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2001 Big Brother Awards Announced 89

Posted by CmdrTaco from the thats-pretty-funny dept.
DaHat writes "ABC News.com is reporting that the latest round of Big Brother Awards are out. This years list includes the FBI's carnivore system being named "Most Invasive Proposal." The NSA won a "Lifetime Menace" award for, allegedly, "50 years of spying" on Americans and others and even the Florida company ChoicePoint was named "greatest corporate invader," for their actions during the Florida recount. Get the whole scoop and whole article here." We should have a different award, the Stalin award or something for entities advancing the destruction of the first ammendment. We can nominate the evil organizations oppressing freedom of speech like the RIAA, the MPAA, and Slashdot.
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2001 Big Brother Awards Announced More

2001 Big Brother Awards Announced

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  • You want a sad day? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Here's a simple fact: if the FBI and NSA stopped their eavesdropping activities today, hundreds if not thousands of people worldwide would be in immediate physical danger beginning tomorrow. If you have facts to the contrary, I'd be happy to hear them. And by the way, the NSA requires approval from the attorney general to collect information on US soil, whether it involves US citizens or not.

  • Oh man (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Slashdot is fucked up again.

    You guys really should consider not using MySQL.

  • ... I never really forward things that I get as forwards, but this is simply frightening (if it's true) : http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0228-09.htm
  • We should have a different award, the Stalin award or something for entities advancing the destruction of the first ammendment.

    Maybe you should... then you'd finally have something to update the "awards" section with! =^)

  • You're kidding, right? You've seen the movies? Sure the law says that the NSA doesn't spy on US citizens, but you've seen "Sneakers," right?

    You're not an American, so I'll cut you some slack!

    :}

  • >Normandy was a Hell. Sorry but even you americans of today may not totally understand this. In fact only veterans may say what is to stand in a shoreline with Hell falling on you. That should be honored.

    I'd also like to add, that despite the impression that people might have gotten from Saving Private Ryan, there were quite a lot of nationalities involved on the D-Day landing, including British, Australians, the free French, and many others.

    ************************************************ ** *

  • Ok you damn Polish!!!! REMEMBER WHO FIRST AGREED TO HITLER ON RAPING AND FUCKING EUROPE!!!!!

    POLAND MY DEAR FRIEND!!!!!!

    ADMIRED??? GO READ THE MINUTES OF THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE THIRD REICH AND THEIR FUCKING TALKS WITH YOUR PRIME MINISTER OF THEN... AND HOW THAT MOTHERFUCKER TALKED SO SWETTLY WITH THE SWINE THAT PISSED OFF YOUR COUNTRY

    I'm not defending Stalin of what he did or didn't do. But let's put things on place, ok? Poland also was quite ready to get a good piece of Czechoslovakia where lived a polish majority. And they had big and sweet talks with Hitler about that. It's in the minutes of the Ministries of the III Reich and I read several copies of that shit. Middle to end of 1938 to ease to search...
  • Dumb ass, moderation dosent trample on freedom of speach.

    Everything is still there, moderation is simply a automated, massive, editoral system. All the speach is still there.

  • How 'bout we give 'em a Slashdot Cruiser?

    (On a side note, including the NSA with such a vague reason was lame.)


    Cheers,

  • Well, im not a member of the Communist Party-USA, "Groups Seeking Independence for Puerto Rico" the Socialist Workers Party; any "White Hate Groups", any "Black Nationalist Hate Groups"; or even "New Left", so I guess I dont have much to worry about.
    What are you worried about? Got a hood and cloak stashed away somewhere?

    ~dlb
  • All your base are belong to us to you too, ok!

    :)
    --

  • Ok Americans, you don't have anyone destroying the first amendment? Why Stalin and first amendment here? When did Stalin stepped on first amendment? When do you stop thinking that the world starts in New England and ends in Alaska?

    Stalin was a butcher. But he was a Soviet butcher who lead Soviet Union and not America. And there were no First or Last Amendments of the likes. Pick up you OWN people for that and point out and leave Stalin alone. If anyone has anything to say about Stalin then it is Germans, Poles, Czecks, Slovaks, Yougoslavians, Chinese, Koreans, Georgians, Azeris, Tatarians, Russians and a several other tens of nations that lived in the grip of the Butcher of Nations. But you should THANK GOD that there was Stalin as he saved the world and YOU from being swallowed by the Nazi machinery. And NEVER DARE to forget about that!


    Hitler couldn't even get across the English Channel. I think the Atlantic Ocean is a bit wider...

  • Wow. I love the internet.
  • The GULag Achipelago by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, and any book discussing the Russian revolution of 1917.
    But you should THANK GOD that there was Stalin as he saved the world and YOU from being swallowed by the Nazi machinery. And NEVER DARE to forget about that!

    Even if I did believe in God, I wouldn't thank Stalin for his contribution to WWII.

