Slashdot Mirror
UK To Train Pro-West Islamic Groups To Game Google
Hugh Pickens writes "The British government's Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT), a 200-strong Home Office unit created 18 months ago, has said in meetings it wants to 'flood the internet' with 'positive' interpretations of Islam and plans to train government-approved groups in search engine optimization techniques, which it is hoped will boost their profile online and battle radicalization. A Home Office spokesman confirmed search engine optimization training is part of the government's anti-radicalization strategy. 'In order to support mainstream voices, we work with local partners to help develop their communication, representational and leadership skills. This support could include media training, which can help make their voices heard more widely, and support the development of skills which allow communities to be more effective in debate.' However the effectiveness of search engine optimization in reducing traffic to extremist websites has been dismissed by academics. A report produced by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) said young Muslims were much more likely to be directed to extremist material online by web forums and offline associates than by Google or other search engines. 'Tweaking the results for supposedly extremist terms would be largely ineffectual, not least because it is unlikely that any but the most callow wannabe terrorist would use a mainstream search engine to find banned material.'"
The overlords at Google will not be impressed.
Islam is the Middle East's response to the Mormon religion/cult. Islam was created by the Arab "prophet" Muhammad, yet another guy who heard voices in his head. These voices told him that his religion was a continuation of Judaism and Christianity and that those who followed these outdated religions should be converted or killed. Since he forgot about Zoroastrianism, he apparently thought that his religion was the third and final in the monotheistic trilogy. And being the third, it is inevitably the most shitty of the three (think Spiderman 3 or The Matrix Revolutions, not The Godfather, Part III).
However, Islam may well be an honest continuation of God's word -- that is, if God is a giant asshat. Whether by suicide bomb or an heroic murder spree, through making threatening phone calls or through biological, chemical, and/or nuclear terrorism, Islam is well-situated to guide humanity to certain death.
Those who follow Islam are termed Muslims, which probably makes sense in some non-English language. Muslims follow a magical book called The Koran, which is a slightly less lengthy version of the Holy Bible. The only difference is that it contains a somewhat more descriptive account of the Muslims' annihilation of those infidels who dared to practice peaceful religions and somewhat more child rape, primarily on the part of known pedophile Muhammad:
Muhammad married a 6-year-old girl and had sex with her when she was nine.
Seriously.
It's in the fucking Koran.
Dear Religion,
You are a pain in the ass. Please go away soon.
Imagine there's no countries.
It isn't hard to do.
Nothing to kill or die for,
And no religion too.
Imagine all the people,
Living life in peace.
Love,
Sane People
After all, don't we want young Buddhists to be much less likely to be directed to extremist material online?
Oh, sorry, forgot the UK government only sponsors your religion when you are violent. If you are peaceful, you are on your own. Do your own damn PR!
"it wants to 'flood the internet' with 'positive' interpretations of Islam and plans to train government-approved groups in search engine optimization techniques"
The next pasture is always greener
For the British Government. I find myself again having to explain to non-UK readers that we do not elect the Prime Minister, and owing to our elective dictatorship system, the present Prime Minister has never, in fact, been voted for by anybody outside the Scottish province of Fife. The Home Office is run by someone, Jacqui Smith, who makes Condoleeza Rice look like the greatest liberal brain on the planet (and charges the taxpayer $3000 a month for her sleeping in her sister's spare bedroom). Unfortunately, just like you with GWB, we can do nothing about it until next year. Until late 2010 then, be ready for a stream of "how stupid can the British Government get?" stories.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
The headline seems to put a negative spin on this, but as government activities go it seems pretty benign. Better than beating people up or killing them. We need to find ways to encourage governments to channel more of their energies into non-destructive activities like this.
And soon someone will googlebomb OSCT to first place for keyword "terrorist organization".
Hasn't the British government been allowing Sharia courts to operate in Britain for some time?
If they want to battle "radical" Islam then how about getting rid of the Sharia Courts? How about really clamping down on female genital mutilation happening in Britain and to British citizens?
Tweaking some search results, that's pathetic. Islam is a danger to civilized nations, so trying to weaken it is fine, but this pathetic, it will do next to nothing.
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Kill them all. Let God sort them out.
You can decide suitable definitions for "them all" and "God" yourself.
A gov't that created the standards we know and love as ITIL.
