While I am pretty ignorant about the processes of encryption and decryption, I have become intrigued with the topic, particularly since the decision by the mail service companies Lavabit and Silent Mail to shut down their businesses rather than having to be forced to hand over the keys to the government to snoop on their clients’ emails. [Read more…]
In this interview, the host of an MSNBC talk show actually makes New York mayoral candidate Anthony Wiener, as obnoxious and unlikable a person as I have ever seen in public life (and I am not even talking about his much-publicized private life), actually come off as sympathetic. What is it with people like O’Donnell who invite people for interviews on their shows and then self-righteously lecture them? Wiener clearly has a massive ego but O’Donnell seems to have an even bigger one, covered with a generous coating of sanctimony. Wiener, for all his faults, was exactly right in calling him out. [Read more…]
The trouble with John Kerry is that he is clearly in love with his own voice and does not know when to stop talking. While in the senate, he was notorious for long droning speeches at committee hearings that often resulted in him running out his allotted time before he could ask questions of the people before the panel. The Daily Show lampooned his performances back in 2009. [Read more…]
I was interested that the government of Costa Rica has decided to close all its zoos as part of its program to protect animals. The country banned circuses with animals in 2002. But what will happen to the animals in the zoos? The government plans to return them to the wild, which is not as simple as it sounds. [Read more…]
One of the hopeful features of the current political climate is that public opinion in the US has not been stampeded into supporting the bombing of Syria, at least not yet. In fact, as the propaganda for the war increases, public opinion is going the other way. Pew reports that just within the last two weeks, opposition to the war has surged from 48% to 63 % with support being stagnant at 28%. [Read more…]
So the case for Congress voting war against Syria is taking the usual turn from the merits of the war itself to how it will affect domestic politics and the elections in 2014 and 2016, and what it means for Israel. These are the topics that our chattering classes really care about. And of course the obligatory comparison with Hitler is brought up because no stampede to war is complete with invoking the latest incarnation of good old Adolph as the enemy. [Read more…]
I can understand why some black people use the n-word though it causes great discomfort to others. They are trying to turn the insult around and reclaim the word, the way that the gay community is trying to do with some words that were used against them in a derogatory way. [Read more…]
President Obama’s claim that he welcomes the debate over the NSA’s activities and planned to have one but that he objects to the fact that Edward Snowden revealed the things that he supposedly wants to discuss was obviously a lie. Does anyone seriously think that in the absence of Snowden, Obama would have one day voluntarily told the public what has been going on? [Read more…]
(Thanks to reader Marcus Ranum)
I wrote recently about Stephen Pinker’s efforts to defend scientism, where he argued that although the use of the word is not consistent and is often used as an epithet, it deserves to be defended because there is a positive meaning that can be salvaged.
There are some problems with his essay. One is that he starts out with a partial straw man. [Read more…]