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<title>Alex Schroeder: USA</title>
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<pubDate>Tue, 21 May 2013 14:49:20 GMT</pubDate>
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<title>Alex Schroeder: USA</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki</link>
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<item>
<title>The Fall</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2013-04-30_The_Fall</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2013-04-30_The_Fall</guid>
<description>&lt;p&gt;Recently reports have started resurfacing… (I&amp;#x2019;ve been following &lt;a class="url http outside" href="https://plus.google.com/105510708763837902389/posts"&gt;Jürgen Hubert&lt;/a&gt; on Google+.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2013/04/mohamedou_ould_slahi_s_guant_namo_memoirs_how_the_united_states_kept_a_gitmo.html"&gt;The Guantánamo Memoirs of Mohamedou Ould Slahi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2013/04/tsarnaev_an_enemy_combatant_john_mccain_and_lindsey_graham_s_harmful_campaign.html"&gt;Of Course Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Is Not an Enemy Combatant&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.propublica.org/article/six-claims-on-detainee-torture-skewered"&gt;Six Claims on Detainee Torture, Skewered&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/us/guantanamo-prison-revolt-driven-by-inmates-despair.html?pagewanted=all&amp;amp;_r=0"&gt;Despair Drives Guantánamo Detainees to Revolt&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/opinion/hunger-striking-at-guantanamo-bay.html"&gt;Gitmo Is Killing Me&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;At one point I left the following comment:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;dl class="quote"&gt;&lt;dt /&gt;&lt;dd&gt;The fall of the US from a spiritual leader of freedom and democracy when I was young – in the seventies and eighties I knew nothing of Vietnam and I grew up with American pop music – to a war mongering nation, to a nation that systematically tortures prisoners, a nation that refuses due process to prisoners, to a nation that imprisons so many of their own population, to a nation that uses cruel and unusual punishment in the form of Three Strikes and its variations – there are no words for this moral catastrophe. No words.﻿&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;/dl&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x2019;m still torn: was my decision do abandon my ranting online and turn into a gamer (&lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/HomoLudens"&gt;HomoLudens&lt;/a&gt;) the right thing to do? After all, if we all retreat into our little shells, if we all tend to our little gardens, then nothing ever changes, right?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=tag;id=USA"&gt;USA&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/feed/full/USA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://alexschroeder.ch/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:56:30 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2013-04-30_The_Fall</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>new</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
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<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2013-04-30_The_Fall</wiki:diff>
<category>USA</category>
</item>

<item>
<title>Privateering For Fun And Profit</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2012-01-18_Privateering_For_Fun_And_Profit</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2012-01-18_Privateering_For_Fun_And_Profit</guid>
<description>&lt;p&gt;Yesterday, I wrote about &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2012-01-17_SOPA_Blackout_Protest"&gt;my thoughts on SOPA&lt;/a&gt; and how the USA&amp;#x2019;s legal arm had grown long indeed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Today, I want to comment on something I&amp;#x2019;m seeing in a lot of the statements in protest to &lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOPA"&gt;SOPA&lt;/a&gt;, eg. on Google&amp;#x2019;s &lt;a class="url http outside" href="https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/"&gt;End Piracy, Not Liberty&lt;/a&gt; page: &amp;#x201c;Fighting online piracy is important.&amp;#x201d; Wil Wheaton says on &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2012/01/today-the-us-senate-is-considering-legislation-that-would-destroy-the-free-and-open-internet.html"&gt;Today the US Senate is considering legislation that would destroy the free and open Internet&lt;/a&gt;: &amp;#x201c;I&amp;#x2019;ve probably lost a few hundred dollars in my life to what the MPAA and RIAA define as piracy, and that sucks, but that doesn&amp;#x2019;t come close to how much money I&amp;#x2019;ve lost from a certain studio&amp;#x2019;s creative accounting.&amp;#x201d;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I agree that SOPA and PIPA are terrible. They will reduce our freedoms, increase legal uncertainty, make it harder to do business, make it harder to host user contributed content (forums, wikis, archives, social networking and more). The goal, of course: &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/how-sopa-protect-ip-and-big-content-lost"&gt;Big Hollywood’s Big SOPA Defeat&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But while the citizens of the USA fight stupid legislation (which the USA will then most probably try to &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2011-12-16_SOPA_and_NDAA"&gt;impose on other countries&lt;/a&gt; as well), let us not forget that the current copyright regime is stupid, too. We need &lt;em style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: normal;"&gt;less&lt;/em&gt; protection. We need &lt;em style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: normal;"&gt;shorter&lt;/em&gt; protection. We need &lt;em style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: normal;"&gt;less&lt;/em&gt; punishment.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120116/10031617417/tim-oreilly-explains-where-federal-govt-has-gone-wrong-sopapipa-solving-wrong-problem.shtml"&gt;Tim O'Reilly Explains Where The Federal Gov't Has Gone Wrong On SOPA/PIPA: Solving The Wrong Problem&lt;/a&gt;: &amp;#x201c;In the entire discussion, I&amp;#x2019;ve seen no discussion of credible evidence of this economic harm. There&amp;#x2019;s no question in my mind that piracy exists, that people around the world are enjoying creative content without paying for it, and even that some criminals are profiting by redistributing it. But is there actual economic harm?