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Police Officers Seek Right Not To Be Recorded
linzeal writes "When the police act as though cameras were the equivalent of guns pointed at them, there is a sense in which they are correct. Cameras have become the most effective weapon that ordinary people have to protect against and to expose police abuse. And the police want it to stop. Judges, juries, and legislatures support the police overwhelmingly on this issue, with only a few cases where those accused of 'shooting' the cops being vindicated through the courts."
I was a long-time OpenBSD user since the 3.1 days, and cut my teeth on Unix development there. I was attracted by its focus on security and conscientious coding practices. I was happy through the early 4.x days, but the more I got involved in developing for OpenBSD the more I was dissuaded from doing so.
Part of the issue was this focus on security. After I began to use OpenBSD at home and at work in earnest, I realized that it was limited in hardware support compared to other operating systems. I purchased a new workstation and portable within a year of each other, and both times came to some unhappy realizations about OpenBSD support.
I began to seriously look at Linux and FreeBSD at this point, knowing hardware support was much more robust. (I had also looked at NetBSD, but even though it booted on nearly everything, driver support was anemic.) I started to dual-boot FreeBSD on my workstation, and spent more and more time there. But it wasn't only hardware support that pushed me away from OpenBSD.
The FreeBSD development model is, to say the least, more sensible. Like I said, the more I got involved with OpenBSD development the more I was turned away, and that was mostly due to the project leader's attitude. During the run-up to OpenBSD 4.2, Theo de Raadt had been in a couple highly-publicized arguments with Linux developers, rubbing a ton of people the wrong way.
What many don't understand is that this was not an isolated incident. Try being an OpenBSD developer! These kind of scathing verbal assaults happened all of the time on the mailing lists. I wasand still am, actuallyunsure whether Theo doesn't give a shit due to some philosophical stance, or can't help it due to something like Asperger syndrome. In either case, he typically drags anyone he disagrees with over the coals, all while telling them to stop taking it personally.
I wish Theo had taken some of his own advice. I believe he has hurt the OpenBSD platform more than he has helped it, and I also firmly believe that hardware support in OpenBSD sucks not because of code auditing practices or security focus, but because Theo has either scared or purposefully chased away developers.
Long-time OpenBSD developers might migrate to FreeBSD or Darwin; newbies might try for Linux instead. Those who taste the de Raadt wrath, however, always run in the end. One time, a friend of mine incurred his ire by asking the wrong question at the wrong time, and Theo de Raadt hacked his router and remotely remapped his keyboard!
This is abuse, plain and simple, and Theo's relationship with his developers is abusive. I feel bad for anyone who has to engage him in real life, and fear something Reiser-like happening in the future. This controlling, manipulative attitude coupled with periodic violent outbursts indicates a deep-seated mental health issue that has gone unchecked for far too long. If you are an OpenBSD developer, watch your back!
After all this mess, I switched to FreeBSD 7.2 and never looked back. I upgraded to FreeBSD 7.3 and started using FreeBSD 8 as soon as it was in pre-release, and I am eagerly working on FreeBSD 8.1. I feel spoiled now, too, because of the throng of developers devoted to professionally working the FreeBSD platform into something spectacular instead of naggling over trivial matters or admonishing one another.
The thriving FreeBSD ecosystem contrasts sharply with the Jonestown-like atmosphere of OpenBSD. There is also the fact that no one person looms so largely over any other; ego is checked at the door in FreeBSD since the goal is to make a great operating system, not lord over others like David Karesh and a harem of 14-year-old girls.
Feel free to disagree with me or point out counter-examples; I would love to read them now that I have left OpenBSD. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the little secure operating system even though it leaves me with chills. I sometimes fondly load www.openbsd.org and read the latest release notes and smile wistfully.
It's okay to smile, now that I'm free from OpenBSD.
Introducing America's first 4G phone.
A wireless phone that's as fast and powerful as most people's basic DSL and cable wired connections. Filled with so many features we don't know where to begin. Like the fact that it works in 3G and 4G markets or the over 30,000 apps you've come to expect from an Android-powered phone. And it's only available on the first wireless 4G network from a national carrier.
Coming summer 2010.
Whooops! Got it BACKWARDS!
http://www.google.com/search?q=israel+killed+american+citizen&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
War or murder?
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
Israel was enforcing a blockade, a number of countries do and have done for centuries.
Israel was enforcing a blockade, a number of countries do and have done for centuries.
Israel boarded ships in international waters by force, which is an act of piracy. They also practice apartheid (which we have shunned other nations, like South Africa, for in the past) among many other things.
Everything I need to know I learned by killing smart people and eating their brains.
