http://www.techdirt.com/ Easily digestible tech news.... http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130516/18383623114/your-word-against-ours-how-fbis-no-electronic-recording-policy-rigs-game-destroys-its-credibility.shtml#c434 Tue, 21 May 2013 06:07:19 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130516/18383623114/your-word-against-ours-how-fbis-no-electronic-recording-policy-rigs-game-destroys-its-credibility.shtml#c434 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c127 Tue, 21 May 2013 06:06:55 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c127
Iraq: A War of Aggression. No WMDs, No Connection to Al Qaeda

http://www.globalresearch.ca/iraq-a-war-of-aggression-no-wmds-no-connection-to-al-qaeda/5327548

'"Operation Iraqi Freedom" unleashed a tragedy of immense proportion. More than 3,000 American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed. Close to 7,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in July and August 2006 alone. In October 2006, the British medical journal the Lancet published a study conducted by Iraqi physicians with oversight by epidemiologists at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study estimated that 655,000 Iraqi civilians had died since Bush invaded Iraq in March 2003.

Loss of life isn]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c110 Tue, 21 May 2013 06:06:06 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c110
I am so sick of our scapegoating society.

Immigrants and unemployed blamed for government deficits - bullshit.
Violent video games blamed for real world violence - double bullshit.
Current governments blaming previous governments for the 'problems they left behind' - infinity bullshit.

It is time for politicians, corporations and the general public to step up and take responsibility for their own failings.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c88 Tue, 21 May 2013 06:05:26 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c88
War of course is nothing more than a 3D game people play similar in some aspects to the electronic version with real consequences.

(If this is not understood read "Games People Play" by Eric Berne.)

For normal people violent games are simply a game; for a small minority of nut cases they are training for mayhem which no rational person can comprehend.

The basic problem here is not the game or the guns used in the game but the nut cases that play the game.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130505/14372422951/court-finds-fantasy-stories-obscene.shtml#c826 Tue, 21 May 2013 06:04:08 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130505/14372422951/court-finds-fantasy-stories-obscene.shtml#c826 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130505/14372422951/court-finds-fantasy-stories-obscene.shtml#c818 Tue, 21 May 2013 06:03:03 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130505/14372422951/court-finds-fantasy-stories-obscene.shtml#c818
Sex and violence abounds in scipture.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c75 Tue, 21 May 2013 06:02:49 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c75 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130520/11552823150/major-hollywood-studios-all-sent-bogus-dmca-takedowns-concerning-pirate-bay-documentary.shtml#c756 Tue, 21 May 2013 06:00:03 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130520/11552823150/major-hollywood-studios-all-sent-bogus-dmca-takedowns-concerning-pirate-bay-documentary.shtml#c756 The penalties get paid to the person or persons they filed the bogus takedown notice against.

Oh, and it must be one strike, you lose all your copyrights, and immediate return to public domain, never to be allowed to be copyrighted again.

That seems appropriate. :)]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/18345423136/doj-dept-education-to-colleges-start-restricting-free-speech-campus-kiss-your-federal-funding-goodbye.shtml#c24 Tue, 21 May 2013 05:57:41 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/18345423136/doj-dept-education-to-colleges-start-restricting-free-speech-campus-kiss-your-federal-funding-goodbye.shtml#c24 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c57 Tue, 21 May 2013 05:56:06 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c57
Sure it's not teaching people to go up and shoot random Americans in the street, and most military people are law abiding citizens, but some of them do kill innocent Americans and commit violent crimes. Just like some violence video game players do those things, but most don't. By your same logic we should therefore be blaming the military for violent crime done by people in the military.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c54 Tue, 21 May 2013 05:54:05 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c54 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130502/07475922914/why-even-good-hospitals-doctors-are-obstacle-to-better-cheaper-healthcare.shtml#c114 Tue, 21 May 2013 05:51:37 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130502/07475922914/why-even-good-hospitals-doctors-are-obstacle-to-better-cheaper-healthcare.shtml#c114 program?"

The operative word is "companies". There was a time at least in US history, when almost all medicine was non-profit. Of course, doctors did well, made good middle-class incomes, but all hospitals were non-profit.

