Thank A Soldier Week

[bren]

                                          Did anyone else see this on CNN?  It's a special week .. i think it's the week of x-mas or before it when we are suppossed to go out and thank soliders.  Whether you agree with the politics of war or not .. i like this idea.
 
http://www.thankasoldierweek.com
                                          
                        Thanking you

Bren                  

[LessMoore]

Support our armed services personnel.

[LessMoore]

.

[Skeptic]

Just another test.
ping syn fin hop hop hop bop dop dod.

whois 214.32.90.94 (214.*)
OrgName:    DoD Network Information Center

You actually edited the above comment??

[LessMoore]

Theory retracted. Feel free to close the account.

[Skeptic]

Skeptic-

"You actually edited the above comment??" said the script.

I was testing an evolving theory. Didn't expect any reply - even from a script.

My last several posts were made (using no proxy) from a dialup AOL account.
Before, during, and after my last several posts I inspected my firewall log for activity.
If I stay online after posting, rather than immediately disconnecting, my computer receives at least 3 probes from DoD (214.*.*.*), some organization called TheHideout, one from China, and usually at least one more.

Very interesting.  I have to say that this is something I've never noticed, and I also run firewall logs.  Such activity, if related, would have to be due to 1) someone at the web site itself or 2) someone monitoring traffic to and from the web site's server.

Personally, I rather doubt that the probes are related in the first place.  If the DoD wanted to trace someone, doing it from an openly DoD-related site wouldn't be terribly sneaky, and I'd think they'd need to go through law enforcement which would need a warrant, regardless.  Nontheless, these are paranoid times with lots of stuff going on that probably shouldn't be going on, so who knows?

I can tell you that I've met Mr. Maschke in person as well as Drew Richardson, and unless they're some of the best actors I've ever come across, they're legit.

What if the polygraph machine is, in fact, no longer used except on the gullible?

Well, that would include anyone applying to the NSA, as I have personal experience in the matter

However, I think you're quite correct that certain individuals and agencies would be extremely interested in discovering the identities of some people who post here.

If I'm not careful, you're going to make me paranoid.

Oh, and I'm not a script.  There's justifiable paranoia, and then there's thinking that a script could be written to interact with you on this level.  I'm a real person, and have been posting here for quite some time.

If nothing else, I would hope that the humor in my original reply to you would convince you of that.  I thought your post was a test involving posting nonsense, so found it funny that you edited it.

[Skeptic]

By the way, in the 15 minutes I've been online since posting earlier, my firewall hasn't logged anything unusual in the way of dropped packets -- just the usual "messenger spam" stuff from APNIC-registered IP addresses.

What sort of probes are we talking about?  Maybe my firewall isn't set to notice it...

[Skeptic]

OK, I've now been on 45 minutes after my last post, and again, my firewall isn't showing anything unusual in the way of dropped packets or pings.  It usually goes nuts with scans, etc.

Either "they" already know who I am, or they're asleep at the switch, or they're using some traceroute/probe method that my router firewall isn't reporting.

Or what you noticed above isn't related at all, LessMoore.