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Imagine: life as a wrongly accused pedophile
February 17, 2011 — xanthippaCan you imagine how your life would change if you were accused of pedophilia – or of distributing child pornography?
If this accusation were in a public forum, where your kids, spouse, parents, extended family, friends, colleagues and/or customers, potential employers, community activists and anti-pedophilia organizations would be sure to see it?
If this accusation came from the government, which cited a legal warrant to confiscate your property because a judge has been satisfied that your property was used for the creation and propagation of pedophilia?
AND IF THIS ACCUSATION WERE 100% UNFOUNDED?!?!?
84,000 Americans do not have to imagine this – they are living it!
No kidding, it’s true.
That is EIGHTY FOUR THOUSAND!!!
And, please, ask yourself – why was this not front line news? Why do you have to read about this in a blog?
As per TorrentFreak (via HackerNews):
“The US Government has yet again shuttered several domain names this week. The Department of Justice and Homeland Security’s ICE office proudly announced that they had seized domains related to counterfeit goods and child pornography. What they failed to mention, however, is that one of the targeted domains belongs to a free DNS provider, and that 84,000 websites were wrongfully accused of links to child pornography crimes.
…
As with previous seizures, ICE convinced a District Court judge to sign a seizure warrant, and then contacted the domain registries to point the domains in question to a server that hosts the warning message. However, somewhere in this process a mistake was made and as a result the domain of a large DNS service provider was seized.
…
Most of the subdomains in question are personal sites and sites of small businesses. A search on Bing still shows how innocent sites were claimed to promote child pornography. A rather damaging accusation, which scared and upset many of the site’s owners.”
Imagine being involved in a child-custody battle, when your ex’s lawyer gets a hold of this….
Or a million other situations: child abuse, especially sexual child abuse, is a serious issue. Many people react to it instinctively…without thinking…considering this to be one of those areas where vigilante justice is not only OK, but necessary (as the courts have systematically failed to protect the kids).
So, what was the reaction of the government?
After all, they were after 10-12 specific sites: these 84,000 innocent sites were siezed accidentally…
Did they make a huge announcement, explaining their mistake so that the 84,000 would not be stigmatized?
So that they would be believed when they defended themselves?
So they would even be listened to when they tried to explain?
Explain that the official banner everyone who came to their website and saw the official notice “that the website had been siezed because it distributed pedophilia” was one of those 84,000 that were accused by a mistake?
No, not really.
Actually, not at all!
“Although it is not clear where this massive error was made, and who’s responsible for it, the Department of Homeland security is conveniently sweeping it under the rug. In a press release that went out a few hours ago the authorities were clearly proud of themselves for taking down 10 domain names.
However, DHS conveniently failed to mention that 84,000 websites were wrongfully taken down in the process, shaming thousands of people in the process.
“Each year, far too many children fall prey to sexual predators and all too often, these heinous acts are recorded in photos and on video and released on the Internet,” Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano commented.
“DHS is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to shut down websites that promote child pornography to protect these children from further victimization,” she added.”
This is troubling on so many levels, I don’t know where to begin.
Sure, there are conspiracy theories out there – and I, for one, don’t buy into them.
However, once learned, institutions hardly ever forget lessons: and the lesson learned here was that yes, it was possible for the US government to ‘make dissappear’ a whole block of thousands of websites. The first one may have been a mistake, but will the second one be?
We know that in Australia, the leaked, ultra secret ‘black list’ of sites banned due to pedophilia/child pornography included more ‘political’ websites and innocent victims (including a dentist’s site) than actual pedophilia/child pornography sites. And there was no appeal – since the ‘black list’ was uber secret, even knowing the name of a site on it was a criminal offense… How do you defend against abuse in a situation like that? Admitting you know the site was shut down is equivalent to pleading guilty to a child sex crime….even if the site was erroneously listed!
Of course, this is just one facet…
If your site is siezed in this manner, even after it is released, there will be echoes on the internet linking it to pedophilia for ever.
And….
If this is a business website you had built up, slowly but surely building up your livelihood by slowly climbing the way up the search-engine ratings – having had your site siezed in this manner will have pretty much wiped out your rating. Even if you get your site back, even if you are again up and running – business will not be as before! You will likely have to re-build your ratings – the ‘method’ your customers find your site – and this may take years!
It would be comparable to having the government falsely shut down a prominent store on ‘Main St.’, put ‘the person who runs this store is a pedophile’ sign in the front window, and then permit them to re-open the store, perhaps after they re-located it several blocks away from the busy area….
The walk-by traffic will just not be the same!
