History of Copyright [Falkvinge on Infopolicy]
Given the recent fuss raised by corrupt politicians (SOPA and ACTA) and thugs enforcing the “laws” of the Evil Empire on its puppet states, its interesting to look at this seven part series on the history of copyright.
This year’s presidential candidates span the political spectrum. They are both pro-abortion and anti-abortion. They have both embraced and opposed bans on assault weapons. They have both accepted and rejected the idea of human-induced climate change, both promoted and derided a government takeover of health care, supported both amnesty for illegal aliens and building a giant wall on the border. And that’s just Mitt Romney.
This year’s presidential candidates span the political spectrum. They are both pro-abortion and anti-abortion. They have both embraced and opposed bans on assault weapons. They have both accepted and rejected the idea of human-induced climate change, both promoted and derided a government takeover of health care, supported both amnesty for illegal aliens and building a giant wall on the border.
And that’s just Mitt Romney.
A. Barton Hinkle
“We Demand a Vapid, Condescending, Meaningless, Politically Safe Response to This Petition.”.
Reason has cast a gimlet eye on the White House’s “We the People” petition site before. (See Peter Suderman’s “5,000 Signatures Will Get You a Response From White House Policy Wonks, Unless Your Idea is “Bad” or About Weed”) But some enterprising citizens have take the enterprise of questioning the enterprise even further, submitting this petition on the site:
We demand a vapid, condescending, meaningless, politically safe response to this petition. Since these petitions are ignored apart from an occasional patronizing and inane political statement amounting to nothing more than a condescending pat on the head, we the signers would enjoy having the illusion of success. Since no other outcome to this process seems possible, we demand that the White House immediately assign a junior staffer to compose a tame and vapid response to this petition, and never attempt to take any meaningful action on this or any other issue. We would also like a cookie.
We demand a vapid, condescending, meaningless, politically safe response to this petition.
Since these petitions are ignored apart from an occasional patronizing and inane political statement amounting to nothing more than a condescending pat on the head, we the signers would enjoy having the illusion of success. Since no other outcome to this process seems possible, we demand that the White House immediately assign a junior staffer to compose a tame and vapid response to this petition, and never attempt to take any meaningful action on this or any other issue. We would also like a cookie.
After being hit with questions about UFOs and legalizing weed, the White House has raised the threshold for a guaranteed response to 25,000 e-signatures in 30 days. To date, the petition has 9,228. (Thanks in part to getting some media coverage yesterday.) Go to town, commenters.
Via Jerry Brito’s Google+ feed, where he describes the petition as “fatalistic and cynical.” I agree. And I would also like a cookie.
[Hit and Run]
Complementing the honest campaign ad, here’s the only realistic petition I’ve ever seen.
The Evil Empire has done everything it can to shut down donations to WikiLeaks, and it’s been pretty successful. I decided to try making a donation of $100 using one of the alternative methods available: Bitcoin. This was a multi-step process. First, I had to transfer money from my checking account to Dwolla, which took four days. From there, I transferred the money to Mt. Gox, which took another day. Once it was there I purchased $100 worth of bitcoins, which was about 7.14 at the time. Finally, I sent those bitcoins to the donation address for WikiLeaks. The last two steps took just a few minutes, most of which was spent dealing with the Mt. Gox interface.
Overall, this was rather inconvenient due to the hassle involved in actually getting the bitcoins. I expect this will only get worse in the future, as Bitcoin is something of a competitor for Dwolla. Paypal has a long-standing policy of cutting off businesses which are in any way involved with alternative currencies (stealing their balances in the process)–we saw that with e-gold well before they were attacked by the Evil Empire. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Dwolla either adopted an anticompetitive policy themselves, or else were ordered to by Gestapo agents.
The good news that once I actually got my hands (figuratively) on the bitcoins, it was trivial to bypass the blockade on WikiLeaks.
The Imminent Dollar Collapse, Explained To An 8-Year-Old. It’s the elephant in the room. The United States is utterly bankrupt and has been living off of borrowed money since 1971, when it defaulted on its loans — though of course, it wasn’t worded like that. Not even an income tax of 100% is enough to cover the expenses, and the US is about to go the way of the Soviet Union. [Falkvinge on Infopolicy]
I came across this nice simplified explanation of the current state of the US Dollar a while back. It was originally written in Swedish, so it doesn’t have the “Amerika über alles” viewpoint that pretty much anything written in the US does. I thought it was relevant today given the current fuss in the mainstream media about whether the government will have to “default” if they can’t borrow yet more money.
China ruling party ‘exceeds 80m’. China’s governing Communist Party, the world’s largest political party, says its membership has now passed 80 million. [BBC News]
According to Wikipedia, the Evil Empire’s ruling Boot On Your Neck Party had 127 million members split between its “Democrat” and “Republican” fronts as of 2004. While that number is seven years old, I certainly haven’t seen anything to suggest that it’s any smaller today.
A New Western Theocracy? There seems to be little place for facts in western democracies these days. Sample some news from a major mainstream news source (in the format of your choice), and you’ll doubtless hear of some new law, or a lawmaker making a ‘statement’ of a position that needs to be taken. If you poke a bit deeper, you’ll tend to find that there are usually few facts supporting the position or law – in many cases the facts flat-out oppose the law.
[…]
Facts can be challenged, their basis questions, the values disputed. There’s no challenging beliefs, because they are a belief, and their only basis is that someone feels that way. Any fantasy-land belief can be turned into a real-world law, through the application of spin-doctors and lies. When the beliefs lack of realistic basis shows up in its consequences, do we get some humility, a ‘hey I was wrong, let’s fix this’? No. It’s more beliefs. [Falkvinge on Infopolicy]
The ridiculous lightbulb ban I mentioned just a few days ago is an excellent example of this.
Postrel: Need a Light Bulb? Uncle Sam Chooses. in California, where I live, this plenitude no longer includes what most shoppers want: an inexpensive, plain-vanilla 100-watt incandescent bulb. Selling them is now illegal here. The rest of the country has until the end of the year to stock up before a federal ban kicks in. (I have a stash in storage.) Over the next two years, most lower-wattage incandescents will also disappear.
The bulb ban makes sense only one of two ways: either as an expression of cultural sanctimony, with a little technophilia thrown in for added glamour, or as a roundabout way to transfer wealth from the general public to the few businesses with the know-how to produce the light bulbs consumers don’t really want to buy.
Or, of course, as both. [Bloomberg]
Not content with banning capitalism, agriculture, and chemistry (aka “the War on Drugs”), the Evil Empire is now banning light bulbs. Of course, this is the same country that previously banned toilets–there’s really nothing so minor or silly that the government won’t threaten to murder people over it.
The philosophy of gun control: Teenagers are roaring through town at 90 MPH, where the speed limit is 25. Your solution is to lower the speed limit to 20, outlaw any vehicle that has a round hood ornament or that can carry more than 10 gallons of fuel, require sensitivity training and mandatory annual testing for all licensed drivers, require all vehicle purchases to be documented at a dealership (with a 10-day waiting period), and specify the locks on the garage where the vehicles are stored (with their wheels removed and stored in a locked container on the other side of the home). Meanwhile the most dangerous intersections are changed from stoplights to yield signs, and residential and school zone regulations are tightened with ‘no-stop’ rules so strict that even police cannot stop to set up a speed trap, thus giving the speeders free reign in the very areas they are likely to do the most damage.
Tony B.
Left wing — right wing: Same stinking carrion bird in between.
The Ultimate Answer to Kings