Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

from the whatcha-gonna-do-when-they-come-for-you dept

This week, we covered the assertion by Google that a gag order they faced over Wikileaks warrants was motivated by feds' embarrassment after the similar warrants served to Twitter caused a huge backlash. One commenter criticized us for not waiting for a response from the feds before publishing, and while that's certainly a necessary part of the story going forward, the complaint ignores the value of analyzing these kinds of conversations as they happen. Of course, one anonymous commenter had another reason, and it won most insightful comment of the week:

The problem here is that no one would be able to trust the agency or court anymore. Even if this isn't the reason, the fact is it's no longer necessary to ask the court or agency behind this because we expect to get lied to anyway.

Meanwhile, after a raid-gone-wrong in which a flashbang burned a 19-month-old toddler, a police union claimed that citizens had to choose between safe neighborhoods and a right to privacy and freedom. That One Guy won second place for insightful by taking a closer look at this conundrum:

Well let's see, the crime in question was the sale of $50 worth of drugs by someone that didn't actually live on the property. The violation of the 'right to privacy' lead to an infant scorched by a flashbang.

Minor drug transaction and no burned infant
vs
Possibly less drug transactions and a burned infant.

Choices choices...

If those are really the only two options, then I think I'll go with accepting some crime in the area, as it seems to be much safer for everyone.

For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start out with a comment on another post about cop misbehaviour, and addressing something important. There's a tendency when talking about police misdeeds to add the caveat that "there are lots of good cops", and while the motivation behind this is understandable, it ignores a critical point: even the good cops are, to varying degrees, passively or even actively complicit in a system that enables the not-so-good ones. Thus we get a simple rule to keep in mind:

Good cops who protect bad cops are bad cops.

Next, we pivot away from the police to look at the cable industry's claim that nobody really wants 25Mbps broadband speeds. An anonymous commenter summed up the circular argument:

There's no demand because nobody is using it.
Nobody is using it because it's not available.
It's not available because there's no demand.

Over on the funny side, we've got a clear theme for our two winners: naming disputes. First, after the MPAA forced the makes of "Rated R" beer to abandon the name, Spaceman Spiff offered up some free rebranding services:

I think they should rename it as "Pirate Beer - The Only Arrr-Rated Brew"

Next, in response to the story about a trademark war between Chubby Noodle and Fat Noodle in San Francisco, sophisticatedjanedoe predicted the next showdown on the horizon:

In other news, FAT NOODLE sues NTFS NOODLE.

For editor's choice on the funny side, we start on our post about the traveller who was detained by the TSA for carrying Arabic flash cards and given a patronizing interrogation about whether he knows it's the same language Bin Laden spoke. One anonymous commenter brilliantly flipped it around:

Meanwhile in Cairo...

The supervisor asked me: "Do you know who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building?" Taken totally aback, I answered: "Timothy McVeigh?" Then she asked me if I knew what language Timothy McVeigh spoke. "English," I replied. "So do you see why these cards are suspicious?" she finished.

Finally, we return to the world of police, where one national organization attacked Google Waze for supposedly helping people stalk police officers (and certainly not for helping them avoid speed traps, no sir.) Another anonymous commenter noted that an unrelated rule of thumb holds true:

Never trust anything the NSA says.

What, this is an article about the National Sheriff's Association this time? Well, the warning still applies.

That's all for this week, folks!

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