Thursday, July 18, 2013

German double vision

German optometrists and ophthalmologists should prepare for a rush of new customers, if we saw what we think we saw in the German media in the past two days.

Politicians as well as spies and the media are seeing two Prisms in a serious case of double vision. The German military confirmed they have been using "Prism" in Afghanistan since 2011 but the government says it's a different Prism from the Guardian/WaPo NSA one.

There may not be much danger in politicians and spies having double vision. On the contrary, politicians are masters of double dealing, which may be enhanced by a physical double vision syndrome.

Spies are used to double agents in their midst, which again seems to us a perfect fit with double vision.

But soldiers in the field?

For those guys and gals, double vision can be deadly! They may miss that turban, or whatever non-Western looking person they are trying to kill, because they see another one next to it.

Today, our favorite German tabloid Bild enters the Prismatic fray with the claim that, well, the two Prisms may or may not be the same but, gosh, they are using the same database.

What are the implications for the German government?

We do not give a rat's furry behind.

In one of our multiple tweets, we reminded folks here that the weakest US Senator or Congress person  has more power than the German chancellor (their prime minister).

The implications for the K-Landnews team, however, were immediate, painful, and expensive.

We have been falling off our chairs with laughter for six weeks, and one set of bruises has barely healed when we incur another one.  Immediate and painful.

So, we bit the bullet [TheEditor: verify if this is an NSA-safe idiom. Biting it should render it unshootable, is that how say that, but hey, if the cops show up when you announce a nature walk on Facebook, you can't be too cautious].

We decided to buy a sturdy office chair, the kind with a high back and two wide, padded armrests to protect at least one team member against future immediate and painful tumbles.

Even if the rest of the team rolls on the floor when the next German politician opens his or her mouth to earnestly explain something they do not understand, we have a good chance to have one person left standing, or sitting, to contribute to the digital clutter.

By the way, our encrypted cat photo email attachments are doing great.

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