Readers know I have been grappling for a while with the vexing question of the balance between the surveillance state and the threat of Jihadist terrorism. When the NSA leaks burst onto the scene, I was skeptical of many of the large claims made by civil libertarians and queasily sympathetic to a program that relied on meta-data alone, as long as it was transparent, had Congressional buy-in, did not accidentally expose innocent civilians to grotesque privacy loss, and was watched by a strong FISA court.
Since then, I’ve watched the debate closely and almost all the checks I supported have been proven illusory. The spying is vastly more extensive than anyone fully comprehended before; the FISA court has been revealed as toothless and crippled; and many civilians have had their privacy accidentally violated over 3000 times. The president, in defending the indefensible, has damaged himself and his core reputation for honesty and candor. These cumulative revelations have exposed this program as, at a minimum, dangerous to core liberties and vulnerable to rank abuse. I’ve found myself moving further and further to Glenn’s position.
What has kept me from embracing it entirely has been the absence of any real proof than any deliberate abuse has taken place and arguments that it has helped prevent terror attacks. This may be too forgiving a standard. If a system is ripe for abuse, history tells us the only question is not if such abuse will occur, but when. So it is a strange and awful irony that the Coalition government in Britain has today clinched the case for Glenn — via redwolf.newsvine.com
How to turn a democracy into a STASI authoritarian state in 10 easy steps:
- Misuse the concept of a Top Secret government document (say, the date of D-Day) and extend classification to trillions of mundane documents a year
- Classify all government crimes and violations of the Constitution as secret
- Create a class of 4.5 million privileged individuals, many of them corporate employees, with access to classified documents but allege it is illegal for public to see leaked classified documents
- Spy on the public in violation of the Constitution
- Classify environmental activists as terrorists while allowing Big Coal and Big Oil to pollute and destroy the planet
- Share info gained from NSA spying on public with DEA, FBI, local law enforcement to protect pharmaceuticals & liquor industry from competition from pot, or to protect polluters from activists
- Falsify to judges and defence attorneys how allegedly incriminating info was discovered
- Lie and deny to Congress you are spying on the public
- Criminalise the revelation of government crimes and spying as Espionage
- Further criminalise whistleblowing as
Terrorism
, have compradors arrest innocent people, detain them, and confiscate personal effects with no cause or warrant (i.e. David Miranda, partner of Glenn Greenwald)
Presto, what looks like a democracy is really an authoritarian state ruling on its own behalf and that of 2000 corporations, databasing the activities of 312 million innocent citizens and actively helping destroy the planet while forestalling climate activism — via redwolf.newsvine.com
— via Google+
A knitting group said it was no longer allowed to meet at a library because its needles are dangerous
and its members are too noisy.
The Knit ‘n’ Natter group met at the library in Cramlington, Northumberland once a week to knit replica anatomical parts for training NHS midwives.
But now the library has moved and the knitters said Northumberland County Council had barred them.
The council said there was not enough room for the large group.
But a spokesman said the women were still welcome if they split into smaller groups.
Since the group began three years ago its 20 to 30 members have knitted thousands of garments for premature and sick babies.
They have also made 1,500 pairs of knitted breasts and are currently knitting wombs for midwives — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Etsy seller Princeofdiamonds makes a $100, sterling silver, hand-cast Optimus Prime ring that’s pretty awesome-looking — via Boing Boing
Germany will become the first country in Europe to join a small group of nations which recognise a third or “undetermined” sex when registering births, according to a report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
From 1 November, babies born in Germany without clear gender-determining physical characteristics will be able to be registered without a sex on their birth certificates, according to the report.
The change is being seen as the country’s first legal acknowledgement that it is possible for a human to be neither male nor female — which could have far-reaching consequences in many legal areas.
While transsexuals — people born of one gender who feel they belong to the other and wish to be recognised as such — are already legally recognised in Germany, hermaphrodites – those with both male and female genitalia — have always been forcibly registered as one or other sex at birth.
The German decision to recognise a third gender was based on a recommendation by the constitutional court, which sees legal recognition of a person’s experienced and lived
gender as a personal human right — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The New Zealand makers of a one-person jetpack hope to have it on sale by the middle of next year.
The Martin Aircraft company says its jetpack can reach speeds of up to 70 kilometres per hour and soar 1 kilometre high.
The Christchurch-based firm has been testing its prototype 12 via remote control.
The New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority said the jetpack has now been issued with an experimental flight permit for development test flying, which allows someone to pilot the aircraft.
Martin Aircraft says it has had 10,000 enquiries from people keen to take to the skies, but it is likely to first sell the jetpacks to government and emergency agencies involved in search and rescue and defence.
