[nkurz]

My downvote was because you led off with an unnecessary personal insult to a new user in response to a polite and legitimate question. He created an account a week and a half ago, has made a few high quality comments (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8614442), and I wouldn't want to see your rudeness drive him off, or worse, encourage him or others to respond in kind. The rest of your response was on-topic and well-argued, although like some of the others I think you might be unnecessarily equating the need for the NSA as a separate agency to the need for any form of foreign intelligence gathering.

[optimusclimb]

Thanks for the feedback. I wrote the first sentence because the question I was responding to was in my head akin to saying we should get rid of the police across the board because of what happened in Ferguson.

It might have been fine on other forums, but I see that I would have been better off letting the rest of my answer stand on its own merits (or not.) Will keep that in mind going forward.

[thizzbuzz]

Thanks! I've been on HN for 4 or 5 years though, I just make a new throw-away every few months. It will take a lot more than that to scare me off!