They are my oldest and deadliest enemy. You cannot trust them. If Hitler invaded Hell, I would give a favourable reference to the Devil.
Friday, January 16
Standing On The Doorstep, Leaning On The Bell
Reactions to the appalling murder of the staff at Charlie Hebdo have been, shall we say, mixed. The culprits have been chased down and shot, which is only as it should be. Millions of people and dozens of world leaders have turned out in support. The first issue published since the attack sold out immediately - and the print run has been scaled up from sixty thousand to five million to meet demand.
Meanwhile, major media outlets reporting on the events have taken great care to censor the images of the cartoons at the centre of all this, which makes one think that they have forgotten what journalism is. Pope Francis has said "One cannot make fun of faith." Which is odd, because it's actually pretty easy. And the usual assemblage of useful idiots has come crawling out of the woodwork to say "Of course I support freedom of speech, but -" To paraphrase Robert Heinlein's character Lazarus Long:
The correct way to punctuate a sentence that starts: "Of course I support freedom of speech, but -" is to place a period after the word "but." Don't use excessive force in supplying such a moron with a period. Cutting his throat is only a momentary pleasure and is bound to get you talked about.
But - sorry.
In all this the most shameful response so far - and I hope the most shameful response ever - has been that of British Prime Minister David Cameron.
And let me now address very directly this issue of how we have the right legal framework to intercept the communications of potential terrorists. There are two issues here. One is what is called communications data. That is not the content of a phone call; it is just who made which call to which person, and when. As everybody knows, this vital communications data is absolutely crucial, not just in terrorism, but in finding missing people; it's vital in murder investigations; it's used in almost every single serious crime investigation.
And what matters, in simple terms, is that we can access this communications data whether people are using a fixed phone, a mobile phone, or more modern ways of communicating via the internet. We have already legislated in this parliament to safeguard this vital data, because it was under threat from a particular European directive. But it is important in the future that we make sure we can get this data when people are using the more modern forms of communication that are being made possible through the internet. So that is one piece of additional legislation that will be necessary.
The second thing, which is more contentious, is about accessing the content of a telephone call, or another form of communication. And here again the same problem exists. Will we be able to access the content as the internet and new ways of communicating develop?
Now I have a very simple principle to apply here, which should be at the heart of the legislation that will be necessary. The simple principle is this:
In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people, which, even in extremis, with a signed warrant from the Home Secretary personally, that we cannot read?
Now, up until now, governments of this country have said no; we must not have such a means of communication.
That is why, in extremis, it's been possible to read someone's letter. That is why, in extremis, it's been possible to listen in to someone's telephone call. That is why the same applies with mobile communications.
Now, let me stress again, this cannot happen unless the Home Secretary personally signs a warrant. We have a better system for safeguarding this very this very intrusive power than probably any other country I can think of.
But the question remains, are we going to allow a means of communication where it simply isn't possible to do that?
And my answer to that question is no we must not.
(I couldn't find a transcript of this speech online, so I transcribed it myself. I apologise for any errors I may have introduced.)
Now there are a number of things I need to say about this. In order:
Mr Cameron, you have no right to dictate the means of communication available to the British public.
My outrage at your position is only slight tempered by the fact that you have no power to dictate the means of communication available to the British public. Encryption is mathematics, and you cannot legislate mathematics.
You seem to believe that all you need to do is contact a small number of major companies and insist that they install back doors in their software for your spies, and that will be the end of it. If that is indeed your belief, then, Mr Cameron, you have been quite remarkably poorly advised, and should fire everyone, immediately.
First, back doors in communications systems are security breaches. Security breaches get exploited. That's simply what happens. Those major companies are not going to talk to you.
Second, any competent programmer can deploy an unbreakably secure communications system in a day. Making it user-friendly, making it attractive, making it scale, making the idiot users select sane passwords, those are the hard problems. Encryption we've solved.
To actually implement your proposed legislation would mean prohibiting computers from the United Kingdom entirely. Not even North Korea has gone that far.
The first duty of any government is to keep our country and our people safe.
No, Mr Cameron. The first duty of any government is to not become a threat to the very people it serves. All else comes after that.
If you read the United States' Bill of Rights, you will notice that it does not specify what the government can do. It specifies what the government cannot do. It says, Congress shall make no law...
