Wikileaks: Our Weapon Shop of Ishtar

URL:  http://c4ss.org/content/3332

Kevin Carson kind of spirals off into anarchotopia-la-la land in the last paragraph but I think the key takeaway item is here:

"This is a giant leap forward for the kind of networked resistance I constantly advocate in this column: not lobbying or begging the state for permission, but bypassing it and treating it as irrelevant. This is a monumental contribution to the ability of free people to organize the kind of society they want here and now, below the state’s radar and beyond the reach of its enforcement apparatus."

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/aWfLHW

Liberty For All Means Immigrants Too

URL:  http://c4ss.org/content/3350

"Liberty means nothing if the freedom of any group is placed above individual liberty. And people do not stop being individuals if they are born in a different country. All individuals have the right to claim the fullest liberty to do as they will, provided they do not invade the liberty of others. Moving to a different part of the world and trying to improve one’s life – with or without permission from a government – does not violate anyone’s liberty."

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/b9U1LP

Breaking Down the 2009 DMCA Rulemaking, Part 1: Victory for Vidders

URL:  http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/07/breaking-down-2009...

The EFF takes on the pros and cons of the new DMCA circumvention exemptions.

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/a34aUa

The Difference between ‘True Science’ and ‘Cargo-Cult Science’

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-difference-between-true-scien...

[excerpt] In the South Pacific during the Second World War, the locals noticed that cargo planes would fly into airports that had been established on their islands, and unload vast amounts of goodies. The natives wanted the wealth too, so they hacked runways out of the jungle, made “radar antennas” out of wood, and sat at “radio sets” they had also fashioned out of wood. To their eyes, it looked like the real thing, but alas, no planes arrived with cargo. The native “cargo-cult” airport had the superficial appearance of an airport, but not the reality.

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/ayR0XX

DOJ Pushing to Expand Warrantless Access to Internet Records

URL:  http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/07/doj-pushing-expand...

"(T)he DOJ is asking Congress to pass vague and broad new language meant to expand the kinds of data that can be acquired through NSLs. This morning's Washington Post article suggests that the new language could allow access to detailed web browsing history, search history, location information, or even Facebook friend requests."

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/daWrsZ

Concerns Aplenty for the 2 Federal Privacy Bills

URL:  http://techliberation.com/2010/07/29/concerns-aplenty-f...

New privacy bills raise concerns over intrusive regulation of standard business communications.

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/aOc2TF

Our Communities Depend Upon Individual Nullifiers with Courage

URL:  http://c4ss.org/content/3291?utm_source=feedburner&utm_...

"American culture is many things, but it is definitively not about respect for unjust authority. The entire history and culture of this place echoes a profound respect (at the very least rhetorically) for freedom and justice under the law. America has seen a strong tradition of individuals acting immediately as nullifiers to laws they deem unjust."

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/bJv5Fz

Seniors Know More than Polltakers - John Goodman - NCPA

URL:  http://www.john-goodman-blog.com/seniors-know-more-than...

John Goodman debunks NCOA disinformation campaign.

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/cVsFY7

Needed: The Separation of Cable and State

URL:  http://www.fff.org/freedom/0598d.asp

"While no local government would be likely even to attempt to grant a monopoly to a local newspaper, cable television systems routinely receive such preference. More than 99 percent of the cable markets in the United States are served by only one cable company. An FCC survey found that cable systems with monopolies charged an average of 65 cents a channel per month while those that faced competition charged only 48 cents per channel."

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/cNW5AH

Externalities, Libertarianism, and Social Dilemmas

http://newkindofmind.blogspot.com/2010/07/externalities-libert...

"Every reasonable person understands that being part of society means living with a certain amount of annoyance and idiosyncrasy in exchange for a greater diversity of culture, opportunity, and luxury. Participating in society has such externalities built into it. Society is founded upon the tolerance of minor differences and justified on the basis that one gets more out of it than they end up losing."

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/9UDiRf

No Substitute for Economic Justice

URL:  http://c4ss.org/content/3261

"By making capital and land artificially scarce and expensive, the state forces workers to sell their labor in a buyer’s market and thereby reduces the bargaining power of labor. The owners of land and capital are thereby enabled to collect scarcity rents.



"The economic effects are destabilizing. Income shifts from workers, who work mainly to meet their consumption needs, to rentiers with a high propensity to save and invest. The result is a chronic tendency toward overaccumulation and underconsumption.



"At the same time, the state subsidizes the most centralized, capital-intensive forms of production, leading to mass-production industry with overbuilt plant and equipment that’s constantly plagued with idle capacity."



I think he skates right by how the political class seeks to appease all sides with tax-funded, state-approved privilege and the resulting transfer of power to the state.

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/aJcJqG

Crovitz on the First Amendment, Parenting & “The Technology of Decency”

URL:  http://techliberation.com/2010/07/26/crovitz-on-the-fir...

Adam Thierer of the Technology Liberation Front on empowering parents and bringing responsibility back to broadcasting with WSJ columnist L. Gordon Crovitz' "The Technology of Decency."

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/d5w7hR

EFF Wins New Legal Protections for Video Artists, Cell Phone Jailbreakers, and Unlockers

URL:  http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2010/07/26

"The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) won three critical exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) anticircumvention provisions today, carving out new legal protections for consumers who modify their cell phones and artists who remix videos — people who, until now, could have been sued for their non-infringing or fair use activities."

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/adKw2C

A radical idea for airline security

URL:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-oped-0718...

"Americans have a constitutionally protected right, recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court, to travel freely. They also have the right not to be subject to unreasonable searches and other government intrusions. But in the blind pursuit of safety, we have swallowed restrictions on travel and infringements on privacy we would never tolerate elsewhere."

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/9WwnMQ

The Great Bacon Odyssey: Fried Chicken With a Bacon Crust

URL:  http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/07/the-great-bacon-od...

Geekdad at Wired (Matt Blum) has the greatest ideas!

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/9MMSFI

Noblesse Oblige

Is it just me or does this sound a little, well, arrogant? Why would anyone assume that people of the Muslim faith wouldn't feel good about their historic contribution to science? Is "Nannyism" taking over Foreign Policy as well as domestic?

in reference to:

"he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering."
- NASA's new mission: Building ties to Muslim world | San Francisco Examiner (view on Google Sidewiki)