Civil Liberties
revere | October 30, 2007And today, too. So they're keeping a list, but unlike Santa Claus they're not checking it twice. Or even once. The list is the US government's terrorist watch list that today -- like yesterday and the day before and tomorrow -- grew by over 500 names. The terrorists are either being created at record rates or there are an awful lot of terrorists out there. Already the list has three quarters of a million names on it. Maybe yours. Or someone with the same name as yours.
The list is used to check people entering the country at airports and border crossings. But if Leonard Boyle, director of…
revere | October 18, 2007I suppose this falls in the "It Can't Happen Here!" department. The "here" is the United States. "There" is Ireland, where the government has access to a wide range of personal financial information. Just for good purposes, you understand. Maybe as part of the Global War on Terror? Whatever. Good purposes:
The security of everyone's personal and financial details is in serious doubt after a civil servant mole leaked highly sensitive information to his criminal brother.
The Irish Independent can reveal the brother used the key information, which is held by the Government, to burgle one man and…
mikethemadbiologist | October 15, 2007...they're after you? Are we being spied upon by bug-like robots? There have been three independent sightings according to the Washington Post:
Vanessa Alarcon saw them while working at an antiwar rally in Lafayette Square last month.
"I heard someone say, 'Oh my god, look at those,' " the college senior from New York recalled. "I look up and I'm like, 'What the hell is that?' They looked kind of like dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects."
Out in the crowd, Bernard Crane saw them, too.
"I'd never seen anything like it in my life," the Washington lawyer said…
revere | October 8, 2007Preamble via Slashdot: News.com reports that the FCC won't be investigating the phone record disclosures by communications companies under US government pressure. Despite a congressional request for that probe, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin quashed the inquiry based on comments from National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell.
Back in the day, when I was a young strippling in 60s New York, we tuned nightly to a listener supported station of the Pacifica Foundation, WBAI. It was great. Bob Fass in the wee hours. One of the things WBAI did 30 years ago was take on the FCC over broadcast of…
mikethemadbiologist | October 7, 2007The Washington Post has an excellent story about the WWII interrogators of high level Nazis. Unlike the minions of Little Lord Pontchartrain, they managed to gather intelligence without torture:
When about two dozen veterans got together yesterday for the first time since the 1940s, many of the proud men lamented the chasm between the way they conducted interrogations during the war and the harsh measures used today in questioning terrorism suspects.
Back then, they and their commanders wrestled with the morality of bugging prisoners' cells with listening devices. They felt bad about…
mikethemadbiologist | October 6, 2007
In some wickedly funny satire, Amanda Marcotte shows us how to create an anti-menstruation movement:
The "abortion is icky" argument is such that the anti-choice crowd could easily start agitating for a ban on menstruation without skipping a beat. The fact that menstruation is incredibly common shouldn't slow them down; after all, the anti-choice position demands that you believe that more than 1/3 of American women are murderers. Menstruation is, except maybe to a handful of insistent earth mother crunchy feminists, generally regarded as pretty icky. I throw a bloody tampon at you, you'll…
mikethemadbiologist | September 30, 2007And some Republicans wonder why most Jews don't vote Republican. Well, conservative talk radio is one answer. Here's what conservative talk radio host Mike Rosen has to say:
Sure. [Caller], you have exceptions like Milton Friedman, for example, a brilliant free-market economist who was more libertarian than conservative and one of my all-time heroes. Milton Friedman certainly understood the big picture, but so many Jews who are regarded by people as instinctively good merchants are just that. They're merchants at the retail level and don't have, I don't think, a good grasp of the big…
mikethemadbiologist | September 29, 2007There are no NASA scientists in this picture (from here)
Because if NASA scientists do science, the terrorists win. Or something.
Over at Culture Kitchen, there's a good series of posts about the new NASA security procedures that apply to all NASA employees. Parts one and two are worth reading, but the categories of offenses that are part of the "Suitability Matrix." Here's the description of the lowest level of offenses, Class A (italics mine):
Severity A:
Infrequent use or possession of marijuana. Abusive language (Hey...we live in NYC here!). Unlawful assembly (which some protests we…
mikethemadbiologist | August 30, 2007Via LiveScience comes this interesting story about gay relationships during medieval times (italics mine):
Civil unions between male couples existed around 600 years ago in medieval Europe, a historian now says.
Historical evidence, including legal documents and gravesites, can be interpreted as supporting the prevalence of homosexual relationships hundreds of years ago, said Allan Tulchin of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.
If accurate, the results indicate socially sanctioned same-sex unions are nothing new, nor were they taboo in the past.
"Western family structures have been much…
revere | August 7, 2007&otFrom The Onion's "American Voices; (man in the street interviews)
Congress Approves Surveillance Measures
The Democratic-controlled House passed a bill that will allow wide-ranging domestic and foreign eavesdropping that would be authorized by a secret court. What do you think?
Ed Albaugh, Elevator Repairman
"You won't need to eavesdrop to hear this: I voted for you assholes because you said you were against shit like this."