George Orwell wrote us a powerful warning in 1984. Mr Cameron, what he was warning us about was you. Orwell didn't warn us against attackers from outside, but against our own principles leading us into disaster. The death of the soul of a nation comes not from invasion, but from a thousand cuts to the freedom of its people.
Even the NSA, in its blatant breaches of fundamental human rights and the US Constitution, had the grace to be embarrassed, and to carry out its acts in secret.
That you could even present your position in public tells the world that something is very, very rotten in the state of Britain.
Mr Cameron, you are not just taking the first steps down the road to fascism; you are standing on fascism's doorstep, leaning on the bell, peering in the window to see if anyone is home.
There is still time to step back. But the sand is running out of the hourglass very quickly.
George Orwell wrote us a powerful warning in 1984.
Wait....so you're saying that
the ending of that book was not supposed to be interpreted as a happy one?
I'm glad to see that there is another that agrees with me on this point of literary criticism, but I'm not sure that the opinion is shared by many of our leaders or the Parson's wanaabe's who serve them.
...you cannot legislate mathematics.
Well...they can certainly muck things up in the attempt.....
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Friday, January 16 2015 07:33 AM (DnAJl)
Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution is a list of things the government is permitted to do, and Amendment X says that the list is comprehensive and complete.
Unfortunately, no one important pays much attention to that any more, and the US government does all kinds of things these days that don't really fall under anything in that list except for the astoundingly flexible "interstate commerce" clause.
Still, it was a nice idea while it lasted.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Friday, January 16 2015 12:30 PM (+rSRq)
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Posted by: Manuela at Friday, June 12 2015 01:18 AM (PUzIt)
Nowhere in Farago's pro-censorship argument does he address, or even fleetingly consider, the possibility that the ideas that the state will forcibly suppress will be ideas that he likes, rather than ideas that he dislikes. People who want the state to punish the expression of certain ideas are so convinced of their core goodness, the unchallengeable rightness of their views, that they cannot even conceive that the ideas they like will, at some point, end up on the Prohibited List.
Glenn Greenwald, of all people, writing in The Guardian, of all places. Even a blind pig finds a self-evident truth now and then.
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Sunday, December 21
Left Right Out
So, that #illridewithyou fuss.
The promoters of this - thing - unthinkingly accused Australians of being violent bigots. They took advantage of an unfolding tragedy to push their opinions.
Rather than looking at the problems we were actually facing, they trotted out an imaginary problem, and offered anonymous support for an imaginary solution.
1
I really feel sorry for his wife. There's no reason to believe she had anything to do with his crime(s) and now she's stuck forever being the widow of a crazy monster.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Saturday, December 20 2014 05:11 AM (+rSRq)
2
This is not clear from the news items, but his widow has been charged with the murder of his ex-wife, who was stabbed seventeen times, set on fire, and dumped in a stairwell.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, December 20 2014 10:51 AM (PiXy!)
"Muslim leader Keysar Trad said the imam of the Lakemba mosque "doesn’t want a bar of himâ€. But he added that according to Islamic law, no Muslim can be denied a holy funeral unless they renounced their religion prior to death."
Would it be in poor taste to point out that he is certainly welcome to demand a Muslim funeral if he so desires? It doesn't seem like anyone else is likely to ask for one for him, so a denial per se isn't likely to be a problem.
Posted by: RickC at Saturday, December 20 2014 02:02 PM (0a7VZ)
One, apparently he did have a license for that firearm.
Update: No, turns out the least surprising thing is true after all. The firearm was unlicensed.
Two, Russell Brand is ot-nay ery-vay ight-bray, and people should just stop paying him attention.*
Update: Still a loudmouthed idiot.
* If you say "Who?" at this point, you are a good person.
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Sunday, November 30
No Australia Tax
Funny thing about the computer goodies I most want this Christmas: Adjusted for the current exchange rate and Australia's federal sales tax (which is included in list price) as opposed to American state and local sales taxes (which aren't), Apple's Retina iMac and Dell's P2715Q 4K monitor are actually slightly cheaper in Australia than the US.
Given how some manufacturers treat us downunder (coughLenovocough) this is refreshing.
1
Unless you live in an American state like Oregon, which doesn't have a sales tax...