And that does not even address the ‘civil liberties’ aspect of confiscating someone’s property/livelihood in this manner….
Or the ‘eagerness’ with which some ‘child-sex-offender registries’ keep track not only of people who had been covicted, but also of people who had ever been accused of child sex crimes: after all, we can never be too careful in protecting our babies!
Oh, and this is not the first time this type of thing has happened. Perhaps not on this scale, but…
“Drug Traffickers, Gangs and Imams”…
February 16, 2011 — xanthippaThe video speaks for itself:
H/T: VladTepesBlogDotCom via TheReligion of Peace
‘Intelligence’ and ‘Multiculturalism’
February 15, 2011 — xanthippaWhat is intelligence?
This may not be the most pressing political question on everyone’s mind, but, if you would please indulge me, I hope to make a case for why it, perhaps, ought to be at least a consideration.
Why?
Because it is part of our human nature that we consider ‘intelligent things’ – or, ‘things that posses intelligence’, or at least, ‘things that appear as though they possess intelligence’ – with much greater respect than those ‘things’ that do not.
This is true from simple organisms to individual human beings to whole cultures.
Perhaps we have not been accustomed to thinking of it in these terms, but, if you take a moment to reflect, I suspect you will agree that. in general, ‘humans’ treat things that appear to ‘behave with intelligence’ with greater respect than those which do not.
This post is not meant to tackle the philosophical roots thereof, nor the merits of this: rather, I would like to assert that for better or worse, this is the case – and then examine the implications of these assertions.
In order to do this, we need to try to define what ‘intelligence’ actually is.
This is not easy.
‘Intelligence’ is one of those elusive qualities: everybody knows what it is, but it is difficult to put that ‘knowledge’ into objective, quantifiable terms against which it could be measured.
Oh, sure, there are IQ tests, ’emotional intelligence’ tests and all that – but these are very narrow and necessarily flawed models which focus on only very narrow aspects of what we generally regard as ‘intelligence’.
So, we need to ask ourselves:
WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE?
Many of our best thinkers have devoted much of their time and work to trying to define it (and, perhaps, reproduce it artificially), but it is not an easy task.
Perhaps it would be easier to approach the problem from a diametrically opposite direction: perhaps we should draw the circle around what ‘appears’ to be intelligence. Anything outside this circle can safely be considered to behave ‘without intelligence’ while all the things inside the circle would either ‘be’ intelligent or ‘appear to be’ intelligent (whether they actually are or not). Because, after all, in our limited human perceptions, ‘appearance of’ something is often treated as equivalent to ‘being’ something….
The beauty (or, intelligence) is in the eye (perception) of the beholder!
So, what are the ‘minimum requirements’ of an entity for us to regard it as ‘behaving with intelligence’?
Perhaps we could start with these: an intelligent entity ‘behaving with intelligence’ will
- recognize a problem when it encounters one (whether or not it has incountered this, or similar, problem before)
- break the problem down into sub-sections or individual tasks which are within its means to ‘tackle’ (solve)
- examine its memory for any potential ways to solve each ‘bit’ which it may have previously learned
- if it has not learned any potential solutions, it must be able to improvize or develop new ways of solving the problem
- accurately evaluate if/when the problem was successfully solved
Sure, this is not an exhaustive list, but it is a workable ‘minimum requirement’ for an entity to be considered to ‘behave with intelligence’.
In other words, we do not know if an entity that can do this IS intelligent, but we can conclude that an entity that cannot do this ‘does not behave with intelligence’. It may not be a true and accurate marker of what IS intelligent, but it does identify and separate out entities which definitely ARE NOT intelligent as they do not posses these qualities/behave in this manner.
I hope that thus far, I have not said anything controversial – that I have merely been re-stating in specific terms something that is part of the definition of the term ‘intelligence’/’behaving with intelligence’.
And I have previously made the general observation that we, humans, tend to have higher respect for entities that ‘behave with intelligence’ than for those that do not. Again, I hope that this is not a controversial assertion and that you are with me – so far.
Now, please, apply the ‘test’ (as presented in point form above) to the behaviour of various political/social/cultural entities/institutions.
From Muslim Brotherhood, to the EDL.
From ‘universal health care’ to ‘independent scientific research’.
To anything else you’d like to evaluate.
Now, please, apply it to Multiculturalism….
Take your time: consider it from both ends of the spectrum.
Presume that ‘Multiculturalism”s actual problems/goals are congruent with its stated problems/goals: is ‘multiculturalism’ (or, rather, the societal forces applying it) ‘behaving with intelligence’?
Is it therefore behaving in a way that ought to earn the respect of humans?
