I’ve fallen into a delightful, yet torturous and somewhat hypocritical love affair with microblogging and myriad social networks over the past few weeks. It seems the longer I’m embracing the slackalicious side of my personality, the more social networks I join. Right now, the only networks I can recall off the top of my head that have escaped are Jaiku, LinkedIn, and Friendfeed. And they should be safe for at least a couple weeks more, since I’ve landed a temporary job.

A quick look at my Camino toolbar tells the ugly and wanton tale of a girl with far too much time on her hands and far too comfortable a chair and a love so strong for her laptop that she feels herself becoming more and more physically connected to it with each passing hour. The ease with which I can update across the vast span of the internets is, in part, a huge reason why I’ve broken down and done this, as well as breaking my old steadfast rule of instant messaging: NOML. NFW. (Not On My Laptop. No Fucking Way).

(more…)

1977 - United States Senate Hearing on MKULTRA.

(more…)

Would you request any information the FBI, NSA, and CIA may have about you?

I’ve got three letters, one to each agency, stamped and ready to go. I was going to mail them today. I showed them to the emm, since she didn’t believe me when I told her about it a couple days ago.

“Mickey Glitter,” she says, “I understand you’re curious, but do you really think this is a good idea? I mean, what if a simple request puts up all sorts of red flags? What if it triggers an audit on past income or causes you to be audited in the future? What if it makes it difficult to get a loan or a job or…”

“What if it lands me on a no-fly list? What if I’m disappeared? Would you come visit me in Gitmo, Ma?” I replied, half seriously, but only about the no-fly list. I don’t think we’ve gotten to the point of being disappeared by inquiring about records we have the right to see, under the FOIA.

But in Jorge’s Amerika, I can’t be 100% sure about that. If the government has the ability to take away laptops and spy on our electronic communications, then yeah, maybe disappearing could happen.

All half-joking aside - I’m asking in all earnestness. Would you request information like this from the government? Why or why not? Leave anonymous comments, if you’d prefer, although would they really be anonymous? If you’re really serious about remaining so, come back to strange cousin susan via anonymouse.