Yea, I mean, look how brutal those Israelis are with those peace-loving humanitarians
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
Like when the US Coast Guard boards ships in international waters?
Piracy?
No, Israel has a system in place to get aid by sea to Gaza, dock at the port of Ashdod with proper manifests and then the aid goes to Gaza over land. So does Egypt, but we can't hammer on Egypt for things like killing Sudanese refugees tying to get into Israel.
Turkey is screaming about it and they enforced blockades against Greece, invaded Cyprus and blockaded Armenia during Nagorno-Karabakh War
Nope, these asshats decided to push the blockade and when Israel raided the ships just like they warned they would, the asshats attacked trained soldiers and wow, they got shot at.
Shocking.
Security Council? No. Because the Zionist Enabler USA has blocked this motion, every time it is raised.
UNHRC? UNRWA? UNGA? Yes. I suppose you call the moral authority of Desmond Tutu into question? In favor of a government established though murder, forced expulsion and the torture-killings of British soldiers?
Israel's blockade of Gaza illegal: UN rights chief
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/13+israel+blockade+of+gaza+illegal+un+rights+chief-za-05
UN envoy Tutu calls Gaza blockade illegal
http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3549068,00.html
Head of UNRWA says Israeli blockade imposes illegal economy on Gaza
http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/detail/92037.html
UN leaders blast Gaza blockade in wake of flotilla raid
http://story.irishsun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/45d771c7290844e9/id/641854/cs/1/
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
"War is cruelty. There's no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.”
-- lets be right bastards!
“If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world but I am sure we would be getting reports from hell before breakfast.”
-- lets not anyone look at/criticize what we do!
This "get off my lawn" response was totally awesome. Five stars.
It's just awful what the conquering nation does to the conquered nation. As far as I can see, it's a fucking piece of dirt. I thank God it's not my piece of dirt they all want. Because then I'd have to go find another piece of dirt I like. But this is a big place, and my needs are simple (1. civilization 2. pussy), so I know I wouldn't have too much trouble finding new digs. But moving is a pain in the ass... I grant you that.
Because they are BOUGHT. 50 Billion over 5 years. Per the Federation of American Scientists:
"United States has subsidized Egypt's armed forces with over $38 billion worth of aid. Egypt receives about $2 billion annually--$1.3 billion in foreign military financing and about $815 million in economic support fund assistance --making it the second largest regular recipient of conventional U.S. military and economic aid, after Israel. In 1990, the United States also forgave $7.1 billion in past Egyptian military debt in return for Egypt's support of Operation Desert Shield. In addition, Egypt receives excess defense articles worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually from the Pentagon. The announcement that 23,000 U.S. troops will be based in Egypt to conduct biannual military training exercises (Operation Bright Star) may have longer term implications for U.S. aid to the region, as might Egypt's willingness to support U.S. efforts against the Taliban."
http://www.fas.org/asmp/profiles/egypt.htm
Now, why do American taxes go by the HUNDRED BILLIONS to Israel and Egypt, when your dad can't get insurance to pay for his cancer meds?
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
Right, whatever. Israel has been a massive bunch of assholes to the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza, granted. Again: why is Egypt opening up the borders a notable event? It should be open all the time to their starving Arab brothers, no? What about the Jewish communities of the rest of the Middle East? They're doing great, right? None of them got dispossessed? Oh wait, they pretty much kicked them all out.
Everyone in the Middle East is, or has been, an asshole to everyone else there. Jew, Christian, Muslim; Hebrew, Arab, Persian, Kurd: there's enough history of assholery there to fight forever.
I really don't give a fuck what the UN says, because it's an organization that says that people are represented by governments that have the authority to speak for them on equal terms with all other governments. You think Fiji is the equivalent of Turkey, let alone the US? No. It's not. International relations consist of what you can get away with.
Incidentally, my personal view is that all of this is fallout from the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and it won't be fixed for another century at least.
Legal authority and moral authority are two very different things.
Desmond Tutu doesn't have any legal authority.
The head of the UNRWA himself said he's not representing a political organization when he spoke.
Similarly, the United Nations, as a whole, doesn't have any legal authority over Israel or international affairs in general other than what is authorized by the Security Council. To say any action at all is "Illegal under international law" is to show you have no idea what you're talking about. There is no such thing as international law, merely a piecemeal set of treaties and agreements that Israel has sole discretion in enforcing and obeying within Israel's sovereign borders.
Israel doesn't allow much aid to get into Gaza, but they sure know how to rock and roll.
What are your thoughts about the Israel attack on the NSA ship the USS Liberty in 1967?