Chief executive Peter Coker said a simpler model aimed at the general public is expected to be on the market in 2015 — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A zookeeper’s thumb has been partially severed after he was bitten by a black rhinoceros at Taronga Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo.
Police say the 34-year-old was bitten while feeding the animal yesterday afternoon — via redwolf.newsvine.com
At 6:30 am this morning my time — 5:30 am on the East Coast of the US — I received a telephone call from someone who identified himself as a security official at Heathrow airport
. He told me that my partner, David Miranda, had been detained
at the London airport under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act of 2000
.
David had spent the last week in Berlin, where he stayed with Laura Poitras, the US filmmaker who has worked with me extensively on the NSA stories. A Brazilian citizen, he was returning to our home in Rio de Janeiro this morning on British Airways, flying first to London and then on to Rio. When he arrived in London this morning, he was detained.
At the time the security official
called me, David had been detained for 3 hours. The security official told me that they had the right to detain him for up to 9 hours in order to question him, at which point they could either arrest and charge him or ask a court to extend the question time. The official — who refused to give his name but would only identify himself by his number: 203654 — said David was not allowed to have a lawyer present, nor would they allow me to talk to him.
I immediately contacted the Guardian, which sent lawyers to the airport, as well various Brazilian officials I know. Within the hour, several senior Brazilian officials were engaged and expressing indignation over what was being done. The Guardian has the full story here — via redwolf.newsvine.com
With their pointy ears peeking out from the long grass, this trio of Lynx kittens played hide and seek as they recently made their public debut at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo. The eight-week-old triplets named Ruby, Amber, and Opal, spent their first few weeks snuggled up inside with their mother, Maja, before taking their first tiny, tentative steps outside this week. And now they are big enough to venture out on their own! The playful kittens are getting bolder by the day and are often spotted perched on tree trunks from which to pounce, play fighting in the grass, and snoozing on logs — via ZooBorns
Husband-and-wife architectural designers Kyle and Liz offer a 3D sugar printing service, and create rather beautiful geometric shapes out of sugar — via MAKE
Accidentally Retro, originally uploaded by Red Wolf.
A Mongolian wolf pup was born 25 April 2013, at Zoo Zurich in Switzerland. Zoo keepers had prepared a den (with a hidden camera) for the first time wolf mother, but she used it for only several days. She soon took her pup to different dens the wolves had burrowed themselves. According to keepers, the small female pup has an independent streak, preferring at times to wander around alone. As she grows older, she’ll learn to adjust to life within the pack — via ZooBorns
Some young HIV patients are giving up their medicine after being told by Pentecostal Church pastors to rely on faith in God instead, doctors warn.
Medical staff told the BBC a minority of pastors in England were endangering young church members by putting them under pressure to stop medication.
Healing is central to Pentecostalism, a radical belief in the power of prayer and miracles.
But one pastor denied people would ever be told to stop taking their medicine.
The Children’s HIV Association surveyed 19 doctors and health professionals working with babies and children in England; its members had reported hearing anecdotal evidence of HIV patients deciding to stop taking their anti-retroviral drugs because their pastors had told them to do so.
Among 10 doctors who said they had encountered the problem in the last five years, 29 of their patients had reported being put under pressure to stop taking medicine and at least 11 had done so — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The US National Security Agency (NSA) broke privacy rules thousands of times in the past two years, according to an internal audit leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The internal documents, cited in the Washington Post, cast fresh doubts on pledges from US president Barack Obama to prevent abuses and protect Americans’ civil rights.
The documents were leaked by Snowden, a former NSA contractor who has exposed the massive scale of America’s surveillance of phone records and internet traffic in recent leaks to the media.
Snowden, who describes himself as a whistleblower for civil liberties, has obtained asylum in Russia, despite appeals from Washington for extradition on espionage charges — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The Northern Territory Government is repealing old legislation which makes tarot card reading and witchcraft illegal.
A recent review of the Territory’s Summary Offences Act found a centuries-old law citing anyone caught conjuring spells or predicting the future could face one year in prison.
The Witchcraft Act of 1735 has been inherited from Britain and has since been repealed in most other parts of the Western world.
But Northern Territory Attorney-General John Elferink says a legal quirk meant it stayed on the Territory’s statute books.
He says a year in prison is a pretty stiff punishment for a tarot card reader and has promised to finally repeal the legislation — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Caretakers at Artis Zoo in Amsterdam are keeping an eye out for kits in their Fennec Fox exhibit. The mother has quietly given birth to at least two male kits since July 2nd, but it still isn’t clear exactly how many have been born. Every now and then, caretakers have caught a glimpse of some kits and heard little squeaks coming from behind stumps and other hiding places — via ZooBorns
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