Saturday, January 15, 2011

IGNORANCE A Dialog With Conspiracy Nuts

Alice, Meet the Stupids Family

Shortly after the anniversary of he 9/11 attack, a writer had submitted an article calling for the nation to come together in the same spirit as had motivated us immediately following the actual attack, in 2001.
Apparently totally unable to focus on that content, a number of individuals reverted once again to try to prove that attack was a U,S. Government conspiracy. This is the dialog  between myself and a number of the advocates of this theory, taken directly from the comments appearing at that time. The term “Author,” is, at all times, referring to my comments or responses.

EMPLOYMENT - Job Growth

Where the Jobs Are - 2011

Sunday, January 9, 2011

POLITICS - Obama Administration

Misery With Plenty of Company - NYTimes.com

CRIME - Shooting: Rep Gifford Critical 6 Dead, 12 Wounded

Gabrielle Giffords shooting in Tucson: Did it stem from state of political discourse?

Pardon me for a totally different take on this whole situation, Tragic? Of course. But trying to pin the cause on Tea Party, Palin, Beck, et al, is absurd. There will always be crazies. People talking to voices, or seeing Hitler marching down the street. 

All of us rightfully worry about the surveillance under which we live, justified by the flimsiest of government justifications. Founders, in their constructing the Constitution, did not in their wildest dreams, have any idea of how the Fourth Amendment could possibly fail to protect the privacy of citizens.  Stifling the hate purveyors who dominate much of the media is no guarantee of protection against the crazies.  As a nation, we must somehow find the balance between the technological protections available to us, versus are right to be free from the prying eyes of government.

This will always be a constantly shifting and ever changing fine edge balanced between remaining unseen and unknown, against the protection which professionally managed technology can provide. if for example, YouTube had a built-in capability to identify word or audio combinations suggested in that the submittal was by someone who was potentially dangerous, we might have been warned in advance that this assailant was someone who should be carefully monitored.  Yet, all of us are concerned, and rightfully so, that the NSA has the technological capability, and engages in precisely the same activity, deployed against American citizens.

Does any of this answer the question of privacy?  No.  That said, it is that question which should be asked.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

OPED Revising history through writing

WHEN the new House of Representatives convened on Thursday, the Republican leadership kept its promise to start the session by reading the text of the Constitution aloud. This break from Congressional tradition had a polemical purpose: Representative Robert Goodlatte, the Virginia Republican who came up with the idea, remarked that “lots of my constituents have said that Congress has gone beyond its powers granted in the Constitution.

OPED Revising history through writing

WHEN the new House of Representatives convened on Thursday, the Republican leadership kept its promise to start the session by reading the text of the Constitution aloud. This break from Congressional tradition had a polemical purpose: Representative Robert Goodlatte, the Virginia Republican who came up with the idea, remarked that “lots of my constituents have said that Congress has gone beyond its powers granted in the Constitution.

CRIME Nebraska School Shooting

The new year is barely a week old, but the nation has already recorded its first deadly school shooting. 

On Wednesday, a 17-year-old student opened fire at Millard South High School in Omaha, sending students rushing to the kitchen to seek safety. The vice principal, Vicki Kaspar, was killed and the principal, Curtis Case, was seriously injured. The gunman, Robert Butler Jr., was later found dead in a car not far from the school, an apparent suicide.

POLITICS - Gibbs Leaves

Robert Gibbs: How the press secretary changed, and who will follow him

ECONOMY - UNEMPLOYMENT

The Job Market -- A lost Decade

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Anonymity and the Dark Side of the Internet

"[Recently written] is a new set of essays on the dark side of the Internet titled 'The Offensive Internet.'The question that drives the volume is 'what can be done about irresponsible information' spread by the Internet, a medium that allows slander to 'be done with a few keystrokes, with complete anonymity, and . . . with no fear that the Internet provider on whose website the slur is found will somehow be held responsible for incorrect . . . or defamatory statements'? In the course of the volume the Internet is characterized as a cesspool, a porn store, a form of pinkeye, a raunchy fraternity, a graffiti–filled bathroom wall, a haven for sociopaths, and the breeder of online mobs who are no better than 'masked Klan members' in their determination to 'interfere with victims’ basic rights.'”

Monday, January 3, 2011