CommonSense's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
from the it's-just-common-sense dept
This week's "favorites" post comes from the aptly-named CommonSense. Who can disagree with a little CommonSense?
I was starting to think that this day might never come. I've had an insightful comment show up in that weekly post before, and I've even been told by one of my favorite commenters turned contributor, Dark Helmet, that I was basketball stupid (at least he noticed me, right??....more importantly, at least the Heat LOST!). But with my sometimes sporadic comments coming in surges, I wondered if I had what it took to be a chosen one, and reveal for the world what my favorite posts of the week really were. Alas, here I am. I'm going to do things a little bit different, and show you all some of the main reasons I visit this site. This week there were a lot of good posts - I currently have 25 tabs open, each to an article I hope to mention - and many of them touch similar topics, each with different bits of information, or different viewpoints. Let's get started.
- To start, I bring to everyone's attention the post: Finnish Police Respond To The Norwegian Tragedy By Increasing Internet Surveillance
This post did a few things for me, least of which was to remind me that the U.S. isn't the only country that suffers from some corrupt, power hungry leaders who would sink so low as to use a massive tragedy to gain more power for themselves. My parents taught me something important when I was younger -- that you should never make important decisions in the heat of the moment. Emotions cloud judgement. Gandhi didn't become who he was because of magic, it was because he was able to separate his actions from his emotions. Here in America, we haven't really been doing that lately and I feel that we are paying a heavy price (Is Your Senator Using the Distraction of the Debt Ceiling to Support the Feds Secret Interpretation of Spying Laws?, Wyden Continues to Press Intelligence Officials About Tracking American Under 'Secret' Interpretation of the Patriot Act, Intelligence Chief to Wyden: It Would be Difficult to Reveal What You Want Us to Reveal Because We Don't Want to Reveal It). I've mentioned before that I don't believe it's possible to catch ALL instances of terrorism or malicious actions in general (Looking at Security Theater Through the Lens of the Utøya Massacre). There are just some people in the world who have a desire to cause harm; always have been and always will be. Ben Franklin said it best: "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." -
When a society lets its government take the knee jerk approach and react with emotion instead of reason, we get the exact scenario Franklin predicts:
Canadian Officials Censoring Scientists Whose Results They Don't Like
UK Court Orders BT to Block Access to Usenet Site Hollywood Hates
China Monitors WiFi, US Takes Notes?
House Committee Approves 'Keep Every American's Digital Data for Submission to the Federal Government Without a Warrant Act of 2011'
There we are, clear as day, with the U.S. government acting almost exactly like the Chinese government we hear our officials condemn so often. The only difference is that China is open about monitoring live communications (didn't Obama promise to be more open???), while our government tries to hide it with what could seriously be compared to the 7 second delay. As long as they're not listening while we're having the conversation, it's cool, right? Hollywood is in the U.S., isn't it? So why are they controlling UK courts, and why would Canadian officials be mimicking their behavior? Luckily, they don't have enough money to give to everyone in the world (Mexican Senate Calls On President To Reject ACTA) or else this might start happening everywhere: 54-Year Old School Teacher Who Doesn't Know How To Download Movies First To Be Kicked Off The Internet In France.
I was told by a wise man once, DeInter Nett was his name, that an older definition, since replaced, of fascism, defined it as the "Authoritarian merging of government and industry". The point was that high level people, many of them with familiar sounding last names, moved swiftly between government and industry positions. There weren't any specific posts touching that exact topic this week, but what we see above are definitely symptoms of a problem that seems eerily familiar to that definition. - Now, I don't only visit this site for the depressing news. I'm here for the same reason I watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, to get a taste of the news that matters, various viewpoints on said news, and, occasionally, a laugh. I laugh when people get what they deserve: ABC Sports Threatens To Hit Tim Pawlenty With Copyright Infringement Claim Over Miracle On Ice Footage (maybe you should think about those unintended consequences to the laws you want so badly??), and I laugh when companies repeatedly make the wrong decisions again and again: Fox Decides To Drive Fans To Piracy, Rather Than Giving Legitimate Options (Mr. Nett also told me once that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results...). I value real education, which involves debate, discussion, differing views, and anything BUT a closed up, one-sided, piece of propaganda, so I was very thankful to see this post from Tim: If Your Comment Section Is Awesome, It's Your Community's Fault. And I'm always thankful when a post goes up showing that there are people out there who still understand what it means to be civilized: How Should Law Enforcement Handle Being Filmed? Officer Lyons Provides The Perfect Example.
Re: Kinect is a very useful accessory
Surprised anyone still buys from them anyway...
I can't believe people are still buying from them after that, maybe this will be enough to get people to boycott and send their scumbag decision maker out of business. I love yoga, did yoga teacher training even, but that company stands for the exact opposite of what yoga is all about, and anyone who owns their clothes should take them into the street, set fire to them, and put a video on YouTube about it. make the tag something like "#IsThisBetterThanResaleLuLuLemon?"
