Category Archives: Interests

The Legislation That Could Kill Internet Privacy for Good – Conor Friedersdorf – The Atlantic

Here’s a solution in search of a problem. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, head of the Democratic Party, Representative from Florida, wants to protect America’s children.

She wants to keep them safe from pedophile predators.

All this sounds good until you realize she wants to out-Tipper All Gore’s ex-wife in order to do so.

She’s sponsoring a bill that would, if passed, track EVERY American’s internet activity and store it in a government database for up to 18 months.

Your IP, your name, your credit card number, your address, every single site you visited. It would presumably be the most hacked database in the history of man.

All to potentially stop some child porn viewers. Yes, odious folks. Folks currently being caught by other means just fine, thank you. Indeed police and prosecutors are baffled as to why this law is even necessary. They’re doing great without it.

It is draconian, it violates the rights of all Americans. It could potentially drive millions off of the internet and kill online purchases in general.

More on how leaning on IP tracking may not work anyway.

‘Closed’ doesn’t deter park visitors

A couple leftovers from the big government shutdown here.

We went up to Duluth for the Fourth to get away from the heat. Damn gorgeous weather there and we had a good time.

Driving up the North Shore we saw a lot of cars parked on the highway with folks going into the closed parks, in some cases in front of state patrol cars.

Well, you know me.

Along with many, many others, we went to Gooseberry Falls State Park and enjoyed a good hour hiking to the falls and playing in the water. Mono came along too, which was a really nice extra perk for us.

I’d do it again in a heartbeat. No Tea Bagging asshat is going to ruin my family’s vacation!