TweetThis one is for those you who think Edward Snowden’s betrayal of his country (“Betrayal of his country?” What a quaint concept! How droll! This old guy is really out of it!) did no harm. Of course, Snowden fans won’t be bothered by it, thanks to the pied piper effect he has on privacy fetishists. They’ll […]
TweetThere’s a little confusion over terms going on in the news the last day or so. First, Edward Snowden says he wasn’t some “low-level analyst,” but a sure-enough, double-naught spy. Susan Rice denies it, saying he was no such thing. Not that she’s necessarily a reliable witness on such things, but she must be in […]
TweetOK, now I’m back to being serious about Edward Snowden… Way back last year when we first heard of him, there was a lot of frantic head-scratching in the intelligence community because espiocrats didn’t see how this low-level employee of a contractor had access to so many different subject areas. Given the way information is […]
TweetSlatest got straight to the heart of the matter: Edward Snowden was the first to declare victory. On Monday night, the Obama administration had, via the New York Times, announced the imminent end of the bulk collection of metadata and proposed new rules requiring the National Security Agency to get warrants before grabbing individual records. It was far […]
TweetIf you hear me retching, it’s not because I overindulged on New Year’s Eve. It’s because of this editorial in The New York Times: Considering the enormous value of the information he has revealed, and the abuses he has exposed, Mr. Snowden deserves better than a life of permanent exile, fear and flight. He may […]
TweetThat would be the logical response, in any case — although that’s not what I expect to see, unfortunately. When one federal judge questioned the legality of NSA collection of metadata, that was sufficient to cause alleged newsman Glenn Greenwald to crow to the skies that it was a “pure vindication” of his creature, Edward […]
Tweet Through an “alternative Christmas message” broadcast on British television (“alternative” as in, a message other than the Queen’s official one) and a Washington Post interview, Edward Snowden reveals his immaturity, paranoia, irrationality and utter lack of perspective. I can’t find an embed code for the full video, but here’s a link to it. Here’s […]
TweetThe Slatest brought this to my attention: Edward Snowden has a new job. His lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, tells Russian outletRIA Novosti that Snowden has landed a new gig in technical support. Kucherena isn’t saying who Snowden’s new employer is, but did describe the company as a major Russian website. “He will be part of the support […]
TweetThis piece over at Slate… On the merits, Snowden’s claim for asylum would not count for much in any country. Applicants for asylum typically must prove they are the victims of persecution on account of their race, ethnicity, religion, or membership in a social or political group. Frequently, these are political dissidents who are fleeing […]
TweetToday, my wife got a call from the Target Red Card people, demanding to speak to me because of suspicious charges on the card. She told them that if they were just noticing that charges had been made across several states in recent days, that it was fine; we had driven to Memphis and back […]
TweetLet’s see… First, that bastion on transparency and respect for privacy China protects Edward Snowden in Hong Kong, and lets him leave. Then, Vladimir Putin insists it has no control over who comes and goes there. I liked the way the WSJ’s Bret Stephens underlined the absurdity of that claim: “When the Russian government wants […]
TweetDavid Brooks’ Monday column in The New York Times (which The State ran today) is the best column of any kind, by anyone, that I have read in years. (People whose thoughtfulness I respect keep bringing it to my attention, and I say, yes, thanks; I saw it — and intend to say something about […]
Tweet“Snowden” is one of those names that sticks with you. Or with me, anyway. It was technically the name of the particular one of the Honeycombs I lived in that one semester I went to USC in 1971 — although I seem to recall that a lot of people called it by a letter designation. […]
Tweet I’ve said a lot of positive things about David Brooks over the years. I not only agree with the guy a lot, but I tend to wish I had written what he did. I feel like I should have written it. His thoughts just run that much in sync with my own. I’ve never […]
TweetDoug brought up the subject, and Barry weighed in, and then I started to, but realized I had several different things to say about it, and might as well make it a separate post… Here’s the relevant part of Doug’s comment: University of South Carolina has announced a record number of freshman in the upcoming […]
TweetI’ve probably mentioned this a few times before, but… Often when I pass by the defunct K-Mart on Knox Abbott (it’s between my house and my older son’s), I think of the expedition I undertook to that location during my one semester as a student at USC, the fall of 1971. My uncle in Bennettsville, […]
TweetThis morning while working out, I watched an episode from the first season of “The West Wing” (so early in the show that they hadn’t figured out yet that the “Mandy” character just didn’t work at all). The overriding plotline of the episode, “The Short List,” was the nomination of a new associate justice to […]
TweetHave we done one of these this year? Well if we have, we haven’t done it enough: President Obama Commutes Chelsea Manning’s Prison Sentence — Well, I suppose that’s all right. What would be outrageous and utterly unthinkable would be if he commuted the sentence of Bradley Manning, because that little slimeball betrayed his country big-time, and […]
Tweet Donald Trump complains about the United States taking responsibility for collective security in the world, and suggests our allies need to step up and look to their own defenses. I almost thought, “Maybe he has a point” when I read this item this morning about Iceland: REYKJAVIK, ICELAND — The party that could be […]
Tweet “What is truth?” asked Pilate, and washed his hands. Sometimes I ask the same question, because it’s not always as simple as people like to think it is. At least, not in politics. (As a Catholic, I accept that the One of whom Pilate asked the question did trade in actual Truth.) I had the […]