Seeing red
The Supreme Court is the least of our problems. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
46 days ago
Fascist America
“From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy…” Beneath the hyperbole and FUD, there is something worth paying attention to here.
304 days ago
American lawbreaking
“This series explores the black spots in American law: areas in which our laws are routinely and regularly broken and where the law enforcement response is … nothing.”
304 days ago
Ahoy, ye wee pirate!
“I’d say “tooooo strict!” and anyway he can’t make me do anything. He’s not the boss of me…”
304 days ago
Counting heads in the 'hood
Schenectady is doing a tax reassessment — nothing new for one of the highest taxed areas in the country — but this one comes with a twist. The Data Collectors, who are expected to ‘survey’ every home in the city, are mandated reporters.
In New York, mandated reporters who fail to report neglect or mistreatment can not only be prosecuted for a Class A misdemeanor but can be sued in civil court for monetary damages. This might make one err on the side of caution and it will be interesting to see if the city and county have the wherewithal to actually investigate any complaints, and there will likely be many, they receive.
While I’m all in favor of protecting children something about this procedure strikes me as being a little big brotherly and ripe for abuse. Our police department is not exactly known for it’s integrity and I can easily see them strolling down the hall to the clerks office, mentioning their interest in a given dwelling and suggesting they send out the big scary ex-cop Data Collector dude. The definition of neglect is pretty vague and it wouldn’t be hard to establish ‘good faith’. At that point it’s just a matter of a quick, mandated, call and they have their access.
It would seem to me that people trained to measure lots and count bedrooms may not need, or even desire this added responsibility and are always free, like anyone else, to file a report whenever they see fit.
331 days ago
One search, two results
I was reminded by a commenter on a weblog post about Google removing .torrent links about their censorship of results in China. While this is old news and something I was vaguely aware of, I never gave it much thought — while undoubtedly important, my capacity for outrage was, and is, pretty much maxed out.
Still, as suggested, I did a simple search for “tiananmen square”.
First, I did it in the regular old (US) Google image search and got a slew of results (21,799) with the iconic student and tank photograph featured prominently.
Then I did a Google (China) search and while the student and tank image happened to be number one (I figure it’s an oversight) the overall results were far fewer (991) and quite different.
What confuses me is that if Google is yanking .torrent links, based on US law (the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998), shouldn’t they apply US law to all search results? If citizens of Sweden are expected to abide by the DMCA, shouldn’t citizens of China benefit from our First Amendment protections?
377 days ago
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