Elonka wrote:
] I have my own thoughts on the efficacy of the statement, but
] I'll leave it to you to make up your own minds.

[ Unless his *goal* was to get expelled, in order to draw attention to the issue or force his parents into bringing legal action, i'd say the statement was *ineffective*.

Whether it was correct is a more complex question. That high school is an often oppressive environment for certain types of intelligent and progressive students is inarguable. There are millions of stories like this one - thoughtful but impulsive kids whose idealism subjugates their survival instinct. In the grand scheme, the things he did were trivial, but they were also kinda foolish. It seems like by the time he was telling a friend how to circumvent school policy (and facilitating the circumvention via HIS proxy), his two prior infractions should've indicated that the school administrators are not reasonable in this area, which should've invoked a degree of caution.

Is the school being a bit draconian? Hell yeah, and most are. Lots and lots of schools refuse to keep "radical" literature in the library and probably all of them censor their web access. Some, such as this one, it seems, go as far as to limit your ability to read certain things even on your "free" time. Unfortunately, flaunting your refusal to comply does not effect positive results. Alas, at some point, you have to learn to play the game, even if your goal is to change the rules... not something i've been particularly good at accepting, but nonetheless a fact of life.

As Decius wrote, the key is to convince people that you're not a threat, and that you'll be more politic in the future. Idealism must be tempered by perspective. -k]

RE: Statement from Student Expelled for Recommending Web Proxy at School

] County attorney David Morris said that programming work
] for the day-care center had been outsourced to the
] locally-based Genesee Community College. The manager of
] the college's program refused to speak to a reporter, but
] Morris said Dennis was a third party consultant hired by
] Genesee. Dennis, in turn, used RentACoder to once again
] subcontract the database work, which ultimately fell to a
] New Jersey-based programmer.
]
]
] By that time, the programmer actually working on the
] day-care data was four steps removed from the county's
] social services program.

[ it's pretty amazing how easily data can make its way from places it should be, onto the internet, for all to see. i wonder just how "tricky" this formatting issue must have been for it to have required so much outsourced help. crimony. -k]

MSNBC - Government agency exposes day-care data

[ As unexpected as it is for me to say this, i think Bush did a good job in this interview. That is *not* to say that this interview has convinced me that Bush has done a good job, but in the context of this transcript, he did some things right.

His handling of the issues surrounding the Iraq war was better than i've seen previously. He was more convincing this time as someone who acted in a genuine way, even if it turns out that the intelligence on which his actions were based had some falsity. I think this will alleviate some people's concerns about being lied to outright, though I think there are a few more unanswered questions.
I certainly do not believe him when he says his motivation for setting the investigative committee's deadline in March is not at all political, and i think the structure and makeup of the commission is weak and questionable, at best. And, of course, I don't agree that he properly handled the case for war on the world stage... "bringing our case to the world" as he says, isn't what we did... we told the world we were gonna do this and they better hop on the C-130 with us... that's a different thing. Lastly, I don't think there was any substantial plan for rebuilding post-war Iraq, prior to engagement, and some attention should have been given to that as well.

On the economy, he did *not* do a good job, and was unconvincing. This segment :
] RUSSERT: But your base conservatives -- listen to Rush Limbaugh,
] the Heritage Foundation, CATO Institute -- they're all saying
] you're the biggest spender in American history.
]
] BUSH: Well, they're wrong.
is truly a standout. They're not wrong. Period. He could have made the case that they've mischaracterized his spending, and that the fiscal policy which demands it is based on the war and tax cuts etc. (all of which are *bad* policy in my opinion). The argument that he hasn't been a massive spender is totally untenable. He should have accepted the criticism and justified the spending. Calling your base stupid is not a great strategy.
He also brings up the reduction in unemployment to 5.6 %, but that number has been analyzed to be falsely encouraging because it doesn't account for the number of people who have stopped looking for work at all, which is an increasing number. It's not a good sign when people have been looking for so long that they give up.
He does attempt to justify spending due to the war later on, but he when he discusses ensuring that soldiers are well paid, it comes off flat -- didn't he *cut* military pay?

All in all, as I said, he did quite a decent job, comparatively, but if the Democratic contests are an indication of where the focus is going to be come november, he's gonna need some help shoring up his fiscal justifications and reengaging the fiscal conservative base who's stopped listening to him. -k]

President Bush on NBC's 'Meet the Press'

] What's needed here is shame. Politicians know that most
] voters understand squat about how monopolies work best.
] They also know that there won't be a rally on Capitol
] Hill in favor of price discrimination. It is therefore
] cheap to scold big pharma for the "windfall profits" made
] by charging so much more for drugs in the US than in
] other countries. Cheap, and criminal. This behavior by
] politicians simply denies medicine to those who need it
] most.
]
]
] If politicians don't like the logic of price
] discrimination, then let them fund pharmaceutical
] research in a different way. Abolish drug patents, and
] grant rewards for great inventions, or give huge
] subsidies to universities and companies to develop new
] medicines. There are many who believe that would be a
] less expensive, more effective system. And there are many
] who believe that patents in any case, and in every case,
] do more harm than good.

