Ever since Pamela Jones shut down Groklaw and announced she was not only abandoning the site but quitting the Internet entirely in light of the Edward Snowden revelations, I’ve been thinking about this. At the time, though I found her reasons poignant and pertinent, I thought she was overreacting. Now, I don’t know. Personally, I’m not on the verge of quitting. A big part of my life is here. And all of my career (such as it is) is here. That’s been true since 1986 when a client bought me my first 300-baud modem and set it up so I…
Category: Government
Government evils — but I repeat myself
Edited The non-surprising, horrendously shocking, news about the National “Security” Agency’s perfidy gets worse. Again, we’re dealing with something that’s been speculated about for years but whose real bogeyman shape has only now materialized thanks to Edward Snowden. Wired has one take on it — and some doubts. A friend whose profession is data center security has a more apocalyptic take (the second half of what he says is what we all need to be aware and beware of): RSA has now admitted that they pushed a known flawed random number generator in most if not of all of their…
Mark Steyn on America as a banana republic. Political views mess up your ability to do math. Probably other things, too. Fascinating study but not surprising. Another example of confirmation bias in action. Do you get junk emails from your acquaintances urging you to connect with them on LinkedIn? I used to get a fair number of those and thought, “Wow, for people who supposedly know me, these guys are sure idiots.” Like I’m ever going to join LinkedIn. Like I think it’s just wonderful for acquaintances to give my address to all and sundry. Then I got a fervently…
You’ve heard of the non-aggression principle, otherwise known as the ZAP or the NAP. A lot of freedomistas regard it as the golden rule for a free society. Well, Michael W. Dean and Neema Vedadi have now coined a phrase to define its opposite: The aggression principle. That’s the rule behind all government, of every type, everywhere. We all know what it is. We’ve been talking about it for a long time. Why hasn’t anybody ever named it? (Michael and Neema call this podcast “one for the ages.”)
I don’t mean what do you expect from government. I can make a pretty good guess at that. I’m thinking of the ordinary Joe or Josie who’s shocked and indignant over and over again upon finding that government isn’t a caring parent or diligent servant. Was talking with a local real estate agent today. He’s had a sale pending for two months. Deal is solid. Buyer’s credit is golden. House has appraised for more than the selling price. No problems whatsoever. Except it’s a VA loan and there’s one piece of paper missing (a DD-214, for ye of military experience).…
Swarms of tabs are buzzing ’round my head again. Some contain news that fills me with such loathing I can’t decide whether to blog about it or run for cover. I’ll avoid the most loathsome for now and merely blog the good, the bad, the indifferent, and the funny to clear my browser and my head. The NSA disguised itself as Google to enable even more spying. Part of me says this is bad in the same sense that the CIA’s longstanding practice of disguising its agents as journalists is bad (for the health of actual journalists). Part of me…
I don’t have to tell you that this isn’t the sort of “roundup” where you get to go, “Yipee-i-o-kyaaay!” It’s the sort where you go, “OMG, what will learn next about these creeping, peeping totalitarians?” Some of the newest nooz: Got a smartphone? NSA can get your data. Not yet a mega-scooping data project; they have to really want your particular data to get it. Mega-scooping? That comes next year, no doubt. And when it comes it’ll be with the help of “Mr. Civil Rights” Obama himself. Seems two years ago the secret court, responding to a secret request, made…
Alas (but no surprise), the rumor that’s been buzzing around the ‘Net ever since Edward Snowden’s NSA documents began their slow leak has turned out to be true. The NSA has cracked the encryption on which the Internet thrives. All those assurances from our banks, insurance companies, doctors, credit card companies, etc. that our data is safe and secure? Blooey. Maybe “cracking” isn’t quite the right term. Apparently, they haven’t really gotten any great master key. Not even to one form of encryption (and there are many forms). This isn’t Bletchley Park and the Enigma machine. Nothing so grand. Simply…
It’s gotten easier and easier to become a “terrorist” in the government’s eyes. Buy too many MREs. Join a Tea Party group. Get the same tattoo that your friends have. Talk too much about religion or the Constitution … all of that — and more! — puts you in the “if some jerk sees something, s/he’s supposed to say something (about YOU!)” category. But frankly, people, some of you are just too lazy. Too lazy or too blandly innocuous even to qualify as a terrorist suspect by those lax standards. All your friends are making their way onto “lists” or…
After the recent revelations about DEA snooping, I guessed the NSA would have to be involved. Hm. Not necessarily. Not when you have AT&T at your right hand. (Via Sipsey Street.) And how strange have things gotten — how very, very strange? — when you try to reach the Secretary of State and after gradually climbing the bureaucratic ladder, you end up getting a callback from Eric Schmidt’s girlfriend instead? Happened to Julian Assange. And does not appear to have been “an isolated incident.” How much longer can this corrupt, rotten, secrecy-obsessed corporate-state UberGovernment center hold?