    It has been said that only two men from the Bolshevik party could have suceeded in stopping the German war machine on the Soviet front, one being Stalin the other being Trotsky. Many of the ideas for the modernization of the Soviet Union that Stalin used were actually Trotsky's ideas. Trotsky saw that there was an abundance of minerals at the Ural mountains and that they needed to move factories there to prevent the destruction Soviet industry in case of attack from Europe. Trotsky was the one who came up with the 5 year plans. Trotsky was also a great general, if you have studied the revolution you would know that he lead the Red Army. But it was shown that Trotsky had more compassion for the Soviet people than Stalin. Stalin stole the leadership of the Soviet Union and murdered tens of millions of people, whether it be from lack of safety in his 5 year plans, or the GULag, or what he did in WWII.

    Stalin threw divisions of soldiers who did not have guns at the Germans. If a general retreated for any reason what-so-ever and survived, he was executed. The only reason why Stalin did as well as he did during WWII was not because he was a military genius but because he cared so little about the Soviet people that he was willing to sacrifice every last one of them in order to defeat Germany.

    The Allies would have eventually defeated the Nazis. The Russians sped the processes up dramatically, but by the end of the war all of factories in Europe could not compete with the production of the United States. That is a KNOW FACT! There were factories in Detroit that were producing a B-29 EVERY DAY! No factory in the Luftwafa had that capability.

    I refuse to thank a person who is responsible for the deaths of more than 40 million people, and that number continues to grow as more records are uncovered. Stalin should never be praised, anything he did that might be considered "good" came from him standing on the dead bodies of giants. It sickens me to think that someone would praise Stalin, who I consider the most evil man of the 20th century.

    And yes, I have studied the differences between Stalinism and Leninism. I have studied Russian and Soviet history, and I have quite a few good friends who are Russian who I talk to about their culture's history.
  • >The NSA has the same restriction as the CIA;
    >however, it specializes in SIGINT while the CIA
    >does...

    You mean every time I type Ctrl-C to terminate a program, the NSA is watching?

    From now on I'll stick to "kill -9 %1"
  • I hate to tell you this, but people that appear on Springer, Rikki Lake, Montell Williams, Jenny Jones etc, are NOT average Americans. Oh .. we also don't all still wear spurrs and 6 shooters either. The main reason we like to watch those shows is so we can feel better about ourselves, saying "Holy shit .. better you than me, Bubba Joe Ray Bob."

  • It just occurred to me after writing this that my sig is my diary. yeah yeah, I might as well beat you to the punch.

  • Ok Americans, you don't have anyone destroying the first amendment? Why Stalin and first amendment here? When did Stalin stepped on first amendment? When do you stop thinking that the world starts in New England and ends in Alaska?

    Alright, first off - Stalin abridged the personal rights of the Russians just as most dictators do. He's not especially known for it, it just comes with the job - so he may not be the best example, but he's certianly *a* valid example. Second, why don't you stop thinking that all Americans are ignorant? And stop taking the words of one American to represent them all?

    Stalin was a butcher. But he was a Soviet butcher who lead Soviet Union and not America. And there were no First or Last Amendments of the likes. Pick up you OWN people for that and point out and leave Stalin alone. If anyone has anything to say about Stalin then it is Germans, Poles, Czecks, Slovaks, Yougoslavians, Chinese, Koreans, Georgians, Azeris, Tatarians, Russians and a several other tens of nations that lived in the grip of the Butcher of Nations. But you should THANK GOD that there was Stalin as he saved the world and YOU from being swallowed by the Nazi machinery. And NEVER DARE to forget about that!

    Ahh. So being a citizen of America disqualifies me as a citizen of the world? There are not many of "our OWN" people that compare to Stalin - the system doesn't allow for it, and we haven't had as much time. Also - I could think god for "Stalin saving the world." OR I could thank god for Turing and the COLOSSUS, or I could thank god that the Nazis didn't make more U-boats, or I could thank god they used the enigma insecurely, or I could thank god for any of the thousands of factors that contributed to the winning of the war - Saying that one factor out of thousands saved the world is showing a very narrow view of the situation.

    Pick up you McCarthy's, Hoover's, Nixon's for that First Amendment of yours... And never forget History. And if you have any troubles about this then go and pick some old films of the 50's and look at your First Amendment and how it worked. Btw, on Slashdot someone, not long ago, published a link to such type of archive. I took some of those films and OH MY. How you loved Uncle Joe in the 40's... And how you HATED him and Russia in the 50's. You hated SO MUCH that you could not say a correct thing about Russia's History or say Lenin's true name...

    Whatever. I'm tired of typing, and I can't be held accountable for what people did in my country before I was born.
  • If I was benefitting from something horrendous that people had done before I was born in my country, then i'd do what *I* could to set it right - because in that case, it wouldn't be what my ancestors had done, it would be what they had done, and how it was affecting me and others now. I also realize it's easy for me to say that because i'm not in that situation and if I was my rationialization might be quite different. Also, if we behave like monsters, we are directly responsible for OUR actions - that's one of the points I was trying to make, we shouldn't take time being responsible for the actions of others, when it takes all the time we have to be responsible for ourselves.
  • Maybe you shouldn't speak as though you're holding an individual responsible for their country - If i was in charge, the country i live in (America) would be *vastly* different - but i'm not, and as such, I can't be held accountable for the actions of America or other Americans, and the same stands to reason for any citizen of any country that is not the absolute dictator of their country.

