Dash87]

30. It's too late. They can hear you through the bugs the dentist

puts in your teeth. The aliens, not the government.

[Zorra]

31. K&R

[marions ghost]

34. I think we do have to warn the kids

& I will be doing that also.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

36. Quoted for Truth!

The Predator Class and their well-paid politicians are carefully regulating the economy to keep the 99% on the edge of disaster, and thus afraid to fight back lest they be gently pushed into the abyss. And now they have a security infrastructure and apparatus to further clamp down on dissent, the means to find thoughtcrime so it can be nipped in the bud.

Bam! Nailed it.

Exclaimer:

Dear NSA, when I use the term "Bam!", it was used idiomatically as in "right on!" Please dismiss this data as irrelevant in your war on us, er, terror.

Best Wishes,

Fantastic Anarchist

[woo me with science]

39. K&R