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Sunday, November 30 2014 10:39 PM (+rSRq)
2
It was very convenient when I lived in Vancouver, Washington. Washington doesn't have a state income tax, and Portland Oregon was just across the bridge for sales tax free shopping. Although technically one is supposed to pay a "Use tax" equal to the sales tax you would have paid had you bought it in state, they only got serious about collecting that when you were buying things they could track, like cars.
Posted by: Mauser at Sunday, November 30 2014 11:54 PM (TJ7ih)
3
Pixy, please fix http://ace.mu.nu/index.xml. It's been broken for half a year. It seems like a simple problem, but since you haven't fixed it for so long, I'm guessing it's not. Here are the issues as I see them:
1: the links on the page connect to the wrong page. For example, http://minx.cc/?post=353444 instead of http://minx.cc:1080/?post=353444. So if I open 20 AoS pages at once, they all hang at "One moment, redirecting you to your requested page." Can't you just cut out the middleman and have the first link go directly to port 1080? Also, why does it have to go to port 1080 in the first place?
2: If I make the click to allow the page to be redirected, it goes to the wrong page anyway Ex:
http://minx.cc:1080/?post=353444/
instead of
http://minx.cc:1080/?post=353444
The top one loads a ridiculous amount of crap and renders the page too wide to be conveniently readable.
This issue is causing me to read Ace less and less, which makes me unhappy. The Jawas' RSS works fine. Can't you just cut and paste the code or something?
Thanks in advance.
Posted by: Kevin at Monday, December 01 2014 12:49 AM (qhnv4)
4
There's a reason why the Jantzen Beach Shopping mall is one of the biggest in Oregon. It's the first exit on I-5 in Oregon when you're travelling south, and the parking lot there is always full of Washington state license plates. Washington's sales tax is something like 6% so it's even worth driving to Oregon for grocery shopping, not just big ticket items.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Monday, December 01 2014 02:02 AM (+rSRq)
5
The thing is, some tech companies (both hardware and software) like to slap a 50% markup on products in Australia even after you account for exchange rates and sales tax. Adobe was really bad about this; Lenovo still is. Apple used to do this, but cleaned up their act a few years ago.
It's bad enough that our Post Office - run by the government - offers a reshipping service so we Australians can shop online in the US. And yes, their US office is based in Portland.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, December 01 2014 11:22 AM (2yngH)
6
Actually, Washington sales tax varies, since it has a local component as well. If you get into Seattle, it can top 10%, and typically you're paying in the neighborhood of 8-8.5%
Ah, here it is. I have a table listing the rates (part of my state Business and Occupation tax form). The lowest anywhere is 7% in unincorporated Klikitat county. Most places are around 8.5%, and Seattle tops out at 9.5% (But I think that doesn't include a city tax - and they wonder why businesses are leaving.).
Posted by: Mauser at Monday, December 01 2014 11:46 AM (TJ7ih)
We're living through that now. Does Obama genuinely hate America? Or is he just completely inept?
(Of course, those are not mutually exclusive.)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Thursday, July 10 2014 10:41 AM (+rSRq)
2
..... hey, Pixy..... any update on when my straightwhiteguy.com DNS issues will be corrected?..... .is there a new setting that I need to use?.....
... hope that you and yours are well...
Posted by: Eric at Saturday, July 12 2014 12:12 AM (d7gLI)
3
I'll have that fixed for you today. Things have been a bit chaotic here lately, and I've fallen behind on maintenance, but I have two weeks off starting this weekend to catch up on everything.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, July 16 2014 02:06 AM (PiXy!)
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.... thank you, sir.... and enjoy your well-deserved vacation!....
Posted by: Eric at Thursday, July 17 2014 10:32 PM (d7gLI)
5
Pixy, I'm seeing reports that commenters at The Pond are getting
"awaiting moderation" messages, despite not having "required membership"
commenting.
Halp? Or is this a feature?
Posted by: Wonderduck at Saturday, July 19 2014 11:54 PM (ghTUs)
6
It's a feature, but I'll take a look and see why it's happening.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, July 20 2014 03:36 PM (2yngH)
What the hell is it with Democrats and totalitarian iconography? They don't even seem to care whether they steal from communists, fascists, or movie posters for 1984.
The Hillary poster in particular seems to come from some weird alternate universe in which Eva Peron was an admiral of the Imperial Japanese navy.