  • Indeed. And Stalin (who we were talking about) killed 60 million, thru summary executions, planned famine and gulag, and is thought to have been "our savior from Hitler", almost a "nice guy". (Shudder).

    /Dervak

  • Imaginating having to do that in Japan made a lot of people thankful that Uranium and Plutonium tended to do their thing with a lot of gusto.

    There was no need for Hiroshima. There was no need for invading Japan at all. Japans war machine was totally broken; they had almost no warships or aircraft left and their factories were being pulverized by the minute. The US could have simply stopped there and made peace - after all, Japan had already lost all conquered land. They were no threat anymore. But of course the US wanted vengeance.

    I dont see fire-bombing or nuking civilian cities with almost no military significance as any less warcrime or any less horrific than gassing people in camps. But, as we all know, history is written by the victors.

    /Dervak

  • "carpet bombing with nukes woulda been cool. 'nuff said." If I remember correctly, the U.S. only had enough Plutonium for exactly 3 nukes, one that was tested in New Mexico (they claimed that it was an ammo dump explosion) one on Hiroshima and one on Nagasaki. They dropped them in quick sussecion (sp) to that Japan would *think* that we could to it more that twice, but if they hadn't surrendered we would have had to go back to conventional warfare.

    "huhuhuhh, go away. we're like closed or something"
  • Anyone else find it amusing that ABC News would report on these Big Brother Awards? The corporate media, of course, being concerned only with the free flow of information and ideas. gack.
  • the unfortunately, that's not very funny at all department. They wouldn't get these awards if they weren't representing some honest-to-god evil invasion of privacy.
    --
  • How about we change the name though? Destruction of free speech < destruction of millions.

    --
    Move '.sig'
  • All the speach is still there.

    Until it's archived. Then all 0 and -1 posts go to /dev/null unless there's some secret way to get at them that I don't know about. In which case, pray tell.

    Example: http://slashdot.org/articles/00/11/09/1715248.shtm l [slashdot.org]


    kickin' science like no one else can,
    my dick is twice as long as my attention span.
  • Didn't the Nazi's ban radios you can tune, and mandated that you had to have a radio with approved preset stations? What was the name of that?

    The Volksempfänger [geocities.com]. Yeah, I can see that award taking off :) You could call them the "Volkies", I guess!
    --

  • Just listen to the tone of the article. ABC is just jealous that the media's still inferior to the gov't in regards to there methods for privacy intrusion.
  • Here's a simple fact: if the FBI and NSA stopped their eavesdropping activities today, hundreds if not thousands of people worldwide would be in immediate physical danger beginning tomorrow. If you have facts to the contrary, I'd be happy to hear them.

    Very interesting. Can you supply us with proof of your point? If not, then you are just talking out your ass.

    And by the way, the NSA requires approval from the attorney general to collect information on US soil, whether it involves US citizens or not.

    Yes, the FBI and the NSA would never do anything illeagle. They have always kept within the law. Is this your point? Try doing a web search for the word "COINTELPRO". Then come back and tell us you have nothing to fear from this goverment.

  • It seems more appropriate to give the Stalin award to companies or people devoted to the enslavement and butchery of other people. Nike sounds like a good candidate to me for the first awards.
  • This article talks about how evil everything is. We constnatly attack the FBI for invading our privacy. However, I do not feel too invaded. I have no complaints with them listening into my phone calls or reading my e-mail because I know thye are only concerned with people doing things that are truly wrong, and I am not doing anything wrong so who cares? believe it or not, there are bad people in the world. People who would like to assisinate the president (esp. mr. controversial Bush), as well as terrorists who wouldn't mind making a statement in the US. And I woudln't mind knowing that there are people out there protecting me from that.

    The RIAA is another super evil for attacking "free speech" I love free speech to death, and would definately be annoyed if I could not complain about stuff out loud, however that does not mean I have the right to piracy. Any bimbo can log on and copy any album they want. That can't be just "Free speech". I have always felt the RIAA is going about this wrong for they will never be able to stop the pirates, for piracy has been around forever, and that they should work out a system where the musician is paid once, handsomly, to create the hit and then it is made publicaly available and it is up to the individuals to spend the transfering costs, however I do not feel they are evil for trying to protect their profits. This is similiar to the MS monopoly. We all hate them b/c they are the big monopoly. Howeve,r how did they get there? If there were other products that were as convinient for business and people to use as MS, then the businesses would, b/c they care about themselves more then a/b MS, and would gladly switch if it meant money saved. This is not flamebait, and I'm going to hope that I either get moderated down enough that nobody reads this, or that those who do do'nt send me e-mails calling me some sort of neo-facist or something. But I had to add my two cents beause I feel the nerd community tends to attack things without really having a good reason.
  • So according to your logic, the UK and most of Europe as well as Japan should have authoritarian regimes, since gun ownership there is rare.
  • People who watch jerry springer, and such arnt average americans. Their low life trailer scum that have to see people who are worse than them to make themselves feel better.
  • Ok.. not entierly defending with the stalinist above; The russians did _not_ win the war for us. (made it a shitload easier for us) so some of you are completley disgarding the effect the russians had on the war.