&amp;#x201d;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film%20preservation"&gt;Film preservation&lt;/a&gt;: &amp;#x201c;It’s bad enough, to cite a common estimate, that 90 percent of all American silent films and 50 percent of American sound films made before 1950 appear to have vanished forever.&amp;#x201d; &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100909/20294910958.shtml"&gt;Film Archives Being Eaten Away; Would Be Nice If People Could Make Copies To Preserve&lt;/a&gt; &amp;#x2013; one of the problem is securing the rights: you can&amp;#x2019;t find the people owning the rights and if you don&amp;#x2019;t watch out, they&amp;#x2019;ll reappear once you&amp;#x2019;re making money. Too bad I can&amp;#x2019;t find any decent links for this issue. Anybody? There is &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100929/16375411226/historical-audio-recordings-disappearing-copyright-partly-to-blame.shtml"&gt;Historical Audio Recordings Disappearing; Copyright Partly To Blame&lt;/a&gt; but it&amp;#x2019;s not about movies, it&amp;#x2019;s about audio. Stuff regarding the library exemption and Google&amp;#x2019;s involvement in digital archiving: &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.minnesotalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Zimmerman_Final.pdf"&gt;Can Our Culture Be Saved? The Future of Digital Archiving&lt;/a&gt; (PDF). Also here: &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/America%27s%20cultural%20record.htm"&gt;America’s cultural record: a thing of the past?&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;What really pained me: &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/faq.html#copyright"&gt;Sita Sings the Blues copyright issues&lt;/a&gt;: &amp;#x201c;The contract is $3,500 per song, and it would have cost them more than $3,500 for their lawyers to revisit the contract and modify it.&amp;#x201d; Also in the same vein as the film preservation issue: &amp;#x201c;Estimates vary, but it&amp;#x2019;s said that 98 percent of all culture is unavailable right now because of copyrights.&amp;#x201d;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;I want to be a &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2008-10-14_xkcd_gets_it"&gt;privateer&lt;/a&gt;! &lt;img class="smiley" src="http://www.emacswiki.org/pics/sardonic.png" alt="sardonic" /&gt; &lt;img class="smiley" src="http://www.emacswiki.org/pics/tentacle.png" alt="tentacle" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Update&lt;/b&gt;: &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120118/09090217454/supreme-court-chooses-sopapipa-protest-day-to-give-giant-middle-finger-to-public-domain.shtml"&gt;Supreme Court Chooses SOPA/PIPA Protest Day To Give A Giant Middle Finger To The Public Domain&lt;/a&gt; &amp;#x2013; they keep extending copyright, what a shame! I prefer the &lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public%20Domain"&gt;Public Domain&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Update&lt;/b&gt;: I love this rant: &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://ploum.net/post/im-a-pirate"&gt;Why I'm a pirate!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Update&lt;/b&gt;: A step in the right direction: &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120126/00201617543/another-interesting-white-house-petition-reduce-term-copyright.shtml"&gt;Another Interesting White House Petition: Reduce The Term Of Copyright&lt;/a&gt; &amp;#x2013; even though 56 years is still way too long and even though the president appears to be the wrong addressee.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=USA"&gt;USA&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/USA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Copyright"&gt;Copyright&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Copyright"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Web"&gt;Web&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Web"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:26:46 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2012-01-18_Privateering_For_Fun_And_Profit</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>new</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
<wiki:version>1</wiki:version>
<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2012-01-18_Privateering_For_Fun_And_Profit</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2012-01-18_Privateering_For_Fun_And_Profit</wiki:diff>
<category>USA</category>
<category>Copyright</category>
<category>Web</category>
</item>

<item>
<title>SOPA Blackout Protest</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2012-01-17_SOPA_Blackout_Protest</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2012-01-17_SOPA_Blackout_Protest</guid>
<description>&lt;p&gt;I just saw &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://boingboing.net/2012/01/16/twitter-ceo-says-sopa-blackout.html"&gt;Twitter CEO says SOPA blackout protest "silly"&lt;/a&gt; on &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://www.boingboing.net/"&gt;BoingBoing&lt;/a&gt;. I wonder: Should I shut down Emacs Wiki for US residents? I&amp;#x2019;d have to do a quick geo location of the IP numbers before serving anything. That sucks.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;dl class="irc"&gt;&lt;dt&gt;&lt;b&gt;kensanata&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;Do US #Emacs users require a reminder to fight #SOPA and # PIPA? I think Emacswiki will stay up for the USA. I doubt US Congress uses it.&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;/dl&gt;&lt;p&gt;I always felt that I was as safe as I can be running Emacs Wiki: I live in Switzerland, the server is hosted in Germany, the domain name registrar is French, the top-level .org domain is the only thing connecting it to the USA. But then I read &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120113/09184917400/us-to-extradite-uk-student-copyright-infringement-despite-site-being-legal-uk.shtml"&gt;US Can Extradite UK Student For Copyright Infringement, Despite Site Being Legal In The UK&lt;/a&gt; &amp;#x2013; and now I wonder about the worst case. Perhaps I should get myself a different domain name.