"I don't think the report is true, but these crises work for those who want to make fights between people." Kulam Dastagir, 28, a bird seller in Afghanistan
Armed autonomous robots cause concern - tech - 07 July 2007 - New Scientist Tech
Topic: Technology
12:57 pm EDT, Jul 9, 2007
A MOVE to arm police robots with stun guns has been condemned by weapons researchers.
On 28 June, Taser International of Arizona announced plans to equip robots with stun guns. The US military already uses PackBot, made by iRobot of Massachusetts, to carry lethal weapons, but the new stun-capable robots could be used against civilians.
"The victim would have to receive shocks for longer, or repeatedly, to give police time to reach the scene and restrain them, which carries greater risk to their health," warns non-lethal weapons researcher Neil Davison, of the University of Bradford, UK.
"If someone is severely punished by an autonomous robot, who are you going to take to a tribunal?" asks Steve Wright, a security expert at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK.
... they have all experienced tensions in their personal lives, or were faced with deep and sustained crises of identity ...
... [they] frequently experience a tension between traditional [culture] ... and ... [contemporary] society. Extremism gives them an identity that allows them to rebel against both.
The op-ed author is right when he says, "None of this will be of much help ..."
Positive Liberty » The 9th Amendment and Unenumerated Rights
Topic: Politics and Law
1:45 pm EDT, Jul 5, 2007
So when one takes the position, as Ventola has here, that those rights “actually located in the Constitution” deserve protection but that all unenumerated rights are open to “legislation”, he is taking the exact position that the 9th amendment was designed to avoid because “legislation” means allowing the government - i.e. the majority - to regulate any unenumerated right as it sees fit. It renders the entire concept of unenumerated rights meaningless and reads the 9th amendment out of the Constitution entirely.
It has become popular for conservatives to call themselves libertarians. I think this essay does a good job drawing a distinction.
The defeat that made Britain great - International Herald Tribune
Topic: Society
11:46 am EDT, Jul 5, 2007
Today, of course, the United States finds itself in much the same position as Britain in 1781. Distracted and diminished by an irrelevant, costly and probably unwinnable war in Iraq, America could ultimately find itself challenged by countries like China and India.
by
Michael Rose, a retired British Army general, commanded the United Nations forces in the former Yugoslavia from 1994 to 1995.
This is an interesting perspective on the American Revolutionary War that you don't hear often over here. Adam originally recommended it but he linked the second page, so I'm linking the first instead.
Bush Rationale on Libby Stirs Legal Debate - New York Times
Topic: Politics and Law
4:42 pm EDT, Jul 4, 2007
“The Bush administration... has repeatedly supported a federal sentencing system that is distinctly disrespectful of the very arguments that Bush has put forward in cutting Libby a break,” said Douglas A. Berman, a law professor at Ohio State University who writes the blog Sentencing Law and Policy.
The Libby clemency will be the basis for many legal arguments, said Susan James, an Alabama lawyer... “What you’re going to see is people like me quoting President Bush in every pleading that comes across every federal judge’s desk.”
Similarly, in a case decided two weeks ago by the United States Supreme Court and widely discussed by legal specialists in light of the Libby case, the Justice Department persuaded the court to affirm the 33-month sentence of a defendant whose case closely resembled that against Mr. Libby.
Read the article. The last line in it is, I think, the most important.
Whether the pardon was right or wrong is irrelevent. Whether or not the prosecution was politically motivated is irrelevent. Whether or not Libby is truely guilty is irrelevent. Whats important is that this decision runs against the grain of everything the Republican party claims to stand for.
Fred Thompson -- made exoneration of this convicted felon one of his principal missions over the last two years. And he does so while running around spitting out tough and righteous sermons about the need to restore the "rule of law": "It is a sad irony that a nation that is so dedicated to the rule of law is doing so much to undermine the respect for it," he said in the very same speech where he urged Libby's pardon. One of the prime defenders of Lewis Libby has the audacity to say such things with a straight face because he knows how broken our political and media institutions are.
I found this article interesting because it involves Fred Thompson expressing an opinion and being hypocritical about it.
Cenk Uygur: Bill Maher is Wrong: Libby is the Straw That Broke the Camel's Back - The Huffington Post
Topic: Politics and Law
1:57 am EDT, Jul 4, 2007
they think they are above us. We know that none of us could get away with what they have done. This commutation (who doesn't hate this clunky word?) shows to the average guy that these people aren't held to the same standards as the rest of us. They can get away with crimes because they are powerful.
I just made this observation. This is a simple idea that resonates. If the 4th holiday doesn't divert the public's attention the blowback could be loud.
