Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

from the funsightful dept

Some of the biggest reactions this week came in response to the story of an L.A. council member who proposed a staggeringly invasive use of license plate data to tell car owners they had visited areas "known for prostitution". Our first place winner for insightful was the second comment on that post, from an anonymous commenter who turned the tables:

Nury Martinez has been seen in areas known for bribery, corruption, fraud, and embezzlement. Perhaps someone should be sending her a letter implying that the only reason she's there is for criminal activity.

After all if she's not guilty of taking bribes from, oh let's say, various license plate reader companies to get their readers into wider use, then a letter all but accusing her of doing so shouldn't cause her any problems, or bug her in the least, right?

Meanwhile, our second place comment for insightful was the first comment on that post — and also our first-place winner on the funny side. This time it's another anonymous commenter with an alternative proposal:

There's a simple solution to this. Just move all prostitution to places where the councilwoman lives and works.

For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start out with yet another anonymous comment, this time in response to the news that a Turkish judge has set up a special panel to determine whether a doctor comparing the president to Gollum is an insult or not. As the commenter pointed out, that necessity provides an answer in and of itself:

If it takes a previously non-existent, special expert panel to determine if it is an insult, how was the doctor supposed to know?

Next, we've got a comment from this week's podcast episode about the collision between privacy and free speech in Europe. Adrian Lopez suggested some honest rebranding:

The Right to be Forgotten should be called The Right to Make Forget. That at least would be honest in its egregiousness.

Over on the funny side, we've already had our anonymous first place winner above, so we'll move straight on to second place, which comes in response to our post discussing the non-existince of WiFi allergies. Roger Strong had a different opinion, and a different kind of sensitivity:

Whenever my WiFi goes down I feel cranky and depressed. The symptoms go away once my router is working again.

For editor's choice on the funny side, we start out with one more nod to Roger, for responding to the latest news about Paul Hansmeier in the grand tradition of crossing wires between popular Techdirt stories:

Can anyone recommend a good "reputation management" consultant?

Finally, we've got That One Guy with his summing up of the selfie monkey situation:

The punchline to the whole joke of a case of course is that between the photographer, PETA, lawyers and a monkey, the one who's acted in the most civilized and mature fashion is the monkey.

Ook! That's all for this week, folks.

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  • identicon
    Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 6 Dec 2015 @ 6:29pm

    “GOD ISN’T FIXING THIS”

    You have to admit, that is one helluva ballsy headline. Sure, it pisses some people off. Will it lead to more than that, to some actual action? One can only hope ... except ...

    Trouble is, members of Congress got a total of $30.6 million from the NRA in 2014. And some commenters on this site, it seems, can see nothing wrong with that.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Richard (profile), 7 Dec 2015 @ 4:06am

      Re: “GOD ISN’T FIXING THIS”

      Of course God has rarely fixed any of these things - something to do with "Free Will" I believe.

      members of Congress got a total of $30.6 million from the NRA in 2014. And some commenters on this site, it seems, can see nothing wrong with that.

      Yes and they say that banning guns won't stop terrorists - well that is a half truth which (like a half brick) is easier to throw than a whole lie.

      The reality is that lack of legally available guns does reduce reduce the severity of terrorist attacks. In the UK where all automatic weapons and handguns are illegal, the terrorists have had to rely on knives (considerably less effective) and bombs (considerably less reliable).

      Banning guns won't stop terorists - but it will reduce the number and severity of the casualties.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 7 Dec 2015 @ 10:18am

        Re: Re: “GOD ISN’T FIXING THIS”

        France has some pretty strict laws concerning guns. Guns are illegal in Mexico.

        See, I can cherry pick countries to suit my narrative too.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 7 Dec 2015 @ 12:10pm

          Re: Guns are illegal in Mexico.

          When was the last time you heard of a “terrorist” attack in Mexico?

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Anonymous Coward, 7 Dec 2015 @ 1:22pm

            Re: Re: Guns are illegal in Mexico.

            Do the many drug gang attacks count?

            link to this | view in chronology ]

            • identicon
              Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 7 Dec 2015 @ 5:34pm

              Re: Do the many drug gang attacks count?

              Were they investigated as “terrorist” attacks?

              link to this | view in chronology ]

              • icon
                That One Guy (profile), 7 Dec 2015 @ 10:38pm

                Re: Re: Do the many drug gang attacks count?

                Be fair, with how often the word 'terrorist' is thrown around by governments and news agencies, someone could trip and sprain their ankle and the news would report it as a 'terrorist related injury'. Whether or not something is called a 'terrorist attack' or 'terrorist related' is a pretty lousy way to judge the actual severity of it.

                link to this | view in chronology ]

                • identicon
                  Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 9 Dec 2015 @ 8:32pm

                  Re: Do the many drug gang attacks count?

                  Well, if you want to play down the “terrorist” angle, then France is a pretty poor example to mention, being overall less violent than the US and all, don’t you think?

                  link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    INOC | Data Center, 6 Dec 2015 @ 7:38pm

    Hi Leigh,

    Thanks for summing up some of your site's funniest comments. I shared it to my colleagues and we all agreed they are out of this world hilarious. I personally liked the wifi comment and the 'Nury Martinez' comment. I think they were well thought out -- funny but still making a valid point. I,too, becomes cranky as well when my wifi isn't working, but it goes away when it works. But the way he wrote it definitely was the best!

    I hope you more funny comments to share. Looking forward to them!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    beltorak (profile), 6 Dec 2015 @ 7:52pm

    RE: The Right to be Forgotten should be called The Right to Make Forget.

    Damn good point, wish I had seen that earlier in the week. I still maintain the position that your "right to be forgotten" infringes on my "right to not be lobotomized".

    I understand the privacy and reputation damage concerns, and it is a problem. I think the law should be rewritten to force actual publishers to amend errors and call attention to updates in a conspicuous way. Get that, and I will fully support forcing the search engines to giving precedence to the same, or calling . Because then we aren't talking about shoving stuff down a memory hole, but amending the index to correct errors.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 6 Dec 2015 @ 9:06pm

    No-Fly List ≠ No-Gun List

    Really love to know what the rationalization for this could possibly be...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 7 Dec 2015 @ 10:19am

      Re: No-Fly List ≠ No-Gun List

      The 14th Amendment aka Due Process.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 7 Dec 2015 @ 11:43am

        Re: The 14th Amendment aka Due Process.

        That would apply to the no-fly list as well.

        link to this | view in chronology ]


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