Scam artists and worse infest the Internet. But the Net also brims with honest expressions of political opinion. Yes, I intensely dislike ex-President Bill Clinton’s idea of a tax-funded 1984ish “Ministry of Truth” or any other police-style approach for the Internet beyond the existing regulatory agencies—even if he doesn’t necessarily have censorship in mind. Letting […]
Read MoreTSA airport ‘security’ bullies excel as unwitting Tea Party recruiters
I’ll leave the graphic Orwellian details to The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, but the Transportation Security Administration has finally outdone itself in the crotch region—well, Americans’ crotch regions. The idea is to bully travelers into submitting to “back-scatter” scans to avoid invasive pat-downs. Modern technology lets the TSA undress you. “Security theater,” argue Goldberg and others, […]
Read MoreScandals and the Internet—or lack of it
The Detroit Free Press and the rival News decided to print home-delivery editions just three days a week. Competition from the Web killed off the other four days. Similar scenarios are or will be unfolding elsewhere, as shown by the move of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to the Web. So how does the Internet figure in […]
Read MoreMind-reading and Scandals’ ‘Reporting Chips’
Watch CBS Videos Online The Solomon Scandals is a time-warpy kind of novel. Most of the plot unfolds in Washington, D.C., in the 1970s, but the foreword and afterword are of late-21st century vintage. “Reporting” Chips turn out to be a journalistic hazard in this era of cyborgs. Without court orders, FBI-style agencies can have […]
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