Somehow it's been "cool" for a long time, as witness the long term popularity of T-shirts with Che on them, not to mention Mao and Fidel.
It's transgressive. Or something.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Monday, April 21 2014 09:43 AM (+rSRq)
2
Many of them are actual totalitarians, so why WOULDN'T they use the iconography?
Posted by: RickC at Tuesday, April 22 2014 07:41 AM (ECH2/)
3
It's the imagery that surrounded them growing up, that fills their favorite political tomes, that filled the streets of their long-lost Workers Paradise(s).
Posted by: Robert Crawford at Tuesday, April 22 2014 01:33 PM (ECR4N)
4
Seems like a 'younger' Hilary which no one would dare criticise cause you would be a sexist hater.
Posted by: Bobbymike at Tuesday, April 22 2014 02:38 PM (hY7Vw)
It goes hand-in-hand with the Left's attempt at creating their own version of the New Soviet Man. Well, 'New Democrat Person,' since 'Man' shows gender-bias. He/She/It will have no eyes, just like Julia.
Of course, the Democrats have also learned the lessons of the totalitarians of the People's Republic of China, in that they are trying to shape and control the language people uses. Control the language, control the thoughts, even if that ultimately requires reorganizing the alphabet to a bastardized version.
Posted by: cxt217 at Tuesday, April 22 2014 02:39 PM (G3pCP)
6
Let's just say that they are lame hipster douchebag wannabe totalitarians, or are otherwise too ignorant to know.
Posted by: model_1066 at Tuesday, April 22 2014 09:04 PM (tNrYO)
7
Ma Rodham is looking to the right, possibly to differentiate her brand from Soetoro's.and remain comfortably familiar at the same time. Or she is keeping an eye on the VWRC.
Posted by: thirdtwin at Tuesday, April 22 2014 09:06 PM (FIe2Q)
So, a reservoir in Portland is to be drained because someone urinated in it. Essentially, they're using 38 million gallons of water to flush the loo.
This is... Something of an overreaction. Apart from the ick factor, and the possibility that the phantom micturator has an implausibly infectious UTI, the toxic substance in urine is urea. And if the entire population of Portland emptied their bladders into that one reservoir, the concentration of urea would still be undetectable by taste or smell and below the allowed limit.*
It isn't actually all that big a deal. The Bull Run watershed produces far more water than the City needs, so this isn't a case of "wasting water in the desert" etc.
Here in the Tualatin valley our water comes from wells. But it isn't fossil water like in Oklahoma. We get 40 inches of rain a year, and most of it is slow rain spread out over days and weeks, which is optimal for getting the rainwater to soak into the ground and replenish the water table. So we don't have any shortage of water either.
An interesting piece of trivia: that reservoir is on Mount Tabor, which is an extinct volcano inside the city limits. Not too many cities have extinct volcanoes inside of them.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Saturday, April 19 2014 01:54 AM (+rSRq)
However, it is stupid for a different reason: that reservoir is out in the open. Ducks and geese swim in it, and shit in the water. Always have.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Saturday, April 19 2014 03:52 AM (+rSRq)
3
They are aware of that, Steven. But human pee is grosser than animal pee.
No, seriously, that's why they're dumping the water (unless you want to invent some kind of weird conspiracy theory):
"The urine poses little risk - animals routinely deposit waste without creating a public health crisis - but Shaff said he doesn't want to serve water that was deliberately tainted.
"There is at least a perceived difference from my perspective," Shaff said. "I could be wrong on that, but the reality is our customers don't anticipate drinking water that's been contaminated by some yahoo who decided to pee into a reservoir.""
Of course, it might be funny to help the government understand why this is stupid by arranging the need to have the water dumped again a few more times.
Posted by: RickC at Saturday, April 19 2014 08:27 AM (0a7VZ)
4
Perhaps now would be a good time for Portland to have a serious discussion about homeopathy.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Saturday, April 19 2014 02:19 PM (1CisS)
5
Are you kidding? The way homeopaths think stuff works, 1 bladder's worth of urine in 38 million gallons is probably the strongest formulation ever actually made!
Posted by: RickC at Saturday, April 19 2014 02:36 PM (0a7VZ)
6
Precisely! And when they drain it, it will become even stronger!
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Sunday, April 20 2014 12:17 AM (1CisS)
