They say money talks and bullshit walks. But, in fact, as we know, bullshit runs and fairly fast and frequently faster than something more accurate trying to catch up with it. Which brings me to this article published by CNET that reports that in a classified briefing the NSA admitted that its analysts are able to move on from metadata analysis to actually listening to the contents of a US/domestic phone call based not on a warrant or national security letter but simply their own judgement that it’s worth listening to.

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Man, the Chief of Staff of the Australian Army is not kidding around when it comes to sexual harassment. Video after the jump …

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So this week I cleverly lured a large of people into calling me a statist lickspittle, managed to get Daniel Ellsberg to call me “stupid” and inadvertently got Mort Sahl to namecheck me in a tweet. If my hippy father were still alive he would definitely be kvelling. Short of resurrecting Lenny Bruce and getting him to somehow take note of me, I’m not sure what mix of things could have made him happier.

I’m sitting here watching Chris Christie get the feel-good overstuffed chairs conversation with Bill Clinton to talk about storm relief at the Clinton Global Initative. I’d say the apostasy is almost complete. By November I expect to see him running on the Working Families Party ticket.

4 year old recovering in hospital after accidentally shot by 5 year old.

Okay, it was the annual congressional baseball game. But jeez, 22-0 shut out. That’s big. More like a football score.

A small thing but sort of remarkable. In his first statement on gay marriage as pope, Pope Francis deliberately avoided the standard ‘between a man and a women’ phrasing when referring to the importance of marriage.

Now, before you write in, I am under zero illusion that this presages a change in Church doctrine or policy. Still these small signs are significant.

Pentagon: Top West Point Official ‘Misused His Position To Obtain Cat Care’

Rep. Pete King (R) warns of Snowden’s connections to China, his girlfriends (alleged?) connections to China and the fact that Snowden himself had “studied Chinese.” Watch.

On the general issue of intervention in Syria, I shared my thoughts here. Separate from that, however, the degree of regional sectarian escalation that seems be happening is astounding. After Hezbollah committed itself to support the Assad regime (remember, both have deep alliances with Shia Iran), there have been calls around the Sunni Arab world to join the jihad in Syria.

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