Now presume that ‘Multiculturalism’ (again, the government/societal forces applying it) IS ‘behaving intelligently’: for the conditions above to be satisfied, what does the ‘problem’ which ‘Multiculturalism’ is trying to ‘solve’ BE – and what is considered to be the desired outcome (solution to the problem)?
Are THOSE the goals what we, as a society, want?
What do YOU conclude?
I have concluded that ‘Multiculturalism’ is either not ‘behaving intelligently’ and does not deserve our respect, or, if it IS ‘behaving intelligently’, it is an evil doctorine which we must fight every step of the way!!!
Now, please, ask yourself: is it any wonder that people from other cultures have concluded that the ‘Multicultural West’ is not worthy of respect?
“Liberty seminar” liberated!
February 15, 2011 — xanthippaYeah, picking on a bunch of libertarians, denying them the right of assembly – very clever, indeed!
For links to background to the story, check out Moose and Squirrel.
I’m just happy for them!
Two Englishmen arrested – for posting videos on the internet
February 10, 2011 — xanthippaA police spokesman said: ‘‘We have investigated a number of incidents across the internet after they were brought to our attention last year. ‘We have yet to analyse what has been seized and will then be in a better to look at what, if any, offences have been committed.’‘
Correct me if I am wrong, but the way I read this is:
- Somebody complained about the videos these guys posted
- the cops arrested them and took their stuff
- only now will they try to look at the evidence to see IF a crime had been committed
Where to start…
Well, perhaps with my yesterday’s post – where, in his speech, John Robson explains the meaning of English common law and how it had been affirmed by the Magna Carta. It looks like the proud Englishmen have turned their back on their heritage…
How corrupt has the system of common law and the liberties it is supposed to guarantee become that something a person says causes him to be arbitrarily deprived of liberty and property?
But, this is even worse…
What about the police officers – how come they are obeying this obviously illegal order?
Because arresting a person and siezing their property first, and only then trying to figure out IF there has even been a crime commited, is contrary to everything the English common law stands for!
What to do?
I don’t know.
Sure, we can all work to post on other people’s behalf and mirror videos and all that, but that is just trying to stick a band-aid over a severed jugular.
But, I have been giving this a lot of thought.
What we need to do, in my never-humble-opinion, is to hold each and every individual police officer criminally and civilly responsible for carrying out orders which are obviously contrary to English common law. And not just in Joly old England, or even the whole Commonwealth: we must do this everywhere where the heritage of English Common Law exists.
Because it is only by making individuals within ‘the system’ accountable can we affect change of the system as a whole!
No, it is not easy.
But is just may be doable.
Let’s try!
John Robson: We come from the Magna Carta!
February 9, 2011 — xanthippa“One of my little pet causes is to get a statue of Alfred the Great on Parliament Hill…”
Yes, the video is long – but well worth listening to:
David Cameron: his Munich speech on Multiculturalism
February 7, 2011 — xanthippaThis speech is worth listening to in its entirety:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Do Science, Tanzania
February 6, 2011 — xanthippaSo much in our world is messed up, it sometimes leaves us feeling powerless to do something about it.
Well, don’t give up!
A singlr person CAN make a difference!
Which is why I’d like to tell you about ‘Do Science, Tanzania’.
This is the brainchild of an Ottawa Physics teacher, Diana Hall, and her efforts are supported by the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Vernier Software and Technology, Valley Microscope, her current and former students with their families and other caring individual people.
The aim of the program?
Simple!
The best way to get kids interested in science is to make it possible for them to DO science.
Do Science, Tanzania, aims to do exactly that by building a lending library of science equipment and making it available to science teachers in Moshi, Tanzania. This will permit the equipment to reach, educate and inspire many more students than if it were sent to one single school…
Looking at their ‘Wishing Well’, one can see their requests are humble – yet have the potential to have a tremendous impact, a truly big bang for the buck. In addition to asking for donations of any science classroom equipment, they still need:
- 3- Microscopes – 3 x $250
- Glassware (beakers, cylinders, test tubes etc.) – $200
- Microscope Slides – $25
- Power Supply – $250
- Electronic Balance – 2 x $10
- Wave Generator – $250
- White Boards – $50
- White Board Markers – $50
- Calculators – 25 x $5 (used calculators also useful)
- Slinkies – 5 x $15
- Baggage Fees for Shipping Science Equipment – 3 x $200 per bag
Ms. Hall is heading to Tanzania soon, hopefully with her lending library of science equipment bursting at the seams. If you’d like to find out how to help, click here to find out more.
Or, come to their dinner/social on Friday 11th, 2011.
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 