talkpolitics | (no subject)

http://reason.com/archives/2013/06/12/three-reasons-the-nothing-to-hide-crowd
http://www.cato.org/blog/why-nsa-collecting-phone-records-problem
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110524/00084614407/privacy-is-not-secrecy-debunking-if-youve-got-nothing-to-hide-argument.shtml
http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/the-data-trust-blog/2009/02/debunking-a-myth-if-you-have-n.html

There are a significant number of people who respond to any revelation that government is violating the law (yes, the Constitution is part of the law) with a shrug and "I've got nothing to hide". These people are selfish fools at best. They are not looking at the bigger picture and/or aren't considering other people. Plus, they probably aren't paying attention to the fact that everyone in America is currently a criminal, that everyone violates a law with serious penalties at some point, whether you know it or not. (And the fact that that is the case is another problem, but that's outside the scope of my point here.)

Even Biden and Obama railed against what they are themselves supporting now, before they were in power. That alone should be enough to make you stop and think about what having that kind of power available can do to people.

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I remember those kind of party lines as well. You would pick up the phone to make a call only to hear a neighbor chatting with someone.

How old are you? Or do you mean, you remember them from like in Lassie when Ruth Martin (played by June Lockhart) would have to make an emergency call while Lassie was barking?

Iirc the last of the party lines in the small town my wife's grand parents lived were phased out in the late 70's (that's 1970s).
Heck, they got their traffic light (on the main hwy, not in town, still don't) barely 30 years ago.
Granting that I am older than SS I really do remember party lines in the San Fernando Valley.

Yeah, as I mentioned to NMG, I found a LA Times article in 1989 where they mentioned the plug was finally plugged on them. Some of the traffic lights in my home town would go to blinking amber after midnight. As the signals were upgraded with those detectors that was embedded into the asphalt, you saw less and less of those flashing amber signals. I don't know why, but I felt sad when I saw them convert this one intersection near my home. My folks had a Princess Phone in the bedroom with the night light built in (and I found out recently those things are extremely valuable now ;)

./*those were the good ole days

I experienced them in the early 80s (rural relative's house). And I know it was once "Jeff's Collie", but that's from tv circa 2003.

Wow, I looked around online and it turned out phone companies ended them in 1989. There were some pretty rural areas where I grew up in Southeastern Virginia, and I never heard of them. I guess it was a regional thing.

I picked up the phone, some unfamiliar lady on the other end started yelling at me. I was confused like the Grapes of Wrath kids flushing a toilet..

Did you have the urge to wash your dishes with the telephone?

I saw the movie in fourth grade so I don't quite remember that part, I just remember them running out because they thought they broke it.

The dish washing part may only be in the book. I do not recall seeing it in the movie.

Sophia is talking about that one scene where Cyndi Lauper was able to contact several other girls at once through the magic of video effects:

That video reminds me of one of my favorite movies:

I remember June Lockhart on Petticoat Junction. Everyone there had a party line.

That show made me want to swim in the local water tower.

I am old enough to remember the JFK assassination but not old enough to remember the Cuban missile crisis. Our family was one of the last in the neighborhood to upgrade to a touch-tone telephone. As a child I saw the first episode of All in the Family and immediately went to my mother asking what a Spic was. She did not believe me when I told her I heard the word on TV.