SiriusAddict.com

Girl Threatens to ‘Kill Bush’ on MySpace.

OK, so I’m a little disturbed by this story and the amount of idiots in the world (not that I didn’t know that there are a lot of idiots in the world but they’ve seemingly all come out of hiding today. I was scrounging around Digg today and found this article linked above about a 14-year old girl posting messages and a collage on her MySpace account about killing the president. I think it’s absurd for one and for two, regardless of whether you like the current president or not, it’s a stupid idea to even think about doing harm to the government or to its employees.

Yet, some of the users on Digg find it amusing and want to test the government’s power and many of them are saying worse stuff than what the 14-year old girl said. You can read some of the comments for yourself. Many of the more hateful and ludicrous comments are buried. Some of them are along the lines of actually repeating what the 14-year old said and testing the government in hopes that the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security will come and visit their houses.

As if that isn’t stupid enough, these people aren’t anonymous. You’re never really anonymous online, even if you’re using a proxy. It can always (with some work) be traced back to you. It just depends on the severity of the incident and how much work the person/company/etc wants to do to trace the comment back to you. Once your IP address is revealed, all the Secret Service or Department of Homeland Security needs to do is call up an ISP, demand a name and address to that IP address when it was allocated and the incident occurred and all of the sudden, you’re no longer anonymous. Now that doesn’t mean the ISP will gladly hand over your data and records, but when it’s a matter of national security and breaking the law, it’s kind of laid out in most Terms of Service that the ISP will comply with all law enforcement agencies and federal governments if subpoenaed.

My confusion is, where and why do people try acting all hardcore online? My wishes is that they will get a visit by the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security because all threats of that nature need to be taken seriously in the same respect that the 14-year old who was questioned by a “simple” message on MySpace was questioned. It can’t and shouldn’t be tolerated. Unfortunately, some people just think they are better than the law and either 1) won’t get caught, 2) have a sick sense of humor, 3) or actually mean it. The latter is why I worry about (and the government is concerned with) so I see no reason why they wouldn’t act on those posts. Frankly, I’d be amused that they did because it’d be a royal slap in the face to the users who thought they’d get away with a “joke” and not be questioned by federal authorities.

What it all comes down to is that people shouldn’t joke about that in the first place. Sure, there are some sadistic people out there that will think of killing others but never act on it or plan it out. Fine, not much we can do about those people that keep their thoughts to themselves, but for those that don’t, we should act on those threats, whether serious or not. Keep political differences out of it. If you don’t like the current administration, you’re 100% entitled to that opinion. I know I’m not behind the administration and I think some poor decisions were made, but that doesn’t mean I am anti-government or any of that sort of train of thought. I’d certainly never make threats not because it’s illegal, but because I don’t feel that’s an appropriate way to express my different viewpoint of the current administration. It’s a shame some people do and it’s unfortunate people get so wrapped up in politics that it comes to the name calling, threats, and so forth.

Comments on it all are certainly welcome. Tell me if you agree with the current administration or why some people feel compelled to ‘take on the government’ and make threats as such because some girl did it and was questioned by authorities. I’d be curious to hear others’ thoughts on it all.