Don't Shoot the Driver

A man, possibly guilty of nothing more than getting a legal job to support his family, including two little girls, is being painted as a leader of terrorism.
Salim Hamdan, bin Laden's driver, has been found guilty on charges of supporting terrorism because of his job. He may be guilty of supporting terrorism, but if he is, it's certainly not for trying to earn an honest living. If you want to condemn a man, get proof that what he has done is actually wrong and don't just blame by assosciation. Could it be that his own opinion on Osama bin Laden's methods and ideals made no difference when it came to feeding his family? You want to catch terrorists, great. But I'm sure a simple driver is much less of a threat than, I don't know, the leaders he was chauffeuring? Don't spend all the country's money and time on this! If he decided to blow up a building, that would be different. He didn't. If he was privy to some scheme to destroy half of the world, that would be different. He wasn't. This is ridiculous. Spend this effort instead on finding the people causing the trouble, and on checking Bush's policies that keep extending this long succession of failures.

-Modern Diogenes-

Impeaching Musharraf

Let this be a lesson to all leaders who recklessly and selfishly let their countries fall to pieces while fulfilling their own lust for arbitrary and costly displays of military strength.

-Modern Diogenes-

Who's Infringing on Whom?

Internet privacy: the issue that seems to be growing in controversy with every headline.
While this current dispute between Viacom and YouTube has brought it again into the spotlight, internet privacy has been a legal grey area since the beginning of the world wide web.
Copyright infringement will never be completely eradicated, and, while I admit it to be a big problem that needs solving, it should never come at the cost of the security and privacy of the ordinary individual.
We cannot allow this to be so. Our freedoms of speech and press are barely hanging on, though they be the things that distinguishes America. How can we sit by and let the liberty to watch YouTube videos, or write a blog, or check our email without having the shadow of Big Brother Government looming over us?

- Modern Diogenes -

If It's So Important, Why Delay?

The news "breaking" about the nuclear facilities found in the Syrian desert is in fact not so new - the news that the installation destroyed several months ago was suspected to have been a nuclear plant has been known to Washington since the time of the Israeli air raid that destroyed it. There are two types of information: the sensitive kind that isn't released, and the important news that can be used to manipulate the general population, either through fear-mongering or through assurances of peace and well-being. So why, if this information is so important as to be used in the former sense of manipulation, was it hidden? Information concealed can hardly be taken seriously when it is announced that it must be dealt with immediately and given full support after such information has remained under covers for this long. Two conclusions may be drawn from this: either Washington is so incompetent as to have somehow missed the danger that now hangs so ominously over us all, or it was deemed insignificant enough to keep out of sight for a few months. I will make no pretense, after all, every government keeps a good many things from its citizens for this reason or that. However, when news like this surfaces, it appears to be a situation with less gravity than is purported, and seems like another thing ploy to gain support for the ongoing farce in the theatre of the Middle East.

-Modern Diogenes-