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Actually, I think the &lt;em style="font-style: normal; letter-spacing: 0.125em"&gt;main&lt;/em&gt; problem is that with all the scare mongering around copyright infringement and the astronomical punishments dealt out in the US, I have lost my confidence in their judicial system when it comes to copyright and patents. The most positive explanation for that is that I&amp;#x2019;m just misinterpreting all the bad news I&amp;#x2019;m reading online. My impression is formed by following &lt;span class="nick"&gt;@&lt;a class="url http" href="http://twitter.com/internetlaw"&gt;internetlaw&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, &lt;span class="nick"&gt;@&lt;a class="url http" href="http://twitter.com/privacylaw"&gt;privacylaw&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, &lt;span class="nick"&gt;@&lt;a class="url http" href="http://twitter.com/techdirt"&gt;techdirt&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; and &lt;span class="nick"&gt;@&lt;a class="url http" href="http://twitter.com/boingboing"&gt;boingboing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, following the occasional link. I end up reading &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2011/12/actual-damages-for-single-unauthorized.html"&gt;Actual damages for single unauthorized download of software program held to be cost of single license fee&lt;/a&gt; (from $1,370,590 down to $4,200) and I wonder how much it cost the accused in time, energy and money to get this result. I would not want to fight this battle in court, even if I win.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Case in point: &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://boingboing.net/2012/01/16/how-usptos-recklessness-dest.html"&gt;How USPTO's recklessness destroys business, innovation, and competition&lt;/a&gt; &amp;#x2013; a company produces something and years later a competitor is awarded a patent. The cost of going to court is prohibitive, and so they just give up.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Overprotective copyright and a judicial system that encourages &lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/statutory%20damages"&gt;statutory damages&lt;/a&gt;, patent offices unable to cope with new technology, a highly networked world making it easy to publish internationally with incompatible legal systems. It makes my head hurt!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Update&lt;/b&gt;: I decided to post a more personal message on &lt;a class="inter EmacsWiki" href="http://emacswiki.org/emacs?2012-01-18"&gt;&lt;span class="site"&gt;EmacsWiki&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="separator"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="page"&gt;2012-01-18&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Emacs"&gt;Emacs&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Emacs"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Web"&gt;Web&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Web"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=USA"&gt;USA&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/USA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=SOPA"&gt;SOPA&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/SOPA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Copyright"&gt;Copyright&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Copyright"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Patents"&gt;Patents&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Patents"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:53:39 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2012-01-17_SOPA_Blackout_Protest</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>new</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
<wiki:version>1</wiki:version>
<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2012-01-17_SOPA_Blackout_Protest</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2012-01-17_SOPA_Blackout_Protest</wiki:diff>
<category>Emacs</category>
<category>Web</category>
<category>USA</category>
<category>SOPA</category>
<category>Copyright</category>
<category>Patents</category>
</item>

<item>
<title>American Charities I Like</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2012-01-05_American_Charities_I_Like</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2012-01-05_American_Charities_I_Like</guid>
<description>&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a class="inter EmacsWiki" href="http://emacswiki.org/emacs?EmacsWiki"&gt;&lt;span class="site"&gt;EmacsWiki&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="separator"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="page"&gt;EmacsWiki&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; page says &amp;#x201c;If you like the site and want to contribute something, contribute either time or money: Write content, fix typos, clean up pages by removing old discussions, merging and splitting pages, and linking up and down the page hierarchy. If you do not have time, you can always donate money. Show your support by saying on your homepage on this wiki how much you donated to charity because of the Emacs Wiki.&amp;#x201d;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But which charities would I prefer, personally? Certainly not the National Rifle Association!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://www.eff.org/"&gt;EFF&lt;/a&gt; &amp;#x2013; the Electronic Frontier Foundation fights for your rights when it comes to the information society. If you can&amp;#x2019;t fight this fight, help others fight it for you.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://www.fsf.org/"&gt;FSF&lt;/a&gt; &amp;#x2013; I use Free Software every time I use a desktop or laptop; Richard Stallman warned against the effects of software patents, digital restriction management (DRM), the anti-circumvention provision in the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCR). He deserves our help.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://creativecommons.org/"&gt;Creative Commons&lt;/a&gt; &amp;#x2013; our world needs more &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://www.free-culture.cc/"&gt;Free Culture&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Wikipedia"&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt; &amp;#x2013; I hate the Wikipedia donation &amp;#x201c;stare&amp;#x201d; but the truth remains: I use Wikipedia every day. Every day.