Oh, yes, the PATRIOT Act is up again. Great. Makes me sick.

DiFi is one of our senators on whom I would love to see an in depth investigation by journalists. Her ties to the defense industry and who knows what else, should be more widely known and I’d bet money that there are a lot of dots to be connected. There’s something that just doesn’t add up with DiFi. She’s more like an agent than a senator.

This software was pioneered and perfected in Las Vegas, where the Casinos were interested in ‘identifying’ patrons who were trying to ‘hide’ their identities from recognition – generally cheats and scammers.

The software works anonymously to compare behaviors, associations, etc to ‘match’ two or more apparently different people as the same person, or otherwise somehow related to each other in nefarious ways.

my own generation, that is old enough to remember the “liberal” apathy about street crime and enforcement of other quality of life policing issues that led “law and order” in an era of escalating street crime to become “conservative” rather than general governmental concern.

Street crime has been much more destructive than ’street’ crime.

I don’t especially mind the government being enabled to track down weapons, bullets, bomb-making materiel or anything else which might be very dangerous in the hands of people. But, the NRA might prefer we not hinder the terrorists for fear we would also hinder ‘law-abiding citizens’. Hard to tell the two apart sometimes. Wasn’t Zazi entirely law-abiding? McVeigh?

I don’t see how tracking this stuff interferes with the right of people to have and use it.

Going further to keep records of it’s sale is akin to keeping records of gun sales and that infuriates the ’soft on crime’ Right.

Perhaps the middle ground is having anyone who can sell that stuff inform the FBI if there is a sale of it, so the FBI can at least know where and when it’s happened. But, how do you differentiate between entirely legal and harmless sales and the more dangerous situations?

That leads us right back to the 4th Amendment (after-the-fact searches) and perhaps the Brady Law which required licenses (before-the-fact). Are there licenses for the purchase of “bomb-making” stuff? What kind and quantity of stuff would qualify to be considered potentially dangerous? It’s not like a gun where only 1 is all it takes.

Sort of OT, an interesting editorial in the LA Times on conservatism as a religion. It explains some of the problems we’re having. (Wish the Ds in DC would read it and develop soms smarts.)

Speaking of Schneier: robspierre, if you’re here, you might look at this post from Schneier’s blog. You may think some forms of datamining are poor/ineffective, but some are getting pretty good and in surprising places.

that is funny.

very funny!!

thanks for your thoughtful comments.

asking important questions is useful, though not aways immediately (or ever) rewarding.