On Terrorism – Part 2: How to Eliminate Terrorism Without Eliminating Liberty

We fight our so-called War on Terror as if we had only one ambition in our entire existence: to destroy terrorism at all costs. In reality, we have many goals, such as economic growth, personal and cultural development and many others, including maintenance, and expansion, of our civil liberties. So the real question is how do we stamp out terrorism without stamping out freedom?

On Terrorism – Part 1: What’s It Good For?

This will be a 2 part series. In part 1 I will look at terrorism from the point of view of the terrorist. I will ask ‘what’s terrorism good for?’ In Part 2 I will look at terrorism from the point of view of society. I will ask ‘how do we end terrorism without ending liberty and privacy, using what we learned in part 1?’

PART 1

Now that all the blathering about the failed bombing in Times Square has cooled down, I would like to ask a practical question: ‘what is terrorism good for?’

On Greed: How to Not Take the Bad With the Good?

Greed is the spur to action for many of our businesses and leaders Without their greed, we wouldn’t have as much production or as high a standard of living. Greed has been recognized as a good thing going back,at least, to the English and Dutch mercantilism of the 1500s, if not earlier. Since then, influential people such as Increase Mather extolled what Max Weber later called the Protestant Work Ethic, and Adam Smith who implicitly praised greed and its role along with the invisible hand of markets.

But sometimes, greed goes too far. The events of recent years show us the need for reforms:

On Intellectual Property Part 2: How Can It Be Fixed?

In the decade before the American Civil War, the South worked furiously to strengthen the position of slavery in the law. They forced several compromises that required a new slave state be added to the country with every new free state. They passed, and several times strengthened, the Fugitive Slave Act, that made it illegal for anyone to assist slaves in escaping. They considered slaves to be ‘their property,’ and they inserted this into the law of the land. They clung to this, even though mechanization and other advances were making their labor-intensive style of agricultural uneconomical anyways. Their position was plainly wrong, and slavery was abolished after our civil war.

In the last decade, the music and similar industries have worked furiously to strengthen the position of intellectual property in the law. They have forced many changes to the copyright law (especially the Copyright Acts of 1976, and 1998) to prevent anyone from stealing ‘their property’. While the Music Industry isn’t treating the music artists and consumers, quite nearly as badly as slaves, bold action is needed to restore justice in the land.

Today’s Scandal – 4/08/2010: Police Prevent Citizens from Video-recording Police Misconduct

This article in The Christian Science Monitor raises a great question: ‘Reality shows routinely tail US police officers, filming them tangling with miscreants. Cops regularly film themselves from cameras mounted on cruiser dashboards – and now special hats. But if the state uses cameras for its own purposes and defense, why are so many citizens getting in trouble for pointing their cameras at the police?’  It then presents some examples of police treating photographers badly, confiscating pictures, equipment, etc.

In Response to ‘NYT: Do we need a new Internet? 19Feb09’

I saw an article in this gentleman’s blog that made the case for a new internet where users give up their privacy in the name of security,perhaps, by creating a mandatory Internet Driver’s License. I will make the case against this: It would be ethically wrong, expensive, and ineffective.  I propose a better way.

Today’s Scandal – 03/16/10: Revisionists Polish George W Bush’s Presidency

It all began last week hen Karl Rove published a memoir defending his record as George W Bush advisor…Today I saw that the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports there is a ‘Miss me yet?’ movement in support of the former president.  Are you kidding me??? This post will set the record straight:

Today’s Scandal – 3/15/2010: The First Corporation to Run for Congress

When I saw this article Corporate entity becomes ‘candidate’, kicks off bid for Congress I hoped it was a cruel joke.  Then I started seeing additional coverage of the same story in other places, such as, The Washington Post, and NBC.  This an extremely bad idea for the following reasons:

(1) The only possible use of a congressional seat to a company is to further its own financial interests, which results in a conflict of interest between what is best for the corporation and what is best for the country.   This is why many public servants divest their assets, or put them into a blind trust before assuming office.

(2) If the company does not use its congressional seat to influence policy in its own favor (either by divesting or abstaining on certain votes), then the it is not servicing its fiduciary responsibility to provide the shareholders a good return on their investment.

(3) The reach of special interests, including large abusive corporations is unprecedentedly large and needs to be rolled back, most especially due to how much legal protection they have already obtained for their egregious customer service (think of banks and record labels).

How can this be stopped?

On the Record? An Open Letter to President Obama

Dear Mr. President,

I am writing an open letter to you today, to ask you to renew your focus on those things that inspired the nation to elect you.

On Internet Privacy and Security: What Are Best Practices for Concerned Citizens?

Internet privacy and security are your responsibility. If you do not take sound privacy precautions, you may reveal more of your personal preferences, habits, etc than you wish, and you may find you are haunted by the ghosts of your internet usage in the offline world. If you do not take sound security precautions, you will expose your computer, and your files to being erased, locked out of, or taken over and used for illegal purposes, which you may be held responsible for depending on the laws of your country.

Presently, the threats to your internet privacy and security include the following in order of severity: various governments, organized criminals, marketers and websites who you do not want to collect your information and/or are careless with your information. Commercial tools, such as antivirus and firewalls, do not begin to protect you from all these threats.

You will be able to greatly increase your protection from all threats by following my recommendations. This paper makes the case for internet privacy, and internet security. It then lays out a procedure, in plain language, containing the practical methods that you, as a private citizen, can take to maintain maximum privacy and security online.