“ As soon as any man says of the affairs of the State "What does it matter to me?" the State may be given up for lost.”Jean Jacques Rousseau
Thursday, 8 November 2007
Quote of the day
UK Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill – Yet another threat to free speech
Remember the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill? It has been hanging around since 2006.
It is another of the endless series of legislation the government like to trot out to make it look as if there is any point to them - which it seems there is not, as Belgium, the heart of the EU, are about to celebrate 150 days without a government, hat tip to the ‘Looking for a Voice’ blog.
The bill is actually a multitude of barely related things, many of which it would be difficult to object to that cover for some innocently packaged bits of legislation with some dangerous consequences to liberty, if taken any distance at all.
One of the bits they are trying to slip in (and what it has to do with immigration or indeed criminal justice is difficult to see) is: “Outlawing incitement to homophobic hatred and hatred against transgender people by amending the current offence of incitement to racial hatred in the Public Order Act 1986.”
Not content with this it seems the government are actually touting for other categories of people to include such as the disabled and transsexuals, to push to 'make the case' to extend it to cover them.
On the face of it like much of New Labour’s government by facile sound bite, it sounds ok. The devil, as they say, is in the detail – Much like the ‘Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill’ and the ‘incitement to religious hatred’ tucked away in it, that could have resulted in someone criticising, or satirising religion, or some aspect of it doing 10 years in pokey.
That was rightly watered down when people realised the actual implications and what the government were trying to get away with.
So should this ‘Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill’ be.
This government has a sinister compulsion to legislate to control and criminalise social mores, manners and interactions time and time again.
What will happen to the Little England team if this new bill is enacted? They press so many of the bills buttons they could end up doing life - yet what they do actually seems to increase tolerance.
You may well think that would never be a problem, but there are people out there who seem to make a profession of being offended at the drop of a hat over anything - and there are always ambitious ‘human rights industry’ lawyers willing to try to make a name for themselves.
It is another of the endless series of legislation the government like to trot out to make it look as if there is any point to them - which it seems there is not, as Belgium, the heart of the EU, are about to celebrate 150 days without a government, hat tip to the ‘Looking for a Voice’ blog.
The bill is actually a multitude of barely related things, many of which it would be difficult to object to that cover for some innocently packaged bits of legislation with some dangerous consequences to liberty, if taken any distance at all.
One of the bits they are trying to slip in (and what it has to do with immigration or indeed criminal justice is difficult to see) is: “Outlawing incitement to homophobic hatred and hatred against transgender people by amending the current offence of incitement to racial hatred in the Public Order Act 1986.”
Not content with this it seems the government are actually touting for other categories of people to include such as the disabled and transsexuals, to push to 'make the case' to extend it to cover them.
On the face of it like much of New Labour’s government by facile sound bite, it sounds ok. The devil, as they say, is in the detail – Much like the ‘Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill’ and the ‘incitement to religious hatred’ tucked away in it, that could have resulted in someone criticising, or satirising religion, or some aspect of it doing 10 years in pokey.
That was rightly watered down when people realised the actual implications and what the government were trying to get away with.
So should this ‘Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill’ be.
This government has a sinister compulsion to legislate to control and criminalise social mores, manners and interactions time and time again.
What will happen to the Little England team if this new bill is enacted? They press so many of the bills buttons they could end up doing life - yet what they do actually seems to increase tolerance.
You may well think that would never be a problem, but there are people out there who seem to make a profession of being offended at the drop of a hat over anything - and there are always ambitious ‘human rights industry’ lawyers willing to try to make a name for themselves.
Wednesday, 7 November 2007
Site Stats and Browser Wars
Looking at the site stats it looks as if Firefox is a fraction ahead of MS IE7 at 44% and 41% respectively. IE6 is fading at 15%. It would be interesting to know how this compares with other sites traffic. And if different sorts of sites get visitors who use browsers in different ratios.
Selective inactivation of micro-organisms - Zapping Bugs
This could have far reaching consequences.
Specifically ‘Selective inactivation of micro-organisms with near-infrared femtosecond laser pulses’ - That means zapping targeted bugs with lasers to the rest of us.
The process is being proved by a team of 4 (K T Tsen, Shaw-Wei D Tsen, Otto F Sankey and Juliann G Kiang) in the US, based in Arizona.
Just the sort of thing they promised us in the late 50s and early 60s - and it seems that someone may be finally set to deliver on it.
Seriously, if they can bring it off practically, this could have very far reaching consequences indeed. They may be well on the way of developing an effective way of using lasers to selectively kill bacteria and Virus organisms without harming the cells that we are made of. Because of the wavelengths used the lasers will be able to penetrate body tissue.
A way of sterilising an object a room or a whole body, inside and out, that could stop and cure any germ, or viral, infection, including aids, or a flue pandemic.
Lets hope the bugs have no way to adapt to it.
Now - Where is the flying car for every family…
Specifically ‘Selective inactivation of micro-organisms with near-infrared femtosecond laser pulses’ - That means zapping targeted bugs with lasers to the rest of us.
