[Note:  Paul Rosenberg, has spent many years trying to protect Internet users from unjustified surveillance by groups like the NSA. Many TTPers subscribe to his Virtual Private Network (VPN) called - for reasons known only to him - Cryptohippie, to avoid tracking by the snoops. I never go online without it.  Here Paul discusses the latest revelation of unconstitutional NSA Orwellian fascism. -JW]

On September 5th, Glenn Greenwald, Ed Snowden and others revealed that the NSA was able to break the vast majority of encryption used on the Internet. You can find the story here or here, and commentary by cryptographer Bruce Schneier here.

In the NSA documents, ordinary Internet customers are referred to as "adversaries."  We're all perps now. If all Internet users are "adversaries," do you really think anyone is safe?

Forget about the US Constitution; it's a non-factor now. This is just the latest example of people who are drunk on power and don't care about the principles on which this country was founded.

The NSA and the entire US/UK "security" apparatus is a gigantic drunken beast. The operators are arrogant and untouchable.  The reality is, the system is beyond broken, no matter what kind of happy talk you hear on TV. Here's what this means to you.

Everyone says they "support our troops" fighting in Iraq.  Liberals just pretend they do - while conservatives are sincere but may not know how to for real. 

The first step in really supporting our soldiers is to understand they believe in what they are doing.  Hundreds of thousands of the finest young Americans our country possesses have served in Iraq or are there right now.  All but the tiniest fraction not only believe in the morality of this war but that it can be won.

How can you directly support them?  Let me introduce you to Major Eric England, an Air Force intelligence officer who has been deployed in Saudi Arabia (where he was on 9/11), Bosnia, Colombia, Afghanistan, and in Iraq for eight months of combat duty.

Maj. England is developing a very interesting way for regular folks to give soldiers in Iraq what they actually need.  He calls it Online Troop Sponsorship Registries.  Here's how it works.

Saudi Arabia has secretly offered Russia a sweeping deal to control the global oil market and safeguard Russia's gas contracts, if the Kremlin backs away from the Assad regime in Syria.

The revelations come amid high tension in the Middle East, with US, British, and French warship poised for missile strikes in Syria. Iran has threatened to retaliate.

The strategic jitters pushed Brent crude prices to a five-month high of $112 a barrel. "We are only one incident away from a serious oil spike. The market is a lot tighter than people think," said Chris Skrebowski, editor of Petroleum Review.

Leaked transcripts of a closed-door meeting between Russia's Vladimir Putin and Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan shed an extraordinary light on the hard-nosed Realpolitik of the two sides.  Prince Bandar, head of Saudi intelligence, allegedly confronted the Kremlin with a mix of inducements and threats in a bid to break the deadlock over Syria.   Here they are.

[This commencement address was originally published three years ago. We  rerun it annually at college graduation time. Feel quite free to send this to any recent college graduate you may know.]

Mr. Chancellor, Members of the Board of Regents, Members of the Faculty, Honored Graduates, Families and Friends:

It's funny that they call this ceremony a Commencement, for you've all reached the finish line:  college, goodbye, we're outta here.  Yet of course, "commencement" means a beginning, not an end.

But one is supposed to at least start - commence - a talk such as this by saying funny things.  So I'll start by talking about Clark Gable movies.  If you've heard of Clark Gable at all, you know he was the biggest movie star in Hollywood a long time ago.  His most famous movie was of course Gone With The Wind.

He made a movie in 1955 called The Tall Men with Jane Russell as his girlfriend and Robert Ryan as the heavy.  It's a pretty ordinary Western flick with outlaws and cowboys and Indians - and at the end, Ryan, the bad guy, and his henchmen get the drop on Gable, the good guy, and all seems lost.  Suddenly, surprise, Gable outfoxes Ryan and triumphs.  Gable makes his exit, and after he does, Ryan delivers a line that I want you to never forget.

Serendipity is funny, a very funny thing, finding something where you least expect it.  Out of the blue, out of a movie awash with pedestrian dialogue, comes a line so profound it detonates inside your brain. Ryan turns to his men and says: