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The pro-war libertarian quiz
The ever interesting reason magazine posted
How far are you willing to go to win the War on Terror?These days I’m more for finishing Iraq favorably than pro-war, but I am strongly against just “declaring victory” or “strategic redeployment” without really changing anything.
Recently, here are my answers
- Should the National Security Agency or CIA have the ability to monitor domestic phone calls or e-mails without obtaining judicial approval?
Nope. I think this is an impeachable offense too. The current case (supposedly) only monitored calls that crossed borders, which is legally a different matter, if I’m understanding things correctly.
- Should the government have the ability to hold an American citizen without charge, indefinitely, without access to a lawyer, if he is believed to be part of a terrorist cell?
No. If caught on the battlefield I support stripping them of citizenship (by virtue of them being a foreign army and then treating them as one would a foreigner).
- Can you imagine a situation in which the government would be justified in waterboarding an American citizen?
Yes. This question doesn’t belong here at all. This should be subject to warrants as well, but there are several situations where this could be the right thing to do.
- Are there American journalists who should be investigated for possible treason? Should Sedition laws be re-introduced?
If they committed treason (using the standard definition that is unrelated to journalism) ,then yes. If not, then no. No to sedition laws. FYI – I consider freedom of the press to mean publishing, not protecting confidentiality of sources. They should be able to publish whatever they want, its the cover-ups and withholding information that I don’t consider protected.
- Should the CIA be able to legally assassinate people in countries with which the U.S. is not at war?
Yes
- Should anti-terrorism cops be given every single law-enforcement tool available in non-terrorist cases?
No. I guess this is really asking is if we should have super-cops or not.
- Should law enforcement be able to seize the property of a suspected (though not charged) American terrorist, and then sell it?
No. Absolutely not. Due process of law in all things.
- Should the U.S. military be tasked with enforcing domestic crime?
No. With a possible exception of keeping order in case of natural disasters.
- Should there be a national I.D. card, and should it be made available to law enforcement on demand?
No.
- Should a higher percentage of national security-related activities and documents be made classified, and kept from the eyes of the Congress, the courts, and the public?
No. Anything classified should have an automatic sunset date commensurate to it’s secrecy, but nothing should be indefinite.
8 out of 10.
- Should the National Security Agency or CIA have the ability to monitor domestic phone calls or e-mails without obtaining judicial approval?
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Digital irritants
I finally get around to installing the DV cable to the new LCD, and I find out there are several kinds of DV cables, and I ordered the wrong one. How irritating.
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A good design
Once you get past the Flash, is Gorilla Nation Media.
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Now this is interesting
The Smoking Gun is running a long article on James Frey, author of A Million Little Piece. Apparently he made it up.
Of interest to me
During the October show, which featured Frey as its only guest, Winfrey discussed details of that tale. He was, she said, “the child you pray you never have to raise,” a raging, drug-abusing teenager who had been arrested 11 times by age 19. In college, he drank to excess, took meth, freebased cocaine, huffed glue and nitrous oxide, smoked PCP, ate mushrooms, and was “under investigation by police.” By the time he checked into Hazelden in late-1993, Frey, then 23, was “wanted in three states,” added Winfrey.
Now really, if you’ve been arrested 11 times by 19, and done all the drugs listed above, what’s left to investigate? Heavy, Bad Lieutenant style drug use would seem to preclude most heavy criminal activity, and pretty much anything else. If you’ve reached the crapping blood stage of drug use (as he claims), I don’t think you rate any high powered police attention.
I haven’t read the book, but the article is very good and very detailed. If true, (and it seems to be) Frey is quite the liar.
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Insights from the Carter Family box set
I got the first Carter Family Box set recently. It’s quite good, and nowhere near as repetitive as most of these things. And at $25.99 its well worth it for disks. I think all Carter Family stuff is out of copywright, which is why it is so cheap.
The current zinger, from the children’s song “Chewing Gum”
I’d never marry a lawyer, I’ll tell you the reason why
Every time he opens his mouth, he tells a great big lieI wouldn’t have a doctor, I’ll tell you the reason why
He goes all over the country and makes the people die -
Site of the moment
How to Do Harsh Death Metal Vocals
Are you in awe of the raw, vocal stylings of death metal bands? Do you ever want to sing along? Here’s how to emulate the guttural lyrics that make death metal music distinct….
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This is weird and scary
Private industry eavesdropping
The Chicago Police Department is warning officers their cell phone records are available to anyone — for a price. Dozens of online services are selling lists of cell phone calls, raising security concerns among law enforcement and privacy experts.
Criminals can use such records to expose a government informant who regularly calls a law enforcement official.
Suspicious spouses can see if their husband or wife is calling a certain someone a bit too often.
And employers can check whether a worker is regularly calling a psychologist — or a competing company.
I’ve been wondering about this. I wonder how much the media does this as well. There has been very little coverage about cell phone privacy since Gingrich was recorded illegally several years ago. PGP encryption coverage has been curiously non-existent as well.
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Saturday rapid fire
- Forests paying the price for biofuels – not that surprising really. Everything has a cost.
- Good and bad procrastination
That’s the sense in which the most impressive people I know are all procrastinators. They’re type-C procrastinators: they put off working on small stuff to work on big stuff.
What’s “small stuff?” Roughly, work that has zero chance of being mentioned in your obituary.
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Interesting
A tad overblown, but an interesting article on RFID zappers by John Robb.
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Annoyances
So, last night I was in a CD store, and came across Merle Haggard’s new CD Chicago Wind. Hag has been on a great song-writing streak lately so I was about to buy it, but then I see the warning label
[CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]
This product limits your ability to make multiple digital copies of its content, and you will not be able to play this disc or make copies onto devices not listed as compatible. Content/ copy protected CDs should allow limited burning, as well as ripping into secure Windows Media Audio formats for playback with most compatible media players and portable devices. In rare cases, these CDs may not be compatible with computer CD-ROM players, DVD players, game consoles, or car CD stereos, and often are not transferable to other formats like MP3.which annoyed me to no end. Who would buy something with that label? I haven’t listened to music directly off a cd in years, everything gets ripped when I first get the CD and then put on a shelf for safekeeping.
UPDATE : Yes, I have seen theSony rootkit news, quite extensively actually. I did not realize that the warning was actually on the CD, which just goes to show I’ve been buying nothing topical lately. I thought it was just when you tried to play it in a computer.