War on Abstractions 24 Aug 2007 As part of the “War on Drugs” an entire family of hydroponics sellers, selling legally available material, were sentenced to prison without parole. Gary Tucker has just been released after a ten year stretch and confiscation of all his goods and money. His brother Steve died of cancer in prison. Why? He refused to allow the DEA to install surveillance cameras in his store to identify his customers. “This isn’t Nazi Germany” he said. One wonders… read the rest. It’s harrowing. Hat tip to the Lippard Blog Politics
Administrative A new comment policy? 6 May 2011 From Barry Ritholz’s blog Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you… Read More
Politics Is America fascist? 12 Oct 200818 Sep 2017 A while ago, almost exactly two years back, I asked Is the Bush Administration fascist? I think we can now safely say it is, at least in the style of Mussolini and Franco. Now Echidne of the Snakes has a series of articles up on whether the Republicans have so… Read More
Politics Student database to attract hackers 17 Jun 2008 Okay, so while we’re bagging on Queensland, here’s a couple of articles (Ars Technica, ZDNet) on a proposed and apparently non-negotiable database of Queensland students, including their things like photos, career aspirations, off-campus activities, contact information, behavior records, attendance, and performance records. But don’t worry: the minister has declared that… Read More
In my area, I’m seeing more and more police crackdowns on just about everything, from DUI, to drugs, to parking tickets. The politicians “war on crime” slogan sells well here, and they’re getting better at finding things to convict you of.