A group of paranoid Orwellian Facists.
A religous group that's a political powder keg.
And THE big brain.
Starring Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and John Cleese, in a film written by Graham Chapman and directed by Terry Gilliam.
Honestly, the UK just writes this stuff for the satirists.
WHAT THE FUCK!?
Problem is, the mainstream Muslims aren't the ones that need to be targeted, but the high-risk volatile ones. The rest of us don't feel anything about the west more than either some admiration on the liberal-side of the political spectrum, or some casual antipathy on the religious/conservative side of politics.
I live in Saudi Arabia. Which doesn't seem to have much of a global image as being progressive these days, and I can still tell you that most grad students these days want to study either in Canada or the US, followed by the UK and Australia (English in highschool is mandatory...hence the destinations of choice being all English-speaking countries).
Why can't I get money to spread the positive side of anti-religious zealotism. Like for instance how government doesn't waste tax money spreading the good points behind anti-religious zealotism.
It looks to me as if the Register has got this one wrong. The original criticisms were of negative tweaks against extremist sites by the government, as the quote they use in their article illustrates. This is about positive tweaking to promote genuine Islamic sites - and it's only, apparently part of a wider strategy of supporting peaceful interpretations of Islam, exactly what the original report recommended.
Not as bad as it sounds http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7233040.stm as you can see other religions can also pass judgements upon small non-criminal sectors of the law meanwhile all criminal matters are reserved for the UK's state courts.
Ahhh, the old nazi party technique
Flood the media with nice, positive messages
This would be a hillarious joke for april fools day, but if they want to counter radical muslims this way won't work.
Muslims mostly tend to build local social groups mostly in favour of their origin-region(not country), these social groups are mostly not
radical but, from our point of view their views onto the world differ hughly from ours(*).
But in such communities radical thoughts and comments will occur as a common understanding of that the western society tries to supress the islam.
And here is the catch, these "supported" people and groups will find themselves outcast as they are seen as a part of a western supression strategy.
They will be recognized as traitors, and these former actions like "google-optimisation" will be seen as an evidence and so strengthen the common understanding of a western conspiracy.
Thus can also push moderate muslims into a position, where their word becomes less weight than it had.
Diplomacy will not convert muslims into liberal nude loving naturists, nor will war. We(wester people) should realize one thing
you can only gain someones trust when you not try to betray him, and with trust you can start a discussion about certain things,
like stoning of cheaters and heretics, as a start.
The human rights are a philosophical construct with the intention to make lives better for everyone, I think we should remember
those humanist philosophers, which brought us to a state of self-awareness, and start thinking about our selves and our actions.
Diplomacy does not work from top to down, like a hierachie it works on trust.
(*) This is my point of view as an observer.
If a faith is getting gamed, what else is been dropped or pushed up on google? :
Does google actively provide help with this faith based optimisation?
So the USA has used assassins and the UK wants to try OSCT funded apostasy?
From
http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html
"Placement in search results is never sold to anyone."
Someone at google just recalls the scary start up days and that wonderful visit from the nice people in suits?
" Instead of relying on a group of editors or solely on the frequency with which certain terms appear"
Google now uses a 200-strong Home Office unit?
"Google is able to determine which sites have been "voted" the best sources of information by those most interested in the information they offer"
Is "voted" now "selected by tame academics"?
http://www.russiatoday.com/Politics/2009-04-02/Bush_administration_accused_of_organizing_secret_assassin_cabal.html
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Some may wish to use http://us.ixquick.com/eng/privacy-policy.html when searching for things those in power may well not like.
Now they're being employed by the government to help further clutter up the web! I look forward to a stream of 'link to my official, government-approved website' emails.
...as pro-evolution content on the web is succeeding at making the creationists go away.
Opus: the Swiss army knife of audio codec
Dear liberals,
you are as stupid as you are annoying,
if people didn't have a god to kill for,
they would invent one,
like that stupid mother earth ]
or bag of crystals you have been worshiping
having some stupid thing that
if everyone was exactly the same
they wouldn't fight
just stupid
you people are stupid
ps. paul was better than john, anyway.
