Damn damn damn damn >:( >:( >:( >:(
Lavabit was MY email provider. I used it because they were a small, relatively unknown email provider (read: smaller target), they used Linux servers (gotta support the flock :) ), but more importantly, they kept your email encrypted, with no master key. Only YOU could read your email. Ever. -Edvard
That sucks. Sorry to hear it.
So, this is what it comes down to. Submit to being spied upon at whim or else no goodies for you.
This is no longer a matter of whether it's not the United States I and millions of others used to know. This is no longer the United States of America as defined by it's founding documents, period.
It's a basic lesson people need to learn and pass on to future generations (who will eventually forget it just like every other generation). Liberty and democracy are not something that can be bestowed, bequeathed, or inherited. They must be taken - not necessarily by force but always by force of will, and they must be maintained the same way.
Revolution does not have to mean war. But it always means standing up to the government and saying no.
In the words of Thomas Jefferson, "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."