This place is messed up

There are people who tell me I’m a naive optimist. The Peace Corps Effect© has helped solidify that opinion, I know. I’m not deluded enough to think I’m going to change much, but perhaps I’m still immature enough to think that change could happen.

In any case, the following two news stories came through my feed aggregator today.

Mac Hammond […] says his private jet is for sale. […] Living Word Church has fallen $40,000 to $70,000 short of its weekly budget in recent months.
“It’s not yours, it’s God’s, and you’re not going to get it — and that’s something I’ll go to prison over,” (Rev. Kenneth Copeland) said at a meeting of prosperity ministers he sponsored in January.

In Tanzania alone, malaria kills roughly 100,000 people a year. (Bush said) “The suffering caused by malaria is needless and every death caused by malaria is unacceptable. […] It is unacceptable to people in the United States, who believe every human life has value, and that the power to save lives comes with the moral obligation to use it.”
Tanzania is one of 15 countries that benefit through the distribution of live-saving medicines, insecticide spraying and bed nets […] which cost about $10 (each).

(All emphasis mine)

I’m pro-Jesus and anti-Bush… something’s screwed up when the “wrong” people are on the “right” side of my fence.

Go ahead. Call me naive. I’m good with that for as long as I can hold onto it.

Soapbox Thievery

Stealing (borrowing?) shamelessly the soapbox from [here], I have only a few things to say.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t vocally support any particular candidate: I have my vote, you have yours. But there’s one tiny exception that bugs the hell out of me. I found out yesterday when that little white card came in the mail — that I’m not in the district I originally assumed. My address has changed since I voted last, and the district I thought I would be in now… isn’t the one I got. So now I’m here to pester everyone else I know: If you live in Auburn, you’re in district 79 - I’m in 81. Who are you voting for as your house representative — do you even know what a house rep is? On ballot for your district will be an actual, certified, third-party candidate. This is more than my endorsment of the party itself - if I had the vote, I would completely support the candidate. So before you ignore that line on your card, consider the options… and if you really just don’t give a crap, toss a vote in for me.

Also - following in the shadow of this borrowed soapbox’s legacy: Alabama’s voting system is not nearly the fiasco seen in neighboring states (at least we get a paper trail and legal audits) - but it still has its weaknesses. If you are worried about vote dropping (and don’t plan on writing in a candidate) - show up without an ID on Tuesday, and vote provisional. It’s the only method that allows the voter access to vote status: to know whether or not your own vote has “officially” been tallied. [Instructions here, opinion here.]

I know of exactly one soul <18 years old who will read this. The rest of you have no excuse.

Guilty by association / Methodical eradication

I really need to invest in a good pitchfork and a roll of duct-tape. I don’t want to be left behind in the dust while everyone runs off to either hunt or hide.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that Congress should require Internet service providers to preserve customer records, asserting that prosecutors need them to fight child pornography. […] The law enforcement officials have indicated to [ISP companies] they must retain customer records, possibly for two years.
“We respect civil liberties but we have to harmonize this so we can get more information.”
[Associated Press]

We do… but we don’t. I understand completely. Does anyone here still think this will be limited to cases involving child pornography? Just checking.

As of this posting, the official press release has yet to make it to the DOJ’s site: it has, however, hit the newswires. [DOJ Press Release] The release itself is careful to avoid the deliniations laid out in Gonzales’ defense to the Senate: no mention of the phrase “customer records” or implied enforcement of the retention thereof.

Justice Department officials have said that any proposal would not call for the content of communications to be preserved and would keep the information in the companies’ hands. The data could be obtained by the government through a subpoena or other lawful process.
[Associated Press]

As near as I can gather, the “content of communications” would refer to image and site caches, etc. The only thing, then, actually being preserved, would be URLs and transfer/activity data. So, if you’re not doing anything wrong, what are you afraid of?

I’m afraid of the Person in charge of defining that wrongdoing… and the fact that “other lawful processes” can very well include probable cause. Reason to believe a crime is being committed. That’s all it will take.

Of Bandwagons and Bandwidth

Of my relatively small collection of quasi-regular blogchecks, not a soul has yet to mention this particular hot-topic-du-jour: and I’m curious. So have at it, folks, be it by email, comment, or personal beratements (which may or may not involve trout and wet noodles). Net Neutrality. Go.

CNET Full Coverage
Snopes.com Article

[TX Rep. Joe, GOP] Barton … pressured his fellow GOP members to vote against Markey’s amendment…Net neutrality is “still not clearly defined,” Barton said. “It’s kind of like pornography: You know it when you see it.”

…And that, my friends, is what bothers the hell out of dear ol’ Sara. Sure, our intrinsic libertarian-esque leanings would generally tend towards the whole “ohh, keep the gummint’s hand’s OFF: Legislation of any type = TEH DEBAL!” — but this is a horse of a different color. Aside from the fact that his statement as a whole pisses me off in the first place (but that’s an entirely seperate ramble…); without base legislation to start with, who’s to make that call of “knowing it when we see it” — on either extremist side of the line? As nice as they’ve played thus far, I really don’t want to leave the call in the hands of the almighty Telcos for all eternity: nor do I want to leave it in Mr. Barton’s hands, either.

Granted, I have to agree with the Good Rep on one point: cases are being overstated, and dangers exaggerated.

Barton argued that Net neutrality proponents were overstating their case and exaggerating the dangers of a more laissez-faire approach. “I don’t think all the Draconian things they (predict) will happen if we don’t adopt their amendment,” he said.
…
“I’m concerned about e-mails being blocked from advocacy groups, of all sides,” said Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat who supported the amendment. “I’m concerned about start-ups that may be shut down.”

Amendment proponents who are going all-out for Neutrality are using all sorts of layman scare tactics to add to their supporters: the honest affects this will have on the average user, at least within a limited time frame, are nothing like the “OMGZ TEH INTARWEB WILL BECOME CENSORED!!!11eleven” effect that is being touted.

Nevertheless: the fact remains that what concerns me most — what scares the everliving shite out of me most — is the fact that The Powers That Be seem completely oblivious to the inevitable repurcussions of allowing the “nice” telcos to lay out their own, individual, guidelines. As a small-town chick, forced to jump through a singular hoop for my beloved broadband, I don’t really hold much stock in the (actual, overheard) argument of “well, if you think it’s that bad, then just boycott the big telcos” (gee thanks; try a traceroute someday, moran).

And so we wait. We watch. And we wonder what the future holds.