Blog of Talmage 2003/3

5th UK Big Brother Awards

The UK Big Brother awards were announced today. They are presented each year by Privacy International to the people and groups which have done the most to invade personal privacy. There is also a lifetime menace award for those with long histories of invading privacy.

Prime Minister Tony Blair was awarded a Lifetime Menace award this year.

The 2003 US BBAs will be announced on April 3, 2003 at Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference in New York City.

Who do you nominate?

Democracy Domino Theory 'Not Credible'

As reported in the L. A. Times and on Democracy Now! today, March 21, 2003. I'll post a copy of the report when I can find it.

"Free" registration required to read the Times article. If you don't want to give up your personally identifying information, you can use the cypherpunks trick. On the Times site, the userid and password cypherpunks01 will get you in.

Bridge to Baghdad

Real audio story from Democracy Now! on March 20, 2003. It's in the transcript of hour 1.

I don't think that Bridge to Baghdad is being shown in the Washington, DC area.

San Francisco Antiwar Protests

An article on Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things. has a link to these pictures.

I found Boing Boing while looking for dead media on Bruce Stirling's Mirrorshades Postmodern Archive.

Slashdot Reader Asks for Unbiased War News

I'd like to know that, too. Where can I find unbiased coverage of the War on Iraq?

Slashdot readers suggest balancing the reports you get from various sources: google , BBCi, CBC , the Sydney Morning Herald , the Pakistani newspaper DAWN , Radio Netherlands , and Guardian and its World News Guide .

The Alien and Sedition Acts

Texts from the Yale Law School.

These acts are part of John Adams' legacy. I though that Abraham Lincoln used them in the Civil War to suspend the writ of habeascorpus ( summary on www.civil-liberties.com ) , but after a brief and superficial search, I haven't found evidence to support that claim.

For more on habeas corpus, see lectlaw.com , nolo.com , and Article I, Section 9, Clause 2 of the US Constitution .

PBS: Civil Liberties after 9/11: Timeline

A history of attempts to curb civil liberties in the US.

As I post this, the link is slow, as if the site has been slashdotted .

Sedition

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:

Sedition \Se*di"tion\, n. [OE. sedicioun, OF. sedition, F. s['e]dition, fr. L. seditio, originally, a going aside; hence, an insurrectionary separation; pref. se-, sed-, aside + itio a going, fr. ire, itum, to go. Cf. {Issue}.]

1. The raising of commotion in a state, not amounting to insurrection; conduct tending to treason, but without an overt act; excitement of discontent against the government, or of resistance to lawful authority.
   • In soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition. --Shak.
   • Noisy demagogues who had been accused of sedition. --Macaulay.
2. Dissension; division; schism. [Obs.]
   • Now the works of the flesh are manifest, . . . emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies. --Gal. v. 19, 20.

Syn: Insurrection; tumult; uproar; riot; rebellion; revolt. See {Insurrection}.

From WordNet (r) 1.6 [wn]:

sedition n : an illegal action inciting resistance to lawful authority and tending to cause the disruption or overthrow of the government

Independent Media

Speak truth to power, teach the ignorant, report the news in your neighborhood. Be an independent journalist through your local Independent Media.

Forty Percent of All Email is Spam

This is a decent summary of the SPAM issue.

It's about commerce, it's not about speech. Jason Catlett, the founder of Junkbusters Corp., an anti-spam and privacy advocacy group said it well: "Spam is postage-due marketing".

Since the anti-junk fax law passes constitutional muster, I can't see why an anti-spam law couldn't do the same.

Mitchell Kapor Leaves Groove Over TIA

This man has integrity.

The usual NY Times "free registration" applies. You can use John Gilmore's cypherpunks login scheme if you don't want to register in your own name: use the userid cypherpunks (or as much as will fit) and the password cypherpunks. In the case of the New York Times web site, try cypherpunks + some digits as the userid and either cypherpunks or cypherpunks + the same digits as the password. cypherpunks39 works for me.

Back to the Trees

Anti-War Arrests

The incident about the man arrested for wearing a peace t-shirt happened in Guilderland, NY, near my home down, Delmar . I never expected to read anything like this.

Happy Anniversary!

Kim and I have been together for one year. Happy anniversary, darling! I love you!

We became a couple one year ago today after a blood drive at my church. I went with her to read her a story and hold her hand while she donated blood. Afterwards, I kissed her in the parking lot.

We had been riding together for maybe a month by then. We were training together for the Washington DC AIDS Ride. We fell in love while training.

More pictures in the Picture Gallery .

I'm selling my gold pocket watch

It's in very good repair. I'd like to sell it to someone in the greater Washington, DC area.

I'm going to use the proceeds to buy a Fuji 690GW II or III , a honking huge medium-format rangefinder camera. I'd consider a trade for such a camera in good working order.