So I’ve been gone a while. Sorry about that. After Summer Games Done Quick and the Redstate Gathering, I was supposed to be back in action. But a case of the shingles took me down fast. I was a sleepless zombie in pain for a week. No fun. Was actually alright on Friday, but I had so much reading to do I couldn’t catch up in time to post on Friday, so here we are. Hang on.
So let’s start with Time-Warner and CBS. The two had their negotiations fall through with respect to carrying CBS on Cable, and so a blackout began. The left wants this as the pretext to more government, but let’s be clear about this. Government created this pickle. The way out of it was proposed way back when, and backed in Tech at Night, when Jim DeMint and Steve Scalise proposed legislation. It’s still the right answer.
So, Bitcoin. The Germans are endorsing it, which I guess means Nazis will start using it to fund their activities which are illegal in that country. Meanwhile, both New York and the US Senate are looking into Bitcoin. I however don’t think we need new laws or regulations, as much as we need enforcement of existing laws against the criminal activities that are propping up Bitcoin’s price.
Quick hits regarding bad actors: Oh look, a hacker “from Palestine” with a Snowden avatar broke into Facebook, but claims it’s for research. Whelp, time for Facebook to do some audits to see what other things this probable terrorist ally has done.
Speaking of Edward Snowden, an email service he used, presumably to smuggle information he later sold to the highest bidder, is under attack. Good.
If wanting rapist Julian Assange to be droned is wrong, then I don’t want to be right. Just don’t do it in England. Wait until he’s in some remote location away from there.
How badly did they have Aaron Swartz dead to rights? Even as his defenders basically admit his guilt by calling it “civil disobedience,” as though Swartz were the new Martin Luther King, Secret Service had evidence of his plans all along. He should have pled out, the arrogant fool.
Back when Lulzsec was at large, I kept cheering on the obviously-existing efforts to roll them up. I’m glad the convictions continue. Anarchists ruining their own lives in the end, seems like a trend.
How bad is the copyright troll scam these days? Now they’re even manufacturing their own infringement to pin on others.
Why Aaron’s Law would be bad, part a million: Bad actors are out there, and we need legal means of punishing breakins and other attacks on networked computers.
Aaand it’s getting late. How about some FCC? Defense still wants to use FCC to bully contractors.
Not only is doing its prison price controls badly, but Republicans are looking to fight it, rightfully so.
Ajit Pai is RIGHT on e-rate reform, fixing a broken program to at least be less wasteful. A step in the right direction. Good government.
Surprise! Obama’s Internet in schools program would lead to tax increases!
Jeff Sessions is coming for your Obamaphone.
Google says you shouldn’t expect privacy using their service.
The radical left’s visions for an activist FCC are more like Chinese industrial policy, not free market regulation. No surprise though, given how willfully blind Susan Crawford is to facts and reason.
Claire McCaskill doesn’t know what a common carrier is.