Andrew / March 4, 2009 12:35 AM

...or is personal privacy a lost cause these days?

Steven / March 4, 2009 2:03 AM

Are you kidding me with this question? You can use the satellite images available through the Google map feature to zero in on rat droppings. There is no such thing as privacy any more. The most you can hope for is that whoever is watching gets the best show ever.

charlie / March 4, 2009 8:07 AM

Dark sunglasses and a ball cap.

Good Luck / March 4, 2009 8:51 AM

You just voted for a president who mandates that all of your health related information is stored in a national database.

...and you want to talk about what steps you take to ensure privacy!

Useful. Idiots.

p / March 4, 2009 9:20 AM

by grabbin and janglin em when i make a point. and never buying an ipass.

vise77 / March 4, 2009 9:33 AM

Good Luck: OK, I'll play.

We just got rid a president who decided that, Constitution be damned, he could have his people monitor the phone and email conversations of citizens without warrants. Get the hell over yourself, and lose the useful idiot propaganda, which comes straight out of a Marxism for Dummies book.

In any case, there is no privacy, not in the old sense anymore, and I doubt people really care, not with all the Facebooking, online shopping, public cell phone conversations and such--not to mention the cameras everywhere, public and private, and the technology that enables the NSA and some other agencies around the world (UK, Aus, NZ, Canada, etc) to basically have the ability to monitor every electronic communication in the world (mining that data is another matter, of course, but the algorithms are getting better).

As for me, I stay off social-networking sites (sorry, no need to share the details of my beer-drinking session last Tuesday with people I don't know) and try not to spill my guts to strangers, and shred everything I can, but there's not much else to do.

Good Luck / March 4, 2009 9:57 AM

I use an anonymous screen name whenever I go to some lighthearted poll to pick fights with people I don't know and call them names.

Good Luck / March 4, 2009 10:27 AM

NSA wiretaps
Renditions
Patriot Act
Iraq withdrawal generally along the same timeline as the previous admin
Gauntanamo - its not closed and he has no alternate plan!

Don't you think its pretty funny that Obama has chosen to keep so many of Bush's security policies in place.

Maybe the world is a dangerous place and gentle talk doesn't hold real currency.

...and you just got a president who tries to brand himself as a new age Lincoln. You know the same Lincoln who suspended habeus corpus. Oh! The constitution shredder!

Its amateur hour, folks

Kevin / March 4, 2009 10:42 AM

I don't bother with anything. I have nothing that anyone would really want to steal, and after my last company stopped paying me all of a sudden and my credit went to hell, all you'd get trying to get credit in my name is practice.

printdude / March 4, 2009 10:47 AM

I wear a cup.

James Patrick Hudson / March 4, 2009 12:39 PM

I don't talk about myself around women. They often discuss everyone else's business.

Rich / March 4, 2009 1:57 PM

@vise77...with all due respect...please allow citizens to critique our President without your over bearing, scarlet letter witch hunt getting in the way.

The NSA was created on November 4, 1952. Are you that naive to think that BUSH is the only President to do the things you mentioned????

Comrade Obama better be fucking listening to phone calls...warrant or no warrant. If he is not, then he is not doing his fucking job!

vise-baby...They are doing great things with history books these days...maybe check one out.

irisheyes1212 / March 4, 2009 2:07 PM

lol@printdude

Dutch101 / March 4, 2009 2:21 PM

Tinfoil hat.

Baldeesh / March 4, 2009 2:23 PM

Shred stuff. Utilize curtains.

vise77 / March 4, 2009 3:07 PM

Rich, baby, the above poster attempted to blame only one president for some perceived loss of privacy. Find it odd that you single me out, but hey, we all have our ways of having fun.

No, I am not that naive, only impatient with all the Obama-is-Lenin crap that come from people who apparently don't know what true totalitarian communism is, or who haven't bothered to pick up a history book. And don't assume I'm an Obama supporter, either.

Seriously, if you want to talk NSA/CIA/OSS history, I'm game.

Rich / March 4, 2009 3:27 PM

Vise77...fair enough.

"Obama is Lenin"...okay, how about this angle.

IF Obama was pointing us towards totalitarian communism, or a socialist state...would he say so? (probably not)

OR would he go about it one step at a time? (yes, probably one step at a time)

Let me ask you...IF we were headed towards a socialist state, what would the first step be?

Maybe...instilling fear and then taking over the banks? (State of the Union: check...Stimulus Package: check)

Going from a capitalistic state to a socialist state is not something you do over night. It takes steps.