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/"&gt;Project Gutenberg&lt;/a&gt; &amp;#x2013; As you can see, I&amp;#x2019;m interested in the abuse and corruption of copyright and patents. Project Gutenberg is something positive, for a change. It&amp;#x2019;s an example of what we could build if copyright were not as strong as it is today. We need much less protection such that much more of these projects can spring up.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://www.archive.org/"&gt;Internet Archive&lt;/a&gt; &amp;#x2013; As our culture moves online (movies, music, graphics, games, writing, combinations of them all), we need to think about conservation. What will future historians study if they want to understand us? What happens to your web pages and your blogs when you die? The Internet Archive is the first step in the right direction. Another positive project!&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;I want to be more positive. &lt;img class="smiley" src="http://www.emacswiki.org/pics/smile.png" alt=":)" /&gt; &lt;img class="smiley" src="http://www.emacswiki.org/pics/ok.png" alt="ok" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=USA"&gt;USA&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/USA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:21:38 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2012-01-05_American_Charities_I_Like</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>new</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
<wiki:version>1</wiki:version>
<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2012-01-05_American_Charities_I_Like</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2012-01-05_American_Charities_I_Like</wiki:diff>
<category>USA</category>
</item>

<item>
<title>SOPA and NDAA</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2011-12-16_SOPA_and_NDAA</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2011-12-16_SOPA_and_NDAA</guid>
<description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a class="image right noborder outside" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Taping_Is_Killing_Music"&gt;&lt;img class="upload" title="Copyright is killing music" src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/copyright%20is%20killing%20music.png" alt="Copyright is killing music" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;dl class="quote"&gt;&lt;dt /&gt;&lt;dd&gt;&lt;span class="nick"&gt;@&lt;a class="url http" href="http://twitter.com/3liza"&gt;3liza&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;: #NDAA and #SOPA both passed. And it didn&amp;#x2019;t matter how we voted, who we phoned, what petitions we signed, which websites we made.&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;/dl&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x2019;m happy not to be living in the USA. The sad thing is that the USA doesn&amp;#x2019;t just export &amp;#x201c;intellectual property&amp;#x201d; in the form of music, it also exports the legal framework to install this market abroad. Sooner or later a lot of people around the world have to fight their local battles to prevent the same kind of idiocy from happening in their own countries.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop%20Online%20Piracy%20Act"&gt;Stop Online Piracy Act&lt;/a&gt; is terrible. I&amp;#x2019;ve been following &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://boingboing.net/tag/sopa/"&gt;BoingBoing on SOPA&lt;/a&gt; for a while. Check &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111216/02382617103/sopa-markup-day-1-we-dont-understand-this-bill-it-might-do-terrible-things-dammit-were-passing-it-now.shtml"&gt;TechDirt on the SOPA amendments&lt;/a&gt; for some dispairingly inane Congress. Way to go! Where&amp;#x2019;s Lawrence Lessig and his &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.rootstrikers.org/"&gt;Rootstrikers&lt;/a&gt; movement?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What I find particularly disappointing is that these days, the &lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital%20Millennium%20Copyright%20Act"&gt;Digital Millennium Copyright Act&lt;/a&gt; is being held up as a model even though its &amp;#x201c;anti-circumvention&amp;#x201d; provisions are also terrible (&lt;a class="url http outside" href="https://www.eff.org/issues/dmca"&gt;EFF on DMCA&lt;/a&gt;). Soon after it was introduced, Switzerland revised its copyright law. We are still allowed to download stuff for personal use (&amp;#x201c;Eigengebrauch&amp;#x201d;). The government recently &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://boingboing.net/2011/12/03/swiss-govt-study-downloadin.html"&gt;confirmed this&lt;/a&gt;. That means that if I have something that is &amp;#x201c;protected&amp;#x201d; by &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://www.dashes.com/anil/stuff/doctorow-drm-ms.html"&gt;DRM&lt;/a&gt;, I am still allowed to make a copy for myself. To exercise my right, I need to circumvent the restrictions placed on the thing I want to copy. It turns out that thanks to the USA&amp;#x2019;s export of legal frameworks, the Swiss copyright law now &lt;em&gt;also&lt;/em&gt; has an anti-circumvention article (&lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/231_1/a39a.html"&gt;Art. 39a Schutz technischer Massnahmen&lt;/a&gt;). Thus, while I am allowed to circumvent DRM in order to exercise my legal rights, others are prohibited from &amp;#x201c;creating, importing, offering, selling, distributing, renting, letting, advertizing or owning with the intent to profit&amp;#x201d; the very tools that I need to exercise my legal rights.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;SOPA will lead to the same levels of inanity, I&amp;#x2019;m sure. Just google for &lt;a class="near" title="Google" href="http://www.google.com/search?q=DNS%20alternatives"&gt;DNS alternatives&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As for the rest&amp;#x2026; For obvious reasons I don&amp;#x2019;t care whether the &lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National%20Defense%20Authorization%20Act"&gt;National Defense Authorization Act&lt;/a&gt; affects US citizens or not. At least they get to taste some of what they are serving the rest of the world. It&amp;#x2019;s just like the &lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation%20Security%20Administration"&gt;Transportation Security Administration&lt;/a&gt; and how they make life miserable for everybody without actually helping much (&lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://boingboing.net/tag/tsa"&gt;BoingBoing on TSA&lt;/a&gt;). People like me just start avoiding the USA.