    Here, a bit from one of my essays;
    The battle of Stalingrad was a bloody siege which lasted from August '42 to January '43. In this battle alone the Germans lost
    400,000 troops
    1.5 million Germans surrendered
    3500 tanks,
    12,000 guns and mortars,
    75,000 vehicles
    3,000 aircraft

    This left the entire German army greatly over extended, while the Russian strategy of a `reflexive line` (bend under pressure, then attack the `fire bucket` located inside of the bend) effectively dealt with the German offensive movements.

    The russians did not win the war - though they did divide the german front (into 3 parts, because the italians were constantly fucking up and Hitler sent troops to "reinforce them"

    China was being raped by the japanese, and the japanese hoped to meet the germans a few months after d-day.

    They (russians) lost troops to the Germans at a rate of 2:1 (either killed or surrendered)

    Also - we had the fucking bomb (admittedly, a bit too late, but firebombing berlin (or dresden -

    BTW - more japanese were killed in the firebombing of tokyo than the A-Bomb attack on the other cities. firebombing from the outside in was a really wonderful practice (i.e. so that people couldn't run out of the city, as that part was already in flames)

    I digress - firebombs had the same effect )

    The germans did not have an impregnable air defense - carpet bombing with nukes woulda been cool. 'nuff said.
    It woulda been really interesting if normandy had not happened. But thats another discussion.

    But, after all, I'm Polish, so I can't forget the fact that the fucking russians went to bed with hitler when he invaded poland.
    Or the fucking French and British - who pledged to defend us. Took 40 years for the poles to be free from some despot.

    Whatver, flame on. Fact is, there were agreements which were not honoured.

    Oh.. Russians were under orders to kill those on their side who surrendered before firing at enemy troops.

    i.e. firing at germans. White flag goes up. Russians fire on white flag. Flag goes down, resume firing at germans.

    Fuckit, it seems that few on /. know anything about history (or care).

    Oh.. couldn't resist - Lenin? you mean Vlad?

    I have a shotgun, a shovel and 30 acres behind the barn.

  • Damn... read a history book (or my comment)

    I have a shotgun, a shovel and 30 acres behind the barn.

  • don't get your comment, can you elaborate?

    I have a shotgun, a shovel and 30 acres behind the barn.

  • Hitler was actually a great fan of Napoleon, and knew all about the Russian Winter. However, during the last few months he grew less and less in touch with reality, and trapped his troops in Russia planning to do what Napoleon never could.
  • We should have a different award, the Stalin award or something for entities advancing the destruction of the first ammendment.

    I'm glad we have freedom of speech so we can speel wurds n e way we want.

    (Yeah, yeah, I'm a bad man.)

  • > US could have simply stopped there and made
    > peace - after all, Japan had already lost all
    > conquered land. They were no threat anymore.
    > But of course the US wanted vengeance.

    No, the US wanted to avoid a repeat of 1918.
    If there was one thing WWI taught the Allies,
    it was that you had to *finish* the job, or
    it would be to do all over again the next
    generation.

    Chris Mattern
  • Let's not get too carried away. Countries that have had real Gestapos (and KGB's and Tonton Macoutes [sp?] and whatever) haven't had public awards like this -- at least, not more than once.
  • "unique number (Social Security ID) which is illegal in most European states"

    Yeah, Europe has even more pathetic laws requiring people to have internal equivalent of passport.
  • Oh well, Hitler at that point was regarded as just another, perhaps a bit eccentric German leader.
    Nobody outside of Germany even suspected how disastrous it will end.
    BTW.
    I suspect that couple hundred years from now Hitler will be viewed in much better light than it is now.
    After all, Caesar was just as cruel and caused (comparatively to his means) just as much suffering and death and yet he is not regarded as a grand murderer.
    Stalin on the other hand was more like Nero; his extreme cruelty was mainly directed at his own people.
    Anyway, I would much prefer living under Hitler rule.
  • "Damn they have now a country of their own. "

    Whow, amazing!
    If you are as much interested in history as you claim it would not be that difficult to find out that Poland used to be one of the most powerfull countries in Europe in xv-xvii century and having "its own damn" country is not that much considering where they come from.
  • Yeah, Russians lost 600 000 soldiers during assault on Berlin. Twice as much as total American loses during the war.
    You know, it does not take a genius to keep sending guys waiting for other side to run out of bullets ...
  • "I think far and away the vast majority of the public applaud the Tampa Police's efforts to keep Super Bowl XXXV as safe as we did," Durkin said. "If something happened at Super Bowl XXXV, I think the press would have been screaming that we didn't do all that we could to keep it safe. Or maybe not them, but the public."
    Because the press is obedient enough not to scream when people fuck up?
  • I KNOW that Andover can afford a copy of Oracle. Why not upgrade so they don't have performance problems any more?