This is my sig.
n/t
Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
Much has been discussed about Identity Theft, user ID's and Passwords stolen or hacked, credit cards being used without the owners knowledge and so on. Now there is a safe way of protecting your passwords and identity online from being copied, stolen and hacked by keyboard trojans, using your biometric fingerprint and face recognition, and even voice, to log on to web sites. By simply scanning your finger or face or voice you can log on to a web site, log on to your computer, and even encrypt files and folders. No more worrying about who might hack into your online accounts or even your email. No more remembering passwords or using the same passwords on many sites. This is an exciting new innovation from myBiodentity and they have about fourteen products that are enabled with biometrics including email encryption, password manager, virtual disk, and many more. You can read more at http://www.mybiodentity.com/
Many more people die from heart attacks and car accidents each year. Why the big fuss over terrorism?
I can only presume that this is a troll with some well co-ordinated sock-puppetry. Seriously, if this is the kind of bullshit Slashdot finds insightful, I'm out of here.
[FUCK BETA]
Monday mornings are brutal for me. I read the story title as:
UK To Train Pro-Wrestler Islamic Groups To Game Google
Seriously, that left me thinking, "Oh really? Wow. Islam must finally be mellowing out a little to be embracing pro-wrestling..."
John Lennon sung such a beautiful song it was just such a let down when I found out he was worth approx. 40 million at the time.
Just think. John Lennon decided to become a US Citizen when Richard Nixon was President. Imagine THAT!
Seriously, I think is a bunch of rubbish and no solo work of John's could ever come close to the bass line Paul put down in Silly Love Songs.
But...
if you think Imagine is such a great song that you can quote it and build a religion out of the guy, don't you think that's worth a dollar to you? I mean, if its worth a dollar to you, for the song, pony up. If 40 million other people agreed with you, what's the problem with it? Who cares if John Lennon got 40 million bucks! Did John Lennon do something that was worth a dollar to you? Pony up.
This is my sig.
GP post is accurate.
Damningly accurate.
Go educate yourself on the concepts of dar al-Islam and dar al-Harb, and you'll learn that Amanutjob was speaking LITERALLY when he said he wanted to "wipe Israel off the map".
Because that's what the Koran tells Muslims to do to any part of dar al-Islam that reverts to dar al-Harb - wipe it off the map.
Ever wonder why there were terrorist attacks in Spain? Hint: the "proper" Muslim name for Spain is al-Andulus.
And they want it back.
Home Office counter-terrorism experts intend to exploit nu meeja websites to "channel messages through volunteers in Internet forums" as part of a campaign to "taint the al-Qaeda(tm) brand," according to a document accidentally posted to Wikipedia this morning.
"We understand that people on Internet forums have no experience whatsoever of participants paid to advocate a position or product," says the report. "A single image macro exchange of 'U R TERRIST' 'NO U' 'O RLY?' 'SRSLY' could save countless lost souls."
The unit is also targeting the BBC and other online news outlets. The main obstacle appears to lie in writing messages stupid enough to pass for genuine reader comments. "Some of our top fake news writers have burnt out their brains on the task and now sit shaking and gibbering about real life being worse than any parody. And house prices."
Other work includes faked reports of al-Quaeda branded Zunes on Gizmodo, suitably on-message mouseover popups on XKCD and photomanipulations of Osama bin Laden as Pedobear on 4chan.
The initiative was spearheaded by a Home Office civil servant asked to account for the number of work hours he seemed to be spending on Internet message boards. His latest proposal is to fight al-Qaeda on MP3, BitTorrent and pornographic websites. "I've bought a new 500 gigabyte USB portable disk drive on expenses to store this important confidential data," he said.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
Maybe if the UK, and Europe in general, had better integration policies towards Muslims, they wouldn't feel threatened by them.
American Muslims are not disenfranchised from their society, and they are well integrated. American Muslims are overwhelmingly professionals--doctors, lawyers, engineers--and have even entered mainstream American culture, like the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour that was broadcasted on Comedy Central or the Daily Show correspondant Aasif Mandvi. This type of thing simply doesn't occur in Europe.
Which, btw, includes allowing in immigrant groups and letting them gradually assimilate. We did it with the European Jews, the Chinese, the West Indians, the Indians, the Pakistanis, and now others from other Muslim countries.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
We've seen religious manipulation of Google before. Years back, the scientologists created the world's largest website to flood the search engine's results and prevent people from seeing all the references to the god "Xenu" and the cult's historically criminal behavior at the top of websearches on Scientology. Technologically, it was a fascinating effort: Google apparently had to stop scanning it and retool in order to handle sites that large.
