Elderly Amish Man Caught on Film With Prostitute, Blackmailed
When a 75-year-old Amish widower slept with a prostitute, he -- we feel certain -- felt pretty bad about it the next morning. As if that guilt weren't enough for the old man, the prostitute and her boyfriend demanded $67,000 from him, claiming that they had filmed the scene with wall-mounted cameras and would upload the recording to the Internet. The pair was later arrested and, we can only imagine, the Amish man abhorred technology more than ever.
Bank Robber Gets Away With the Help of Craiglist
In October, a bank robber -- wearing a safety vest, blue shirt, face mask and goggles -- eluded police with the help of Craiglist. Just outside the bank, while the robbery was in progress, stood a group of men who were responding to a Craiglist day labor opportunity. As the advertisement required, they were all wearing safety vests, blue shirts, face masks and goggles.
Nude New Zealander Arrested After Responding to Fake Sexy Text Message
Late in 2007, a Wellington, New Zealand man received a racy text message from two anonymous "ladies," giving him only an address and a request that he show up naked. Well, he indeed showed up naked... at the home of one appalled, unsuspecting New Zealander. Both the nude Romeo and the sadistic texter were arrested, though neither were prosecuted.
Fake Craiglist Ad Costs Man Most of What He Owns
Last Spring, a post appeared on an Oregon Craigslist board stating that the owner of a specific house was leaving all of his worldly possessions (still in said house) to whoever wanted them. When homeowner Robert Salisbury rushed home -- on a tip from a woman suspicious about the offer of a free horse -- he found his house being ransacked by 30 strangers. We suggest he take that horse and collect some vengeance Clint Eastwood-style.
17-Year-Old Jailed for Stealing Virtual 'Furniture'
When a 17-year-old Dutch boy hacked into several accounts on the Second Life-style site 'Habbo' in 2007, the the law got involved. The boy was discovered to have stolen $5,800 worth of virtual furniture and knick-knacks. Apparently, crime -- whether actual or virtual -- does not pay.
Phishers Going After Your Phones in New 'Vishing' Trend
Over the past year, sneaky spammers have begun to forsake the worn-out territory of e-mail in favor of cell phones' fertile frontier. The result? "Vishing." Get it? Voice mail phishing. It might be more ominous if it didn't sound like a James Bond villain saying, "Wishing."
Burglars Break Into Restaurant, Steal HDTV, Leave Money / Food Behind
Around Halloween of last year, a truckload of thieves drove into -- that's right, into -- a Pennsylvania Mexican restaurant, where they -- apparently uninterested in the cash register -- stole a mid-grade 47-inch HDTV and fled the scene. We've all heard about how this generation is lacking in ambition, but this generation's thieves, too?
In this week's issue of the New Yorker, there is a profile of the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell (pictured), that reveals some interesting information about his desires to "listen in" on Internet communications in order to protect America's cyberspace. According to McConnell, in order to properly protect the United State's electronic interests the government needs to be able to read all information crossing the Internet.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
goplies2u said 12:14PM on 1-18-2008
Well why would they want to scan through American's emails when the White house now has 473 days worth of missing emails?
White House study found 473 days of e-mail gone and the director of intelligence wants to read America’s emails?
National intelligence officers should spend time locating “the missing” White House emails first.
The White House possesses no archived e-mail messages for many of its component offices, including the Executive Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President, for hundreds of days between 2003 and 2005, according to the summary of an internal White House study that was disclosed yesterday by a congressional Democrat.
There is an escalating dispute over whether the Bush administration has complied with long-standing statutory requirements to preserve official White House records -- including those reflecting potentially sensitive policy discussions -- for history and in case of any future legal demands.
The White House is required by law to preserve e-mails considered presidential or federal records, and it is the target of several lawsuits seeking information about missing data and efforts to preserve electronic communications.
