Conspiracy theory

[Inodoro Pereyra]

So...
A few years ago, I was dubbed a conspiracy theorist, when I said I wouldn't buy an OnStar equipped car, because I didn't like the idea of a company keeping track of me, everywhere I go. Even the old "aluminum foil hat" joke made an appearance.

http://www.dailytech.com/US+Senators+Ba ... e22843.htm

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/onstar ... d=14581571

I wonder what those people would say, now...

[mitmaks]

It does not require much brain to realize they can track you using OnStar. So they can track you via cell phone, GPS, etc.
Big Brother is watching you.

[Inodoro Pereyra]

It's not "Big Brother" I'm worried about.
But I'm not about to let some company track down every step I make. That's why I stopped using Google, that's why I've been going crazy for some time, trying to set up a proxy for my computer, and that's why I'd never use something like OnStar.

[Sleeper6]

One of my friends in pittsburgh had his heart set on a new camaro but decided that he wasnt going to buy any new gm b/c you can no longer purchase one without it prewired in. He had numerous issues with his previous camaros being sited and wasnt to keen on the idea either that onstar can hook a link to your car and shut it down at will as well.

All this makes me love my '92 even more, no excess wiring gibber gabber to be bothered with.

[mitmaks]

I don't know about you guys but I have my 68 to rebel against One World Government I just need a set of push bars and I'm all set.

[Daninski]

Inodoro, the sad reality is every American gave any hope of personal freedom away when they allowed the Patriot act to become law. The act, dramatically reduced restrictions on law enforcement agencies' ability to search telephone, e-mail communications, medical, financial, and other records. You don't even have the right to call a Lawyer if 'they' decide to say you pose a threat to the nations security.
On May 26, 2011, President Barack Obama signed a four-year extension of three key provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act: [2] roving wiretaps, searches of business records, and conducting surveillance of "lone wolves" — individuals suspected of terrorist-related activities not linked to terrorist groups
Magicians have long known that distracting an audience is the key to creating the illusion of magic. It is also the key to political magic. The American government (G Bush) distracted a nation with fear propaganda and now the government has the power to do with you as they feel including silencing people 'they' deem to be a threat.
That bail out package the banks got was perpetrated in the same manner, by spreading fear there would be an economic melt down without a bail out. No problem ever existed except the problem of a greedy and corrupt banking sustem. All I can say is Americans on the whole have been living for far too long with your heads in the sand.

I quote, only the good can love freedom, the rest love not freedom but license, which never has more scope than under tyrants. unquote.

[_-Night-Shade-_]

Wow Dan, words of wisdom!

[Inodoro Pereyra]

Dan: while I agree with you, this thread is, again, not about the government lack of respect for people's rights, but about companies making money at the expense of your privacy.

About the other issue, reality is a lot deeper than that. As much as I hate him, and everything he stands for, Bush is not the bad guy here.
Despite the very nice sounding BS about the "inalienable rights", in real life, freedom has to be earned through suffering, and maintained through continuous vigilance. To make mine a phrase from the movie "V, for Vendetta", "People shouldn't be afraid of their governments: governments should be afraid of their people". As of today, the American people have done nothing to earn their freedom, and, the way everything is going, there's no reason to believe they will.

[mitmaks]

Dan: while I agree with you, this thread is, again, not about the government lack of respect for people's rights, but about companies making money at the expense of your privacy.

About the other issue, reality is a lot deeper than that. As much as I hate him, and everything he stands for, Bush is not the bad guy here.
Despite the very nice sounding BS about the "inalienable rights", in real life, freedom has to be earned through suffering, and maintained through continuous vigilance. To make mine a phrase from the movie "V, for Vendetta", "People shouldn't be afraid of their governments: governments should be afraid of their people". As of today, the American people have done nothing to earn their freedom, and, the way everything is going, there's no reason to believe they will.

That is so true, everyone at work bitches about high gas prices but yet they drive gas guzzling suburbans/broncos/yukons with big 35's on them and barely get 10mpg on highway! I have been driving my MX-3 since I've gotten my first job for $6/hr
Yes I do have big V8 cars and my truck, however I only use them once in a while.
I just hate paying high gas prices cause other people feel the need for big SUV's.However people have been self-destructional since the beginning. I wonder how much worse it will get until it will get better, or will it get better.
We just got a new vice president for our company. People like him are responsible for sending job overseas. Under his "ruling" we already lost a few people. All it takes is to look at him wrong way and you'll be out the door. I'm just a working class guy and I hate thinking every day what would happen if I were to loose my job overseas. I have bills, mortgage.

