Toestubber 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (53) comment rss

  • On the post: Zuckerberg Momentarily Curbs 'Hate Speech' Moderation Stupidity At Facebook To Reinstate Posts By Donald Trump

    Toestubber ( profile ), 24 Oct, 2016 @ 09:59am

    Re: Free speech is free speech

    Yes, I find that often, even those I agree with on the evils of censorship will make this categorical error. Free speech would be just as critically important if there was no Bill of Rights at all.

    Free Speech ≠ First Amendment

  • On the post: HP Launched Delayed DRM Time Bomb To Disable Competing Printer Cartridges

    Toestubber ( profile ), 21 Sep, 2016 @ 05:40am

    Re: Re: Re:

    The "empty cartridge means scanner is disabled" and "empty color cartridge means no printing from black cartridge" scams were the last straw for me.

    After dealing with such nonsense for years, I vowed to simply never buy another printer. Period. I refuse to devote more time and money to these scumbags. For my printing needs, it's easier (and way cheaper in the long run) to carry a thumb drive over to the local copy shop. Could not be happier with my decision.

  • On the post: Calm Down, People: Data Shows Airbnb Isn't Really Driving Up Rent

    Toestubber ( profile ), 09 Sep, 2016 @ 08:44am

    Re: Re: Rent hikes are not new are they?

    It's one thing to dislike New York City, a sentiment common among those who don't live there, but it's another to deny that the metropolis remains one of the world's most desired places to live.

    Despite the godawful rent and other negatives, people (who are neither sardines nor especially mentally ill) continue to spend lots of money to relocate there. In fact, the resulting explosion of living cost, and loss of NYC culture, from this massive influx is why so much of the old guard has fled over the past two decades. I doubt Airbnb has much to do with it.

  • On the post: Body Cam Footage Of Cop Hitting Handcuffed Man Leads To Firing Of Three New Orleans Police Officers

    Toestubber ( profile ), 21 Jun, 2016 @ 04:54pm

    Re: Re:

    But if they were a bit more selective about picking their fights, they might be considerably more effective in lending believable vocal support to those of their members who are not as far gone as these ones.

    The police unions are extremely selective in the fights they wage. They will defend the most horrific criminal behavior when it's committed by an LEO. However, if the rare honest cop comes forward to expose a violent police crime or uncovers the thug culture of a department, that same union will subject the whistleblower to the most scathing public attack they can muster.

    Defending corrupt police officers is just a subsidiary mission; the union's main role is upholding the privilege of cops to violate our rights.

  • On the post: New York Times Says Fair Use Of 300 Words Will Run You About $1800

    Toestubber ( profile ), 10 Jun, 2016 @ 09:03am

    Re:

    "Quote a sentence and you don't have an infringement, you have a fair use.

    However, quote 100 sentences and you don't have 100 fair uses, you have an infringement."

    This is not true. At all.

  • On the post: Court Says Government Needs More Than The Permission Of A Couple Of Underperforming Drug Dogs To Justify Seizure Of $276,000

    Toestubber ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2016 @ 12:40pm

    Re: Great case for civil forfeiture (and why its awful)

    The "underperforming" line refers to this part of the story: "A police drug dog signaled the presence of drugs in Pedro’s van, which was parked outside the house...A second dog alerted to the safe. No drugs, however, were found in either the van or the safe."

    It's pretty obvious that, like most drug dogs do, these canines were simply following the cues of their handlers (based on police guesswork). It's government magic.

  • On the post: More People Recognizing Copyright's 'Free Speech Problem'

    Toestubber ( profile ), 10 Apr, 2016 @ 01:30am

    Re:

    Those links about Mr. Randazza just lead back to this very page, so, unfortunately, there's no way of confirming the details or substance of your claims.

  • On the post: How The Dark Net Is Making Drug Purchases Safer By Eliminating Associated Violence And Improving Quality

    Toestubber ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2016 @ 09:15am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Please don’t muddy the water. They are called “recreational drugs” only because they are not used to treat illness. Like all prohibitionists, you are conflating addiction (chemical and emotional dependency) with the actual substances themselves. It’s an extremely authoritarian stance. If we don’t have dominion over our own bodies, then we have no rights that matter.

  • On the post: How The Dark Net Is Making Drug Purchases Safer By Eliminating Associated Violence And Improving Quality

    Toestubber ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2016 @ 08:48am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    No trolling, just trying to parse your cognitive dissonance.

    Given all of the social problems associated with alcohol, and your strong moral convictions about recreational substances, what is stopping you from advocating alcohol re-prohibition, and demanding that liquor store-owning scum be eradicated? I'm not claiming that it's "politically feasible," I'm saying you should be consistent and honest about your beliefs.