  • This is GREAT news! It's great that the mainstream media is finally giving privacy issues the coverage that they need. Maybe with more average Joe Americans knowing about these problems, the government will do something to stop them (and to curb themselves).

  • You may be glad these are the only things happening to you. Our ever tax-hungry Dutch governemnt has much better plans to invade people's privacy. Every car has to get a chip that is constantly monitored for its position using satellite technology (or mobile telephone technology, they're not sure yet). Yes. All cars in the Netherlands will constantly transmit their positions so the government can keep tack of how many kilometers you have ben driving, which in turn defines how much extra tax you have to pay. It's called kilometerheffing (milage tax) and yes, the same thing can be done by raising the tax on every litre of gasoline sold...
  • NO HUMAN would go and put their entire life into public eyes unless they were
    a) stupid
    b) getting the chance to win a million dollars.

    Well, I'm not stupid, (valedictorian in high school, like many other /.'ers, I'm sure) and no one has offered me a Megabuck or two, but I'm considering putting my life in the public eye. My current plan is to get a degree in Law, Political Science and CS (as a backup in case of disillusionment) and maybe head into politics, while documenting and posting a *ton* of information about my personal finances, life, etc. on the web.

    I figure, if you want to have the privilege of holding power in the world, you should be held accountable for your personal life. For instance, one criticism of liberals is that they spend other people'a money,(the taxpayers) and get the credit for it, all the while contributing next to nothing to charity. I plan on tithing 10% at least, and putting up my personal financial records of it so that I hold myself above that reproach. This is giving the public more information about me than most would feel comfortable with, but I feel that this and other rules dictate the way I should live my life.

    We don't have a shortage of intelligent people in politics, we have a shortage of honest, intelligent people. The guy mentioned yesterday on /. is an exception to that rule, as are many others (Colin Powell, for one), but the goodguys are mostly outnumbered by the venal and the incompetent. I plan to do my bit to change that.

    Politics is more attractive to me than pure science at this point, since science seems to me to have the same drawbacks as professional sports: You have only 15, maybe 20 years at your peak when you can be counted among the best in the world.(check the age that most Nobel-winning scientists were at when they did their best work) Politicians, however, don't peak until middle-aged or older, though the climb up takes a bit longer than in science. And furthermore, I feel that America has a large enough supply of geniuses in science work today, given that we get the cream of the crop from other countries too. We don't have enough able, honest politicians who give a damn, though. So I'll have less competition to work against in making my mark. :)

    OTOH, some may classify politicians as 'not human' on principle...:P That ignores, however, those few good men that *are* in office today, though, and things like that can be discouraging to them. :( So don't mentally damn *every* politican out there. Public service is poorly rewarding enough as is...

    -----
    IANASRP- I am not a self-referential phrase
    -----

  • Poles, Czecks,...

    Is it typo, or are ueo trying to say something?

  • I think it's a sad day indeed when we actually have basis to give awards for invasion of privacy and the basic disregard of a few personal rights. For all the talk about the 21st century being the start of a new era and how enlightened we think we are, we still can't impliment an unobtrusive yet effective form of government.

    I think government needs to get with the times and adobt policies that fit accordingly. The RIAA has assumed an almost Gestapo-like role lately, and the last time there was a Gestapo we went to war... makes me wander what could be looming around the corner for us now.

    Syn

  • Yes I noticed my typo spelling "adopt" =)

  • No one is saying that the Russians didn't put up a heroic fight during ww2. What impressed me the most about the Russians was how they moved all the factories east of the caucasus (sp?) mountains and out of the range of the german bombers. The point I was making was that Stalin/Russia were not the saviors of the west. Sure they contributed blood and resources, but so did everyone else. And I don't think either side could have won without the other

    By the way, in american high schools and in english language documentaries, we're taught that the americans got to berlin first and didn't take the city so that the russians could. I'm not sure which of our history educations is distorted more.

  • has lots of germs, is loud and offensive, and only speaks one language

    I thought that was how all the french were.

  • It amazes me that you Americans are so obsessed with 'privacy' since you are such a nation of exhibitionists. One only has to take a look at your TV shows to realise this. Springer, Rikki Lake, Montell Williams, Jenny Jones etc demonstrate that the average American is prepared to let all the details of his/her private life to be revealed to anyone provided they are 'on TV'.

    Since your government tracks you all by a unique number (Social Security ID) which is illegal in most European states, your privacy is effectively dead. You have one choice, so eloquently phrased by Scott McNealy: GET OVER IT.

    Really, I mean who really cares about all that information anyway.

  • This is funny!
  • I never claimed to be. Your comment, btw, was very funny.
  • I like it. It definitely adds an extra layer of fun to Slashdot. Please keep the new setup.

  • Slashdot too (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    How interesting that he included slashdot on the list for censoring freedom of speech. Sometimes this is true even here, where people fight for and discuss freedom of speech issues because of abusive moderators. Despite the safeguards in place (M2 anyone?), there's still a definite problem here; often, those who care to disagree are moderated down to oblivion.

