Now in the midst of an escalating fight from the federal government aimed at cracking down on encrypted communications, one of the last free and secure services has thrown in the towel under mysterious circumstances.
"I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations," owner and operator Ladar Levison of Dallas, Texas wrote in the statement. "I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot.""I feel you deserve to know what's going on--the First Amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise," wrote Levison. "As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests."
Nice country. What a shame that something happened to it.
(h/t soundofmusak)
Today is the greatest military date in Canadian history and ought to be commemorated.
8 August 1918 Battle of Amiens. “The Black Day of the German Army” Ludendorff told the Kaiser.
8 August 1944 Operation Totalize. Likely the largest operation ever to be commanded by a Canadian.
Commemorate it. Spread the word.
Wrong thread.
Dear Kate
Put it out on a bunchy of sites.
Happy to do it on the right thread.
But there wasn't one.
Which is, I think, my point.
Who knows?
Time people did.
I guess us libertarians weren't so crazy after all.
Especially when we condemned BushII for making it easier for statists like Obama.
Kate....have to agree with Patrick. Today is the end of Vimy Ridge. It was the start of the end of WW1. But of course that can't be taught in schools. Hell,even none of our so called leaders know this. Within four days,August 6th,7th, 8th,and 9th,the four biggest events in my,and your history,happened. The really sad part? Even without knowing the years,and yes,they weren't in the same one(which I do,and hope you do),those dates are just a part of summer holidays.Screw the Ides of March,beware the Ides of August.
And Kate....maybe you,or lance ,or BCF could start a thread on this? It just may help educate a few of the young'uns?
I agree with all of the above. These actions helped define our country.
Never forget those who gave their lives for our freedom.
I am disappointed there isn't a thread commemorating this.
ON TOPIC ALERT : I admit that I along with Glenn Beck and other conservatives supported Bush's constitutional stomp fest because it seemed like a good idea at the time. I was wrong about that one for sure BUT Obama and his media allies have gone way beyond what Bush had implemented.
No, Canada is not defined by a victory in a pointless war it never should have entered. And it's total nonsense that it doesn't get taught in schools we got lots of nationalist propaganda shoved in our faces.
How about we put this article to music? Well, here ya go then:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooPzr1vzmGY
And I wish to correct something. The battle of Vimy Ridge led to the Battle of Amiens.Without Canadians helping at Vimy,Amiens would have never happened. However,at Amiens,it was all and totally only Canadian troops who pushed the Germans back.My mother,who uses the net(who knew?) phoned me 20 mins ago to just simply ask if I remembered what my great-grandfather had told me as a pup about Amiens. He was there. From what little I remember,he told me it was a hell that he hoped nobody,whether Canadian,Brit,French,or German,would ever have to go through again.
I am ex-military.Have seen combat,and have been shot at and shot back.It is not pretty.It is not the crap you see on TV or in movies. I know of no way to describe what happens to a body when a 7.65 round hits it from 200 feet away.The really sad part for me,is you shoot at me,I shoot back and make a hit,then I try to save you from dying,and I look in the eyes,and know they are no different from me,but there is not a damn thing I can do to save them,because I was taught to make shots fatal,which they are.Like I said on an earlier post,kill a 9 year old,even though he is trying to kill me,(and my buddy,which he did)and see how good you feel about it.
Maybe that is the difference.I was not trained as a 9 yr old to kill.
Some people say that the instinct for self-survival kicks in.The instinct for self-survival started millions of years ago,long before modern weapons. I will never know,but I think the guy beside me died because he could not find it in himself to kill another human being. If so,for that he has gone to a far better place then I may find,but it will never change me from protecting myself,my loved ones,and innocents.
The "young 'uns" don't read blogs like this. Wish they did. Maybe if justin Bieber was on the headliner instead of a "small dead animal". Go through the various threads and you find 95% of the people can read , write and spell, as well as post some critical thinking. When the occasional "young 'un" does come on it is more than obvious and usually they are from the ohsofar left and usually never come back. If anyone under 25 hit this site today, please send me a line. I expect crickets. Free Bieber tee shirts.......
Its not a pretty thing to see a Giant fall.
That fall will hurt a lot of people.
God Bless what was once the freest Nation on Earth.
Justthinkin
Thanks for serving.
Your story illustrates. Its just not for being being shot at that we honour our vets.
No one. Unless nuts, comes out of war unwounded.
Could we perhaps have some discussion regarding Obama, NSA, government oppression & espionage, (lack of) free speech, etc?
Or do the so called conservatives here secretly agree with Obama that the government has the right to monitor and control the people?
Where have you been for the last month or so ?
(Too bad that this thread got hijacked. Oh well, I'll get my 15 minutes of fame someday.)
[BACK ON TOPIC] Silent Circle Follows Lavabit By Closing Encrypted E-mail Service
http://it.slashdot.org/story/13/08/09/1228255/silent-circle-follows-lavabit-by-closing-encrypted-e-mail-service
It could see the writing on the wall ? In a free (?) country, providing a legal service ? Did the government get a warrant ? Who threatened them and with what ? This all goes back to Snowden, who, from everything I have read has exposed our government as being the one we should fear. No secrets or useful information regarding our "official or potential" enemies, but everything relating to what is being done in the name of big brother and gaining control over all private information. Snowden was a whistle blower that set off a storm of protest with our international allies who were also surprised at the depth of internal espionage to a degree that should never be allowed in a free country. As the mighty Pogo once stated "we have met the enemy and it is us". Silent Circle and Lavabit did not stand up against a government out of control or fight back against a system that is sweeping all personal rights under the carpet in the name of keeping us from harm. Even worse is that no one is stepping in to defend them The problem I see is that we must give up all rights and give up all liberties in the name of preventing terrorist acts when there is little proof that we are in any more peril that we were in 2002. The Boston Marathon bombing shows how inept our security system is when even the Russians were trying to warn us and it was ignored. We now fear our government more than the terrorists and the government no longer fears the wrath of it's own people. That's a recipe for dictatorship and that's the real story.