You can trace the collapse of US health care to the Reagan Era, when health care insurance was deregulated and insurance companies started buying up hospitals. This "free market" innovation did nothing but cause prices to shoot skyward. Reagan always hated Medicare (which until then was keeping costs down) and sought the deregulation in order to destroy it. Instead, the whole system metastasized.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130520/11552823150/major-hollywood-studios-all-sent-bogus-dmca-takedowns-concerning-pirate-bay-documentary.shtml#c754 Tue, 21 May 2013 05:50:54 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130520/11552823150/major-hollywood-studios-all-sent-bogus-dmca-takedowns-concerning-pirate-bay-documentary.shtml#c754 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c34 Tue, 21 May 2013 05:49:01 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c34 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c10 Tue, 21 May 2013 05:48:04 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c10 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130502/07475922914/why-even-good-hospitals-doctors-are-obstacle-to-better-cheaper-healthcare.shtml#c107 Tue, 21 May 2013 05:46:36 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130502/07475922914/why-even-good-hospitals-doctors-are-obstacle-to-better-cheaper-healthcare.shtml#c107
That was most definitely NOT something I wanted to read when I have open heart surgery scheduled next month.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c5 Tue, 21 May 2013 05:46:16 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/13573923121/retired-lt-col-violent-media-has-bred-generation-killers.shtml#c5
Tim says it like it's a noble stance but the anti ip attitude of the techdirt "crew" is always against profit, at least of the created by forced IP rights kind.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130505/14372422951/court-finds-fantasy-stories-obscene.shtml#c801 Tue, 21 May 2013 05:45:44 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130505/14372422951/court-finds-fantasy-stories-obscene.shtml#c801 Why must there be a limit to free speech?

I'll bite on this one. As much as people would like to suggest that free speech is an absolute, it is like all other rights relative for a few reasons. First and foremost, your speech can have an effect on others, it can be hateful, it can be libelous, or it can be downright dangerous (the old "fire!" example). Free speech is like pretty much every other right, your rights end where mine start. There is a jagged edge, a bit of grey, but free speech itself is not unlimited.

Obscenity is one of those where, as a society, that certain types of free speech are not permissible, as they cause harm to individuals or to society as a whole. It may seem remarkable, but it's one of the area of the law based a little more on morals, and a little less on black or white facts, which is why I think maybe some people here find it harder to understand. As the morality of society moves so does what is considered obscene. Nude movies or images 50 years ago might have been shocking, today they are nearly the fodder of billboard ads and music videos.

Anyway, no matter what, your free speech rights are not unlimited. That's a fact.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130520/11200723149/war-journalists-doj-claimed-fox-news-reporter-was-aider-abettor-co-conspirator-with-leaker.shtml#c1097 Tue, 21 May 2013 05:41:00 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130520/11200723149/war-journalists-doj-claimed-fox-news-reporter-was-aider-abettor-co-conspirator-with-leaker.shtml#c1097
That's the point of the attacks on the AP and Fox News.

Incidentally what do you think that huge complex in Utah is for?]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130516/18383623114/your-word-against-ours-how-fbis-no-electronic-recording-policy-rigs-game-destroys-its-credibility.shtml#c424 Tue, 21 May 2013 05:30:22 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130516/18383623114/your-word-against-ours-how-fbis-no-electronic-recording-policy-rigs-game-destroys-its-credibility.shtml#c424 "Claiming the system is stacked is crap, because plenty of guilty people go free every year, because of technicalities and exceptional circumstances. If the deck was stacked, those would have been "fixed" a long time ago."Using your logic if the deck wasn't stacked no innocent people would ever be convicted, and that happens too.

The truth is there is absolutely zero reason not to video tape interviews. If the police have nothing to hide they wouldn't mind me taping them yet they get really upset when they are taped.

It is very odd that those in power abhor being taped themselves while at the same time telling us that we shouldn't mind being taped and otherwise surveilled if we have nothing to hide.

The truth of the matter is that we should not be taped by them and ALL of their actions should be recorded, they have the power to restrict my freedom.

Those with little power need littler surveillance or oversight, those with a lot of power need a great deal of oversight and surveillance.]]>