Re:
Maybe...don't vote for anyone who gets campaign funding by one of those 1,000 donors?
Re:
They try to paint the picture as though it's "US" (republicans or democrats) vs. "THEM" (the party not chosen before) and some people will try to say that it's a RICH vs. POOR issue, and while they're not too far off, it's a RULER vs. PEASANT issue here, and if you're not in the government, then you're a peasant (and even some people who are in the government are considered peasants)... They don't think they need to tell us the truth or answer to the laws that they make in our name. Unless and until we get every incumbent out and elect PEASANTS willing to do the work to right the ship, then we deserve all the fists the government tries to shove up our ass...
"If the president does it, it's ok..."
FUCK THAT! It should be twice as illegal for a person of such power to break the law, and should be punished by a factor of 10 for the disgusting impact on the whole world. Bush, Obama, shit, maybe even Clinton, and almost certainly, unless they put an immediate end to these illegal programs upon taking office, even the next president should be put on trial, and sent to federal "pound-me-in-the-ass" prison.
Re: Re:
Re:
While you, like myself, seem to believe that the people are the nation and we need the facts about what our 'representatives' are doing, supposedly in our name (and as I'm sure some of the rest of the world sees it, with our permission...), in order to ensure our security.
There are far more of us (citizens) than there are of them (gov't officials) so we need to make the change. We damn sure better get out for the next election and VOTE OUT EVERY SINGLE INCUMBENT! If they're really good, we can put them back in after we've set term limits, campaign finance reform, and government benefit/compensation reform (they shouldn't get to vote their own raises and benefits with our money....that should be our vote), but we need a clean slate, and we need people willing to actually work for the job, not old, arrogant bastards who've been there so long they have no fear of losing their seats or their lobbyist sponsors by sitting on their thumbs for a few weeks while millions of us WISH WE HAD WORK TO GO TO!
I say next time we don't just rock the vote....Let's tip the damn vote over!
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
On rainy days, it always rains, that's not a generalization, that's a fact. If it wasn't raining, it wouldn't be a rainy day.
I don't think you have as solid a grasp on these concepts as you think you do, and I'll thank you to take your American-Style over-inflated ego and the arrogance that comes with it over to the saloon, with the cowboys you claim to hate but act just like. I do not need education offers from someone so willing to display their own lack of it.
Re: Re: Re: Re: America stands for this...
What you're doing is twisting my words to make it look like I think troubled kids are not a problem that we should deal with, but that's not what I said, nor what I think. There was a school shooting in a different country the other day, but surely you're not ready to say that everyone in that country is a gun-toting, bullet happy, cowboy, are you?
Re: Re: Re: If you're going to be consistent, start calling Google a SPY AGENCY.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Nigerians are people, and just like in EVERY other country, some scam and some don't. But just like in every other country, the exported news is selective so you don't hear about all the great things people do in Nigeria, just about the scams.
Generalizing is how you become a bigot.
also, comparing rainy days to people is absolutely ridiculous. The only valid comparison to in generally rains on rainy days is that people generally breathe when they are alive. You see, you have to find something common among ALL of them, and breathing plus a heartbeat is about all there is that matches that criteria. Please, take your prejudice elsewhere, because we're trying to clean that up and having to shovel your shit as well isn't going to help us any.
Common Sense
Re: Re: America stands for this...
CommonSense
Re: If you're going to be consistent, start calling Google a SPY AGENCY.
One HUGE difference is, Google doesn't try to hide what they do, nor do they lie about it.
Re:
Are we gonna see??
Watch this people, because when they're done we're going to need to do some real political reform in this country and clean that mess up.
He's not saying...
That sounds vaguely familiar for some reason...
maybe if the previous person who stated that same sort of justification for crimes had been truly punished, people wouldn't still think the American public is essentially a battered wife who simply needs to hear "I'm sorry, it won't happen again." to go on about business as usual...
Re: Re: Re: Re: Hmm...
Re: Communications tapping
Because now it's out there for all those who DIDN'T care to see it...right there in their faces.
Re: Re: Hmm...
also, the left-winger we elected hasn't done anything to rid ourselves of the real issue, so stop looking at the problem like it's an "us vs. them" thing. Someone, somewhere is going to have to fix this problem, and the chances are that he's going to come from either the left or the right wing to some extent.
Here's the snag though...
More comments from CommonSense >>
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by CommonSense.
Submit a story now.
Tools & Services
TwitterFacebook
RSS
Podcast
Research & Reports
Company
About UsAdvertising Policies
Privacy
Contact
Help & FeedbackMedia Kit
Sponsor/Advertise
Submit a Story
More
Copia InstituteInsider Shop
Support Techdirt