apple juice

I suppose this is not going to change your opinion if you already think Obama is a socialist who believes big government is the solution, but it is worth a read…

It was a day late, but the Republicans’ parade of truth-twisting, distortions and plain falsehoods arrived on the podium of their national convention on Tuesday. Following in the footsteps of Mitt Romney’s campaign, rarely have so many convention speeches been based on such shaky foundations.

Ouch… “How the Republicans Built It“

It has been a while since I have taken the political compass test, but I love taking little tests like this. (There is a good religion one out there as well, I’ll post that when I find it)

Now first off, I obviously don’t vote this way, nor do I necessarily think that a society of this nature would even work properly. It would probably be total chaos.

If you want to read in to my score – I think what it says is this: I’m pretty libertarian about things in general, but I don’t think you can be a hypocrite about it. Too much government is not a good thing, but limited government to me means something like let people marry who they want. It means that you shouldn’t track my cell phone’s GPS without a warrant.

The socialist in me looks at things like health care and says, look, something like “insurance” works best when you have the biggest pool of insured folks, and thus, something like an individual mandate to buy health insurance makes sense. (You still get to go to whatever doctor you’d like, and it was a republican idea first, FYI) I think single-payer health care makes way MORE sense but that’s for another time.

I guess my views on things like carbon taxes, zoning rules, bike lanes, gun control, and others are really economic questions, and not social questions. I’ll have to think about that.

Anyways, if you take the test, I’d love to hear where you score and what you think!

larry lessig was being introduced by jon stewart on the daily show a few nights ago, and I declared out of nowhere to my wife that he’s one of my heroes. I don’t think I’ve ever declared that I had a hero, but here we go, mr. lessig, you’re my first!

his 2007 ted talk on laws that stifle creativity will give you the appropriate background on where we are today with SOPA, PIPA and the crazy place we are with copyright.

 

and here is his post on why he is not out front and center on the soap / pipa fight

The Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) is a foundational block upon which the Internet has been built and upon which its continued functioning critically depends; it is among a handful of protocols upon which almost every other protocol, and countless Internet applications, rely to operate smoothly.

Read more here: don’t break the internet – stanford law review

I wonder how many congress-people could explain how DNS works in less than a minute. This was mentioned in another blog post I linked to, but the willful anti-intellectualism displayed by our representatives is astounding.

I’m also seriously bothered that Senator Franken is a co-sponsor of PIPA. Unbelievable. Did he come out a little too strong on the side of net-neutrality, and now all of big media is breathing down his neck?

I just spoke to Senator Franken’s office – you can contact them here

The OpenCongress page will give you an idea of the supporters of this bill.

If you want to read more about this issue, the “Protect Innovation” website will give you a rundown.

This is a must read if you are concerned about free speech and the internet.

Dear Congress, It’s No Longer OK To Not Know How the Internet Works

So it was as proponents of the Hollywood-funded bill curmudgeonly shot down all but two amendments proposed by its opponents, who fought to dramatically alter the document to preserve security and free speech on the net. But the chilling takeaway of this whole debacle was the irrefutable air of anti-intellectualism; that inescapable absurdity that we have members of Congress voting on a technical bill who do not posses any technical knowledge on the subject and do not find it imperative to recognize those who do.

This used to be funny, but now it’s really just terrifying. We’re dealing with legislation that will completely change the face of the internet and free speech for years to come. Yet here we are, still at the mercy of underachieving Congressional know-nothings that have more in common with the slacker students sitting in the back of math class than elected representatives. The fact that some of the people charged with representing us must be dragged kicking and screaming out of their complacency on such matters is no longer endearing — it’s just pathetic and sad.

“Not once have I ever been confronted by an individual who realized independently that I was raised by a gay couple. And you know why? Because the sexual orientation of my parents has had zero impact on the content of my character.”

we need to defeat the marriage amendment that will be on the ballot in 2012.