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Not too long ago, there were rules:

UNITED STATES SIGNALS INTELLIGENCE DIRECTIVE (USSID) 18
LEGAL COMPLIANCE AND MINIMIZATION PROCEDURES (FOUO)

LETTER OF PROMULGATION

(U) this USSID prescribes policies and procedures and assigns responsibilities to ensure that the missions and functions of the United States SIGINT System (USSS) are conducted in a manner that safeguards the constitutional rights of U.S. persons.

(U) This USSID has been completely rewritten to make it shorter and easier to understand. It constitutes a summary of the laws and regulations directly affecting USSS operations. All USSS personnel who collect, process, retain, or disseminate information to, from, or about U.S. persons or persons in the United States must be familiar with its contents.

(FOUO) This USSID supercedes USSID 18 and USSID 18, Annex A (distributed separately to selected recipients), both of which are dated 20 October 1980, and must now be destroyed. Notify DIRNSA/CHSS (USSID Manager) if this edition of USSID 18 is destroyed because of an emergency action; otherwise, request approval from DIRNSA/CHSS before destroying this USSID.

(FOUO) Release or exposure of this document to contractors and consultants without approval from the USSID Manager is prohibited. Instructions applicable to release or exposure of USSID to contractors and consultants may be found in USSID 19.

(FOUO) Questions and comments concerning this USSID should be addressed to the Office of the General Counsel, NSA/CSS xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx NSTS 963-3121 or STU III 688-5015).

(SNIP)

SECTION 4 - COLLECTION

4.1 Communications to, from or About U.S. Persons and xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx to the United States

a. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Approval
b. Attorney General Approval
c. DIRNSA/CHSS Approval
d. Emergency Situations
e. Annual Reports


4.2 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
4.3 Incidental Acquisition of U.S. Person Information
4.4 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
4.5 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
4.6 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
4.7 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
4.8 Distress Signals
4.9 COMSEC Monitoring and Security Testing of Automated Information Systems


(&tc. &tc.)

Following the Patriot Act these seem to be guidelines now.

It was a good read. For me it was captivating, much more than most modern literature.

Last Friday I was down at New Melleray Abbey, near Peosta, Iowa. There the monks make and sell simple wood caskets. They even gave me a personal one-man tour of their workshop. I was doing well during this, despite it going against my "I'm going to beat cancer" fantasy.

That is, until I got to the area where they made child and infant coffins.

There I lost it.

A lay worker who called herself "Connie Mander the Casket Sander" came over and gave me a hug. A few years ago she had the terrible privilege of helping to make her own son's casket.

I like trees, and selected a plot in our local cemetery under a tree, so I'll be doing my part I guess. But if a plain wooden box is good enough for Connie, it's good enough for me.

That hospital bed put a shiver down my spine.

Having Stage IV cancer I am possibly only a few months from hospice, so these stories of involuntary euthanasia hit me especially hard.

F-2817

Just a wild guess here, but did his last name begin with an "F", and were the last four digits of his SSN "2817"?

From a prostate cancer support group site:

"Look at he recommendations for PSA tests. They cut those to nothing as there were "too many subsequent biopsies performed". They basically threw baby and bathwater out w/o replacing it with any of the newer diagostic tools. Talked to my insurance carrier and let them know how much more they had to spend as a result of that policy change. For a $50 PSA and maybe $100 (for) Free PSA they could have caught my PC 18 mos earlier, saving the carrier money, me an RP (resection of prostate) and ADT (androgen deprivation therapy) for two years.

"It has to come from the bottom up because the wonks are not looking out for anyone but their policy."

Big "change we can believe in".

Treating the population = $X for Y number of people. Everyone gets $X divided by Y people, and no more. The sick, the old, the lame - tough luck once you exceed your allotment.

And try to stay off the "don't fly / don't treat" list.

Very like the Nazi health care system.

What a world I leave my children...

Not many comments on that site as of yet, one looking to reconnect with an old Navy pal, the other reiterating the Obamacare party line.

From the UK, with a system that we may already be well underway to creating:

NICE rejects Dendreon’s Provenge… again

The article is short and interesting, but the comments are very interesting:

George Berger, on January 15, 2015 at 5:44 pm said:
It gets worse, Sitemaster. NHS England has rejected 20 to 25 cancer meds, two or three days ago. See this and note the dates.

Sitemaster, on January 15, 2015 at 9:12 pm said:
George:
This had been announced as a high probability several months ago. The NHS has a fixed budget each year that they have kept exceeding. You can’t run a household that way, or a business, or a nation. Things that have very limited supplementary benefit inevitably “have to go”.

George Berger, on January 16, 2015 at 5:11 pm said:
I know. I had to analyse the NHS England Commissioning Intentions document, of October 3, 2014. It is such a strange text that some considered it to be a diversion from other matters. Or a test of public opinion, to see what cuts NHS England could get away with without much opposition.

Perhaps there was little opposition. If so, that just might explain the Blitz of dropping more than 20 cancer medications in one day, from provisions within the Cancer Drug Fund. I do not claim to know this. However, these drugs were dropped, and some people I know well now have such limited supplementary benefit to their corporate and entitled masters, that they inevitably “have to go.”

I joined when President Reagan was President and left when President Obama was president.

Good on you!

I kept going active, reserves, active, reserves until they got tired of me. Qualified for a reserves "retirement", if I live that long.

Probably should have stayed home, married the girl next door, and worked my way up the job ladder instead of taking off to see the world. On the other hand, all the money in the world couldn't buy you a place on this table in my little town:



That's me with the three pics in the second row. At least once a year I'm somebody ;-)

fewer citizens willing to to be part

Gee, I wonder why?

If I'd have known back in 1975 what I know now, I doubt that I would have put in all those years.

Then again, it was a good run, and made me into whom I am today.

Prayers for those still fighting the good fight!

Good for him, my hat's off.

And here just one of his three is kicking my tail.

Much to my dismay I now find myself in this situation... but I will “not go gentle into that good night”.

I’d be pretty happy to see 60.

Thank you for posting this.

I'm just beginning this "journey" and have mixed feelings about it all.

At first I was pretty scared and angry, then I learned that no one is immortal, so it didn't matter as much.

It would be great to give away my daughter at her wedding, or hold a grandchild in my hands, but those are the cards I'm dealt.

Looking forward to an upgrade in the next life.

Amen.

My little town did this for local veterans and service members.

Some guys in my support group rave about it, but after some research I found that Provenge / Sipuleucel-T doesn't stop progression of the disease or improve quality of life, and costs $93,000 for each treatment.

For a life expectancy on average 4 months longer than placebo.

Medics?

At the time... very happy drunks ;-)

I'll never forget the feelings of surprise and optimism that accompanied Wiedervereinigung, reunification. All this time you think the enemy was this 20-foot tall monolith, and it turns out that he is more afraid of you than you are of him.

An Ossi officer told me that the job of the East German Nazionale Volksarmee was "to hold the border until professional help could be summoned." Another showed me something he'd hidden in the roof panel of his jeep - a white sheet with a large red cross. "If the Amis ever invaded, I'd tie this to the window posts and drive home to my family."

"Pedro, I think we made a wrong turn somewhere."