Ignorant Politicians Are Bad But Arrogant Politicians Are Worse

from the humility dept

Adam Thierer points out a Washington Post op-ed arguing that politicians should be embarrassed about their tech ignorance. Now, obviously it would always be better to have politicians who were more knowledgeable about the technology industry, and Sen. Steven's inability to tell the difference between an "Internet" and an "e-mail" was kind of embarrassing. Certainly, politicians who head committees where tech-related subjects are a major focus have a responsibility to have at least a minimal competence with technical concepts. And there are a few tech-savvy members of Congress, with Rush Holt and Rick Boucher as outstanding examples. We could certainly use more members of Congress with their in-depth understanding of tech issues.

However, I don't think it's reasonable to expect every politician to be an expert on tech issues, and actually think we should give some credit to politicians who are willing to admit that they don't know very much about technology. Our elected officials are asked to vote on a truly mind-boggling array of topics, from foreign policy to health care and from agriculture subsidies to copyright law. It's not physically possible for a Congressman, much less a president, to become an expert on every subject about which he's expected to cast a vote. And so it's perfectly reasonable for elected officials to pledge, as Sen. McCain did, that they would seek out deputies who would be experts on the subjects they don't personally know very much about. The alternative is not to find philosopher-kings who are experts about every subject they are responsible for regulating. The alternative is politicians who delude themselves into thinking they're experts and rush headlong into passing ill-conceived bills. That leads to a lot of poorly thought out legislative proposals. A politician who knows his own limitations will at least think twice before proposing legislation on a subject he doesn't understand. And that can only be a good thing.

Filed Under: politicians, tech literacy

How Much Taxpayer Money Is Wasted By Grandstanding Politicians On Unconstitutional 'For The Children' Laws?

from the way,-way,-way-too-much dept

For quite some time now, we've been pointing out how ridiculous it is that state after state after state passes "for the children" laws which clearly are unconstitutional. These laws are always thrown out by the courts. It's a total waste of taxpayer money, as the state needs to go to court to defend the law, only to have it thrown out (it's even worse when they go on to appeal). The politicians don't care. They just want to pass the law so they can show voters in their district that they're "protecting the children." Who cares if they're not actually protecting any children and actually really just wasting taxpayer money? The latest state to go through this process is Ohio -- and now reporters are finally starting to ask how much are these bogus laws costing taxpayers to defend in court? It probably won't stop politicians from passing these laws, but it's about time the press started asking this question directly to the politicians.

Filed Under: for the children, ohio, politicians, unconstitutional

The Governator Wasting More California Taxpayer Money Over Unconstitutional Violent Video Game Ban

from the how-much-money-needs-to-be-wasted? dept

Last month, California was the latest in a long list of states who discovered that passing a ban on the sale of violent video games violates the Constitution. This shouldn't be a surprise. More than 10 states have passed such laws and every single one of them has been thrown out. Any state still trying to pass such a law is clearly just wasting taxpayer money so some politicians can claim (incorrectly) that they're "protecting the children." It looks like California's Governor Schwarzenegger is joining the crowd of wasteful grandstanding politicians. He's appealing last month's ruling and making a bunch of factually incorrect statements in doing so. First, he claims that "many studies show the link between playing ultra-violent video games and violent behavior." That's incorrect. The studies that people like to cite have all been debunked, as the interpretation usually doesn't follow from the data in the studies. Furthermore, the real world evidence that violent crime rates keep dropping as violent video games get more popular should raise plenty of questions concerning any claim of the opposite. Second, the Governor claims "we protect our children from buying inappropriate movies and ought to be able to protect them from buying inappropriate video games as well." That's nice, but it all depends on who the "we" is. It's true that kids cannot buy certain movies, but that's based on a voluntary system, put in place by the movie industry -- and not a government mandated one. That's the key issue here -- and Schwarzenegger is being misleading by claiming that the voluntary agreement in the movie industry is the equivalent of a gov't-backed plan.

Filed Under: california, politicians, video games, violence

Atlanta Mayor Blames Craigslist For Child Prostitution

from the a-little-confused,-perhaps? dept

Is it really that difficult for politicians to have someone explain the internet to them before they make a public announcement that doesn't make very much sense? Atlanta's mayor has decided to blame Craigslist for child prostitution after finding out that the site was used in some cases for child prostitution (though, the mayor only seems to hint at that, rather than detail any confirmed cases). The article is just as bad, never questioning the assertion, and adding to it by discussing an ad found on the site for a woman who claims to be 21, but the article notes that the mayor's policy advisor "doesn't buy it." Well, that's great. We don't need proof or anything. As long as someone in the mayor's office doesn't believe the ad, then clearly, Craigslist is a den of sin. The mayor's office also doesn't appear to realize that every Craigslist post lets you report it to the site if the post is problematic. Rather than grandstanding, why doesn't the mayor just click the link?

More importantly, though, is that this is placing any blame on the wrong party -- and actually doing so in a dangerous way. Craigslist is simply the service. The people the mayor should be going after are those actually involved in child prostitution. In fact, if they're all using Craigslist, that should make it that much easier for the police to track them down and arrest them. By blaming Craigslist, demanding that it take down these ads and making a big public stink about this, all the mayor's office is doing is pushing those who are really doing illegal activities to move elsewhere where they're less easily tracked and caught. But, apparently going after those who are actually doing illegal activities doesn't get you as much press as blaming some website.

Filed Under: politicians
Companies: craigslist

NY Politicians Can't Resist: Still Want To Pass Law Banning Sale Of Violent Video Games

from the why-bother-defending-the-constitution-when-we-can-suck-up-to-special-interests? dept

Despite the fact that yet another state's attempt at passing a law banning the sale of certain video games to children was just tossed out as unconstitutional (as have seven other similar laws), politicians in NY insist on moving forward with their own attempt at passing the same kind of law. Once again, it will do absolutely nothing but waste taxpayer money as it goes to the courts and gets tossed out as being unconstitutional again. As the article notes, politicians don't care about that. They simply want to have something they can point to as showing that they're working hard to "protect the children." People vote for that and ignore the fact that the laws are unconstitutional and a total waste of time and taxpayer money for both the politicians and the courts.

Meanwhile, as Slashdot highlights in a similar story, there's a fantastic quote from Judge Richard Posner concerning this issue: "Violence has always been and remains a central interest of humankind and a recurrent, even obsessive theme of culture both high and low ... It engages the interest of children from an early age, as anyone familiar with the classic fairy tales collected by Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault are aware. To shield children right up to the age of 18 from exposure to violent descriptions and images would not only be quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it." That seems worth remembering.

Filed Under: new york, politicians, video games