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Oh, and while I&amp;#x2019;m thinking of the USA – let us remember Iraq and the nearly 4500 Americans killed, the 32000 Americans injured &lt;a class="url http number" href="http://nzz.to/vkfUVr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;1&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and the &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.iraqbodycount.org/analysis/numbers/warlogs/"&gt;more than 150000 Iraqis killed&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=USA"&gt;USA&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/USA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Copyright"&gt;Copyright&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Copyright"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Web"&gt;Web&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Web"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:06:22 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2011-12-16_SOPA_and_NDAA</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>new</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
<wiki:version>1</wiki:version>
<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2011-12-16_SOPA_and_NDAA</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2011-12-16_SOPA_and_NDAA</wiki:diff>
<category>USA</category>
<category>Copyright</category>
<category>Web</category>
</item>

<item>
<title>Occupy</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2011-11-15_Occupy</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2011-11-15_Occupy</guid>
<description>&lt;div class="right" style="float: right"&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kensanata/6246361376/" class="url http"&gt;&lt;img class="url http" src="https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6112/6246361376_839901b207.jpg" alt="https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6112/6246361376_839901b207.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;dl class="quote"&gt;&lt;dt /&gt;&lt;dd&gt;To maintain hygiene, the students cannot use tents to keep themselves warm; to manage the space, students must be kept out; to address “conflict issues,” students had to be attacked; and to keep the students safe, they will be beaten. &amp;#x2013; &lt;a class="url http outside" href="https://zunguzungu.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/the-grass-is-closed-what-i-have-learned-about-power-from-the-police-chancellor-birgeneau-and-occupy-cal/"&gt;The Grass Is Closed&lt;/a&gt;, zunguzungu&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;/dl&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;abbr title="Occupy Wall Street"&gt;OWS&lt;/abbr&gt; news and the police action that goes along with it has been on my mind for quite a while now. Mostly because I follow &lt;span class="nick"&gt;@&lt;a class="url http" href="http://twitter.com/xeni"&gt;xeni&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; on Twitter and she retweets so much of what is going on. Occasionally I read reports from witnesses&amp;#x2014;such as the one where I got the above quote from&amp;#x2014;and usually I just cringe inside.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I liked Hawaii. I&amp;#x2019;d love to go there again. I wanted to see Yellowstone park, visit some of the big cities in the US. But not this. I&amp;#x2019;ve stopped blogging about Iran, Iraq, Israel, Palestine and the US involvement with all of them, but my anger is still there, festering deep below the surface. I wrote some angry things back then. I resolved not to visit the USA until things get better. I&amp;#x2019;m currently assuming this won&amp;#x2019;t happen in the next decade.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At work, people are sometimes astonished. How bullheaded do you have to be? I needed to draw a line somewhere. This is my line. Last year I got invited to Eclipse Con 2010 in San Francisco and declined. When asked, I sent them a link with the latest &lt;abbr title="Transportation Security Administration"&gt;TSA&lt;/abbr&gt; scandal or similar stories such as &lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://boingboing.net/2009/12/11/dr-peter-watts-canad.html"&gt;Dr Peter Watts, Canadian science fiction writer, beaten and arrested at US border&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Back to the Occupy movement. A few days ago I read another blog post from a person that had gotten arrested, and I decided to write an email. Yes, I know it&amp;#x2019;s futile. I think I need to do these things in order to keep my sanity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x2019;s what I wrote:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt; Dear Sir&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I just read the account of one of the recent arrests and I am disgusted by the way the police is acting—apparently on your behalf.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The account I read: &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a class="url http" href="http://oxthepunx.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/arrested/"&gt;http://oxthepunx.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/arrested/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a citizen of Austria and France living in Switzerland, my greatest fear is that recent developments regarding police, privatization, copyright excesses and many more things—all the things the occupiers are protesting against—will end up being imported into our countries. The USA has long ceased to be a place to look up to.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sincerely,&lt;br /&gt;Alexander Schröder&lt;br /&gt;Zürich, Switzerland &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think the world&amp;#x2019;s main problem is that there is no administration anywhere that is doing the right thing. There is no place to look up to, anywhere. We need to somehow mobilize that secret fire within ourselves, within each other, in order to oppose the change we do not want and in order to exact the change we do want&amp;#x2014;to steer this boat in a direction that benefits more people, not less people (&lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph"&gt;It's the Inequality, Stupid&lt;/a&gt;, Mother Jones).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=tag;id=Life"&gt;Life&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/feed/full/Life"&gt;&lt;img src="http://alexschroeder.ch/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=tag;id=USA"&gt;USA&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/feed/full/USA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://alexschroeder.ch/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:23:56 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2011-11-15_Occupy</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>new</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