  • Re:McNealy was right - Get over it. (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Don't you know that there is only one prototypical american, who has lots of guns, is loud and offensive, and only speaks one language?

    Or are all my european friends lying to me?
  • See the subject. The NSA has the same restriction as the CIA; however, it specializes in SIGINT while the CIA does... well, pretty much everything else. Damnit, man, if yer gonna refute someone else's post, could you please be sure you're right?

    Btw, I don't mean to be redundant here -- all the other refutations were by ACs, and not explicit in their subject lines.
  • Not Caucasus but Urals. Stalin/Russia saved the day. Sorry but they did it. If Hitler went up then we wouldn't be here to discuss this... At least I would surely not be here. I may carry some of the oldest european blood but i also have some jewish blood and i am not ashamed of it (but I do hate Sionism). So I would be a ashtray by the most...

    No Berlin was sorrounded even before western allies made it to the Elba river, which is quite far from Berlin... In fact Berlin was well located inside the territory ocuppied by the soviets. However due to agreements, Stalin gave a good piece of Berlin to the western allies. Later when relations with US got to frost level, Moscow decided to rise that same Berlin Wall that sorrounded completely West Berlin from the rest of Germany. Until the 80's most if not all contact with the West was made through air.

    On what concerns the take of Berlin then one should note that it was one of the biggest battles of WWII. Russians had to overcome an heavily defended fortification line and to fight for every corner. Only the Reichstag (the center of the Nazi Government) took days to be conquered. Historians note that reports about the fight of Reichstag were made on the basis of what floor was conquered.
  • And you go read the diplomatic cases, the minutes and talk with people who lived the whole shit. It would be much better for your education.

    Lived 40 years under Soviet occupation. Who told you to run to Hitler to ask for a piece of Czechoslovakia. It's on there and it is not pretty. So don't try to be more saint that Molotov Ribbentrop or anyone else. Everyone was trading Europe with Hitler. E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E. And Poland was one of them. And that helped Hitler to get Czechoslovakia to its knees. And get you later you fools...
  • Look pal. I have seen how your First Amendment works in your country... Yes you make a lot to defend it. But sometimes it is not worth anything more than the street trash. And it is not Hitler, Stalin, Satan, Hussein or Khameini who take that right from you. It's your own bosses, politicians, Presidents and bureaucritters.

    So, for political maturity, first pick up your own. We don't say Reaganomics when someone picks up shitty liberalism and pisses off the whole country...
  • I'm not holding this poor jerk responsible for his country. But I can't stand to hear these polish speak about how badly were treated for 40 years of soviet occupation. Damn they have now a country of their own. And they were some of the very first to help Hitler to do his dirty job. Sorry but this is not History books. It's from very reliable sources that worked on the Reichstag archives. I saw copies of this as I was damn interested on some events that happened in 1938. And I was socked to see how everyone treated and traded with Hitler. In fact he treached everyone. Hitler was a diplomatic monster that managed to cheat everyone. He played with everyone's appetite to gain his power.

    In 1938 the only problem with Poland was some minor "worries" about Dantzig (now Gdansk). And how these guys talking about butchering the Czechoslovakia. Poland was even ready to send troops to help Germany deal with the Sudetes.

    So I can't stand that people speak only about poor Poland... There is only one poor country here and that's Czechoslovakia. They were the first. And everyone was agreeing or helping the butchering. Poland was acting on it... So?..
  • Look Man have you ever seen what these battlefields arounf here look like? Normandy? Give me a break ok? Yes you had a damn hard time there. You made D day a big day. You are heros and no one takes this from you. But take a trip to Kursk before saying anything about Normandy. And don't forget to pass by Stalingrad. And what concerns Berlin don't forget that Russians pushed hard to get there first and alone. They had to kick Guderian's ass in Pomerania, then turn back to Berlin and force the Siegfried lines at night, what, for that time was a brilliant madness. One small error and Russians would be kicked back to Poland in a few days. But they did this and went roaming a super-defended city that didn't want to give up for nearly two weeks. During that time you were all also pushing hard but didn't make even near Berlin. Look at the old maps of Europe and look at Germany's division on East and West. And where Berlin is....

    You speak about Normandy. Germans were 24 kilometers from the center of Moscow. And it was holiday in Russia. And you know what these Russian bastards did??? They openly marched! Stalin alone in the tribune and echelons of soldiers and tanks marching in October's Revolution Day. And by that time any German General could see the Red Square's buildings through a damn binocule! You weren't even in the war when that thing happened. And in a few days they beated the Germans so badly that they had to go back a few hundreds of kilometers.

    And your politicians did want Berlin before Russians... But if someone says "nado" to "nado" and only God stops the roar.
  • Didn't the Nazi's ban radios you can tune, and mandated that you had to have a radio with approved preset stations? What was the name of that?

    Or how 'bout the "Black Marker" awards.

    other ideas:
    muzzle awards
    turncoat awards
    the draconies
    we say so awards
  • I think ABC would know all about Big Brother, didn't they do that TV show not to long ago? What was that called? OR was that CBS?

