"Another part of me notes that arriving late is a distraction to other students and a theft of their investment in college."
But then, if you're taking the "life skills" approach, then maybe you'd be doing the on-time students a favor by giving them a chance to learn to avoid distractions and focus on the matter at hand.
Alternatively, you could take the attitude--as my employer does--that as long as you get your work done, nobody cares whether you show up on time, or at all.
*sigh* so in other words, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye, sticks and stones can break my bones but (lack of) words can never hurt me, and a company that depends on communication services as the fundamental basis for its operations can't be said to be harmed--in any way!--by having those communications services shut off.
Alternatively, we could start thinking about what exactly it is that "privacy" is meant to protect, and ask ourselves why it is that we're so worried about this behavior that we want to hide it and pretend like it isn't happening.
Do you have a link to a news story about the event you describe? Because I've heard some pretty wild stories about stuff that happened to my friends' friends' friends. For example, "strip search" turned out to be "asked to take off sweater", and "groped my privates" turned out to be "touched the inside of my thigh".
See, this is the kind of "oh it's just the Internet, it's not like it matters" thinking that's getting more and more people in trouble. It's like people still think the Internet is just for nerds, just a kid thing, just a passing fad and next year we'll all be crazy about something else.
Imagine if, instead of a DDoS, this anonymous crowd went out to Visa's corporate headquarters and glued the doors shut, then threw caltrops and burning diesel fuel all around the building, and then disconnected all the phone lines going in. We wouldn't be sitting around talking like it was a harmless prank.
Courage can be insufficient; optimism can prove to be foolhardiness. If you don't jump you can't fly, but you also won't fall, and falling hurts.
We choose fear and hope because they never fail us. If you fear that something will go wrong, then you'll always--eventually--be right. If you hope that tomorrow will be better, then you'll still have that hope tomorrow, and the day after, and forever.
To the OP: I think we have both legislation and precedent protecting people who publish information that they've obtained, no matter what that information is.
Now, the person who gave the publisher that information could be in quite a bit of trouble, but that's a different issue.
Heck, my personal favorite time-travel scenario is to go kill Kaiser Wilhelm II. Forget Hitler. Kaiser Bill's toy-soldiers and play-navy obsessions were responsible for the arms races that let WWI occur, and if that hadn't happened then Hitler would have been a struggling artist and beer-hall punk.
Wilson's "nonintervention at any price" policy kept World War I going for about twice as long as it ought to have, and may well have contributed to it starting in the first place.
"Constitutional rights trump national security by definition. "
In other words, "yes. I, Mark Thompson, believe that revealing the design secrets of nuclear weapons to the Nazis is Constitutionally-protected free speech, and to punish anyone who did such a thing would be a reprehensible violation of fundamental Constitutional rights."
Stupid shit like this is why Madison didn't even want there to be a Bill Of Rights in the first place!
The TSA agent can always fall back on "I'm following orders". Say what you want about that being an affirmative legal defense, it's certainly a psychological defense.
But then, you're assuming that openly authoritarian control would be reviled and cause rebellion. You're not taking into account the possibility that nobody gives a shit because their three-meals-a-day-and-Monday-Night-Football aren't threatened.
And you're assuming that the State cares what people think. Some Soviet dissident was quoted as saying "we decided that we would just denounce everyone, everyone we could think of, whether they were actually traitors or not, whether we actually had evidence or not. Surely, we thought, the State would not murder or imprison thousands of people with neither cause nor due process. We were wrong."
"I only got to third base with the girls in question and did not actually lose my virginity until I was 16. I dry-humped them, though...what does this have to do with my cats?"
"...the head of the climate unit at the University of East Anglia almost had to resign, but no wrong doing was found in the investigation."
Ho, ho, ho. The Bush administration had lawyers' statements that torture wasn't wrong.
PS last year my niece was 3. This year she is 4. Since her age is therefore increasing at 33% every year, I can confidently--and with cold, hard math backing me up---declare that in the year 2025 she will be 225 years old.
"There’s no surer way to permanently implant a true aristocracy than to elect only those wealthy enough to fund their own campaigns."
You mean like people who get to use tax money to fund their campaigns?
It's not like those poor poor Democrats had to scrimp and save and beg in the street. Brown and Boxer matched Whitman and Fiorina ad-for-ad, at least as far as I saw from watching TV.
And it doesn't help when authors who genuinely attempt to include non-white perspectives and influences are told that it's "cultural appropriation" and they're being even more racist.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Slippery Slopes to Nowhere”
Nobody likes to think about how much of their personal morality is based on "ew, that's gross!"
On “Markets in Procrastination–Corrupted Term Papers”
"Another part of me notes that arriving late is a distraction to other students and a theft of their investment in college."
But then, if you're taking the "life skills" approach, then maybe you'd be doing the on-time students a favor by giving them a chance to learn to avoid distractions and focus on the matter at hand.
Alternatively, you could take the attitude--as my employer does--that as long as you get your work done, nobody cares whether you show up on time, or at all.
On “Tough Crowd”
"Finally, I just answered that people who actually know what is going on support WikiLeaks. "
Nice, an Argument from Authority to support an indefensible position.
If you can't explain something to a reasonable person, then maybe you don't understand it as well as you ought to.
On “Anonymous preparing for new Wikileaks effort”
*sigh* so in other words, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye, sticks and stones can break my bones but (lack of) words can never hurt me, and a company that depends on communication services as the fundamental basis for its operations can't be said to be harmed--in any way!--by having those communications services shut off.
That's what you're saying here, right?