<wiki:version>1</wiki:version>
<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2011-11-15_Occupy</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2011-11-15_Occupy</wiki:diff>
<category>Life</category>
<category>USA</category>
</item>

<item>
<title>Left US Media</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2011-11-06_Left_US_Media</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2011-11-06_Left_US_Media</guid>
<description>&lt;p&gt;The only printed newspaper I pay for and read regularly is the &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/WOZ"&gt;WOZ&lt;/a&gt;, a weekly left newspaper. In its issue #43, Oct. 27, 2011, it listed some American alternative media and talked about the need to finance them as a form of intellectual self-defense. Here are the organizations mentioned with links to their pages on Wikipedia.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative%20press%20(U.S.%20political%20left)"&gt;Alternative press&lt;/a&gt; (started 1969)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Nation"&gt;The Nation&lt;/a&gt; (started 1865 by slavery opponents)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Progressive"&gt;The Progressive&lt;/a&gt; (started 1909 by a senator, very pacifist)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%20Jones%20(magazine)"&gt;Mother Jones&lt;/a&gt; (started 1976 via Foundation for National Progress)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politico%20(newspaper)"&gt;Politico&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common%20Dreams%20NewsCenter"&gt;Common Dreams NewsCenter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Huffington%20Post"&gt;The Huffington Post&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon.com"&gt;Salon.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%20Communications"&gt;Z Communications&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlterNet"&gt;AlterNet&lt;/a&gt; (started 1998)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProPublica"&gt;ProPublica&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National%20Security%20Archive"&gt;National Security Archive&lt;/a&gt; (declassified documents of US foreign policy)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern%20Poverty%20Law%20Center"&gt;Southern Poverty Law Center&lt;/a&gt; (started 1971, rassism, civil rights, immigration)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;Regarding financing and donations: The WOZ uses a model whereby you can donate by voluntarily paying twice as much. That&amp;#x2019;s what I do.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=USA"&gt;USA&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/USA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Media"&gt;Media&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Media"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:20:34 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2011-11-06_Left_US_Media</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>new</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
<wiki:version>1</wiki:version>
<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2011-11-06_Left_US_Media</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2011-11-06_Left_US_Media</wiki:diff>
<category>USA</category>
<category>Media</category>
</item>

<item>
<title>Wikileaks and the Transparent Society</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2010-12-10_Wikileaks_and_the_Transparent_Society</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2010-12-10_Wikileaks_and_the_Transparent_Society</guid>
<description>&lt;p&gt;Currently Wikileaks is doing the &lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United States diplomatic cables leak"&gt;United States diplomatic cables leak&lt;/a&gt;. At the same time, Julian Assange was arrested on rape charges, and companies like Paypal, Mastercard, VISA, and Swiss Postfinance kicked out Wikileaks. Shame on them!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;All of this seems to be the world adjusting to a coming &lt;a class="near" title="Community" href="http://www.communitywiki.org/cw/TransparentSociety"&gt;Transparent Society&lt;/a&gt;. This is also a book by &lt;a class="near" title="MeatBall" href="http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?DavidBrin"&gt;David Brin&lt;/a&gt; where he argues that currently those with lots of resources have the means to invade your privacy, that in the old days there was very little privacy, that therefore privacy was maybe a doomed concept, and what sort of alternative would we want. The &lt;i&gt;transparent society&lt;/i&gt; is a society where privacy is lost in &lt;em style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: normal;"&gt;both directions&lt;/em&gt;. Not only can you spy on other people using public cameras – other people will also be able to see that you spied on them. Hopefully that would level the field somewhat.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As companies are spying on us as we surf the web using cookies such as the &lt;a class="near" title="Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evercookie"&gt;Evercookie&lt;/a&gt;, javascript, and prepared Flash animations; as governments force providers to keep logs of our online activities; as biometric data in our passports keep invading our privacy, we adapt. We don&amp;#x2019;t mind. But we presume to look back at the big corporations, to leak their secrets, to expose their corruption, their double speak, their lies.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x2019;m with Wikileaks.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=USA"&gt;USA&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/USA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Wikileaks"&gt;Wikileaks&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed for this tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/feed/full/Wikileaks"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 10 Dec 2010 15:31:16 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2010-12-10_Wikileaks_and_the_Transparent_Society</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>new</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