[ A good analysis by Lessig... hits on a major problem with politics in general. The system makes it easy to say you "stand for" something that's actually intractible in the real political world. Seems like there should be a Consumer-Reports for politicians, comparing their stated positions to their real actions, calculating a "waffle score" for how often they are self-contradictory perhaps. My cynical side argues that no one would bother to use it, or partisans would refute it's accuracy... -k]

Wired 12.02: Lessig says access to drugs in the third world not an IP issue

] In what may be the first subpoena of its kind in
] decades, a federal judge has ordered a university to turn
] over records about a gathering of anti-war activists.
]
] In addition to the subpoena of Drake University,
] subpoenas were served this past week on four of the
] activists who attended a Nov. 15 forum at the school,
] ordering them to appear before a grand jury Tuesday, the
] protesters said.
]
] Federal prosecutors refuse to comment on the subpoenas.

[ awesome. stunningly awesome. -k]

Albany, N.Y.: Feds win right to war protesters' records

] My mother is insane. Like, one of those ladies you see on
] the local news insane. Since it's inevitably going to
] come up I'll get out of the way that I am too, but at
] least I take a full dose of my medication. I've been
] meaning to make this thread for about the last year, but
] the longer I waited the more interesting the situation
] became. Also, I'm incredibly lazy. Case in point, these
] pictures are about three weeks old. Anyway, lets take a
] tour of our house.

[ this woman is truly, stunningly insane. she requires real actual psych treatment... and her son needs to move his ass out of there. I thought we had a lot of shit in our basement, but we're comparatively clear. -k]

The Awful Forums - My mother is insane (~5M of photos)

Here is a question for the MemeStreams community.. If you were proposing legislation for laws governing how venues can collect and user information from IDs, what would you propose?

[ this is obviously a growing concern, especially if we start migrating to smart card based id's in the future. i'm glad the wired article brought that up, because it's likely to have a place in our wallets soon enough. The major security concerns of these systems has been debated in the smartcard space for years (Schnier has a lucid intro to the vulnerabilities on his web site), and they're nontrivial to resolve. Legislation will help, but only insofar as laws can mandate system criteria and transparency which enable the kinds of security and privacy we, as consumers, want to have. i think the smart cards are going to have to integrate a means for card holder verification of the data transaction... for instance, the bartender swipes, and an LCD on the card indicates that their system requested your age, gender, address, & phone number, so you deny the request, or enable only the age & gender to be transmitted... the card only transmits after you enter a pin (or biometric id if we're already dreaming) validating the transaction. thus, the terminal can't get more than you allow it to. Legislation could be used to enforce the kinds of data various requestors have a right to require (i.e. the law establishes that a bar has no explicit right to know anything other than your age, and can't deny you for failing to provide other information). That may be legally troublesome... i'm no lawyer, but we already say that places can't refuse you on the basis of color or gender, so maybe not such a great leap. smartcards have other issues in situations where the cardholder can't be trusted with the data inside, but we resolve a lot of those kinds of issues already with credit cards, and i see no fundamental reason why they can't be worked out in SC's, plus they're ancillary to this particular discussion. -k]

Wired News: Great Taste, Less Privacy

] WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 — President Bush's plan for cars running on
] clean, efficient hydrogen fuel cells is decades away from commercial
] reality, according to a report by the National Academy of Sciences.

[ because, as usual, Bush is saying things that sound good, with no hope of fulfilling them. Stupid pandering bullshit should be violently exposed by the media. -k]

Report Questions Bush Plan for Hydrogen-Fueled Cars

] "I just got out of the hearing. The outcome is Judge
] Wells will be issuing an order within the next week. She
] wanted to take her decision under advisement.
]
] "Some quick observations. Mr. Marriott argued for the
] side of IBM again and Mr. Weiss argued for SCO. Counsel
] were in chambers for 28-30 minutes. IBM stated that SCO
] had not complied with the Judge's order for discovery.
] SCO has said they have and now want their motions
] granted. Darl was not in attendance."

The suspense is killing me!

Judge to Issue Order in a Week: IBM Says SCO Didn't Comply

Home shopping follies. The mix of rednecks and swords.

[ hahahahhahahaha! What a fricking moron! Also, what quality in those "katanas"... awesome. one of the funniest things i've seen in weeks. -k]

Ten Mint Ten