Web Fail

Has anyone else noticed lately that IMDB seems to be working on committing suicide?

...At least, I don't THINK this is just me.  If you visit IMDB directly, all fine and dandy.  But it seems IMDB has decided they don't like people linking to them, so if you follow a link to IMDB that has a non-IMDB site as a referrer, you just get a PNG image with instructions to click in the title bar, then hit enter, then click reload, and then maybe we'll deign to ...

No, you know what?  Fuck that shit.  I don't need that badly to know about the movie.  You want me to jump through pointless hoops to give you page views and use your site?  "You go to hell, kemo sabe."  I've followed my last link to IMDB.

Why the law must be respectable

The instrument by which [government] must act are either the AUTHORITY of the laws or FORCE.  If the first be destroyed, the last must be substituted; and where this becomes the ordinary instrument of government there is an end to liberty!

Alexander Hamilton, Tully letters, No. 3, 1794; emphasis apparently his.

Allow me to expand a little upon what Hamilton is saying here:  The government of the United States was envisaged to be one of law, binding both upon the citizenry and upon the government.  In order for this to work, the law must be respected, by all parties involved, which in turn means that the law must be respectable.  When the government makes law which it then turns around and openly flouts, it shows that it has no respect for the law; or when it makes law which is either clearly abusive, ridiculous, or impracticable to follow, then the law is no longer worthy of respect.  Either destroys the respectability of the body of the law, and when the law loses its respectability, it loses its authority.

When the law loses its respectability, then the citizenry will cease to respect both it, and the government.  When the law loses its authority, then the citizenry will cease to obey it, and the government.  And when that happens, the only way the government can continue to govern is by force.

Of coyrse, when the government has so debased the body of law that it cannot govern by it, and does not respect the law itself in any case, the right and proper thing for the citizenry to do at that point is to remove their government and install a new one.

(And in case you were wondering, no, this does not mean going down to the voting booth full of righteous anger at all those other crooks, and then voting your incumbent back in because he's a good guy who brings home the pork.  That's another phrase for "is part of the problem".)

Here we go again

The NY Times reports that the Feds are at it again:

Federal law enforcement and national security officials are preparing to seek sweeping new regulations for the Internet, arguing that their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is “going dark” as people increasingly communicate online instead of by telephone.

Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order.  The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.

[...]

“They are really asking for the authority to redesign services that take advantage of the unique, and now pervasive, architecture of the Internet,” [James X. Dempsey, vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology] said.  “They basically want to turn back the clock and make Internet services function the way that the telephone system used to function.”

But law enforcement officials contend that imposing such a mandate is reasonable and necessary to prevent the erosion of their investigative powers.

Erosion of their powers?  Excuse me?

"That word ... you use it a lot.  I do not think that you know what it means."