Weekend Open Thread: The Orange Juice Blog Will No Longer Be Using the Following Words

By
Greg Diamond
– July 12, 2013Posted in: "The OC", Fresh Juice

… due to fear of untoward consequences from the government.  Click the link for the list: as indicated in the article, it includes the words “pork,” “taco,” and “cloud.”

The Department of Homeland Security has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.

The intriguing the list includes obvious choices such as ‘attack’, ‘Al Qaeda’, ‘terrorism’ and ‘dirty bomb’ alongside dozens of seemingly innocent words like ‘pork’, ‘cloud’, ‘team’ and ‘Mexico’.

Released under a freedom of information request, the information sheds new light on how government analysts are instructed to patrol the internet searching for domestic and external threats.

The words are included in the department’s 2011 ‘Analyst’s Desktop Binder‘ used by workers at their National Operations Center which instructs workers to identify ‘media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities’.

Really, folks, I promise you — Janet Napolitano did not come up with this sort of list — or even the impetus for it, by herself.  She’ll be a fine President of the UC system, I’m sure.  Just, uh, watch your language around her.  (This article came out on May 26, of this year, by the way.  Seems like years ago by now, doesn’t it?)

Meanwhile, just to go out with our head held high (and since we’ve already used the words), here’s a picture of a pork taco cloud.

pork taco cloud

I know that each of us sees cloud in a different way, as out brains impose meaning on ambiguous stimuli, but I’m telling you: to me, that cloud REALLY looks like a couple of pork tacos! 

This is your Weekend Open Thread — and it’s also what happens when I didn’t get around to writing a Weekend Open Thread and have to pull something quickly from the (virtual) file drawer.  Talk about this — ideally the original article at the link — or anything else you’d like, within broad bounds of decorum and discretion.  The weekly OC Register Dearthwatch will be pasted just below this as soon as its completed.

 

 

 

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)