Use a firewall, go to jail: on new state bills, including in Florida, designed to extend the DMCA in new and unfriendly ways. These are being pushed by the MPAA, complete with model legislation.
Here is one example of the far-reaching harmful effects of these bills. Both bills would flatly ban the possession, sale, or use of technologies that "conceal from a communication service provider ... the existence or place of origin or destination of any communication". Your ISP is a communication service provider, so anything that concealed the origin or destination of any communication from your ISP would be illegal -- with no exceptions.
See also: The EFF's State-Level "Super DMCA" Initiatives Archive [via Rebecca's Pocket]
Democracies Do Not Make War on One Another: ...or Do They?: wherein the Usenet flamewars on whether or not two democracies have ever fought each other are nicely summarized. [via Rebecca's Pocket]
The Best Defense: Analyzing Bush's doctrine of preemptive war.
In December 1837 British military forces based in Canada learned that a private American ship, the Caroline, was ferrying arms, recruits, and supplies from Buffalo, New York, to a group of anti-British rebels on Navy Island on the Canadian side of the border. On the night of December 29, British and Canadian forces together set out to the island to destroy the ship. They did not find the Caroline berthed there, but they tracked it down in United States waters. While most of the crew slept, the troops boarded the ship, attacked the crew and passengers, and set it on fire. They then towed and released the Caroline into the current headed toward Niagara Falls, where it broke up and sank. Most on board escaped, but one man was apparently executed and several others remained unaccounted for and presumed dead.
See also: Iraq: The Case Against Preemptive War
The administration's claim of a right to overthrow regimes it considers hostile is extraordinary - and one the world will soon find intolerable.
[via Follow Me Here]
Iraqi Body Count: Keeping track of Iraqi civilan war dead, so the Gen. Tommy Franks doesn't have to. [via Quark Soup]
I, Clone: Michael Shermer proposes the Three Laws of Cloning.
The irrational fears people express today about cloning parallel those surrounding robotics half a century ago. So I would like to propose Three Laws of Cloning that also clarify three misunderstandings: 1. A human clone is a human being no less unique in his or her personhood than an identical twin. 2. A human clone has all the rights and privileges that accompany this legal and moral status. 3. A human clone is to be accorded the dignity and respect due any member of our species.
[via Arts & Letters Daily]
October 30, 2001: Afghans warned over cluster bombs
The United States has begun broadcasting warnings to people in Afghanistan informing them how to tell the difference between unexploded cluster bomb units and airdropped food parcels -- both of which are yellow.
November 1, 2001: U.S. changes color of food aid
The Pentagon says it is changing the color of the food aid packages being dropped over Afghanistan because of fears they could be confused with unexploded cluster bombs.
April 2, 2003: Iraqi children may confuse rations, bomblets
The United Nations warned Wednesday that humanitarian food rations being distributed in Iraq by U.S.-led coalition forces are wrapped in the same yellow packaging as deadly so-called bomblets being airdropped by the coalition.
See also: Landmine Action