hell’s handmaiden

Making Orwell Proud

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released an analysis of some of the files its recieved concerning the EFF suit against AT&T for its involvement in the US government’s domestic spying program. There is a synopsis of the report at wired.blogs. Of interest is…

The internet surveillance program covers domestic traffic, not just international traffic. Marcus notes that the AT&T spy rooms are “in far more locations than would be required to catch the majority of international traffic”; the configuration in the San Francisco office promiscuously sends all data into the secret room; and there’s no reliable way an analysis could infer a user’s physical location from their IP address. This, of course, directly contradicts President Bush’s description of the “Terrorist Surveillance Program.”

I’ve had server problem for the past couple of days. Visitors have likely noticed little wrong, but posting new material has become difficult and certain functions have ceased functioning. I’ve spent the day and a large part of yesterday trying to deal with it. It still isn’t working quite right.

Thanks for the patience.

Popularity: 1%

Wow! I thought Noonan was getting shrill, but Margolis topped him this time. Amazing.

So, perhaps we need to bomb The New York Times. They have proven to be an enemy of our country and we can no longer tolerate such treason.Of course, I don’t really believe we should bomb the NYT… Not totally. But we do need to get serious about the threat the NYT poses to our country because of their actions. Which, quite frankly, we’ve tolerated too long.

Is It Time To Bomb The New York Times?

Cute disclaimer. I’m sure the lawyers insisted.

The debate over embryonic stem cell research is not one I’ve jumped into often, though I did mention it once last year. A post at Cogent Reflections has encouraged me to jump back into it now though.

Stem cell derived medicine promises great advances in the treatment of currently intractable conditions, making it an important debate, but it is also a debate that has been poisoned by bad information. For example:

In case you are unaware of the lingo, embryonic stem cells are “harvested.” This is a rather mild-sounding euphemism for killing unborn children. …

When an article begins with hyperbole about how free speech is divinely blessed, you know that article is going to gut said freedom of speech. The rhetorical technique is a tired one.

1) Win some good graces by appealing to the principle about to be immolated.

2) Eviscerate said principle, happily protected from splattering blood and guts by the magical armor of the preceeding disclaimer.

Or, as momma used to say, “Now I’m not prejudice bu…uuu…t, them [OPTION: insert racially charged epithet] would as soon [OPTION: kill, murder, strangle, spit on, shoot, stab,...] yeh as [OPTION: look at, smell, talk to] yeh.”