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  • On the post: President-For-Life Hopeful Donald Trump Issues Executive Order Mandating 'Patriotic' Education For Kids

    ke9tv ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2020 @ 10:07am

    Re: Re: The New American Exceptionalism

    If you're really lucky and willing to spend the effort that'll be by forcing education and a better life on the next generation of trailer trash. If not it'll be after burying the violent extremists after they kick off the next civil war.
    And said violent extremists are much better armed, and operate under color of law. (Every police department in the nation is run by them. Every one - don't defend your posh suburban one just because they're nice to you.) What happens after they win the next civil war by exterminating what today is the majority? It's hard for me to see a scenario that doesn't end with the whole world in ashes, because someone in the middle of one of the coming succession of coups d'état will surely decide that if they go down, they'll go down with their fingers on the nuclear trigger.

  • On the post: President-For-Life Hopeful Donald Trump Issues Executive Order Mandating 'Patriotic' Education For Kids

    ke9tv ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2020 @ 09:49am

    Re:

    In many cases, because said slaves were mortgaged to the hilt, and the manumission wouldn't be lawful unless the slaves were owned free and clear. The 'manumission upon death' was more like 'if there's anything left over after the debts are paid, free them.' Jefferson, in particular, was known for living beyond his means. Which doesn't exonerate his other sins. People are complicated. He drafted a brilliant statement of ideals that he failed catastrophically to live up to.

  • On the post: Comcast Tells Customers They May Lose Access To Comcast Channels If Comcast Can't Agree With Comcast

    ke9tv ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2020 @ 09:34am

    Re:

    No, this is, "I'm sorry, we're going to have to raise our rates because we've insisted on paying ourselves more money for our programming. It's out of our hands, because we wouldn't bend in dictating terms to ourselves. You'll have to take it up with us, not us."

  • On the post: Stupid Use Of Profanity Filter Makes A Mess Of Virtual Paleontologist Conference

    ke9tv ( profile ), 21 Oct, 2020 @ 08:53pm

    Re: Re: So basically…

    Yeah, it's the classic Scunthorpe problem
    It's a clbuttic mistake.

  • On the post: DOJ Says Trump's Tweets Declassifying All Russia Investigation Docs Doesn't Mean Anything; Judge Says They Better Go Ask Him

    ke9tv ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2020 @ 06:05pm

    He declassified only the stuff that incriminates Clinton in the But Her Emails scandal, and the Great Russian Hoax.

    Anything that fails to incriminate Clinton is still classified.

  • On the post: DOJ Is Suing Melania Trump's Ex-Friend Over Her Book, Despite Never Being A Government Employee

    ke9tv ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2020 @ 10:49am

    Synecdoche

    I read 'swap out the US Government' as 'swap out the US Government's current slate of officers,' as opposed to 'swap out the US's form of government.' The former is appearing increasingly necessary in all three branches, and there are numerous offices in at least the Executive and Legislative branches that indeed appear to be walking affronts to the Constitution.

  • On the post: Internet Of Broken Things Jumps The Shark With IoT Chastity Penis Lock That Can Be Hacked

    ke9tv ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2020 @ 02:49pm

    Don't put a Qiui on your ui-ui!

  • On the post: Trump Nominates Guy Who Wants To Police Speech Online To Be The Next FCC Commissioner

    ke9tv ( profile ), 17 Sep, 2020 @ 11:30am

    Re:

    Section 230 doesn't protect editorializing. The First Amendment does that. You seem to be arguing that once the operators of a platform have editorial content, anywhere on the platform, that they lose Section 230 protection for anything posted by users. In effect, you consider all speech on the platform to be from a single speaker. In other words, if I am entertaining Alice and Bob in my parlor, and Bob tells a lie, I'm not allowed to point out the lie to Alice without then becoming subject to prosecution for anything that either Alice or Bob might say? In such a regime, I obviously can't have guests in my house at all.

