China: Don’t See the Dalai Lama

Posted on February 21, 2014 by ErgoOne

China is wagging its nether parts in America’s face, or so CNN reports. I don’t know what Obama will say to China, and I doubt he cares what I think he should say, but China richly deserves to be told to mind its own business. In less polite language. Whom the U.S. president sees and talks to is none of the business of the Chinese government. This is especially true where the Dalai Lama is concerned; China has gone to significant effort to keep him out of their country since he became the Dalai Lama in the 1950s.

Continue reading →

Posted in Human Rights, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Pete Seeger: 1919-2014

Posted on January 28, 2014 by ErgoOne

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
     There is a season (turn, turn, turn),
And a time to every purpose, under heaven.

Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Human Rights, Religion | Leave a comment

We will fill our stomachs with stones….

Posted on January 27, 2014 by ErgoOne

“We don’t want to eat. We do not want your food or your aid supplies. We want to break the siege. There is nothing here anymore!”

On the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, yet more testimony that the human race — that we — have learned nothing from history.

Posted in Miscellaneous | Leave a comment

On Pardoning Edward Snowden….

Posted on January 2, 2014 by ErgoOne

While I find the word “pardon” offensive when applied to a person who did the right thing in the face of significant consequences and who should by all rights win our thanks and a medal, I support the Guardian and the New York Times editorials calling for Edward Snowden to be pardoned. I believe that this is the very least we can do for a man who exposed a dangerous pattern of governmental overreach that threatened our democracy at significant personal cost.

Thanks to both papers. I just wish I thought that President Obama and Congress were likely to listen. :/

Posted in Human Rights, Internet, Security | Leave a comment

Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)

Posted on December 6, 2013 by ErgoOne

As everybody and his brother has said today, Nelson Mandela was a great man, one of the greatest of the 20th century. I’d like to point out that, unlike many great men, Nelson Mandela was also by almost any measure a good man.

Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Human Rights, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Ladar Levison and Lavabit

Posted on October 3, 2013 by ErgoOne

I’ve been too busy elsewhere to blog here much, but did not want to let the story of Ladar Levison and his secure email service Lavabit go unremarked. Edward Snowden isn’t the only good guy who refuses to let an overreaching government dictate terms to him and try to prevent him from telling his tale. :(

Posted in Miscellaneous | Leave a comment

Edward Snowden

Posted on June 14, 2013 by ErgoOne

I had planned to wait to post about Edward Snowden, because my feelings about him and what he exposed are too strong at the moment. I don’t want to talk rationally. I want to scream: not at Snowden, but at my own government. Even more, I want to scream at a rather large number of lazy, disinterested, scared, cowardly U.S. citizens who tacitly approved while the government of the United States created an intolerable mass surveillance apparatus and regimen in the (former?) “land of the free”.

Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | Leave a comment

Dennis Tito (Remember Him?) Planning Trip to Mars in 2018?

Posted on February 22, 2013 by ErgoOne

According to SpaceREF.com, American investment manager Dennis Tito (who caused a huge kerfluffle at NASA in 2001 when he paid the Russian Federal Space Agency to fly him to the International Space Station as a tourist) has now announced that he will shortly be announcing plans for a trip to Mars in 2018. The press conference is scheduled for next Wednesday, Feb. 27, at 1:00 PM at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.

This sounds so ambitious as to be insane, but Tito has managed to do things in the past that “the experts” thought could not or should not be done. Unfortunately there appear to be no plans to stream the press conference, but I’ll be watching for the accompanying press release and stories.

Posted in Space | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Solitary Confinement in U.S. Prisons

Posted on February 22, 2013 by ErgoOne

Washington Post columnist George Will, a politically conservative columnist whom I often agree with about limited government and fiscal responsibility, but often disagree with on human rights issues, today posted a thoughtful and quite pointed op-ed on the use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. He clearly considers it a type of torture. If I had not already come to the same conclusion previously, I think he would have convinced me in this article.

Continue reading →

Posted in Human Rights, Law, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

On Donating to Charity After a Disaster

Posted on December 17, 2012 by ErgoOne

People tend to be generous in the wake of a disaster, whether it be a hurricane (Sandy) or a massacre (Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut). Unfortunately criminals know this, and take advantage of it. Neil Schwartzman, a friend and fellow antispammer, blogged today on CircleID on how to give to charity safely, without feeding the criminals. I’ll have some detailed things to say about the spammers who do this over on the MainSleaze Spam blog later today. Meanwhile, I recommend reading, and heeding, Neil’s post.

Posted in Charity, Security | Tagged , , | Leave a comment