The internal study found that for Bush's executive office, no e-mails were archived on 12 separate days between December 2003 and February 2004, Waxman said. Vice President Cheney's office showed no electronic messages on 16 occasions from September 2003 to May 2005
Archived e-mails were missing from even more days in other parts of the White House, the analysis found. The Council on Environmental Quality and the Council of Economic Advisers, for example, showed no stored e-mails for 2 1/2 months beginning in November 2003. The Office of Management and Budget showed no messages for 59 days -- including the period from Nov. 1, 2003, to Dec. 9, 2003 -- and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative showed no e-mail for 73 days.
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robert said 4:13PM on 1-18-2008
This is an example of the kind of people King George is appointing to the most powerful positions in the government. I fall on my knees every night and give thanks that this administration only has about a year left to screw with our civil liberties.
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Ellie said 12:25PM on 1-20-2008
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING.
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john said 12:59PM on 1-20-2008
go to the site freedomtofascism.com and you'll see why they don't want us to know whats going on. no national I.d. card for me and no microchip either.
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ArchiBunch said 10:12PM on 1-21-2008
Hell no!
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fgc-hello said 11:19PM on 1-21-2008
Why do these people want to have all the info from all the people?
Before 9/11 attacks, the federal government did have enough information (several already identified terrorists sharing the same postal address, suspicious movements, groups of them ticketing for the very same flights...), and just were not able to act accordingly
So, Mr. McConnell, you are telling us, that by multiplying the amount of data to analize, only then, you will see the things that you already are missing?
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Vesta said 12:47AM on 1-22-2008
Mr. McConnell looks like he would love to eaves-drop to make his life more exciting...
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Daniel Gaunt said 8:22AM on 1-22-2008
yes, thats why they set up facebook!
http://freeextras.blogspot.com/
http://lifeorsomethingnotquitelikeit.blogspot.com/
http://r.yuwie.com/naturistdaniel
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tempfate said 2:47PM on 2-05-2008
fgc-hello that day was nothing more than a false flag bought and sold to the sheeple. One plus one really does equal four, the perpetrators were all what Saudi nationals, with the so-called architect hiding in the hills of where our buddies in the Pak who might add don't maybe have WMD (nukes) they do, and we go where Iraq. Yeah right, give me a break. And everyone is surprised at this, what' get ready for the concentration camps, yes, and it's not science fiction. Can you say V for Vendetta.
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lisageeb2 said 2:54PM on 2-05-2008
And how long will it be before the government believes it has the right to read our mail? Tap all of our phones? Have a central depository for all of our text messages? Nikita Kruschev once told Americans that Communism would take over our country "from the inside." I grew up horrified by the Communist government's control over the Russian people, and the denial of their basic human rights. Our government is walking a fine line, and it looks as though some of our "leaders" are willing to cross that line under the pretense of national security. That's exactly what the Communist government used as their justification. Please, God, don't let Kruschev's horrifying prediction come true! I love America, we are a country built on freedom. We should be focusing on the bad guys, rather than wasting time AND the tax payer's money by going through e-mails of law-abiding Americans.
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mike said 12:25PM on 2-15-2008
National Security! If I remember my history, Hitler rounded up ALL unsatisfactory citizens of Germany and the conquered territories in the name of ensuring German national security! Stalin imprisoned or executed millions of Russians in the name of Soviet national security! Senator McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover wanted and tried to in the 1950's. Now it seems our government is looking to try again! National Security is important, and all reasonable efforts should be taken to protect it. But not at the cost of the nation itself! Once we lose our rights in the name of national security, no one is secure and America is no more!
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Dog Lover Ca. said 7:29PM on 3-09-2008
I think they are allready doing it. Big Brother is here folks.
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John said 2:22PM on 3-20-2008
I confess that I voted for President Bush, but I have been absolutely dismayed by the administrations many failures. This is one of the worst. The complete disregard of privacy, one of the most important of our constitutional guarantees is simply unacceptable. The thought that none of us would be free to exchange private communications means that the government would be free to abuse the information in our letters.
J. Edgar Hoover managed to remain at the helm of the FBI for many years because he had spied on, and was able to blackmail, just about every significant public offical. Need I say more?
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