In light of the first of the stimulus checks being deposited into Americans accounts, it is high time we discussed the previous old next new conservative outrage - Freeloaders!
In two separate venues, one academic, the other personal, I’ve discussed how many of the decisions have focused not on technological solutions, but instead have centered on the social or psychological impact of technological interventions. More appropriately, the conversations revolve around our worldview and how we think things are and should be - basically a philosphical conversation. What is the nature of man?
I was surprised to see that today’s most emailed article at the New York Times (via Open Culture) was an article saying just that - not surprised that philosophy is becoming increasingly important, but surprised to see that many others feel the same way.
Between digg and crazy college boys, the fandom and fawning for Ron Paul rivals some sort of political 'Tiger Beat'.
Although I don't doubt the sincerity of many libertarians, and welcome their splintering with the GOP, the fact remains that some of them, at their heart, are no more than Republicans who like to smoke pot.
I'll admit, there is an appeal to the skepticism of the modern libertarian. Their goal though, of limited government, when taken to its logical extremes, actually results in the outcomes of GOP activist Grover Norquist, advocating the "drowning of government in the bathtub". Mind you, the GOP still wants to collect taxes for the services they outsource and privatize, they just want them performed outside of governmental oversight and be able to be incentivized by them via campaign contributions.
Here is the win-win for liberals, conservatives, and libertarians…
The concept of "flare" is inspired by the seminal 90s movie, Office Space, where Jennifer Anniston's character gets berated by her employer at a Fridays-Bennigans-Houlihan's knockoff for not having the required amount of "flare" on her uniform. The "flare" is supposed to be the equivalent of a sticker filled bumper or the backpack covered with band patches and buttons. What does it all mean in terms of webculture?
It wouldn't be Islam Awareness Week without Islamo-Facism Awareness Week. Perennial attention-whore and ivory-tower hater David Horowitz (Rightweb), in cooperation with former-Senator Rick Santorum (Rightweb) are traversing the country to make you aware of the Phantom Muslim Menace. Their plan brings IFAW to 26 campuses with 37 events, with a who's who of wingnuttery. You can 'learn' more about this travesty of logic at TerrorismAwareness, as if you had no idea what terrorism is…
Those Yellow Elephants sure are keeping their heads down, though. I see unbelievably low participation in the various IFAW-realted groups and events on Facebook. True to form, the shrieking harpies and hardcore wingnuts are not blaming their own failed ideologies for the lack of participation, but rather the usual suspects, the librul media, the secular universities, and other terrrahrist sympathizers. Alas, I see nothing on the RightWingFacebook stirring support either. Kids today…
The event looks quite interesting, and it is scheduled at a most-convenient time, 1-2:30pm on Tuesday, 10/9/2007, at the WHYY building, especially for those in the Center City (Philadelphia) area.
The excessive use of national security exemptions in FOIA, the circumvention of records-keeping and civil liberty safeguards, and others are all blatant attempts to stymie freedom of the press, but what of freedom of speech? Despite isolated (although far too many) examples of abuses, such as the recent tasing at a John Kerry speech, "Free Speech Zones" at political gatherings, and arrests and detainings based on what t-shirt one wears, I see little formalized institutional censorship, although we're getting there.
That said, there are tremendous threats to digital freedom here in the US, but they often don't come from the government directly to the individual speaker. No, they come indirectly, via the corporate sphere, the establishment press, intra-governmental agency suppression , other opinion influencers, ideological bullies, our society-at-large, and our own tendencies to self-censor. In most cases, all it takes is the threat of a libel suit or a DMCA takedown letter to pull content, either by the creator or their ISP. As illustrated in the Electronic Frontier Foundation Legal Guide, many of the concerns of online speech have little to do with the government. You can't really say whatever you want.
America's fabric is pulling apart like a cheap sweater.
What would sew us back together?
Another 9/11 attack.
[…]
Is there any doubt they are planning to hit us again?