And taking over the banks is a very good first step in that direction.

mary / March 4, 2009 3:28 PM

wow things got serious pretty quickly, huh?

i'm a pretty open person, privacy isnt a huge deal to me. that said, i don't talk about, post, or blog or whatever about things i wouldn't want my mom to know about. i also try to keep my blinds down.

vise77 / March 4, 2009 3:53 PM

Rich--this is the last I will attempt to threadjack--my apologies for doing so to other posters--but consider this: In any socialist or semi-socialist country in the world (Sweden, France, China, et al), Obama would be firmly on the right. Consider that when you eat your Cheerios and wait for those black helicopters to swoop in.

By all means oppose what you think is wrong, but let's not be ridiculous, especially if you do know history as well as you say.

Moss Derringer / March 4, 2009 4:08 PM

I furiously study movies like "Enemy of the State", "Eagle Eye", "The Pelican Brief", and "The Bourne Ultimatum". Then I attempt to take myself off the grid.

Good Luck / March 4, 2009 5:09 PM

Has anyone of you actually looked at the numbers? Or are you just taking them at face value?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAtpmKj3z0s

The only way he seems somewhat fiscally responsible is to budget peak war spending into 2019, when we are out of Iraq well before then.

Aren't you people at least mildly discomforted that you are being lied to? I mean for 8 years, you railed on and on about being lied to and what has changed?

The party and the scale.

Vise,
If Obama was a Swedish politician, he would belong to the socialist party. Relativism is a poor excuse for poor policy.

If he campaigned under his real politic, he would have been roundly defeated in the democratic primaries.

Obama won 52% of the vote. That is hardly a mandate for enacting socialism.

Rich / March 4, 2009 5:32 PM

Vise...you can't have it both ways.

You came on this board and starting attacking people you did not agree with.

Now you are playing the "I won't threadjack this any longer". Maybe not start the b/s to begin with....gimme a break.

Also, you missed the entire point...you keep talking about absolution.

I was merely mentioning that Comrade Obama's plan takes STEPS towards socialism...it does not put us there entirely...there is a big difference.

So you are correct, those countries listed would look at Obama as leaning towards the right presently...let's talk in a few years and see where we are at.

Kevin / March 4, 2009 8:25 PM

Perhaps Gapersblock can ask next: what is the most seemingly innocuous question that can get you to show everyone what a huge prick you are? I mean really, Good Luck. Obama has been president for a month. The last guy had eight years to show us what he had, and the neo-cons(including my brother) are still saying to give him the benefit of the doubt.

This is supposed to be a forum for people who want some friendly, but only sometimes, infuriating interaction (this anti-Obama shit makes me pine for a message form C-Note or Spook). If you can't get that, fuck off. Please. You're worse than spam, since I make a concious choice to come here.

Or maybe the moderators can add "special place" where "special people" like you can post. And delete your intentionally incendiary comments, since all you do is bitch, but only in such a way as to make people feel bad.

Confidential to Vise77 (I've put a hex on this so that Good Luck will get VD if they read this)- you've got my vote. Don't let jack-mo's get you too too angry.

Rich / March 4, 2009 9:23 PM

Oh Kevin...I remember my first time on the computer too.

Next time you chastise someone for not answering the "Fuel Question"...make sure you answer the question yourself.

What steps do you take to ensure your privacy?

You didn't even answer the question...and you sit there and judge everyone else who went "off the subject". Please take your own advice and "If you can't get that, fuck off. Please."

Next time you are a prick like this, be sure not to be a hypocrite as well. Now get to bed...you've got school in the morning.

My privacy? I shred mail, run my credit regularly. I guess I could do more.

Good Luck / March 4, 2009 9:49 PM

Kevin,

Here is where it always gets interesting for liberals - how do you, at the same time, support free speech while stifling opposition? Fairness doctrine (or new Durbin doctrine), card check, etc... So I think your suggestion of deleting "intentionally incendiary" comments is pretty par for the course.

You really only take issue with me and launch an ad hominem attack and even wish me ill health, which is pretty unwarranted for people coming to this site for friendly interaction, now isn't it?

You don't have anything of substance to say about my point, which says it all.

Ha Ha / March 4, 2009 11:16 PM

Rich and Good Luck (obviously the same person), your impotent yowling is like music to my ears!!!

I look forward to it growing in ferocity and pitch as we slide into a socialist nightmare of health and prosperity over the next several years.

The more you rant the more I shall laugh!!!

Tell me how wrong I am and how sad I'll be! It really brightens my mood.

Good Luck / March 5, 2009 8:19 AM

Impressive, another ad hominem response.

Anyone have any substance? Or are you waiting for marching orders from Rahm?

Ramsin (GB's resident big brother) apparently monitors IP addresses, so you should ask him whether Rich and I are different people.

Loved reading it all... / March 5, 2009 9:40 AM

Regardless of president, no one is safe.

