Rad Geek People's Daily

• Why are they afraid of Wikileaks? Marja Erwin (2010-11-17). The authoritarians claim that we have no right to object to invasions of our privacy and freedom of association. They institute systematic surveillance and sometimes assassinations, including COINTELPRO and its successors, on these grounds. Yet they condemn Wikileaks, calling for internet censorship, arrests, or assassinations. They insist that the people… (Linked Saturday 2010-11-20.)

• Does the Punishment Fit the Crime? Daily Brickbats (2010-11-19). Denver police officer Devin Sparks says that Michael DeHerrera tried to punch him and he had to defend himself. But a video showed DeHerrera was just talking on his cell phone when Sparks tackled him, beat him repeatedly with a baton, and slammed a car door on him. The city… (Linked Monday 2010-11-22.)

• Hey, I thought this was a libertarian blog, not a crafting one! drunkenatheist, Drunkenatheist (2010-11-19). Awhile back, there was a discussion on Facebook that had morphed into a discussion on food and agorism.  I don't remember what started it, but I can assure you that it had little to nothing to do with the endpoint.  I don't remember exactly what I said, but I recall… (Linked Monday 2010-11-22.)

• "Curing" Feminists. Not Your Average Feminist (2010-11-17). For reference, a feminist is Maximally “cured” when she considers giving her ignorant, lying, manipulating boyfriend a blowjob. Seriously, bro? Stay classy, Maxim Magazine. (My condolences, also, to Jennifer Baumgardner and the women at Bust, for having been corralled into this particular journalistic achievement. Much as I may disagree with them on certain points, they certainly deserve better.) (Linked Wednesday 2010-11-17.)

• this comic started life as one where t-rex was excited that he could change his name to “david lorean” because then he would be “d. lorean” like the car from back to the future. i guess… i guess i rewrote it pretty hard. Dinosaur Comics (2010-11-18). archive – contact – sexy exciting merchandise – adventure – search – about!!!@@e2;2020;90; previousNovember 18th, 2010nextNovember 18th, 2010: Friend Oliver has made some I got opinions shirts and today is the last day to get them! If you, like me, got opinions, then this is definitely the shirt for you!… (Linked Thursday 2010-11-18.)

RT @samablog: The real scandal is that a band that broke up over 40 years ago still enjoys the protection of copyright #Beatles #iTunes. Mark's Firehose (2010-11-17).

But without lifetime-plus copyright, how will Sir Paul McCartney ever manage to put food on the table? If he doesn’t get that extra $0.99/song tariff until decades after his death, how will artists ever be properly incentivized to make music?

(Forwarded thanks to Mark Pilgrim.)

• Sustainable counter-media — Radix Media on Kickstarter. Shawn P. Wilbur, Out of the Libertarian Labyrinth (2010-11-14). Radix Media, a Portland-based radical offset printing and design operation, has launched a modest $5000 Kickstarter campaign, to upgrade their presses and invest in booklet-making equipment. They describe the project as representing the difference between continuing the project, and making it sustainable. Sustainable operation is the goal that so few… (Linked Tuesday 2010-11-16.)

• WillUsingThePrefixCyberMakeMeLookLikeAnIdiot.com. willusingtheprefixcybermakemelooklikeanidiot.com (2010-11-16). (Linked Tuesday 2010-11-16.)

• The Robber Barons. Sheldon Richman, Free Association (2010-11-07). I’m finally reading Matthew Josephson’s The Robber Barons, a book I never felt I needed to read. That was a bad decision. I’m only a couple of chapters in, but I can tell this is a book worth reading because it will shed some needed light on the alleged golden… (Linked Tuesday 2010-11-16.)

• Show Us on the Airline Passenger Where He Touched You. cherylcline, der Blaustrumpf (2010-11-16). I've been meaning to write about the parallels between state violence and sexual violence for some time, but it's really something to see the two overlap so neatly as they do with the newly introduced TSA backscatter x-ray machines.  In case you're unfamiliar with them, the machines are capable of… (Linked Wednesday 2010-11-17.)

• Lifelong Welfare Case to Hold Lavish Wedding at Public Expense. Jesse Walker, Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-11-16). Details here. (Linked Wednesday 2010-11-17.)

It’s a bit early to call it, especially in such a competitive field, but right now I am really leaning towards this contribution from David Brooks:

He'd do it because this is the beating center of American life — the place where the trajectory of American politics is being determined.

— David Brooks, Midwest at Dusk, New York Times (November 4, 2010)

Keep in mind what an impressive achievement is just to be the stupidest sentence in a single Op-Ed column by a commentator who apparently cannot find the Midwest U.S. on a map.^[1] But while most of the column is just dumb, the notion that the beating center of American life is simply identical with, or even has a good goddamn to do with, the trajectory of American politics (meaning the state-by-state results of seasonal U.S. elections) or whether or not the U.S. will remain a predominant power (!) is not only stupid, but immensely narrow-minded and pernicious, and a pretty good one-sentence illustration of everything that is wrong with David Brooks, as a commentator and as a human being.

(Via William Easterly, via Jesse Walker 2010-11-05.)

See also:

• GT 2010-10-06: Team sport

1. ^[1]… that region of America that starts in central New York and Pennsylvania and then stretches out through Ohio and Indiana before spreading out to include Wisconsin and Arkansas. Dude, really?↩