Archive for the ‘internet/free speech’ Category

China? Where have I heard this before…

Posted: January 13, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech
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Way back in the hiwired blog days I put up these posts concerning China and google when they first agreed to censor the net for China, contrary to their “Do no Evil policy”.

We covered China a lot in the HiWired blog days (and kudos to the bosses at HiWired back then for letting us do it) , in those days Yahoo and Microsoft were the primary villains.

Now Google may have had enough enough:

We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that “we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.”

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences. We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today. We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues raised.

The statement is good but time will tell if it actually means anything.

Lileks tweats it best

Google lies down with dogs, wakes, does search for “flea treatment”

Nobody is telling me that they didn’t know stuff like this was going to happen or going on. I think that Plausible deniability just didn’t exist this time.

I hope I’m wrong, I hope it’s a real wake-up call but time will have to tell

How can you not like a man like Chris Hitchens…

Posted: January 12, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech
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…he has all the tools of classical liberalism. You can’t help but respect such a man even when disagreeing with him. Michael J. Totten’s site contains part one of a two part interview that I suspect a lot of people missed last week with all the political news out there. One gem from it:

Hitchens: Here’s a way of throwing an Oregon progressive into a state of confusion: ask him or her if they’ve read the latest Al Qaeda pronouncements on the Hindu question. Or, shall we put it another way, a billion infidels, brown-skinned, third world, living in a secular democracy, and all of them deemed by fatwa as fit only for slaughter.

Who’s the racist here? Me for pointing that out?

Read the whole thing.

I guess the green jobs that Berkeley are preparing students for…

Posted: January 12, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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…are as groundskeepers.

Berkeley High School is considering a controversial proposal to eliminate science labs and the five science teachers who teach them to free up more resources to help struggling students.

The proposal to put the science-lab cuts on the table was approved recently by Berkeley High’s School Governance Council, a body of teachers, parents, and students who oversee a plan to change the structure of the high school to address Berkeley’s dismal racial achievement gap, where white students are doing far better than the state average while black and Latino students are doing worse.

Michelle says this:

Such are the wages of political correctness and social justice.

Ironically C. S. Lewis predicted this very thing in his final “Screwtape” story. Screwtape proposes a toast, when his devil address young tempters at their graduation dinner:

I believe the English already use the phrase – “parity of esteem.” An even more drastic scheme is not possible. Children who are fit to proceed to a higher class may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma — Beelzebub, what a useful word! – by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Aeschylus or Dante sits listening to his coeval’s attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON A MAT.

In a word, we may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when I’m as good as you has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will be prevented; who are they to overtop their fellows? And anyway the teachers – or should I say, nurses? – will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time on real teaching. We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturbable conceit and incurable ignorance among men. The little vermin themselves will do it for us.”

Make no mistake this is just as racist as the Clinton Coffee Quote but unlike the quote in question it’s decisions like this that has the power to cause the result that Bill Clinton was hinting at.

Why any parents of any race would put up with this is beyond me, but you know what? Unless Berkeley is very different than anywhere else; they likely have an elected school committee. Berkeley people are doing this to themselves and thus deserve everything that they are getting from this.

Why anyone would be surprised at this when the president does the same to minority students in DC is beyond me.

There is an awful lot of news on the net concerning Scott Brown…

Posted: January 12, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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…Not Tucker Carlson collects some big headlines today:

There are several stories here worth following but his biggest link is the endorsement of the Worcester Telegram.

From what debates have occurred, however, the differences between the contenders are clear. Ms. Coakley would constitute a willing 60th vote for just about anything that the Democratic majority in Congress favors, including the budget-busting health-care reform legislation whose final details are now being debated in Congress. As noted above, that alone is not a reason to reject her candidacy, but there is little reason to believe that, on any major issue, Ms. Coakley would constitute anything other than another link in an unbroken chain of Democratic votes to expand the reach and role of government.

That lockstep mentality and one-party rule has not served the people of Massachusetts well on Beacon Hill, but led to a culture of corruption and arrogance. The same has been true on Capitol Hill, where, whether under President Bush or President Obama, large majorities for one party or the other have led to complacency, overspending, and a willingness to shutter debates and muffle the voice of the people.

The last paragraph is critical and it reflects the real change that has taken place with Ted Kennedy’s death and, in my opinion the primary reason why he kept getting re-elected:

The reality is that Massachusetts voters gain little by electing yet another Democrat to a congressional delegation that is already the bluest in the nation. With Mr. Brown, they would establish a foothold on the GOP side of the aisle that could prove invaluable in coming years when, as it inevitably does, the pendulum of political power swings back toward the middle. emphasis mine

The Days of Tip O’Neill, and John McCormick are long gone. The fact is that Ted Kennedy the last link to that era, had power, even in the minority. His seniority, incredible political skill and his knowledge of where the bodies were buried in Washington was huge. Massachusetts no longer has the clout is used to have. When Ted was there you messed with Massachusetts at your own risk. With him gone Massachusetts is just another Northeastern state with a falling amount of congressional seats and electoral votes.

A republican seat would mean that when power shifts the state will not be locked out, in fact a republican congress would be inclined to make sure that Brown is taken care of to boost prospects for the party up here.

I’m still not over confident but I’m feeling better and better and the ready made tag line fed by Gergen is certainly going to help.

Vote Brown, I am.

Update: Martha Coakley may have to ask her sister about what do do with Al Qaeda but when it comes to gardening clubs she’s tough as nails.

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