Category: liberty

crypto

Microsoft turns off the past

For a very long time I have been using a very old windows tool, abandonware, but there is no replacement for it. I use it to keep a very large pile of structured data and metadata about sensitive information. And this tool suddenly stopped working. After playing around a bit, I came to suspect that the latest windows update had turned it off, probably with a very large amount of …

liberty

Freedom in Russia and the US

Let us compare the career of journalist and writer Yulia Latynina, with the career of Dinesh D’Souza. Yulia Latynina is a Russian megaphone for the Harvard microphone.  Supposedly Bush was a moron, Putin is a tyrant, Putin is a homophobe, Putin murders his political opponents, or jails them on vague laws, selectively enforced  Putin is a sexist, Putin is a criminal, and friend of criminals, and so on and so forth. …

culture

The cause of social decay

Prosperity is not the problem. Many great nations have declined before we did, showing much the same symptoms as we are showing, and none of them were as prosperous as eighteenth century America. I suggest the root of civilization is patriarchy. Firstly, patriarchy with monogamy gives men posterity, and civilization is what men build for posterity. In a society where most men do not have children or do not know …

liberty

The real charge against Zimmerman

Supposedly, the state’s theory is that Zimmerman followed Trayvon, jumped him, beat him up, then shot him. Of course no one believes this. When the prosecution questions prosecution witnesses, they make no attempt to support their supposed theory. Every prosecution witness bar one, while being questioned by the prosecution, has shot down that purported theory one way or another. It is clear from the prosecution witnesses while being questioned by …

crypto

All your skypes belong to Microsoft

All Your Skype Are Belong To Us Microsoft is reading everything you write Skype used to be the most secure instant messaging system and I have frequently recommended it on this basis. Microsoft, under Bill Gates, used to be the big company most willing to protect user’s privacy. Skype was recently purchased by Microsoft. Heise Security then reproduced the events by sending two test HTTPS URLs, one containing login information …

liberty

No democratic solution

Doctor Zero has a carefully thought out proposal to get 50% of the voters plus one behind the measures necessary to save America, behind measures that are carefully pruned to be the minimum possible measures that could save the country, measures that are as “moderate” as possible, which is not very moderate at all.

No way Jose. Democracy is doomed, or the country is doomed, or, quite likely, both.

economics

Mission accomplished

Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010. But has everything goes to hell in a handbasket, it will all be blamed on free markets, despite …