Category: America

FCC’s Current Stance on Internet Censorship

This topic came up in a lunch conversation today, and I wanted to confirm I still accurately understood the FCC’s current position:

“That being said, the F.C.C. has no jurisdiction over what content an individual broadcasts over the Internet, assuming it is legal.”

Looks like the recently ratified Cybercrime Treaty is the closest to internet censorship.

The treaty requires the U.S. government help enforce other countries’ “cybercrime” laws – even if the act being prosecuted is not illegal in the United States – EFF

Seems consistent with the previous statement…if only that it extends to the following 15 countries; Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, Macedonia, Ukraine.

I’ve Never Been to New York or New Orleans

Last year’s Katrina disaster in New Orleans is a far more important event in our nation’s history than today’s date.

Katrina told us we’re unprepared for predictable, frequent, and common events. That’s bad.

Nothing wrong with being unprepared for rare and spectacular events.

“In many ways, the success of 9/11 was an anomaly; there were many points where it could have failed. The main reason we haven’t seen another 9/11 is that it isn’t as easy as it looks.” – Bruce Schneier

There’s something in here about comparing these disasters to technology:
“The impact of technology is often overestimated in the short-term and underestimated in the long-term.” (credited to Bill Gates).

Why the Democrats Lose

Over the past 17 days I’ve received 19 calls from this same unknown number. No message, no nothing. Some where in there, I found out it was the DNC calling (presumably for money) and well, I don’t have time for that right now. They just kept calling, and calling, and I just kept hitting ‘Ignore’. Leave a message, seriously.

Tonight, call number 20, I had a single moment to hear their spiel.

Uninspiring. Some vague statement about needing to train people, some script-read bit about taking back something from Bush, and how they need 80 gazillion dollars to make it worth their while. And the ask;

“Can we count on you to make a symbolic contribution of $110?”

“Symbolic” contribution?

Are they asking for actual, real money?

Baffled, I asked why they called me 20 times and couldn’t leave a message.

She apologized and said the call center had so many calls to make that nobody had time to leave a message.

Wrong answer.

There are so many things wrong with this story. So many. At least 20.

If the DNC is going to win, they need to be aggressive, passionate, straight-forward, engaging, and focused. Not annoying, aimless, vague, and apologetic.

Have we learned nothing?

End Illegal Immigration – Send More Jobs to Mexico

The reason America has so many illegal immigrants is the same reason America (and any other country) has immigration. Same reason young Americans flee the Dakotas. Those places suck.

Building a fence between the US and Mexico won’t make Mexico suck less (or NoDak) – illegal workers sending money to their home country just might. US, European, and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) corporations opening satellite offices, training Mexicans, and making Mexico a cool place to be will.

What if.

What if the rest of the world took it upon themselves to improve Mexico. And they did. Sure it could take years. Decades. Decades that should be behind us.

Oh, Canada?

We’re watching some Degrassi Junior High tonight and a bit about the U.S. invading Canada came up. Now, it may surprise you that my public school education didn’t discuss the multiple times we invaded (War of 1812, Fenian Raids of the 1860s), or planned to, our northern neighbors.

First I heard of an invasion was Canadian Bacon. Oh, and History Lessons: How Textbooks from Around the World Portray U.S. History.

(related note: Numb3rs is written just like Degrassi)

Bird Flu for the Birds

Perhaps I’d feel differently if Bird Flu was the only Big Bad the Big Media has thrown at us in the past 6 years. But it’s not.

Flood. Iraq. Terrorist Attack. Neighbors. Asteriods. First Graders. Blogs. (Maybe I’ll finish finding links later, maybe not.)

Call me cynical, but bird flu feels FUDdy. Especially when something like this comes through.

Jen read Flu. She says we’re due.

That may be. At minimum, the wrong people (everyone) are being told to prepare for something full of ‘ifs’, ‘whens’, and ‘maybes’.

“The H5N1 avian flu virus that has infected flocks on at least three continents and killed 91 people could be the virus that experts fear will mutate.”

(emphasis mine)

91 people have died on record from bird-to-human transmission. No human-to-human cases have been found.

The CDC conservatively estimates 20,000 people die each year from regular flu (the kind we have shots for).

More than 33,000 people have died due to military intervention in Iraq. The official death toll of the Sept. 11 disaster is 2,986.

I still remember the constant threat of MAD thrown at us growing up. I recognize that there were moments in the cold war where it came very close to occurring.

But. It. Didn’t. I think we’ve lost perspective.