The process is being proved by a team of 4 (K T Tsen, Shaw-Wei D Tsen, Otto F Sankey and Juliann G Kiang) in the US, based in Arizona.
Just the sort of thing they promised us in the late 50s and early 60s - and it seems that someone may be finally set to deliver on it.
Seriously, if they can bring it off practically, this could have very far reaching consequences indeed. They may be well on the way of developing an effective way of using lasers to selectively kill bacteria and Virus organisms without harming the cells that we are made of. Because of the wavelengths used the lasers will be able to penetrate body tissue.
A way of sterilising an object a room or a whole body, inside and out, that could stop and cure any germ, or viral, infection, including aids, or a flue pandemic.
Lets hope the bugs have no way to adapt to it.
Now - Where is the flying car for every family…
Quote of the day
“ To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.”Robert Louis Stevenson
Tuesday, 6 November 2007
Quote of the day
“ The highest manifestation of life consists in this: that a being governs its own actions. A thing which is always subject to the direction of another is somewhat of a dead thing”Thomas Aquinas
EU moves to tighten controls on movement and the internet
Franco Frattini, the EU Justice
It involves ’tough new anti terror proposals’ – and we all know that’s good, don’t we?
Especially the, highly trained, crack BBC old lady interviewee squad. Who will generally enthusiastically approve anything, up to and including, summary executions on street corners, on the grounds that ‘if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear’.
It seems one of the things they are looking at is based on the practice of gathering Passenger Name Record (PNR) data, adopted by the US post 9/11.
Frattini wants to make it obligatory for all EU states to collect 19 pieces of personal information about people flying to or from member states and store it for up to 13 years. Including a phone number, e-mail address and payment details.
The plan apparently also pays special attention to the internet…
Even some EU legislators have voiced privacy concerns over the proposals, but the steely Fratelli said: "There is no room for complacency - for letting our guard down,"
Some EU parliamentarians questioned the EUs enthusiasm for yet more and more anti-terror measures, when the effectiveness of those put in place following the Madrid and London have not even been properly evaluated yet.
They also pointed out that some of them, such as the restrictive rules limiting liquids allowed on EU-bound flights show no indication at all of having any positive impact on security.
Martine Roure, MEP for South East France, argued “We should look at the efficiency of the EU legislation in this area. Some extremely restrictive measures have been adopted. Some haven't had the results expected, and some might even lend a false sense of security."
Monday, 5 November 2007
Quote of the day
“ When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.”George Bernard Shaw
Lawyers batoned by Pakistani Police
The BBC are clearly shocked this morning about a Reuters report quoting Akhtar Hussain, a former president of the Sindh High Court Bar Association.
He is quoted as saying: "Police beat lawyers with batons as they came to the High Court in the morning” - "Many of them have been arrested."
This was because they were protesting outside the High Court in Karachi, Pakistan against the state of emergency, declared in the country over the weekend.
As I read it, the thought occurred to me. They are significantly more shocked than if this had happened to any other sorts of protestors. They expect their readers to be more shocked too. It is an almost subconscious assumption. As if lawyers should have been immune because they were lawyers. As if the rules that apply to the rest of humanity should not apply to them.
Then the black humour of the situation hit me and I thought. “It’s about time, they had it coming if anyone did”.
Now I am not commenting on the current situation in Pakistan here, or the rights and wrongs of it.
What I am commenting on, is that the BBC’s reaction tellingly reveals just how well the political elite have the public and the media conditioned.
The legal profession is, for want of a better word, the spawning ground of many politicians in the West and the Anglosphere, for some reason we do tend to think of them as untouchable, either in one sense of the word or the other ;-) No doubt they would prefer us to continue to think they should be viewed that way.
With the BBC projecting that unconscious assumption no doubt it will…
He is quoted as saying: "Police beat lawyers with batons as they came to the High Court in the morning” - "Many of them have been arrested."
This was because they were protesting outside the High Court in Karachi, Pakistan against the state of emergency, declared in the country over the weekend.
As I read it, the thought occurred to me. They are significantly more shocked than if this had happened to any other sorts of protestors. They expect their readers to be more shocked too. It is an almost subconscious assumption. As if lawyers should have been immune because they were lawyers. As if the rules that apply to the rest of humanity should not apply to them.
Then the black humour of the situation hit me and I thought. “It’s about time, they had it coming if anyone did”.
Now I am not commenting on the current situation in Pakistan here, or the rights and wrongs of it.
What I am commenting on, is that the BBC’s reaction tellingly reveals just how well the political elite have the public and the media conditioned.
The legal profession is, for want of a better word, the spawning ground of many politicians in the West and the Anglosphere, for some reason we do tend to think of them as untouchable, either in one sense of the word or the other ;-) No doubt they would prefer us to continue to think they should be viewed that way.
With the BBC projecting that unconscious assumption no doubt it will…
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