That UK government isn't sponsoring a friendlier image of Cthulhu.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Oh, now I get it. It's just another propaganda office, like back at the time of commies.
Somebody once said: 'The only difference between our propaganda and your propaganda is that you believe your propaganda."
Where I live (Cambridge), voting Tory could easily let the Labour candidate back in. Furthermore, our MP is very strong on civil liberties. Imperfect, to be sure (I disagree with the utilitarian strain of liberalism that leads to such things as the smoking ban), but unlikely to be easily improved upon, even if the Tory did get in, since it would be difficult to beat a law scholar who care about civil liberties in efficacy.
Apart from the special case of Cambridge, that Lib Dems are typically strong on civil liberties must mean that if this is an issue of importance for you, you should be willing to hold your nose to vote for them if it's appropriate in your constituency. Of course, the same reasoning applies in reverse to those places where the Lib Dems are weaker than the Tories.
There is, however an upper limit on the vote available to the Tories: some people feel that they simply cannot vote for them. Accordingly where the support for Lib Dems and Tories are similar, a vote for the Lib Dems will be more likely to succeed. Realistically speaking, intent to vote Conservative is felt by borderline LD/Labour voters, so that they shrink from voting Lib Dem in order to 'keep the Tories out'.
Wikileaks, no DNS
Fuck Islam.
Islam: because beating women and mutilating their genitals in the name of purity is fun!
This sounds like a great idea.
I expect 4chan to deliver appropriate backlash?
I can't be the only who has heard that entire song and thought....
How utterly boring.
Some folks may be fine being cows nonchalantly grazing in the meadows, but as for me, I prefer the challenges and conflicts in life, in overcoming them, and advancing.
A neutered, tepid world is all Lennon offers us in that song. It's a secular version of some cloudy heaven with lame harps and all those dead relatives you didn't like in life. I don't have to love war to think the vision sucks.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would like to thank the British for their support on behalf of the "Pro-Western Islamic groups".
... because what the Internet needs, above all, is more religion.
Idiots.
Ed R.Zahurak
You know, oblivion keeps looking better every day.
Marcus Brigstock said it best.
The Now Show rules!
Stick Men
We can increase your rankings in all the most used search engines, including ones you've never heard of before! We'll analyze your keywords and wave magic wands for the low price of $795! We can even push religious extremists down in rankings below yours. Please go to www.anotherrankingbiz.com
Do radical muslim org recruit from the internet? even if yes, how much percentage?
Is it worth spending time on changing things on the internet whereas the actual battle against these radical org has to be fought on ground to prevent corruption of muslim youth's mind?
Nice post. Can I use it in my bog? http://www.go-to-canada.com/gen_joboffers.htm
Pro-West Islamic Groups To Game Google
I wonder who will be gaming whom...
Normally I ascribe all life to intelligent design, but in your case I'll make an exception.
So, to combat radical Islamic practices they are going to flood google, so that searches don't return as much radical content? It looks more like a shell game than actually trying to combat radical Islamic elements.
10: PRINT "Everything old is new again."
20: GOTO 10
... to use the Internet for propaganda purposes?
Well, there's no way THAT could every backfire :-)
Just like we learned in the 1980s, arming Islamist against the Soviet invaders of Afghanistan turned out so well in the long term, as did promoting the Islamist Hamas against the nationalist PLO. That worked out great for Israel, huh?
My bicyles
Not as bad as it sounds http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7233040.stm as you can see other religions can also pass judgements upon small non-criminal sectors of the law meanwhile all criminal matters are reserved for the UK's state courts.
Not the same thing. While Jewish law and Islamic law may have some nominal similarities, the main difference is that Jewish law only applies to Jews, not gentiles, whereas Islamic Sharia Law is a strategy created specifically to oppress non-Muslims in Islamic land quite brutally.
