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Little Red Book Draws Government Attention
narcolepticjim writes "An unnamed Dartmouth student was visited by Homeland Security for requesting a copy of Mao Zedong's Little Red Book for a class project." From the article: "The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said."
LOL, I tried that once and I got my ass beat by not one but four cops. When it became clear I intended to file a complaint, I was weeks later served a summons and charged with resisting arrest, an offence carrying a maximum penalty of 2 years in prison less a day based on how the prosecutor elected to proceed. The arrest I allegedly resisted was, I shit you not, for a non-criminal traffic offence carrying a $30 fine. The charges were ultimately dropped, but the point remains: police can, and will, make up any story they please to do whatever it is they want to you, especially if you lead them to believe their authority is not absolute.
In Canada the equivalent of the SSN is the SIN (Social Insurance Number). In any case a few years ago it became law that you cannot be refused a service because you refuse to give out your SIN. The exception to this is that it has a valid use (Pretty well the only valid uses are ones that deal directly with taxation, for example you must give it to your employer so they can report income tax stuff correctly).
That being said companies can ask you for your SIN but you are not obligated to give it to them. For me that meant waiting 3 weeks longer for a credit card, but at least VISA doesn't have my SIN
The main reason why I am so paranoid about my SIN is I actually had mine stolen a while back. A company I used to work for outsourced their pension stuff. About a year ago the place got broken into and computers containing my SIN along with 30000 or so other people got stolen. The process of making sure that no one can apply for credit in my name is something I do not want to repeat.
History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it - Sir Winston Churchill
Even though it was voted against, Bush has stated that he will continue to authorize illegal phone taps and other forms of spycraft on US citizins. NYTimes article here He was, in fact, filled with rage at the tresonous liberal media who dared to leak the fact that he is authorizing such illegal activities in the first place, and that they may well have murdered innocent people through their deplorable actions. :)
This comes right on the heels of the use of torture being approved by the Bush-McCain agreement. Although on its surface it appears to ban the use of torture by US personnel, it in fact grants them 100% immunity from any problems that may arise from the use of torture, under the constraint that they must have reason to believe that such torture is an order. Standing orders are any and all means are authorised, therefore, this law grants immunity from prosecution or court martial to any US troops or CIA agents who with to torture or execute to gain information. Finally, the house and senate have both backed a measure that will make evidence gained through torture admisable in court, as well as holding people, both citizins and not, indefinatly without trial, and without access to a lawyer.
So there you have it. Bush is overriding the Judicial branch and issuing warrants himself, torture is legal, and evidence tortured out of a suspect is admissible in court, you have no right to a speedy trial, nor to confront witnesses. What a week! Ammendments lost this week: I, IV, V, VI, VIII.
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
Ok, all my bullshit meters went off when I read this article. It might have happened, but I'm laying odds that it's either a hoax, or that the professor is studying to see how neo-anarchistic sites like Slashdot can uncritically accept stories about our government, or that the student successfully bullshitted the professor. Or it could be our government is actually somewhat retarded (Chairman Mao is a threat in the era of the War on Terror?) and somewhat fascist. I wouldn't be surprised either way.
...which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Random points, in no particular order:
1) It's too coincidental. It happened (or was published) a day or so after secret eavesdropping policies from the administration made front page news in the New York Times.
2) Why the hell would agents bring the book? Can you imagine NSA agents walking into a remote library (and not the local library, because he needs the extra-special "Peking" version of the world's secondly most commonly printed book) and checking out this "rare" copy of a book? *How* did they check it out? Do they keep library accounts with all the universities in the state? And, why? Just so they can wave it in his face? What did they do with it after? Just toss it in the mail? Drive it back across town or to another city to return it? It makes no sense.
3) As best as I can tell, there's no such thing as the extra-special Peking Version of the book. My fiancee is Chinese, she's never heard of it (though she dislikes Communism, and isn't an expert on it either). Google '"Peking Version" Quotations of Chairman Mao' (or Little Red Book) and you get no results. Even the name is a bit suspect since Peking is the British name for Beijing, and the communists worked to change the name on everything to Beijing (via the uniform adoption of the standardized Pinyin system). But it's an older book, so it could be legit (the Pinyin reforms didn't happen for a while during Mao's reign). But neither does "Beijing Version" get any hits. Even the 1st edition was published in a variety of places, not just Beijing, so it would be a misnomer to call it a Peking Version.
Here's quotes from the article:
'"I tell my students to go to the direct source, and so he asked for the official Peking version of the book," Professor Pontbriand said. "Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security is monitoring inter-library loans, because that's what triggered the visit, as I understand it."'
and
"In the 1950s and '60s, during the Cultural Revolution in China, it was required reading. Although there are abridged versions available, the student asked for a version translated directly from the original book."
There is a rare-ish 1st edition, but it's only two chapters shorter than the common 2nd edition, and the text isn't different in any meaningful way (I think there was a typo or two fixed.) Having the student request a rare 1st edition wouldn't make any sense since (beyond the obvious fact the English versions aren't rate), he doesn't speak Chinese, and there's no textual changes between the English versions based on the different editions (2 chapters were added for the 2nd edition, and one for the 3rd).
4) The Little Red Book IS the bloody abridged version of the multi-volume Selected Works of Chairman Mao. But in the article it states the kid wanted the 'unabridged' version (of an abridged book??), and one that was "translated directly from the original version". Heh, I didn't know the Quotations of Chairman Mao (again, 2nd most published book in the world) was so rare that most American versions were, what... translated from the original Japanese? This request of the student's is nonsensical.
5) The professor is up for tenure. Which may or may not make a lick of difference, depending on the professor. He seems cool enough, though, doing some sort of extreme history thing in Afghanistan.
http://www.brianglynwilliams.com/
6) Another quote: "The professors had bee
"So how bad is it?"
Supposedly some of it includes rape, including that of children held captive. One of the videos includes a 15 year old boy being raped by one of the employees according to a reporter that claims to have seen it. Good God, I hope that it's not true.
I know that's not what you want to read, but you asked.
Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it's natural manure." (Thomas Jefferson)
"All freedom and all security in this country rely utterly on three things, the right to free speech, the right to vote anonymously and the right to bear arms. Everything else is meaningless without those three. " (Lt Col. Jeff Cooper, Marines(ret))
I had never shared the viewpoint of pro-gun doomsayers who warned that losing the right to bear arms would *inevitably* lead to a further erosion of all other rights, but in light of the past years revelations regarding the Bush administration's policies, I have been forced to change my opinion. The right to free speech : gone The right to free assembly : gone (see the Seattle WTO protests of '99) The right to vote : rendered meaningless. (see the Florida scandals and the related but underreported scandals with absentee ballots and the ballots of overseas servicemen The right to bear arms : been crippled for years at the state and federal levels. The right to freedom from discrimation regardless of race, creed, color(sic) faith, sexual orientation or physical ability. gone (ethnic/religous profiling has been a news headline for years and the current administration is clearly biased against same-sex couples) Slashdotters, being largely IT people, are naturally more interested in how the Bush administrations reindeer games are affecting things like access to information, privacy and the right to due process. I think it would also be worthwhile to check out a well written article on how the Second Amendment is involved in all this: http://www.gunsandammomag.com/second_amendment/050 9/
I'm wondering, where is this "Land of the Free and home of the Brave" I have heard so much about?
I need a wheelchair van for my son. Help me get the word out. https://www.gofundme.com/wheelchair-van-for-jj