Is this really satire?
revere | August 6, 2007I usually vote Democrat. That's because where I live they are much more likely to uphold democratic values -- including the value of personal liberties guaranteed in the US Constitution. The current Republican Party is hopeless on civil liberties, being such cowards they are ready to throw personal freedoms under the bus whenever George W. shouts "terrorist." Upholding personal liberties is not the sole property of Democrats. Many Libertarians also hold this position strongly, although not all do. And unfortunately, not all Democrats do either. I will not support any Democrat whose regard for…
mikethemadbiologist | August 4, 2007(from here by way of Mimus Pauly)
The Democrats rolled over on FISA legislation, giving Bush even more latitude in spying on his own citizens. As Josh Marshall put it:
Bush is getting practically everything he asked for.
He should have phrased that as a question because I can't figure out why they rolled over. Bush has a 25-30% percent approval rating. All the Democrats would have had to do is phrase their response as a question, "Do you trust George Bush with even more power?" and they win.
Still the most hapless political party in recorded history.
mikethemadbiologist | August 2, 2007Well, Dobzhansky actually said, "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution", but, as I've mentioned before, there's a lot to be learned from the sociopolitcal controversy surrounding evolutionary biology. Over at Pandagon, Amanda writes about Ross Douthat's ridiculous claim that those who favor legal and safe abortion are eugenicists (italics mine):
Anti-choicers who engage the "OHMIGOD EUGENICS" argument are advancing what might be the classic bad faith argument. They're not interested in stopping eugenics so much as creating a wedge issue that will cause liberals to…
mikethemadbiologist | August 2, 2007The July 28 edition of the Lancet has a superb editorial about the need for legal and safe abortion in the developing world, particularly in Latin America (I've snipped parts; italics mine):
...Irrespective of an individual's viewpoint, the debate over abortion in Latin America cannot be ignored. In Brazil, which has the world's largest Roman Catholic population, abortion is only permitted after rape or to save a mother's life. Yet every year 1·4 million women undergo the procedure, terminating one in three pregnancies. Almost 250 000 Brazilian women seek treatment in public hospitals for…
mikethemadbiologist | July 15, 2007Actually, that's not quite accurate. I'll let this picture explain why:
(Ricardo Thomas/The Detroit News)
I should have written Republican candidate, since Rep. Tom Tancredo was the only Republican presidential candidate to show up. And Ken Mehlman wonders why the Republicans aren't doing better among black voters...
Update: Amanda has more.
mikethemadbiologist | July 10, 2007Over at Pandagon, Amanda raises an interesting issue about the subtext of the phrase "trusting women" when used to argue for reproductive freedom:
Okay, in all honesty, I think the phrase, while well-intended and certainly catchy, is bad framing. I don't trust women, not all women. Hell, I don't trust myself on occasion. We are all capable of bad decision-making, as anyone who's had a hangover or an ex-boyfriend who calls you at work and harasses you can attest. (*cough*) The phrase "trust women", while most definitely not intended this way, upholds the frame that women's freedom is…
mikethemadbiologist | July 5, 2007The FTC has released a report calling for the end of net neutrality (FTC's pdf report here*). What does that mean? Well:
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has decided to abandon net neutrality and allow telecoms companies to charge websites for access.
The FTC said in a report that, despite popular support for net neutrality, it was minded to let the market sort out the issue.
This means that the organisation will not stand in the way of companies using differential pricing to make sure that some websites can be viewed more quickly than others. The report also counsels against net…
mikethemadbiologist | June 24, 2007Scott LeMieux exposes the illogic of Melinda Henneberger's NY Times op-ed about abortion and Democrats. What I can't figure out is what does Henneberger want?
Once again, we have a Democratic concern troll who fails to see even the basic contours of the landscape:
Do you want abortion to be legal and safe, or illegal and unsafe?
That is the issue. Unfortunately, there is no real compromise to be had*, and even if there were, it wouldn't matter to these 'moderate' [*cough*bullshit*cough*] voters. Sympathetic noises or compromises will not satisfy those voters Henneberger describes as…
mikethemadbiologist | June 22, 2007With Massachusetts having prevented the attempt to de-legalize gay marriage, there is much discussion about the topic. But this story about a splinter Mormon group highlights the importance of outlawing one type of marriage: marriages between close relatives. By way of Lance Mannion, from Reuters (italics mine):
In a dusty neighborhood under sheer sandstone cliffs studded with juniper on the Arizona-Utah border, a rare genetic disorder is spreading through polygamous families on a wave of inbreeding.
The twin border communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, have the world…
mikethemadbiologist | June 16, 2007Nobody likes jury duty: most criminal and civil cases involve some moron doing something they shouldn't have--and you end up have to waste time due to said moron. Nonetheless, having a jury trial is a cornerstone of our justice system. It's also useful in the 'smaller' cases, since the ability of prosecutors to say "I have a jury next door waiting to hear this case" often results in plea settlements.
Unfortunately, Suffolk county, MA has a jury pool problem:
Suffolk County, facing a years-long surge in violent crime and a spike in trials, will run out of prospective jurors by October,…