<wiki:version>1</wiki:version>
<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2010-12-10_Wikileaks_and_the_Transparent_Society</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2010-12-10_Wikileaks_and_the_Transparent_Society</wiki:diff>
<category>USA</category>
<category>Wikileaks</category>
</item>

<item>
<title>My Car and BP</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2010-06-15_My_Car_and_BP</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2010-06-15_My_Car_and_BP</guid>
<description>&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x2019;t often post about politics anymore, having turned &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/HomoLudens"&gt;HomoLudens&lt;/a&gt; a few years ago. But sometimes things still catch my eye. I&amp;#x2019;ve become a &lt;a class="near" title="Names" href="http://www.boingboing.net/"&gt;BoingBoing&lt;/a&gt; reader via &lt;span class="nick"&gt;@&lt;a class="url http" href="http://twitter.com/boingboing"&gt;boingboing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;. Recently I found an interesting comment regarding the 2010 oil-spill in the Gulf of Mexico.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;dl&gt;&lt;dt&gt;OhStevie&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;Funny how people that drive cars think this is BP&amp;#x2019;s fault. &lt;a class="url http number" href="http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/15/bp-vs-aquaman.html#comment-810997"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;1&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt&gt;Lobster&lt;/dt&gt;&lt;dd&gt;I agree.&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt /&gt;&lt;dd&gt;It is specifically my car that made BP executives demand the engineers drill faster. So fast that it compromised the integrity of the hole and required it be drilled twice.&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt /&gt;&lt;dd&gt;It is specifically my car that made BP executives hire Halliburton for the well seals, which were too structurally weak to handle the top kill.&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt /&gt;&lt;dd&gt;It is specifically my car that made BP executives fiddle around letting the oil leak into the gulf while they tried to find a way to stop it with the least damage to their investment.&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt /&gt;&lt;dd&gt;MY CAR is to blame for this, even though I have NEVER bought from BP and even if we used a tenth of the gasoline we do today it would still be profitable, and they&amp;#x2019;d still be drilling exploratory sites.&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;dt /&gt;&lt;dd&gt;Also it&amp;#x2019;s Obama&amp;#x2019;s fault for not fixing BP&amp;#x2019;s mess faster, right? Privatize gains, subsidize losses, that&amp;#x2019;s the American way. &lt;a class="url http number" href="http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/15/bp-vs-aquaman.html#comment-811135"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;2&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/dd&gt;&lt;/dl&gt;&lt;p&gt;I had read similar comments before. Thank you Lobster, for saving me the time to formulate a response. And I don&amp;#x2019;t even drive a car.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Oil"&gt;Oil&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed für diesen Tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=journal;full=1;search=tag:Oil"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=BP"&gt;BP&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed für diesen Tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=journal;full=1;search=tag:BP"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=USA"&gt;USA&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed für diesen Tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=journal;full=1;search=tag:USA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" alt="RSS" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:06:32 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2010-06-15_My_Car_and_BP</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>new</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
<wiki:version>1</wiki:version>
<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2010-06-15_My_Car_and_BP</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2010-06-15_My_Car_and_BP</wiki:diff>
<category>Oil</category>
<category>BP</category>
<category>USA</category>
</item>

<item>
<title>There Is No Hope</title>
<link>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2009-10-11_There_Is_No_Hope</link>
<guid>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2009-10-11_There_Is_No_Hope</guid>
<description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a class="url http outside" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5981JK20091009"&gt;Obama gets the Peace Nobel Prize&lt;/a&gt;? What&amp;#x2019;s wrong with these people?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Am I so misinformed?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;No progress in Palestine.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;No progress in Iraq.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;No progress in Iran.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;No progress in Afghanistan.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;No progress regarding health care.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;No progress in secret prisons.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;No progress in Guantánamo.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;No progress regarding torture.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;No progress regarding war criminals.