in lieu of radio ...

a somewhat random collection of pages and thoughts started sept 16 2001. now that i'm not on the radio 6 hours every day, blogger allows all of us to harangue...

Friday, November 30, 2001

As usual, the American people are quick to give up other people's liberties in times of crisis. NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy poll. Link: Poll: Security Trumps Civil Liberties (how come they never call me???)

Mkes you wonder how quickly these sickos will be a TV movie-of-the-week. If it's really true that "everything is different after 9/11" then maybe we'll avoid that and just have a shaky camera / grainy picture scare story on Fox instead.

Anthony Lewis finally wieghs in on the latest Bill of Rights slide. Link: Wake Up, America

Thursday, November 29, 2001

The Register has a summary of the beating taken by EFF /Felten/Corely at the hands of the courts and the RIAA and the hated DMCA. AARRRGGHHH! Link: US courts kowtow to entertainment industry

Wednesday, November 28, 2001

Wired news on the new "get-around-NYC-without-being-seen-by-a-security-camera" site. Problem is that you *really* gotta know the nabe, as they only have street names in the close-up views. Fun! Link: Routes of Least Surveillance

Tuesday, November 27, 2001

Yes, Tom, the "ideology of pluralism" is nice, but what happens when the religious totalitarians have all the guns? Link: The Real War

Good Voice piece (at AlterNet) about the Pentagon/State Department divides on "the war". What happens when even the CIA thinks that Wolfowitz and Co. are still looking at the world through Cold War eyes? Link: Beyond Osama: The Pentagon’s Battle With Powell Heats Up

Monday, November 26, 2001

Was away for a coupla days. So stuff has come and gone in the interim. Will try to be a little more dilligent, but who knows...

Frank Rich in the Times has a not-too-Chicken-Little take on the Bush/Ashcroft assault on the Bill of Rights Wait Until Dark

You didn't hear me say it, but those goons in the militia have occasionally got a point... here's a beauty from the FBI front (135k) and back (165k) - As Monty Python once said: "OOOOh, what a giveaway!"
(I wonder if they'll put me back on the list now... the FBI, i mean)

Monday, November 19, 2001

Author of "Database Nation" has interesting look at How Not to Fight Terror (from MIT's Technology Review)

Sunday, November 18, 2001

The poor sod says he's a citizen and is cooperating, but i say sue them and see if it might be a good test case! Link: Pakistani Native Stunned by FBI Raid (Note very bad headline writing by AP sub-ed.)

Friday, November 16, 2001

Another reason not to like the "anti-terror" executive order 13223. It's anti-historical. Link: Writing History to Executive Order

Thursday, November 15, 2001

Harry Potter support group of the best kind. Kidspeak

Even Safire has weighed in against the new executive order. "...it's time for conservative iconoclasts and card-carrying hard-liners to stand up for American values." Link: Siezing Dictatorial Powers

A cute quiz i stole from caterina.net She called it are you my ex-boyfriend?, but we can substitute any gender or species we care to.

Wednesday, November 14, 2001

Why rant about extra-legal secret military tribunals tearing at the fabric of the Bill of Rights when you can have big fun with Win XP ad defacement instead?!!

I guess the question I have is: Does this mean that EC-based machines will be able to place a cookie on a US machine but not a UK one? Also, can't they track a session just as easily using IP numbers? I think most of us wouldn't mind that so much. Link: EU wages war on cookie monster

Sunday, November 11, 2001

On Oct. 7, American citizens missed important information about the person with whom our government is at war. Giles - NYT. Link: Why Are We Hiding bin Laden?

Saturday, November 10, 2001

BBC piece on M$ as a target for lawsuits from other techs. Link: Rivals queue up to take on Microsoft

ACLU (not surprisingly) has something to say about the new attorney/client rules. Link: Power Grab Allows Government Eavesdropping on Inmate-Attorney Conversations

You've seen him on top of the WTC, now see where else he's been in the "Tourist Guy" gallery


well these posts are a little old and the earlier code was fucked, so i'll try this again:

The MS/DoJ saga may be drawing to a close, but there are still issues. The Reg says the large print giveth and the small print taketh away. NYT has a story about how the Eurpoeans are unmoved by the US action (thanks to L for the link). Finally the Reg weighs in with an update on how nine states tamed the Beast, we'll see how long it lasts.

Wonder how much US mainstream media play this will get. (FrontierPost, Peshawar)26 more body bags in Jacobabad

Remarkable, dense, disturbing look at 'secret war'. (UK Observer) Torture, treachery and spies - covert war in Afghanistan

"Among the many things that changed after the attacks of Sept. 11 was the media agenda. The 'war on terrorism' is not a story, but the story... Yet life goes on, and important stories have also been shunted to the back pages. Today, The Globe and Mail's SHAWNA RICHER provides a guide to those other stories, 40 days of missing news." (long, detailed VERY Canadian piece from October 20th) Thank to L for for the story All the news you never read

Thursday, November 08, 2001

obviously, the blooger back-end code is having trouble. apologies for the repeats and the _very_ odd dating. maybe they'll fix it soon and i'll try to edit out all the odd stuff. most links work for now. zippy

The MS/DoJ saga may be drawing to a close, but there are still issues. The Reg says the large print giveth and the small print taketh away. NYT has a story about how the Eurpoeans are unmoved by the US action (thanks to L for the link). Finally the Reg weighs in with an update on how nine states tamed the Beast, we'll see how long it lasts.

Wonder how much US mainstream media play this will get. (FrontierPost, Peshawar) target="_blank">26 more body bags in Jacobabad

Remarkable, dense, disturbing look at 'secret war'. (UK Observer)
Wonder how much US mainstream media play this will get. (FrontierPost, Peshawar)
26 more body bags in Jacobabad

Remarkable, dense, disturbing look at 'secret war'. (UK Observer) All the news you never read

Monday, November 05, 2001

Do we really want MS to keep our info on their servers? Reports like this are just laughable in their consistency of form and timing. would you deploy Passport on your site? When will the Beast learn? MS Passport cracked with Hotmail

Well, they did air my letter on All Things Considered, but they edited it. So much for my concise writing !
Here is the text with the bits they edited out highlighted in red

To: atc@npr.org
Subject: stories we should have heard

dear atc,
thanks for your usually excellent show.
we know that anthrax is a big story. but a weeks worth of atc gave us at least 8 stories (i lost count).

we heard nothing of at least 3 stories which i would have thought fit the show perfectly:

  • 1) tunnel fire in italy/switzerland.
  • 2) iranian soccer fans riot 3 times in the space of 7 days. (over a loss AND a victory) , this is how revolutions are born
  • 3) the hague court overturns convictions of 3 people from ex-yugoslavia

please, please give us a broader view, the last thing our country needs is to turn in on itself.
regards
zip
(phone removed)

Thursday, November 01, 2001

Omigod! i just got a call from Linda Wertheimer at All Things Considered, they are gonna air a letter of mine today (thursday nov 1 2001) on the show!