  • On the post: How The Dark Net Is Making Drug Purchases Safer By Eliminating Associated Violence And Improving Quality

    Toestubber ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2016 @ 08:32am

    Re: Re: Re:

    drug dealers are scum that need to be eradicated

    No drug dealer ever made me get high. It would be interesting to see your list of all the "scum" who deserve death. I imagine it is quite long.

  • On the post: How The Dark Net Is Making Drug Purchases Safer By Eliminating Associated Violence And Improving Quality

    Toestubber ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2016 @ 08:17am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Why aren't you advocating a return to alcohol prohibition?

  • On the post: How The Dark Net Is Making Drug Purchases Safer By Eliminating Associated Violence And Improving Quality

    Toestubber ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2016 @ 07:55am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Yeah, right. Nearly everyone is just itching to feast on those cheap, plentiful, addictive drugs the moment they get decriminalized. The only thing separating normal folks from abject junkiedom is the potential for arrest. Because Americans would never break the law.

    /sarc

  • On the post: How The Dark Net Is Making Drug Purchases Safer By Eliminating Associated Violence And Improving Quality

    Toestubber ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2016 @ 07:40am

    Re:

    I was addicted to heroin for many years, and you could not be more wrong. Your belief that problems in society stem from not enough punishment is a medieval religious fantasy.

    Allow me to modify your argument: "Violence can kill you, but [the legal system] is quite literally a fate worse than death, because it enslaves you, strips you of your dignity and your humanity, destroys your relationships with family and friends, impoverishes you, destroys your health, and all too often drives you to crime, before finally killing you." I got off the drugs, but there's no escaping the system.

  • On the post: How The Dark Net Is Making Drug Purchases Safer By Eliminating Associated Violence And Improving Quality

    Toestubber ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2016 @ 05:16am

    Leaving the drug trade in the hands of criminals and street gangs is the whole point of prohibition. They don't want things safer. It is only nominally about abolishing some arbitrary group of recreational substances.

    The US government only benefits when people die in this drug war. The carnage creates fear among the public, who clamor for more fewer rights and unconstitutional laws. It ensures there is always an enemy, an "other" - satisfying the country's eternal craving for war - and provides unlimited funding for militaristic pork. And it justifies any and all social control of the underclass.

    For politicians, a poison- and violence-ridden black market is a feature, not a bug.

  • On the post: Harvard Law Review Freaks Out, Sends Christmas Eve Threat Over Public Domain Citation Guide

    Toestubber ( profile ), 28 Dec, 2015 @ 08:01am

    Re:

    As an editor of some experience, I truly have no idea what your criticism is. Could you be more specific? What do you imagine is the "excess wording" in this post?

  • On the post: Want To Know How Ridiculous The Omnibus Bill Is? It Has A Meaningless Porn Filter Clause Four Times

    Toestubber ( profile ), 18 Dec, 2015 @ 08:29pm

    Re:

    That's the 6.6 trillion dollar question.

  • On the post: Appeals Court Doesn't Think Putting Historical Figures In Video Games Is Free Speech

    Toestubber ( profile ), 09 Oct, 2015 @ 02:46pm

    Re:

    But using likenesses of people who are still alive is NOT a historical figure

    Quite an interesting concept of what constitutes "history" you have there. What is it, life +70 years?

  • On the post: The Increasing Attacks On The Most Important Law On The Internet

    Toestubber ( profile ), 01 Oct, 2015 @ 01:13am

    Re:

    Chu and his gang are disingenuous scumbags. I think that Mike, as well as many others who have been studiously dissecting this guy's inane, incoherent proclamations, are incorrect to simply assume he's an idiot. Chu understands what he is proposing; he just figures that his tribe would be well-placed to game any new system. His critics blame stupidity for what should properly be attributed to malice.

  • On the post: Charlie Hebdo Bows To Assassins' Veto, Hecklers' Veto; Will No Longer Mock Mohammed

    Toestubber ( profile ), 20 Jul, 2015 @ 08:19pm

    English-only protest

    The PEN signatories to that protest should be ashamed of themselves. Stripping away all political and social context of "selected" Hebdo cartoons, they made reckless accusations of racism based on their own ignorance of the French language.

    http://www.understandingcharliehebdo.com

    If only the dead cartoonists had had the courtesy to explain their jokes to obtuse American intellectual scolds, I'm certain all of this unpleasantness could have been avoided.

  • On the post: Protocols Instead Of Platforms: Rethinking Reddit, Twitter, Moderation And Free Speech

    Toestubber ( profile ), 18 Jul, 2015 @ 08:08am

    Re: Re: That PSA is bullshit

    I hate it when people smugly conflate the "right to free speech" and the concept that free speech is an incredibly important human value that's worth defending.

    These are two different things. Yes, the first is only concerned with government action. The latter ideal is more broad, and exercising it requires some personal integrity, not simply passing the buck.

Next >>