What a well made, awful little article. "But hey, for all you critics, there's always the Carter method." This is intended to be funny, but it's also intended to be belittling. Framing not wanting to be spied on as being a "critic" is reasonably toxic.<p>"The NSA can keep phone records made from another country for up to a month." As far as details to share, like. This has to be intentionally weak. Other details they could share: the NSA scoops up your emails and your phone records.<p>I don't know what the mechanisms are (e.g. I'm not positing lizard men are doing this), but way in which so much reporting aims to delegitimize any opposition to total surveillance is fascinating. What causes this?