[Daninski]

Inodoro, do you think for one minute that companies would risk violating your privacy rights if the government established a strong vocal position on this subject. The American government/Big Business wants nothing more than to monitor and control every aspect of your life. If companies are willing to do the job for them why would they intervene or stop them?
John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton said, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." American Big Business, being in bed with or should I correct that and say controlling American politicians now feel/know they have the power to do as they please and they are.
Now for the lighter side of things. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GseyaEib ... re=related

[Inodoro Pereyra]

We're talking different things here.

All through history, and all around the World, there have been only one thing that can buy freedom: blood.
Look at the French Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, etc. Those people earned their freedom.

Some of you know I'm Argentinian. What you probably don't know is that my country has been bouncing from one dictatorship to the next, pretty much uninterruptedly for the first 84 years of the 20th century. I personally lived through the last one, the "Proceso de Reorganizacion Nacional" (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... on_Process).
During that period, about 30000 people went "missing" at the hands of the government. Today, more than 17 years after it finished, they keep on finding mass graves, and people born within that period are finding out they are actually the children of women that were "detained", tortured, raped, and murdered in the name of "National Security".
Yes, it's awful. My country (as well as many others) has been left permanently scarred by all that. But, as terrible as it was (and, believe me, I could tell you stories that would make you sick), something good has come out of it: No president, no matter how powerful he thinks he is, would DARE propose a law that limited, even slightly, the rights of the citizens, because they all know that would get them out of the government, and in jail, in the blink of an eye, not because the members of Congress would take them down, but because the PEOPLE would start a nationwide riot. You simply don't mess with the Argentinian Constitution, period.
That's the reason Argentinians have their freedom: because they bled for it, and because they keep it alive, day after day.

Here, a bunch of punks kill 3000 innocent people, and then, the biggest punk of all decides to revoke everyone's civil rights in the name of "National Security", and nobody raises an eyebrow. But even worse: the SECOND biggest punk of all decides to EXTEND that "law", a decade after the attacks, and nothing happens.

That's what I meant when I said Americans have done nothing to earn their freedom. It has nothing to do with being wasteful. It's about earning the respect of those you elected to SERVE you.

[Daninski]

Does anyone know who said this, "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." He use to star in westerns.

Anyway I feel compelled to quote one more great American who liked to wave keys around when there was lightening. This I feel demonstrates why the Patriot act is so flawed and in direct conflict with the American constitution. Quote, They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. unquote B.F.

[Ryan]

I'd like to add that Facebook is selling you too.





Isn't it creepy how Google adds try to sell you struts or brake parts?

I've seen documentaries that have shown how its totally possible to personalize TV to each household. They even have ideas to automatically generate commercials directed exactly at you using a stock of footage, pieced together by a computer.

Old guy wrote his birthdate on something online somewhere, bought a nice set of golf clubs on his visa, checked his favourite band's myspace page, googled a boat cruise once.

Commercial shows up on his TV of a nice looking old couple enjoying a driving range on a big a-- cruise boat with his music in the background, and an attractive price.

Consumerism! whoo!

[Inodoro Pereyra]

I'd like to add that Facebook is selling you too.

Yep. That's why I seldom use it, and never, ever put any personal information in there.
That's the same reason I replaced Google with Duck Duck Go!, and installed HTTPS Everywhere and Force-TLS on my Firefox.

All I need now is to be able to install Tor and Polipo, and I'm all set.

[MrMazda92]

For what it's worth, they'll monitor us in a billion other ways that we've yet to imagine or notice. I don't abstain from using google, would probably use OnStar(If it was free, hah), and haven't really put much thought into it. Unlike who we elect into office, which is our "choice", we really can't stop the government from spying on us, or anyone else for that matter. Technology has it's downsides; from guns being a means to defend your family, and also a means with which to kill them, to the 3D features on my phone looking cool, but giving me a massive headache when I use it. Nothing is free, there's always a price to be paid.