- “Sovereignty without Territoriality?” (H/T Hobbit)
- Anybody seen Mud yet? A friend recommended it glowingly and it’s at 98% on RottenTomatoes.com — almost unheard of for a live-action feature.
- Become your very own spy agency with these secret! NSA! Google! Tips! (Creepy, and a far cry from a Orphan Annie Decoder Pin). (Tip o’ hat to JJ)
- Speaking of creepy: Skype. It could have been very non-creepy. But it’s a M*******t product; so what can you say? It’s creepy. (H/T Wendy McElroy)
- Oh, that laugh-a-minute IRS. Turns out they also gave supposedly “private” info on conservative groups to a liberal group. And there’s so much more of this tale still to come out. Does Big O really think it can be hushed up with a couple of IRS resignations?
- I’ve been meaning to do something deep and profound with that excellent PBS piece on the Stockholm Syndrome and money printing. Since I’m not brilliant this week, I’ll just link for the edification of anybody who hasn’t already seen it. Good one, definitely.
- One of the all-time great opening lines: “The friends of freedom are accustomed to being beaten like a rented mule in Washington.” (Bovard reviews James Antle’s Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?
The author of “Sovereignty without Territoriality” states further down in his commentary:
“Sovereignty is about the assertion of ultimate authority, and an organization can make that assertion in any one or combination of more than one of these domains. Modern states make it in all three, with territory as the primary delimiter. Other organizations compete with states in one or more of these domains, but with different primary delimiters. Some emphasize souls, others specific goods, and so on.”
All three began to come together in the modern-state sense after agriculture and animal husbandry took hold, i.e. when people no longer wanted or felt the need to move about, but had to stay in one place to preserve what they were doing. This inspired the potential tyrant to 1) observe the economic feasibility of takeover, 2) place the potential “slave/subject” in a vulnerable position (by threatening his possessions), and 3) establish the actual boundaries over which he could rule.
Since then, we have all become inadvertent “subjects”. The only way to break away from this conundrum is to declare individual sovereignty, but in the modern-day world, this becomes an impossibility to break away from a geographical nation. (That’s not to say we can’t declare individual sovereignty and live our own lifestyle, but the idea of not “belonging” to any one nation-state is made more difficult to convince tyrants.)
P.S: I think only an apocalypse or a new frontier (in space?) would allow us to start over, by recognizing and eliminating/heading off the tyrannical aspects of a society before they gained advantage.
FWIW to you Claire I enjoyed Mud. Matthew McConaughey is beginning to come into his own as a serious character actor who is trying to move past his previous “pretty boy” and “action/adventure” roles. I enjoyed it enough that I’m gonna add it to my permanent collection that I keep on my HDD.
Did Microsoft just buy skype? I think skype has been notoriously insecure ever since it was invented.
Michael Dean likes mumble as a secure alternative to skype.
http://www.michaelwdean.com/2012/03/mumble-for-encrypted-skype-like-conversations/
Thanks, KenK & A.G. — I also always thought M.M. was mainly a pretty boy (one who really likes dogs, though, so there’s that). But he blew me away in “Magic Mike.” So I’m getting ready to like him more and more.
I’ve always liked Matthew – the world can never have too many free spirits in it.
I thought it wasn’t possible for Skype to get any creepier. I was wrong. I also find it amazing that so many use it and don’t seem to care who/what can access it.
This was interesting.
“Five Reasons the NRA Won the Recent Gun Control Debate That Have Nothing to Do with Politics”
Could have been subheaded “Taking on D.C. and Winning.” Hint: It’s about people.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/amyshowalter/2013/05/16/five-reasons-the-nra-won-the-recent-gun-control-debate-that-have-nothing-to-do-with-politics/
“Magic Mike”, eh?
http://www.roboticzombiewizard.com/RZW/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Dana-Carvey-Church-Lady.jpg
😉
> Did Microsoft just buy skype?
No, that was a couple years ago.
Pretty much same old story. If your data isn’t encrypted, expect it to be read / monitored /used. Even if it’s encrypted, expect it to be monitored, for traffic analysis.
A.G. — Yes, “Magic Mike.” The Church Lady would definitely not approve of the dancing. Heck, even I found the moves shocking, and I’ve seen a thing or three in my life. But wonderful acting, very realistic (Channing Tatum’s actual experiences as a male stripper). And you know, ultimately a very sweet, moral story.
And I learned that M.M. can not only dance like a lust monster, but act, too. 🙂
I’ll watch it again someday. But … erm … strictly for the plot, you know …
[If your data isn’t encrypted, expect it to be read / monitored /used.]
/lost/denied/garbled/etc.
I’ve been seeing ads for info on “Using the Cloud to manage your company in a disaster.” (“As long as one employee can access the internet you’re in business.”)
I think their definition of “disaster” is not my definition of “disaster.”
[But … erm … strictly for the plot, you know …]
Well, since it doesn’t have articles…
“I’ll watch it again someday. But … erm … strictly for the plot, you know …”
There are several movies that I like to rewatch, strictly for the plots 🙂