If you:
Use cell phone
Use The Internet
Use the library
Use the ATM
Own a credit card
File your Taxes

You are pretty much at risk.

Lets just go back to the early 1900s.

Kevin / March 5, 2009 9:56 AM

Yeah, my first time on a computer Rich. Wistful moment isn't it. If you bothered to look higher up the page, I had already answered.

Mike / March 5, 2009 11:00 AM

Anyone have any substance?

This from the person who, four comments in, addresses everyone as "idiots."

Good Luck / March 5, 2009 11:15 AM

...more ad hominem.

I mean come on people, anyone have an original thought? Its like turning off the TV after a movie marathon. Blank stares and blurry eyes.

Anyone have a thought about how the cycle of government bailouts lowers the futures of our financial markets, which in turn, makes those "toxic" assets decrease in value, which creates more need for government bailout money? The cycle feeds on itself until the confidence is restored. Anyone? Bueller?

...and then our president and treasury likening the markets to daily election tracking polls and that they are not significant! Those markets are yours, mine, and your friends and parents, pensions and retirements.

Ha Ha / March 5, 2009 12:00 PM

Stop, my sides!

Your keen intellect is leaving me breathless! I chuckle helplessly in its iron grip!

Rich / March 5, 2009 12:41 PM

Kevin...fair enough. Sleep well knowing you are not a prick and a hypocrite...just a prick with bills you can't pay. Nice!

@ Ha Ha...the nuthouse called, you are due back by 5.

Mike / March 5, 2009 1:04 PM

Good old "ad hominem" ... a term used online by people who try to start fights and get bent out of shape when the other kids won't come out and play. No one cares to debate you. You're in the fricking Fuel section of Gapers Block. A few days ago people were posting about their first job. There are plenty of forums out there for people to debate politics. This isn't characteristically one of them so you're basically a nuisance. It's like peeing in the pool. You have the right to do it, but you're still a jagoff if you do.

Good Luck / March 5, 2009 1:33 PM

...and in the days preceding, it has been:

Should Burris resign
Olympic bid support
Blagoyevich's future
Obama's first 100 days
Obama Inauguration

so politics seems to be in bounds.

...and considering the adulation of all things Obama here, I'd expect a little more in defense of the moron, but considering the absence, its rather justified in labeling you useful idiots.

I'll try to keeep your gentle sensibilities in mind in the future.

vise77 / March 5, 2009 2:24 PM

Good luck--see, I tried to stay out of this, because you seem like a troll, but let me clue you into a few things:

1. I did vote for Obama. Don't regret it yet, and I hope I do not. That said, I have never had a worshipful attitude about him or any other politician. Ever. And I know few people who do. Perhaps because I hang with skeptical, sensible people. That said, the right-wing still gets schoolgirl giddy over the memory of Reagan, in a way much more undignified that shown by some of the more mindless Obama supporters (which are not all Obama supporters, as you imply so superficially.)

2. "Useful idiots"? Really? I know you like throwing around terms that come straight from right-wing propaganda, but you do you really think calling people such a thing will win your case? Remember: Some of us know history, and know it deeply, and some of us may have lived in formerly totalitarian countries and studied the issue for years. I know the origin and proper use of the term. That you so casually toss it around here suggests you are a mere troll, or that you really lack a deep understanding of Lenin, et al and real totalitarianism.

Guess what, I do have serious concerns about the bailout, et al, but you argue it with you here, and in his forum, is rather useless, in large part because you don't seem to be a serious, thoughtful person (I am probably wrong, but that's the impression you give). I urge you to stop with the reckless use of deeply offensive phrases whose deeper meanings you clearly do not understand (sorry, but a seminar in Soviet thought and Marxism does not count for me).

I doubt you will take this advice, and I guess you will try to advance your cause further, in which case, good luck with that.

Oh yeah: There is no privacy.

Steven / March 5, 2009 4:12 PM

What the world needs now is love. Sweet love. It's the only thing that there's just too little of.

Kendra / March 5, 2009 5:38 PM

Use a PortaPocket. What's under YOUR clothes?! Keep your goodies where they're good.
I haven't used a purse in a year and a half. Minimize risk for credit card loss, ID theft & theft in general. Keep your important things ON your person. heck works great to tote a tampon too...
LOVE IT
www.undercoversolutions.com;
www.portapocket.com

Amanda / March 5, 2009 8:19 PM

I am amazed and really disappointed at the mean-spiritedness that this discussion has taken on. I am reminded of Gandhi's comment about Western Civilization: he thought it would be a nice idea. Surely you can have intelligent exchanges of ideas without the name calling and what have you. My God, how old are you people? I work with 15 year olds who treat each other with more respect.