Category: policy

I’ve been so buried in thesis writing and editing work that I have not written about the war in the Middle East. I have strong opinions about it, which I will write about later, when my mind is not so full of crypto proofs. But there is one thing I need to say right now,…

Why is it that the best explanation of just about any issue comes from the Daily Show? Are they particularly good, or is everyone else particularly bad? Anyways, here’s their explanation of Net Neutrality. Excellent, and right on. (You’ll need to watch the latest Apple Ads to understand the inside joke, though.)

I’ve been watching the World Cup with renewed enthusiasm this year. Though I’m not a huge soccer fan, I am, of course, supportive of the French team, whose performance against Brazil last week was nothing short of amazing. What’s been most impressive to me, however, is not Zidane’s gravity-defying tricks, but rather the sincere objectiveness…

Ted Stevens, Senator from Alaska, is at it again, this time arguing against Net Neutrality. The sad thing is, I’m sure he’s being totally honest about his opinion… he just doesn’t get the problem, thanks to the misinformation spread by the telcos. an internet [I think he means email] was sent by my staff at…

Tim Berners-Lee has a brilliant summary of why Net Neutrality matters. Yes, it is regulation, but it’s the basic regulation necessary to maintain the fair play rules of the Internet, where any little guy can put up a web site that is just as good as the big guy. If you’re allergic to regulation, consider…

Dear Boston Globe Editors, Jeff Jacoby, in his column on June 7th, takes issue with Senator Kennedy for calling proponents of the FMA “bigots.” Sometimes, however, some opinions are indeed proof of bigotry. Some laws, like the FMA. are indeed discriminatory. That religious leaders have signed on to the FMA, or that a majority of…

If this is true, then I am truly and deeply ashamed to be represented by this administration: The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Conventions that explicitly bans “humiliating and degrading treatment,” according to knowledgeable military officials. — Baltimore Sun, June 5, 2006 “The overall thinking,”…

How much Kool-Aid do you have to drink before you come up with a slogan like: Carbon Dioxyde: they call it pollution, we call it life. No, it’s not a joke. We breathe out the carbon dioxyde, and plants breathe it in, so obviously it can’t be bad for us, right? Notice one important detail…

It’s not often that I agree with the likes of James Dobson, but when they’re right, they’re right. Richard Viguerie, a “conservative direct-mail pioneer” says: There is a growing feeling […] that the only way to cure the problem is for Republicans to lose the Congressional elections this fall. Precisely my thought. Though, somehow, I…

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web, explains how, if network neutrality had not been the norm in the early 1990s, the web would never have happened. I can’t think of a more powerful example of why network neutrality is so crucial. Once again, it’s about the economics of platforms: to allow Internet-based innovation to…

Bush today: I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English […] Fantastic.

So the French are opposed to genetically modified crops. And to some degree, I understand the concerns they have regarding the unknown consequences of genetic manipulation of the food supply. It’s a complicated issue, of course. Genetically modified crops could help stem serious issues of famine in Africa, reduce the use of harmful pesticides in…

In case my previous post a week ago didn’t make it clear, the situation in France makes me incredibly sad and angry. I’m sad that not enough of the French youth understands that, without an economic incentive to hire young employees, companies simply will not do it when they might be stuck with someone who…

Netflix is suing Blockbuster for “stealing their idea” of online DVD rentals for a fixed monthly price. Nothing like a business method patent to throw a wrench into this whole idea of competition and free markets, eh? So it got me thinking about the patent system again, and how patents are so French. Allow me…

The French are protesting Villepin’s CPE plan to reduce employment guarantees for first-time employees. This law would give employers the right to lay off young workers (under 26) within their first 2 years of work without cause. Protesters believe this special regulation will result in young employees being treated as second-class citizens in the workforce,…

From Le Monde today, the French Cour de Cassation (more or less the Supreme Court), declared that making copies of a DVD for personal use violates authors’ rights. On the other hand, the rights of the consumer who legally purchased the DVD and may want to watch it on his laptop or ipod video… those…

Eric Raymond is a leader of the open-source movement, and, from what I gather, a self-proclaimed libertarian. He believes in the free market economy so much that he is upset that Massachusetts is forcing Walmart to sell the morning-after pill. Not because he thinks the pill is bad, but because he thinks “free enterprise” means…

David Irving, a UK historian, is accused of being a Holocaust denier. He is about to be sentenced by a Vienna court. In my continued attempt to fight what’s wrong in my own backyard, I want to point out that David Irving is a despicable idiot, but being a despicable idiot does not a criminal…

At lunch, I attended a talk at Harvard’s CRCS, given by a senior partner from a Boston law firm. The talk was about the use of copyright and trade secrets to protect “intellectual property.” I found it fantastically enlightening… not because there was any interesting copyright lesson, but because I gained further insight into the…