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1. 

   MiepR said, 5 days ago

   What’s interesting to me about this is that we spend so much money on NSA, but there are so few terrorists, and their search algorithms can’t possibly approach 99.9999% accuracy. So the point seems to be about enabling casual harassment, or to provide a blind for not-so-casual harassment.

   Also it’s worth noting that many people in this world live in circumstances where Internet privacy is far from the top of their list of things to be concerned about. This all is in some ways an elitist concern.

   Not to say I’m okay with fourth amendment violations. I’m most certainly not. I’m even more not okay with ones that are so blatantly falsely being sold as necessary, though.
2. 

   jeffc42 said, 5 days ago

   You cannot seriously equate the Holocaust with what the NSA is doing. I don’t like it, but this is a totally ridiculous comparison. It isn’t a slippery slope. It isn’t even in the same effin’ ballpark as Jules would say.
3. 

   mikefive said, 5 days ago

   Ted, It started under Carter-FISA.
4. 

   Michael wme said, 5 days ago

   @jeffc42

   You’re absolutely right. American Jews had the vote, and by hanging Nazis, Truman won the ’48 election.

   
   And, just like hanging Nazis for following what was the Law in Germany until ’45, droning terrorists (98% of whom the Guardian says were innocent) wins votes, and so is like hanging Nazis and putting Japanese in concentration camps, not like killing Jews.

   
   The US Presidents are always fighting for Good against Evil. All those killed under orders of the US President are heinous criminals who deserved to die, just because it was the US President who ordered their deaths.

   
   And both of the last two presidents have done heroic work killing lots of evil men, women, and babies.

   
   And Prism will help them keep tabs on those terrorists who might try to overthrow the elected officials of the current US government by voting against them in the next election, thereby keeping all Americans safe from those most threatening of terrorists.
5. 

   Craig Linder said, 5 days ago

   @MiepR

   Post 9/11, we have become cowards. Ruled by our fears instead of reason. If we’d calmed down after the attack and considered the true scope and magnitude of the problem, we would not have surrendered our civil liberties and would have acted much more in line with what others suggested, i.e., deal with terrorism as a law enforcement issue.
   
   There was also a strong element of xenophoia in our reaction. We’ve had some pretty awful acts of domestic terrorism (e.g., the Oklahoma City bombing), but no one called for a police state then.
6. 

   Craig Linder said, 5 days ago

   One other thing. For those of us old enough to remember when airplane hijackings were commonplace, we didn’t overreact and establish a police state then.
7. 

   Ms. Ima said, 5 days ago

   Wow, 2013 and gassing jews is compared to O’s policies. Good one, Ted. Uninformed voters should take not of this cartoon.
8. 

   Darsan54 said, 5 days ago

   @Craig Linder

   You’re absolutely right. But those “elected” at the time found it a convenient way to manipulate the public by whipping them into hysteria.
9. 

   Darsan54 said, 5 days ago

   Public resignation and apathy in face of the NSA spying revelations is more about Congressional leaders acting on their own over the wishes of the public. Note, huge majorities of voters want some as reasonable as universal background checks. However, Congressional reps and Senators who live in safe districts can completely bollocks the process and negate the majority’s wishes. We just feel powerless in the face of too much money and arrogant petty politicians.
10. 

    Craig Linder said, 5 days ago

    @Darsan54

    " But those “elected” at the time found it a convenient way to manipulate the public by whipping them into hysteria."
    
    I agree with you completely. Fear too often overrides reason, which is why I think we have become cowards. Too many of us were so afraid that it was possible for the folks in the Bush administration to play on those fears.
    
    By this point we should be well past those more immediate, visceral reactions, but I think a kind of fatigue and apathy has set in.
11. 

    jrmerm said, 5 days ago

    @jeffc42

    jc: Rall is addressing the reaction and response people have to a govt outrage, not so much the act itself. Rall has made an excellent point by using the passive acceptance of the Holocaust by the German public as an analogy. Spookily similar.
12. 

    Rx71Wm29 said, 5 days ago

    Ted is really on his game today. It appears that he’s trying to show us ourselves and the lengths that a dominant group of humans will go to, using other, less socially acceptable groups of humans, as “necessary sacrifices”, to maintain a false sense of security. Bravo Ted!
13. 

    David said, 5 days ago

    Disturbingly true. I hate it when Rall is this close to being on target; it means we’re really as screwed as his world view indicates.
14. 

    David said, 5 days ago

    @Michael wme

    It’s PRISM, an acronym. Like that matters when you’re renditioned to ROMANIA.
15. 

    I Play One On TV said, 5 days ago

    “By this point we should be well past those more immediate, visceral reactions, but I think a kind of fatigue and apathy has set in.”

    I think it’s more the Boy who Cried Wolf. We’ve been through all kinds of manufactured crises: he’s a Kenyan, he’s a Muslim, he’s a Socialist, he’s a Communist, he’s a White Supremacist, he tried to join Girl Scouts, he rips fetuses from women’s wombs and eats them in front of them……

    When a real, legitimate issue comes up, we ain’t listening to those people anymore.

    “A liar is not to be believed even when he tells the truth.”

    It really IS true: everything you need to know you learn in kindergarten…..
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