Information Wants to be Free

For John, BLUF:  Those on the world wide web seen as to the "right" of center are being harrassed by large scale providers, like Google, through cutting funding streams, known as demonitizing.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Why Is KiwiFarms.net ‘Harassment,’ But What Taylor Lorenz Does Is ‘Journalism’?

From The Other McCain, by Robert Stacy McCain, 20 October 2023.

Here is the lede plus three:

Did you know that Taylor Lorenz has her own Kiwi Farms thread?  Anyway, the question in the headline crossed my mind after reading KiwiFarms founder Joshua Moon’s complaint about how payment processors have blacklisted him.  That was referenced in a comment on yesterday’s post about how Instapundit got demonetized by Google Adsense because of allegedly “dangerous” content.

In case you don’t know, Taylor Lorenz first made herself infamous in 2018 by doxxing the teenage daughters of Pamela Geller.

Considering that Geller was (and still is) known to be a target of ISIS and other Islamic terrorists, and that Geller’s daughters were just Instagram influencers who had nothing to do with politics, this was an act sufficiently egregious that Taylor Lorenz should have been unemployed.  Instead, she ended up on the staff of the Washington Post and now, of course, a published author.  There is a double standard involved in Lorenz’s continued employment as a “journalist,” while Josh Moon is financially blacklisted because of Kiwi Farms.

Before getting into the topic of what Kiwi Farms is, let me reiterate that this topic suggested itself because of a comment on a post about how Google has banned Instapundit from its Adsense program.  Because he’s “dangerous.”  How?  We don’t know, because the process at Google is completely opaque.  Good luck getting them to answer any questions about how people get banned or how their search listings operate.  But in the process of trying to explore this, I was shocked to discover that you can’t get to Kiwi Farms via a Google search.  Not only doesn’t the site’s URL turn up in the Google results, but no article that links directly to Kiwi Farms is included in the first page of Google search results.  That’s why I decided to put the full URL, KiwiFarms.net, into my headline.

Once upon a time the World Wtide Web was seen as empowering for the "Little Guy".  Now we see economic giants, and the Federal Government taking aim at those whose thinking they find divient.  I wonder if this is Constitutional?  I wonder if it is compatible with who we think we are as Americans?  Although I will grant you, recent demonstrations on university campuses makes me wonder if the rising generation will understand our nation the way I do.

A recent CNN Poll raises serious question about who we are becoming as a nation.  It shows "81% of those age 65 or older see the response as fully justified, compared with 56% of 50-to-64-year-olds, 44% of 35-to-49-year-olds and 27% of 18-to-34-year-olds”.  I am proud tio be in the 65 and older group.  And glad to be there.  On the other hand, I am ashamed of those 49 and younger.

I woner how dangerous the content of this Blog Post is.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Is Thanksgiving Bad?

For John, BLUF:  A number of people see traditional Thanksgiving as bad, calling for people to view it as a "National Day of Mourning, given the fate of Native Americans.  The Author is an Americaan Expat in France.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Is Thanksgiving a "Myth" or a "Problematic Holiday"?  What Nobody Tells You About Indians and Other Native Americans

From No-Pasaran, by the Unnamed Author, 25 November 2022.

Here is the lede plus three:

Every time I hear about the tragedy (the tragedies) suffered by the Indians of North America (whether at Thanksgiving or at any other time), I bring up some variant of the following questions: Do the calamities also include the theft of the lands of the Apaches? Does the genocide, real or alleged, of the Native Americans also concern the extermination of the Huron tribe (Huronia)?

This type of question usually boondoggles the leftist, whose eyes grow like saucers and who waffles trying to reply, since in his eagerness to sum up American and world history by meting out simplified explanations in one-sentence platitudes (that conveniently, and invariably, happen to be damning towards Americans, i.e., white Americans), he has neither had nor taken the time to think any details through as he attempts to display his alleged expertise as a modern-day genius. The most intelligent leftists will be — rightly — suspecting that the questions are in some way or another some form of trap…

The problem, of course, is that the lands of the Apaches were stolen by the Comanches.