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;No progress regarding global warming.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x2019;ve heard people say that he&amp;#x2019;s giving &lt;em style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: normal;"&gt;hope&lt;/em&gt; to those who had none. Well, let me tell you: &lt;a class="local" href="http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/HomoLudens"&gt;I still have none&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The United States of America is blessed with two conservatives parties. While they sure sound different, &lt;em style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: normal;"&gt;talk is cheap&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;See?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: normal;"&gt;Hope is not a plan&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;People claim that he was nominated for the prize after twelve days in office! &amp;#x201c;The deadline for submitting candidates had come just 12 days after he entered the White House.&amp;#x201d; &lt;a class="url http number" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1219201/Barack-Obama-awarded-Nobel-Peace-Prize.html"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;1&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; I find that disgusting.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some people say that &amp;#x201c;The award is also an example of what Nobel scholars call the growing aspirational trend of Nobel committees over the past three decades, by which awards are given not for what has been achieved but in support of the cause being fought for.&amp;#x201d; &lt;a class="url http number" href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6868905.ece"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;2&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Reminds me of certain three individuals in 1994:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Yasser Arafat, leading a corrupt cabinet, robbing the Palestinians of millions of dollars &amp;#x2013; France investigating &amp;#x201c;money transfers totalling 9 million euros ($11.5 million) from Swiss banks to private accounts owned by Suha Arafat, the wife of the Palestinian leader&amp;#x201d; &amp;#x2013; and remember the Palestinian State Controller&amp;#x2019;s report that &amp;#x201c;nearly half of the authority&amp;#x2019;s $326 million 1997 budget had been lost through corruption or financial mismanagement.&amp;#x201d; &lt;a class="url http number" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2432.shtml"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;3&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Shimon Peres, a war criminal who launched &amp;#x201c;Operation Grapes of Wrath&amp;#x201d; causing 400,000 Lebanese to flee their homes, with almost 800 of them fleeing to a UN base in Qana, South Lebanon. On 18 April the Israeli army shelled the UN shelter in Qana, killing 102 civilians, mainly women, children and the elderly. Many more were injured.&amp;#x201d; &lt;a class="url http number" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9983.shtml"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;4&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Yitzhak Rabin, a war criminal who &amp;#x201c;oversaw the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian cities like Lid in 1948; he ordered tanks into Arab villages inside Israel during the Land Day protests of 1976, leading to the deaths of half a dozen unarmed Palestinian citizens; and in 1988 he ordered his army to crush the first intifada by &amp;#x201c;breaking the bones&amp;#x201d; of Palestinians, including women and children, who threw stones at the occupying troops.&amp;#x201d; &lt;a class="url http number" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6068.shtml"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;5&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;You can hope for the best, but you should &lt;em style="text-decoration: underline; font-style: normal;"&gt;only reward people with 10 million Swedish crowns having a proven track record for peace&lt;/em&gt;. We all hoped that Oslo would lead to peace. But it went nowhere. &lt;a class="url http number" href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article491.shtml"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;6&lt;span class="bracket"&gt;]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These three people were honored for the hope they inspired in 1994.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Hope is not a plan.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tags: &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=USA"&gt;USA&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed für diesen Tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=journal;full=1;search=tag:USA"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Israel"&gt;Israel&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed für diesen Tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=journal;full=1;search=tag:Israel"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="outside tag" title="Tag" rel="tag" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=tag;id=Palestine"&gt;Palestine&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a class="feed tag" title="Feed für diesen Tag" rel="feed" href="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex?action=journal;full=1;search=tag:Palestine"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.emacswiki.org/alex/pics/rss.png" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
<pubDate>Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:17:30 GMT</pubDate>
<comments>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Comments_on_2009-10-11_There_Is_No_Hope</comments>
<dc:contributor>AlexSchroeder</dc:contributor>
<wiki:status>updated</wiki:status>
<wiki:importance>major</wiki:importance>
<wiki:version>4</wiki:version>
<wiki:history>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=history;id=2009-10-11_There_Is_No_Hope</wiki:history>
<wiki:diff>http://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=browse;diff=1;id=2009-10-11_There_Is_No_Hope</wiki:diff>
<category>USA</category>
<category>Israel</category>
<category>Palestine</category>
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