  • On the post: Minnesota Cops Are Dismantling Criminal Organizations At Less Than $1,000 A Pop

    ke9tv ( profile ), 15 Sep, 2020 @ 11:06am

    over-represented, and not a majority

    Shortly before the advent of the Great Plague, I was in a doctor's waiting room, and two angry mountain men were conversing loudly a little bit away from me. One was complaining how unfair it was that the city people got all the best from government, because they always outvoted the country folk. All their taxes went 'downtown' with nothing to show for it. What's worse, the power company was building a wind farm in their town, and had convinced a couple of farmers to sell their land! Apparently, "majority rule" was manifestly unfair in their eyes, and the sale by a willing seller to a willing buyer was exploitative. Also, the net flow of tax money runs in the opposite direction, but let's not confuse the issue with more facts. I get the impression that to a great many people, something is "fair" only if they get their way in every particular, and who cares whether anyone else might find it fair?

  • On the post: Over At Politico, The AT&T Monopoly Gives Tips On Fixing A Broadband Problem It Spent Thirty Years Creating

    ke9tv ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2020 @ 08:36am

    Make it illegal for the community to do it, and then don't do it yourself, either. Instead, spin off your operation to someone who acquires it in a leveraged buyout (translation: by the subsidiary with the subsidiary's money), and then let the new company go bankrupt. Steal the assets and turn the rest over to yet another buyer, because there's one born every minute. Oh yes, and continue to pocket the universal service fee while abandoning even the idea of universal service. Or, really, service at all. The providers would love a world in which they can continue to collect fees while entirely avoiding the hurly-burly of actually doing business. I'd cite Verizon's abandonment of Vermont as an example, except that there are now co-ops emerging because the big carriers have pretty much abandoned the state, and even the bottom-feeders like FairPoint and Consolidated are pretty much dumping it, so you start seeing operations like Mansfield and VTel beginning to move in. I expect the big boys will drop the hammer on those soon enough, though.

  • On the post: Get Your Otherwise Objectionable Gear Before The Senate Takes It Away!

    ke9tv ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2020 @ 09:13am

    I'd have to check on the regulatory history of 47 USC 97.205(g).

    It used to be that the control operator of a repeater was indeed responsible for monitoring what went over the repeater, and in cases of abuse, being able to silence the abuser via a control link. (And could still be held responsible for the first F-bomb to drop. Surprisingly, I don't know of any repeater system that was designed with the infamous 7-second delay to give a control op time to react.) The control operator of the repeater and the control operator of the originating station were jointly and severally responsible.

    The FCC enforcement of Amateur Radio, back then, was relatively friendly; 'self-policing' was a concept. The exception cases (the first F-bomb drops before the operator can command the control link) were handled with selective enforcement. The regulatory environment got considerably more adversarial over time, and obviously in a hostile environment, 'you are responsible for what someone else said.' is an unsustainable posture. I'm glad they fixed that part.

  • On the post: Florida Sheriff's Predictive Policing Program Is Protecting Residents From Unkempt Lawns, Missing Mailbox Numbers

    ke9tv ( profile ), 11 Sep, 2020 @ 12:39pm

    'Broken windows' policing starts from the assumption that anything that makes a neighbourhood unsightly or unpleasant (broken windows, loud music, inoperable cars, long grass, ...) makes it a target for crime. Just look at Skid Row, it's got all those things. From that it presumes that forcing people to clean up the small things will fix the crime problem. It also is predicated on selective enforcement. The Sheriff isn't trying to drive all the residents out of Pasco County. Just ones who happen to be black, brown, poor, mentally challenged, or otherwise bear marks of the underclass. Emphasis on the 'not lily white'. People who are white enough get a pass on the other aspects.

  • On the post: Cops And Paramedics Are Still Killing Arrestees By Shooting Them Up With Ketamine

    ke9tv ( profile ), 11 Sep, 2020 @ 10:47am

    "Did not resist"

    The cops put the lie to your statement by shouting conflicting orders. "Freeze" "Lie down on the ground right now". Lying down is failing to freeze. Freezing is failing to lie down. They get to shoot either way. If I weren't White, I'd be terrified every time I saw a cop. I have at least some minimal hearing loss. (One of the symptoms is hyperacusis. An order screamed in my ear is likely also to be unintelligible.) Even being White, I run the risk of being shot for failing to comply with an order that I couldn't quite hear.

  • On the post: Cops And Paramedics Are Still Killing Arrestees By Shooting Them Up With Ketamine

    ke9tv ( profile ), 11 Sep, 2020 @ 11:17am

    Ketamine?

    Ketamine has a narrow therapeutic window. It induces dissociation and hallucinations in many. Is this what we want to use in the field on someone experiencing what is perhaps a psychotic episode?