Issues with Jewish courts are best left within the Jewish community for the orthodox and reformist Jews to hash out. It doesn't affect any of the rest of us per se.
l'Homme n'est Rien l'Oeuvre Tout: Gustave Flaubert to George Sand
You mean like when we trained the "Good Muslims" to take on the Soviets in Afghanistan? When we gave the "Good Iraqis" chemical weapons to used against Iran? When we prop up the "Good Saudis" in the hopes the oil will keep flowing? If there is something the Middle East and Muslim World has taught us over and over again, is that these alliances of convenience will come back to bite us in the ass, usually in a massively magnified manner. We teach them to "Game the Google" now, it is only a matter of time before this technology is used to ensure radical points of view are the first things that Muslims see, or that adwords and other financial benefits go right into terrorist pockets. You think that one of these "good" muslims isn't going to turn over all he learns when some radical agent offers him more money than he has ever seen in his lifetime, or threatens to kill his family back in Durkastan?
I have no idea why we have any Muslims in Britain, let alone enough to cause a problem. I read the other day that after 9/11, the Labour government actually DOUBLED the number of Muslims in Britain through immigration.
The British people have always rejected second and third world immigration, but after Blair was elected they basically took anyone in, regardless of their story.
They didn't mention this in their manifesto. So the question is, why are they trying to destroy Britain? Well, one possible answer is that they are importing voters, because sure as hell nobody else will vote for them.
I for one am sick of seeing Islamic headscarves on the streets of my town, when ten years ago I saw none. I will be voting for any party offering to repatriate them.
I think the real interesting part of this article is how Western powers actually attempt to control content on the Internet. The fact that an office of the British government is "teaching" others demonstrates that they themselves have knowledge of this and are likely doing it already.
Sure, it is supposedly just search engine optimization, but who knows what other techniques they employ.
I'd bet that the disproportionate amount of pro-Western propaganda on the Internet is part of the reason why governments like China, etc. also filter their content.
everybody has religion
asking for the end of ideological conflict is basically asking for mastery by one ideology. in a way, tha tsong is the ultimate fascist paean
no, i'd rather prefer the constant ideological warfare, then the enforced view of one ideology
and no, there's no such thing as no ideology. as long as human beings have:
1. free rights
2. a thinking mind
there will be ideology, and there will be conflict, and it will get violent at times
this is the status quo of being in human society. get used to it
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
You are missing the point. The Arbitration Act only allows Sharia courts, Jewish courts, or some form of secular arbitration, to apply if both parties agree to it. If you are a non-muslim and you consent to have your case judged according to Sharia law then you get what you deserve for crass stupidity.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
This is a short introduction to Koran and the first lines are about the UK
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025558.php
You are missing the point. The Arbitration Act only allows Sharia courts, Jewish courts, or some form of secular arbitration, to apply if both parties agree to it. If you are a non-muslim and you consent to have your case judged according to Sharia law then you get what you deserve for crass stupidity.
You're not seeing the bigger picture. This whole voluntary Sharia Law thing is just a wedge to be used to muscle in more Sharia law, eventually culminating in an ever-expanding Islamic ghetto in the UK where Islamic law abrogates British law. It has happened countless times in other countries and at other times.
People who immigrate to other countries should conform to the laws of that country, not bring their backward cultural and religious baggage with them. It's just the rank arrogance of the Islamic leadership and aggressive collectivist ethnocentrism of the Muslim world that makes them do this.
Try being an immigrant in the UAE and claiming that you want to follow secular laws instead of their Islamic Sharia+Feudal monarchy and your hand will be cut off.
l'Homme n'est Rien l'Oeuvre Tout: Gustave Flaubert to George Sand
"Is fascism such a big issue?
Many more people die from heart attacks and railroad accidents each year. Why the big fuss over fascism?"
you are dealing with ideology, with human beings, not nameless faceless statistics or uncontrollable events like lightning strikes or shark attacks
as such, you pay attention to people who clearly state their goals and then clearly go about executing their goals
and if you are paying attention to what a group like al qaeda wants, you better believe its a big issue
because when it comes to human intent and human action, we are talking about self-fulfilling prophecy: the more they succeed, the more they try, and the more followers they get. its emergent phenomena, not natural phenomena
if you understood exactly what you are dealing with here, you would understand exaclty how dangerous and potent the ideology behind terrorism really is
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Interesting idea. Forget the Islamic extremists--we in the USA (and probably GB as well?) have a culture of fear and a knee-jerk reaction to any mention of Islam, and reducing that might be a good thing. It is rare that anything good comes out of a name that inspires terror, whether or not the terror is justified.