On “Wikileaks and the Tea Party”
Alternatively, we could start thinking about what exactly it is that "privacy" is meant to protect, and ask ourselves why it is that we're so worried about this behavior that we want to hide it and pretend like it isn't happening.
"
But sometimes it really hits the fan, and *then* what do you do?
On “Trading Off Security for (Relative) Privacy”
Do you have a link to a news story about the event you describe? Because I've heard some pretty wild stories about stuff that happened to my friends' friends' friends. For example, "strip search" turned out to be "asked to take off sweater", and "groped my privates" turned out to be "touched the inside of my thigh".
On “The War on the Poor”
" The problem with school choice alone is that whlie you are opening a window for the lucky kids the poor schools just continue to fail. "
In other words, "we can't help everybody, so let's help nobody."
On “Anonymous preparing for new Wikileaks effort”
See, this is the kind of "oh it's just the Internet, it's not like it matters" thinking that's getting more and more people in trouble. It's like people still think the Internet is just for nerds, just a kid thing, just a passing fad and next year we'll all be crazy about something else.
Imagine if, instead of a DDoS, this anonymous crowd went out to Visa's corporate headquarters and glued the doors shut, then threw caltrops and burning diesel fuel all around the building, and then disconnected all the phone lines going in. We wouldn't be sitting around talking like it was a harmless prank.
"
Oh hello tu quoque, how are you today? It's been a while since I saw you.
On “On Consumerism, Living the Dream, and Hope”
Courage can be insufficient; optimism can prove to be foolhardiness. If you don't jump you can't fly, but you also won't fall, and falling hurts.
We choose fear and hope because they never fail us. If you fear that something will go wrong, then you'll always--eventually--be right. If you hope that tomorrow will be better, then you'll still have that hope tomorrow, and the day after, and forever.
On “Question for readers”
To the OP: I think we have both legislation and precedent protecting people who publish information that they've obtained, no matter what that information is.
Now, the person who gave the publisher that information could be in quite a bit of trouble, but that's a different issue.
On “Exceptionalism, Imperialism, and the Necessity of “Closed Systems””
Neither was Japan up until December 7th 1941.
"
Heck, my personal favorite time-travel scenario is to go kill Kaiser Wilhelm II. Forget Hitler. Kaiser Bill's toy-soldiers and play-navy obsessions were responsible for the arms races that let WWI occur, and if that hadn't happened then Hitler would have been a struggling artist and beer-hall punk.
On “Question for readers”
Didn't the Times sit on the wiretapping story (for a time) at the request of the Bush administration?
On “Exceptionalism, Imperialism, and the Necessity of “Closed Systems””
Wilson's "nonintervention at any price" policy kept World War I going for about twice as long as it ought to have, and may well have contributed to it starting in the first place.
On “Julian Assange: bank account closed, prepares to meet with police, face talking-point wrath of GOP hopefuls”
"Constitutional rights trump national security by definition. "
In other words, "yes. I, Mark Thompson, believe that revealing the design secrets of nuclear weapons to the Nazis is Constitutionally-protected free speech, and to punish anyone who did such a thing would be a reprehensible violation of fundamental Constitutional rights."
Stupid shit like this is why Madison didn't even want there to be a Bill Of Rights in the first place!
On “Exceptionalism, Imperialism, and the Necessity of “Closed Systems””
"What answer can they offer instead? Perhaps a Euro-merican exceptionalism. A re-dressing of the the U.S.’s “Western mantle” in more PC terms."
"Take up the metrosexual post-colonial college-educated man's burden", you're suggesting?
On “The crazy misadventures of the TSA”
The TSA agent can always fall back on "I'm following orders". Say what you want about that being an affirmative legal defense, it's certainly a psychological defense.
On “Doctor Science on Conspiracy”
But then, you're assuming that openly authoritarian control would be reviled and cause rebellion. You're not taking into account the possibility that nobody gives a shit because their three-meals-a-day-and-Monday-Night-Football aren't threatened.
And you're assuming that the State cares what people think. Some Soviet dissident was quoted as saying "we decided that we would just denounce everyone, everyone we could think of, whether they were actually traitors or not, whether we actually had evidence or not. Surely, we thought, the State would not murder or imprison thousands of people with neither cause nor due process. We were wrong."
On “A Tribute to Sean Carasov”
The worst part is going to be watching all the Scientology fucks congratulating themselves over this, as though they personally pulled the trigger.
On “R.S. McCain accuses me of being a violent militant”
"I only got to third base with the girls in question and did not actually lose my virginity until I was 16. I dry-humped them, though...what does this have to do with my cats?"
It shows how you're obsessed with pussy.
(ha ha ha, ZING!)
On “Speaking of plagiarism…”
"...the head of the climate unit at the University of East Anglia almost had to resign, but no wrong doing was found in the investigation."
Ho, ho, ho. The Bush administration had lawyers' statements that torture wasn't wrong.
PS last year my niece was 3. This year she is 4. Since her age is therefore increasing at 33% every year, I can confidently--and with cold, hard math backing me up---declare that in the year 2025 she will be 225 years old.
On “Best 2010 Election Results News”
"There’s no surer way to permanently implant a true aristocracy than to elect only those wealthy enough to fund their own campaigns."
You mean like people who get to use tax money to fund their campaigns?
It's not like those poor poor Democrats had to scrimp and save and beg in the street. Brown and Boxer matched Whitman and Fiorina ad-for-ad, at least as far as I saw from watching TV.
On “On Hobbits, Race, and Self-Contained Worlds”
And it doesn't help when authors who genuinely attempt to include non-white perspectives and influences are told that it's "cultural appropriation" and they're being even more racist.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.