If it is to be, then let it be. It will take another attack on the homeland to quell the chattering of chipmunks and to restore America's righteous rage and singular purpose to prevail.
The unity brought by such an attack sadly won't last forever.
This last 6-years has been a slow-motion train wreck. OBL is still on the loose. The Anthrax attackers are still on the loose. We're stuck in a quagmire in a war of choice in Iraq, losing a winnable war in Afghanistan, and then contemplating opening a third front of the Great War on Terror in Iran (and Pakistan).
I'm tired of staring into the abyss. In addition to the 3000 lives lost on 9/11 and the near 5000 (3600 military deaths, and an estimated 1000 contractor deaths) in Iraq and Afghanistan, we can chalk up threats to free speech, habeas corpus, our own privacy, and any semblance for advocacy for the middle class in Washington. We are distracted from true threats like class inequality, our aging infrastructure, precarious financial environment, and global warming with bright and shiny objects like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, and divisive social wedge issues like abortion, gay marriage, and evolution.
Although Bykofsky takes the easy way out and (correctly) states that another 9/11 would finally unite us, he's correct, but I hope he's thinking of the wrong outcome. He thinks that another 9/11 would would cause us to put aside our partisan differences to get "it" done - I'm assuming by "it" he means the War on Islamofacism. But there's danger in these thoughts. With the right proudly proclaiming that we are safer BECAUSE there have been no new attacks, another 9/11 might have the complete opposite consequences - reinforces the disgust and despair many of us are feeling towards our media and political institutions.
The next-9/11 will preceed one of two outcomes - either the police state, or the beginning of the American Renaissance, where we cast of the dead weight and corrupt institutions of the past and become the America we thought, hoped, and dreamed we were.
Should Bykofsky get fired? Should free speech have consequences? Vote here.
The new network economy, best represented by Web 2.0, is wildly popular, albeit only with technologist, early-adopters, and industry professionals. It is possible to implement Web 2.0 technologies in the Enterprise, taking advantage of collaborative network effects to engage your employees, enrich the employment experience, and enlarging the pool of business data required for effective decision making.
Imagine a future business world, where the Rolodex is online and shared. Visualize your customers, suppliers, distributors, staff, revenue, and expenses in real time, displayed on a map, with information displayed intuitively, in such a way that no outside information is necessary. Contemplate discussions, work processes, organization charts, invoices, billing, calendars, and more all living online, with all of your data available, searchable, and capable of being used and repurposed. When faced with an emergency, the plans to your physical plant, succession plans, financial contacts, and important contracts could all be easily accessible, constantly updatedand be saved offsite. By importing GPS data, one can view the routes your product takes on its way to market, and how that is affected by weather and traffic. Review a data dashboard presenting the current, updated, and relavent metrics for successful operation. Imagine being able to collect and archive the organizational intelligence of the Enterprise, preserving it so it outlasts the coming transition of a workforce dominated by Baby Boomers to that of one of Generation X'ers and Millenials.
Think of a future where the data that you already have is merged with information you are already collecting organized in such a way as to represent knowledge, which could then be aggregated, mixed, and redisplayed, representing the Enterprise's knowledge.
When are we going to acknowledge that millions of people writing poorly (while slowly improving) is better than millions of people doing the alternative…not writing at all?
Lot's of talks on the internets in reaction to Tom Grubsich's (of the Washington Post) lament about the psuedonymous rants of the "Vinny in the efficiency apartments of the blogosphere. Grubisch says the following:
If Web sites required posters to use their real names, while giving the shield of pseudonymity when it's merited, spirited online debate would continue unimpeded. It might even be enhanced by attracting contributors who are turned off today by name calling and worse. Except for the hate-mongers, who wouldn't want that?
Out of the first 15 items on the Digg frontpage, by my reckoning, 6 of them are NOT news. There REALLY needs to be a choice besides "OK, this is lame" to rank items that are not news…like perhaps "This is not newsworthy". Until then, lame it is.
Not so fast, you crazy libertarians.