I'd be interested to hear. I doubt I'd have any points to bring to the discussion further, but I've not really heard someone speak for the work the NSA is doing.

(I skimmed your comment history for the elaboration, but found nothing in my brief search. Sorry!)

I don't have much to say about it, other than the specific belief that I don't think this comment will ever be directly connected to me by the NSA or anyone else, almost regardless of its content.

A lot of the concern over the loss of privacy from a 1st Amendment standpoint revolve around the idea that the US government will eventually start to silence dissenters. I don't worry about this, because I can write this comment, and as long as I don't literally make a direct or actionable threat against someone, no one on the planet but me will know who wrote it. Even after everything I've read about what the NSA is doing, I still don't think they have the capability of identifying someone in a position like mine without a warrant.

The idea that this comment is safe makes me think the US government isn't yet at a point where the article writer seems to think it is.

Thanks. I don't agree with this (Ben Tilly's take on NSA surveillance is practically identically to mine), but I'm glad to know there are people that have coherent arguments in support of NSA, rather than just a crowd of HN commenters bickering about who opposes NSA more.