    If I recall correctly, the psych hospitals use either a fast-acting benzodiazepine such as midazolam, or else a combination of a typical antipsychotic + a sedating antihistamine (such as haloperidol + promethazine) Flumazenil is kept on hand in the event of benzodiazepine toxicity. Some have ketamine as a second option if haloperidol is too much of a risk (for example, a patient known to be on multiple Q-T prolonging agents or with previous episodes of torsades des pointes.)

    And to hell with the argument that the police and EMS can't be held responsible because the victim was unusually sensitive to the drug. Look up the 'eggshell skull rule.' A tortfeasor must take his victims as he finds them.

  • On the post: Content Moderation Case Study: Detecting Sarcasm Is Not Easy (2018)

    ke9tv ( profile ), 11 Sep, 2020 @ 10:36am

    I wish that I knew what context was like

    "I'm from Context, but I don't know what it's like, because I'm so often taken out of it." - Norton Juster (quote may be inexact, can't be bothered to look it up)

    I don't tweet, but I checked my blog for the last mention of suicide.

    Paraphrasing: Alberto, Catherine and I turned back only about 500 feet below the summit, because the day was getting warmer and the ice was unsound. It was slushy and separating from the rock in spots, and crampons weren't holding well. To continue in those conditions would be suicide. The mountain will still be there another day.

    Now, I don't know, some people might indeed consider winter mountaineering to be self-harm. but others think it can be done responsibly.

  • On the post: Could A Narrow Reform Of Section 230 Enable Platform Interoperability?

    ke9tv ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2020 @ 12:56pm

    On the other hand, one could just let the bozos in Congress and the White House pass any of the incredibly bad laws they want, which will certainly be struck down as unconstitutional five times over inside a couple months. Because they aren't even trying.

    The bozos in Congress are delaying the consideration of the bad laws at the moment, because they're too busy confirming judges who won't strike down the bad laws.

  • On the post: T-Mobile Merger Approval Violated Every Last One Of the DOJ's Updated 'Antitrust Principles'

    ke9tv ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2020 @ 09:20am

    Remedies must preserve competition.

    Remember that Pai has already expressed the opinion (for wired broadband) that there's competition in the market if you can switch to a different provider by moving to another city. You have to read all of these things with Pai's definitions of the words.

  • On the post: The Government Has Been Binging On Classification. Senators Say It's Time To Start Purging.

    ke9tv ( profile ), 09 Sep, 2020 @ 09:45am

    Classification as corporate politics

    The biggest single contributing factor to overclassification is that among the military contractors, it's a way to get management attention (and funding) for your project. There's a belief there that "if it were any good, we'd want it for ourselves exclusively, and so it would be secret."

    Often the only sensitive aspect to the program is precisely which model of ship or aircraft it's going into, and most people working on it neither know nor care. If you're working to optimize performance of an engine exhaust nozzle or a radar front end, it's actually pretty irrelevant whose wing the engine will fly on or what craft will be carrying the radar.

  • On the post: Facebook Says It Will Block News Sharing In Australia If Murdoch's Social Media Tax Becomes Law

    ke9tv ( profile ), 02 Sep, 2020 @ 09:32am

    Re: Saving $50 today only to pay $10 every week afterwards

    Going nuclear requires that you have the nuclear weapons. Far too many business are forced to settle because the up-front cost of defending the suits would bankrupt them. Even if they're awarded attorneys' fees, the plaintiffs turn out to be judgment-proof. Retailers are at particularly high risk of this, since they're all shoestring operations. (Even Amazon has quite a low return on its insane market cap. I don't know what its speculators - I'm reluctant to call them "investors" - are thinking.) It's easy to say, 'they should have gone down fighting rather than pay the Danegeld' when it's not your business at stake.

  • On the post: SafeSpeed Executive Charged With Bribing Cook County Officials For Red Light Camera Contracts

    ke9tv ( profile ), 02 Sep, 2020 @ 08:49am

    Re:

    Let's see who is bribing everyone to time the yellow caution signal to an unsafely brief period.
    There's no out-and-out bribe. The cameras are already in place, and the company simply has to point out that shortening the caution interval would generate more revenue, and of course tougher enforcement has to improve safety, right?

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