    ANy way, another company that people should be on the watch for is planetu. Of course that is if you use a coupon and a frequent buyers card. They are linking off line shopping habits with online coupons. And collecting lots of information on who you are (name address etc), as well as what you shop for, (mainly groceries now, but who knows later), and how often. Scary to me. And they build an online / offline database about you. Good idea behind what they are trying to acomplish, but to big brotherish for me.

    This is only the beginning. Choicepoint is only the first step in 'identity' theft and making the little guy (like me) getting f***** over by the system in some way. Suddenly the police show up at your door for something that you did not do, but you cannot prove it cause your identity has been stolen. Oh this happened to a friend of mine. Well sort of...

    I don't want a lot, I just want it all!
    Flame away, I have a hose!

  • Despite the European Congress may have been listened fluently by the NSA... We still have our own Big Brothers! BB Awards happened a few weeks ago in France ,during a Conference about digital counter-cultures called Zelig, and went to INRIA (public-funded research institute!) for making software to recognize "suspect" behaviors on videosureveillance tapes, Sagem Morpho for its morpho-analysis tools, and to the French Ministry of the Inside (call it Ministry of Love if you prefer...) for putting everyboy, from the victim to the witness to the suspect, in every criminal case in the same database...
    brrr....
    Pictures [tofz.org]from the event are available on my site [tofz.org], though... =)
  • how could this get modded +interesting when it's a troll?

    NO HUMAN would go and put their entire life into public eyes unless they were

    a) stupid
    b) getting the chance to win a million dollars.

    I have no complaints with them listening into my phone calls or reading my e-mail

    Maybe it sounds cliche if I say this, but honestly, go to a book store or chapters or whatever, and pick up 1984 by George Orwell. READ it. Think about it. See where things CAN go when personal liberties and rights are squashed to nothingness. Then ask yourself, "Do I really want to live in a world like that?"
  • Um, hate to break it to you man, but we watch all those shows because the people on Jerry Springer etc. are freaks. It's a freakshow featuring the fuck-ups of our society, darwin awards waiting to happen. The average American wouldn't be caught dead in the on-air audience, let alone on the stage.
  • Two words:
    Victor Suvorov [sunysb.edu]
  • Wrong, the CIA spies on the world, the NSA spies on Americans.

  • Um (Score:2)

    by Fervent ( 178271 )
    from the thats-pretty-funny dept

    Do the story posters do this for their own benefit? To show that they made a joke?


  • As well as the news article this link [privacyinternational.org] probably should have been included in the story as well.
  • Years of experience in letting other people to watch your hard drive contents.
  • Slashdot seems to be able to twist just about any story into a gripe with the MPAA and RIAA.. My favorite grocery store was out of FlavorRich skim milk. They seek to limit my choice, much like the RIAA and MPA....

  • Leave Stalin alone ok? (Score:3)

    by Ektanoor ( 9949 ) on Saturday March 10, 2001 @11:50AM (#372361) Journal
    Ok Americans, you don't have anyone destroying the first amendment? Why Stalin and first amendment here? When did Stalin stepped on first amendment? When do you stop thinking that the world starts in New England and ends in Alaska?

    Stalin was a butcher. But he was a Soviet butcher who lead Soviet Union and not America. And there were no First or Last Amendments of the likes. Pick up you OWN people for that and point out and leave Stalin alone. If anyone has anything to say about Stalin then it is Germans, Poles, Czecks, Slovaks, Yougoslavians, Chinese, Koreans, Georgians, Azeris, Tatarians, Russians and a several other tens of nations that lived in the grip of the Butcher of Nations. But you should THANK GOD that there was Stalin as he saved the world and YOU from being swallowed by the Nazi machinery. And NEVER DARE to forget about that!

    Pick up you McCarthy's, Hoover's, Nixon's for that First Amendment of yours... And never forget History. And if you have any troubles about this then go and pick some old films of the 50's and look at your First Amendment and how it worked. Btw, on Slashdot someone, not long ago, published a link to such type of archive. I took some of those films and OH MY. How you loved Uncle Joe in the 40's... And how you HATED him and Russia in the 50's. You hated SO MUCH that you could not say a correct thing about Russia's History or say Lenin's true name...

  • Re:NSA != spying on americans (Score:3)

    by mr_burns ( 13129 ) on Saturday March 10, 2001 @01:00PM (#372362)
    NSA speis on all communication outside the USA. That is correct. However, some communications are routed outside the USA and sometimes people within the USA contact the rest of the world. Therefore, the NSA is spying on Americans de facto, even if unintentionally.

    I'm in the USA. If you're not and you're reading this, then the NSA is reading my words, even though I'm a private citizen.

  • Stalin awards (Score:3)

    by mr_burns ( 13129 ) on Saturday March 10, 2001 @10:00AM (#372363)
    I'm all for it...let's do it. We can all submit our top offender and why. We can post the results on a reporter-friendly page, with links to threaded discussions as to the why's

    that would rock, we just need a /. front page blurb to coordiate it.

