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I hope this was real. If it was, it’s really too bad it was taken down. I will never understand our society’s fascination with this awful family. Being “famous for being famous” is not a good thing. Why do people worship these talent-less faux-celebrities? It’s really appalling.

(Source: wilwheaton)

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wilwheaton:

Moreover, for anyone who defends the Obama administration here and insists that the U.S. Government simply must have access to all forms of human communication: does that also apply to in-person communication? Should home and apartment builders be required to install monitors in every room they build to ensure that the Government can surveil all human communications in order to prevent threats to national security and public safety? I believe someone once wrote a book about where this mindset inevitably leads. The very idea that no human communication should ever be allowed to take place beyond the reach of the Government is definitive authoritarianism, which is why Saudi Arabia and the UAE — and their American patron-ally — have so vigorously embraced it.

Greenwald points out that the FBI does not need this, because they can go to a judge, get a warrant, and use traditional surveillance when it’s necessary. “But what about encryption?!” Well: 

the problem cited by the FBI to justify this new power is a total pretext: “investigators encountered encrypted communications only one time during 2009′s wiretaps” and, even then, “the state investigators told the court that the encryption did not prevent them from getting the plain text of the messages.” As usual, fear-mongering over national security and other threats is the instrument to justify massive new surveillance powers that will extend far beyond their claimed function.

I’m profoundly disappointed in the Obama administration’s record on civil rights and privacy. I expected better from a president who is a Constitutional law scholar.

tl;dr: The very idea that no human communication should ever be allowed to take place beyond the reach of the Government is definitive authoritarianism

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kellysue:

These are your kids on books. 
firstbook:

True.

kellysue:

These are your kids on books. 

firstbook:

True.

(via neil-gaiman)

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(via so-divine)

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"For the first eight years of our marriage, [Michelle and I] were paying more in student loans than what we were paying for our mortgage. So we know what this is about.

And we were lucky to land good jobs with a steady income. But we only finished paying off our student loans—check this out, all right, I’m the President of the United States—we only finished paying off our student loans about eight years ago."

— President Obama in North Carolina today on why Congress has to act to prevent interest rates on student loans from doubling (via barackobama)

(via phazes)

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"I tried again to sleep; but my heart beat anxiously: my inward tranquillity was broken."

— Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (via seabois)

(via somethingaboutperiodmovies)

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"Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect."

— Native American, Chief Seattle (via junglewalkers)

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rose-verres:

“A three second exposure meant that subjects had to stand very still to avoid being blurred, and holding a smile for that period was tricky. As a result, we have a tendency to see our Victorian ancestors as even more formal and stern than they might have been.”

Love this.

rose-verres:

“A three second exposure meant that subjects had to stand very still to avoid being blurred, and holding a smile for that period was tricky. As a result, we have a tendency to see our Victorian ancestors as even more formal and stern than they might have been.”

Love this.

(via kittenfeathers)

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