I don't do this often, at least not as a separate thread, but since this covers such a wide range of topics, there is no one other subject area to place it in. If you've got some time on your hands and you'd like to spend it educationally, this is a very interesting discussion between Viva Frei and Glenn Greenwald, neither of them rabid conservatives, as Viva Frei is a Canadian lawyer who, I think, has sought sanctuary in the United States recently, and Greenwald is a US attorney and gay journalist who is not particularly conservative, except insofar as he has reported on the news that the Democrats and establishment Republicans wanted to keep quiet. They discuss a large range of topics, including Edward Snowden, September 11, the Patriot Act, and, more recently, the stuff that is going on in Brazil, in which he had a front seat, given that he was living with his Brazilian husband, a left-wing Brazilian congressman.