Of course, making it illegal to criticise religion is just braindead. My ideal would be to have only negative messages about all faith--if you can't prove it, be skeptical! But opening a coherent, rational dialog is the first step. Killing off kneejerk reactions is the zeroth step, I guess?
"The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
You are pretty much spot on. This is pretty much true of any religion. When you think of Christians you think of the fundamentalists too. These people will tell you of their plans right to your face.
Uh, what? The Arbitration Act was passed in 1996 and has not been the used as a wedge 'to muscle in more Sharia law', nor to muscle in more Jewish law, nor any other kind of law. It allows people to bypass the judicial system and go to less-expensive legally-binding arbitration with the arbiter decided by both parties. There is nothing specific to the Sharia law in the act, nor to any other kind of arbitration. It applies only to civil suits, not to criminal law, and applies only if both parties are willing. It is used far more by non-muslims than by muslims, since it saves a great deal of expense.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Mod up
I'm writing a book on social provocation amongst other things. I personally use the word god a lot like UFO. By definition if I cannot identify a flying object, it is a UFO. Once it is identified, it is not a UFO any more. Using the definition of god as a system beyond our scientific grasp of reality, then I believe in god. A discussion of god providing further clarity and definition can then begin and change with the advancement of science. As a scientist and engineer, a common basic understanding between parties is necessary to prevent non-constructive argument. I believe this has led to a lot of the difficulties in the past, creating contradictory views. Stop it please.
Without dealing with what fundamentally enables a human being to act, these kind of efforts are really futile.
My example may be bad, but this is slashdot so here it goes:
Alcohol and Health drinks are equally available and information about both is equally available, however what enables a human being to choose is something that gets ignored all the time.
Giving only one view of anything will not guarantee that other view will not be searched for, asked about or worse imagined.
-- It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -- Aristotle
Hallowed are the Ori.
How about Mark 7:25-30 where Jesus is being racist towards a woman who comes to seek his help? Not as bad as pedophilia but still...
He wasn't being racist!
She wanted Him to cast out a demon from her daughter. The text then mentions that she was Greek.
His response was basically, "Let the kids eat first, it's not right to take their food and throw it to the dogs."
She replied that even dogs eat the crumbs under the kids table.
He said "Touche! and for that, your daughter is well, off you go"
How on earth is that racist?
www.Buy-Proxy.com - A "buyer-driven" global marketplace.
I'm quite SURE they'll remain "pro-west" evermore. </sarcasm>
I mean, I am a westerner since birth, and not even I am pro-west.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
You are right, but Jesus fulfilled Scripture in other ways too. I'm going to take a "rabbi trail" here... In Judaism, to "fulfill" something means to interpret it correctly. This is what Jesus did through the way He lived His life. He full-filled it not only by keeping the commands of the law, but by filling it full of its true meaning.
Moreover, that He fulfilled the law does not mean that we, His followers , are to ignore the law's commandments, which are "holy, just, and good" (Romans 7:12).
Look at what Paul is saying. It's not that keeping the law makes sin your master; rather, legalistic observance of G-d's commands without having understood and received His grace is what makes sin your master.
It should be noted that the ancient Greek language did not have a word for "legalism." There was only this word (in Rom. 6:14, nomon), which is always simplistically rendered as "law" in English.
Look at the context, using another version (CJB):
Is Paul saying that lawlessness is bad, but keeping the law is also bad? Sounds like a lose/lose situation for humanity. But no; Paul professes, "we confirm/uphold/establish (KJV) the law" (Rom. 3:31) But only a keeping of the law that is grounded in a relationship of trusting faithfulness in G-d and His grace for us. Christians nearly always miss this distinction.
He did what was "unlawful" regarding the Sabbath only according to the Pharisaic rabbinical laws. He did not violate G-d's law concerning the Sabbath. He simply held to a less burdensome practice of keeping of Shabbat.
Here, Jesus was, in fact, going strictly by the Book (Deuteronomy 17):
This is like the government paying for a company's advertising. It's a waste of tax-payers money.
Heh - a British 'bog' is an American 'can' is an Indian 'tati'.
Her lips were softer than a duck's bill, but her quacks
its amazing how much money the uk government wastes.
and appeasement of this religion is ridiculous. white washing the awfulness of an ideology should not be a government function. luckily google is set up perfectly to combat such gaming of the system