Archive for the ‘opinion/news’ Category

Official spyware?

Posted: January 6, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news, tech
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There has been a lot of loose talk over the years of civil liberties being eroded but this looks like the real thing:

THE Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan to allow police across Britain routinely to hack into people’s personal computers without a warrant.

The quietly part really bothers me almost as much as the without a warrant

The strategy will allow French, German and other EU forces to ask British officers to hack into someone’s UK computer and pass over any material gleaned.

That is an incredible surrender of sovereignty.

Police might also send an e-mail to a suspect’s computer. The message would include an attachment that contained a virus or “malware”. If the attachment was opened, the remote search facility would be covertly activated. Alternatively, police could park outside a suspect’s home and hack into his or her hard drive using the wireless network.

That is interesting, would it be made illegal for makers of anti-spyware software to block or stop this stuff?

The idea that this can be done without an explicit vote in Parliament is disgusting. Regardless of your opinion of the patriot act in the US the Congress passed it out of both houses and the president did sign it. This is being done without the consent of the people at all.

The actual story is here. Via insty & samizdata.net

He expresses it better than me

Posted: January 6, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news, war
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I’ve been wrestling with a post I made yesterday through several replies and updates. I think Jeff Goldberg (via Glenn) in the Atlantic expressed what I’ve been thinking much better than me:

Okay, yesterday I was depressed. Today, I’m just pissed off. It’s absolutely astonishing to me how interested the world is in Israel’s failings. This is the source of a bitter but hilarious observation I once heard a Kurdish leader make: He was complaining to me that his people were cursed, and I asked him what he meant: Cursed by geography, cursed by their proximity to Kurd-hating Arabs, what? He said the Kurds were cursed because they didn’t have Jewish enemies. Only with Jewish enemies would the world pay attention to their plight.

…

we’ve all seen endless pictures of dead Palestinian children now. It’s a terrible, ghastly, horrible thing, the deaths of children, and for the parents it doesn’t matter if they were killed by accident or by mistake. But ask yourselves this: Why are these pictures so omnipresent? I’ll tell you why, again from firsthand, and repeated, experience: Hamas (and the Aksa Brigades, and Islamic Jihad, the whole bunch) prevents the burial, or even preparation of the bodies for burial, until the bodies are used as props in the Palestinian Passion Play. Once, in Khan Younis, I actually saw gunmen unwrap a shrouded body, carry it a hundred yards and position it atop a pile of rubble — and then wait a half-hour until photographers showed. It was one of the more horrible things I’ve seen in my life. And it’s typical of Hamas. If reporters would probe deeper, they’d learn the awful truth of Hamas. But Palestinian moral failings are not of great interest to many people.

The question is why are Palestinian moral failings not of great interest to people, why are the Kurds cursed to not have Jewish foes?

Can someone on the left explain this to me? I really need an answer to this that leads me to different conclusions.

This sounds like Sherman too

Posted: January 6, 2009 by datechguy in arthur vs carter, opinion/news
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Via Israellycool this Arab written article is rather amazing:

With Israel entering its fourth week of an incursion into the same Gaza Strip it voluntarily evacuated a few months ago, a sense of reality among Arabs is spreading through commentary by Arab pundits, letters to the editor, and political talk shows on Arabic-language TV networks. The new views are stunning both in their maturity and in their realism. The best way I can think of to convey them is in the form of a letter to the Palestinian Arabs from their Arab friends:

Dear Palestinian Arab brethren:

The war with Israel is over.

You have lost. Surrender and negotiate to secure a future for your children.

The next phrase sounds just like Sherman:

…you and your leaders have wasted three generations trying to fight for Palestine, but the truth is the Palestine you could have had in 1948 is much bigger than the one you could have had in 1967, which in turn is much bigger than what you may have to settle for now or in another 10 years. Struggle means less land and more misery and utter loneliness.

At the moment, brothers, you would be lucky to secure a semblance of a state in that Gaza Strip into which you have all crowded, and a small part of the West Bank of the Jordan. It isn’t going to get better.

Here is Sherman in Jan 1964

Three years ago by a little reflection and patience they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity, but they preferred war; very well. Last year they could have saved their slaves, but now it is too late.

All the powers of earth cannot restore to them their slaves, any more than their dead grandfathers. Next year their lands will be taken, for in war we can take them, and rightfully, too, and in another year they may beg in vain for their lives. A people who will persevere in war beyond a certain limit ought to know the consequences.

I attribute Arab movement in this direction to three things: The War in Iraq, The Gaza withdrawal, and Iran’s move for the bomb. It remains to be seen if Israel can win the propaganda war. If it can the whole dynamic of the area can change.

We can be sure that unless totally destroyed Hamas will hold out till at least the 20th to see if there is any change with the new president. It will be interesting. Arthur or Carter. Believe it or not I’m betting Arthur.

Simple ways to prove me wrong

Posted: January 6, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: ,

My provocative statement concerning the left and Jews is not going over well with some. My follow up considering Nordlinger’s position is still being considered by me, but there are very simple steps that the left can do to prove me wrong right away:

  • Condemn the rocket attacks by Hamas on Israel that led to the current war.
  • Condemn groups within their own coalition that call for the destruction of Israel
  • Condemn groups that call for the death of Jews
  • Exclude groups from “anti-war” marches that call for either the destruction of Israel or the murder of Jews
  • On left leaning blogs comment condemning those who call for either the death of Jews, the destruction of Israel or advocate violence against the Jews.  I don’t call for banning such commentators unless such statements contravene the particular blog’s guidelines.  Speech whenever possible should be answered with speech.
  • This must be done in the same public manor and with the same volume that you condemn Israel, Bush or America.

If the left can do this then that would certainly prove me wrong.  I would be delighted to see it.  A great example of this on the right is at Little Green Footballs which has taken an awful lot of grief for rejecting any alliance with Vlaams Belang even to combat Jihad.

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