  • ball and chain (Score:3)

    by ywwg ( 20925 ) on Saturday March 10, 2001 @11:40AM (#372364) Homepage
    I'd prefer the Ball and Chain awards for the consumer product with the most strings / ropes / chains attached. Thus appliances with GPS, windows XP, and dvd would all be eligible.

    I think the winner would be windows XP hands down, but the restrictions on things like copy "protected" hard drives are pretty ball and chainy too.

  • IBM for selling computers? (Score:3)

    by jvj24601 ( 178471 ) on Saturday March 10, 2001 @02:46PM (#372365)
    (link [privacyinternational.org] to the actual awards)

    Lifetime Menace, Runners Up
    IBM for years of selling computers to developing countries that are used to suppress populations and for lobbying against privacy laws and standards wordlwide

    IBM awarded, partly, for selling computers to developing countries that are used to suppress populations? Doesn't every company in the US try to sell computers to as many other countries as it can? Should Linus get mentioned for a reward because the Chinese government (who don't give a damn about privacy) get to use Linux (and for free)?

  • OH BROTHER (Score:3)

    by nege ( 263655 ) on Saturday March 10, 2001 @05:29AM (#372366) Journal
    I would like to see this televised. Its cool that we as geeks can appreciate it, but nothing will be done to STOP these companies until we bring it before the regular joe kinda guy. All joe knows is that windows XP will make his life easier. Does he know about SAP or what it does to his mp3 collection?? Does he understand the real draconian measures being taken by MS, NSA and others?

  • Re:McNealy was right - Get over it. (Score:3)

    by infinite9 ( 319274 ) on Saturday March 10, 2001 @11:57AM (#372367)
    I think you'll find that the americans complaining about privacy are not the same americans that are appearing on talk shows. In america, like all countries, there are plenty of stupid and smart people to go around. The only difference here is that america offers up its stupidity for all to see and laugh at. Just enjoy the show and lighten up. And the social security number is only one of the reasons americans are complaining about privacy. Had you been here to experience eight years of clinton/gore, perhaps you would have the same perspective on privacy.

  • NSA != spying on americans (Score:4)

    by Coolfish ( 69926 ) on Saturday March 10, 2001 @11:32AM (#372368)
    NSA spies on everyone BUT Americans. Spying on americans is FBI territory. CIA, again, is external.

    Come on people, I'm not even American and I know these things.

  • Flip side of Privacy International awards (Score:4)

    by f3e2 ( 235629 ) on Saturday March 10, 2001 @03:53PM (#372369)

    Neither ABCNews nor the Slashdot write-up seem to link to the actual Privacy International site [privacyinternational.org] or their 2001 US Big Brother Awards page [privacyinternational.org].

    Also, the ABCNews article and Slashdot write-up dwell entirely on the privacy violators, while the original site also mentions that

    2 awards were also given to champions of privacy. The Brandeis Award is named after US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who described privacy as "the right to be left alone." The awards are given to those have done exemplary work to protect and champion privacy.

    ...and awards the Brandeis Award to...

    These are the good guys (and girls). They deserve some recognition, too.

    -M

    You're smart; why haven't you learned Python yet? http://diveintopython.org [diveintopython.org]

  • Re:Leave Stalin alone ok? (Score:5)

    by Ektanoor ( 9949 ) on Saturday March 10, 2001 @02:24PM (#372370) Journal
    Well in fact I got a little bit hot... Yes the US did a big help to Russia. But that does not mean that US saved the world. In fact Russia had to do it before even the US really entered the war. If Germany had taken Moscow and pushed over the Volga then hardly the US would not deal with Germany on its own shores.

    In fact one should say that Europe was saved by the Soviets while US did the same for Asia and Oceania. If these two countries didn't do what they did then 80% of europeans would probably be slaves or near that. And millions would have ended in a factory or have its skin turned to shoes.

    Normandy was a Hell. Sorry but even you americans of today may not totally understand this. In fact only veterans may say what is to stand in a shoreline with Hell falling on you. That should be honored.

    But one should also note how many such Hells Russians have seen:

    Smolensk
    Leningrad
    Moscow
    Stalingrad
    Sevastopol
    Kursk and its famous Pokrovka Battle
    Kiev
    Minsk
    And several others. Near Leningrad once Russians lost no less than 200000 soldiers in a German flank attack. Till now people dig their bones from that place...

    And note. The first and the only complete Techno Battle that ever happened in History is Pokrovka. Not even Desert Storm goes near it. In Pokrovka both sides had infantry completely pissed off and went full contact with tanks and artillery. Just try to imagine thousands of tanks and other machinery go against each other in a small piece of land... And don't think about those "slow" tanks from films. There the T-34 jumped over the barricades and hills, a heavy German artillery pieces played face to face to several more maneuvarable Russians. And the same happened with Russian artillery cars and German tanks. Russians and Germans not only shot each other as crunched their tanks against each other.

    Normandy. Ok I honour the vets who where there. But please people don't say it was the biggest and the best. Not even mighty Pokrovka has this title. That was Stalingrad.

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