swimming with sharks ... the news

Nick Vujicic, an Australian motivational speaker who was born without limbs, swims with sharks at the Marine Life Park in Singapore, September 5, 2013.
REUTERS/Edgar Su

-- As the U.S. swims without protection among the no-win options in regard to the bloody civil war in Syria, it is hard not to think that whatever America does, it will water the same 'terrorist' soil that allegedly brought down the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001. Others, including China and the American public, may demur, but the wheels on the bloody bus go 'round and 'round. The U.S. will strike and then pretend to be surprised/concerned/compelled by the unintended consequences that spend more American blood and treasure. Poor old America -- do nothing and you're fucked; do something and you're fucked. The problem, of course, is that the "you" in this, as other, instances is "us."

-- And you actually thought encryption might protect some modicum of Internet privacy! And to think that there are those who call Edward Snowden a traitor.

US and UK intelligence have reportedly cracked the encryption codes protecting the emails, banking and medical records of hundreds of millions of people.

Disclosures by leaker Edward Snowden allege the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the UK's GCHQ successfully decoded key online security protocols.
They suggest some internet companies provided the agencies backdoor access to their security systems.

--  And, harkening back to an age whose lessons were not learned, Adolf Hitler's personal body guard has died at 96. Rochus Misch attended the World War II dictator through thick and thin, right up until the end. "He was no brute. He was no monster. He was no superman," Misch said of the man he called "the boss."

Dragons rise up, blood-thirsty and furious, and dragons pass away, depleted and forgotten ... leaving the rest of us to cope with their infuriated, latter-day spawn.