While the Hurons were wiped out by the Iroquois.

The Author paints a rather grim picture of some of the tribes across the continent.  He doesn't get into human sacrifice, which was practiced in the lower parts of North America.  On the other hand, he passes over the helpfulness of the local eastern Massachusetts Native Americans.  We commemorate that cooperstion when we celebrate Thanksgiving.  For sure, the Native American population can not be taken as a uniform collection of tribes,  Rather, they are a large number of groups, with unique cultures, from the Wampanoag to the Mississippian Culture to the Iroquois to the Comanches.

I think the appreciation of Thanksgiving is in the fact that a group of people faced bad odds, and beat them, and took the time to thank God for seeing them through their trials.  I think we should apprecite that at the first Thanksgiving the European Immigrants welcomed and thanked the Native Americans who helped them survive.  If we load the feast down with too much analysis we are impoosing our current understanding on people who might never have contemplated such complications.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Blog Page Views By Nation

For John, BLUF:  Who is doing what out there on the Internet?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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My Page Views for the period indicated

Nov 25, 2019 9:00 PM – Dec 2, 2019 8:00 PM

Here are my Blog Statistics for the period indicated.

SERIAL	NATION	PAGE VIEWS
1	Ukraine	733
2	Russia	216
3	United States	207
4	Italy	83
5	France	11
6	Germany	10
7	Unknown Region	8
8	Indonesia	7
9	South Korea	7
10	Thailand	7

It is interesting that the number of page views from Ukraine is over three times as many as from Russia.  Ukraine vs Russia?  I find this interesting.

Regards  —  Cliff

Blogging Your Political Thoughts

For John, BLUF:  WWe are a somewhat unique nation, and it is great.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Why Do Americans Have Political Blogs, and Why Are They Rare Elsewhere?

From PJ Media, by Author Sarah Hoyt, 10 July 2018.

Here is the thrust of it.  These United States are somewhat unique, in that we tend to join groups in a sort of self organizing fashion.

Again, what if you gave a singularity and only America came?  And why would only America be interested in citizen journalism?

Well, as I keep telling you, we’re strange.  Not bad strange, just … different.

America has a greater tendency to self-organize and form spontaneous organizations.  This was very strange to me when I came to the US first:  Everything from sewing circles to local civic organizations uses Robert’s Rules of Order.  And everyone belongs to some group that has self-organized to do something of mutual interest.

This is not original with Ms Sarah Hoyt.  It goes back to the first half of the 1800s and the writings of Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville.

Here is the wrap-up of the post:

Yes, I know, people in the comments will tell me that their countries have the same specialized organization, or someone will cite some study that says America lags behind in initiative and self-organization.  Take a powder, will you?

I have actually lived in, or still socialize with and have friends in other countries, and I can tell you this level of self-organization is not only unheard of, but it’s not understandable by most people in most other countries.

You might find pockets of it, like say in the island in Australia where my friend Dave Freer lives, but it’s not a society wide thing.

Maybe you need that self-organization, that level of confidence in your fellow citizens to make blogs and alternate news media really popular.

If that’s the case, how will we diverge yet more from Europe and the rest of the world?

And what will result from it?

Yes, American Exceptionalism.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

They May Still Be At It.

For John, BLUF:  This is one of many Comments with wording just a tad off.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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A Russian Troll or Bot?

I received this comment to a blog post.

Yesterday at 10:07 PM

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What Did You Learn at the Revolution, Daddy?":

I always emailed this weblog post page to all my friends, for the reason that if like to read it then my links will too.

Posted by Anonymous to Right-Side-of-Lowell at 2/18/2018 10:07:00 PM

If it wasn't for the Internet Research Agency, and once in a while my wife, I would have no visitors to my blog, oh, and when I troll him, my youngest son.  :-)

Regards  —  Cliff
-1 Thur 2.0

Rep Scalise to Rehab

For John, BLUF:  It seems it was touch and go for a while.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Scalise released from hospital

From the Blog of fellow New Englander Neo-NeoCon, yesterday, 26 July 2017.

I had missed this good news with regard to Congressman Steve Scalise.

I would like to say that I spent five weeks in Belleville this Summer, starting before the shooting and extending beyond.  The folks of St Clair County, Illinois are a wonderful cross section of the American population, the shooter excepted.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Trump Fails Again

For John, BLUF:  In my experience, if it wasn't for bad feedback there would be no feedback.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Feedback on a Post

Yesterday I posted on President Trump's Justice Department handing over to the Court the full CIA Torture Report.  While the Obama Administration had stashed a copy in the Obama Presidential Library, it had been fighting release to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Here is the redacted report, per The Old Gray Lady.

Anyway, I got some friendly feedback:

Part of Trump's plan to inflame the entire Muslim world against us to make us more secure?

As if our American life style isn't sufficient to inflame those in the "Muslim World" who believe we are going against Allah's wishes, as expressed by the Prophet Mohammed.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Left Demonstrates

For John, BLUF:  True about demonstrating (rioting) against Mr Trump being elected.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Tweetmeister David Burge shared this in two tweets:

I’m telling lefties this as a favor:  many people voted Trump reluctantly and with a tinge of regret.  What you’re doing right now simply confirms they made the right choice.

It was shared by Law Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds, here.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Where is the Election Going

For John, BLUF:  This is not a formal or scientific poll.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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AN INSTAPUNDIT READER POLL

The admonition is:

Remember, the question isn’t who you want to win, it’s who you think will win.

This was the results at about 2030 this evening:

Sort of like my informal poll at various Longhorn Restaurants, which has Mr Trump leading.

Over at the Ann Althouse Blog we have a different version.  The question is who do you think Professor Althouse will vote for, and, as a supplemental question, how did you get to your conclusion.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Blogging Errors

For John, BLUF:  The truth is inherently good.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Bloggers behaving badly:  Krugman and DeLong edition

Writing in the Volokh Conspiracy Column in The Washington Post, Mr Jonathan H. Adler says that Economics Professor and NYT Columnist Paul Krugman needs to do a better job of owning up to his errors:

False accusations can travel throughout the blogosphere before the truth has even logged in.  When newspapers make mistakes or false accusations, they publish corrections.  That’s not always the case with bloggers, however.  And sometimes it seems the more prominent the blogger, the less likely a correction will be made.

A recent example comes from noted economist Paul Krugman, a columnist and blogger with the New York Times.  On Sunday, Krugman authored a short post taking swipes at the Cato Institute.  In this post, Krugman recounted how Cato allegedly “suppressed” a paper by economist David Glasner — a charge Glasner initially made on his blog.  This story, Krugman claimed, illustrated the Cato Institute’s “long-standing habit of trying to send inconvenient history down the memory hole.”

It turns out that Krugman’s charge is false, however.

Oh, and he scorches Harvard Professor Brad DeLong in the same offering.

Please blog responsibly.  Admits your errors.  Stop giving the rest of us a bad name.

Don't be like Professor Paul Krugman or Author Gore Vidal.♠

Hat tip to the InstaPundit and Professor Althouse.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Not safe for polite company, notwithstanding being published in The New York Review of Books.

Making Contributions to Media

For John, BLUF:  Where your money goes helps various people understand what is important to you.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Here is a Blog Site (Lawfare Blog) capitalizing on the annoying NPR Fundraiser periods to ask for donations.  In this headline WAMU is the Washington NPR Station located at American University.

"Annoyed By WAMU Pledge Week?  Donate to Lawfare Instead!"  The author is Mr Benjamin Wittes.

I don't know about you, but pledge week on my local NPR station, WAMU, is really messing up my mornings this week.

Here's a thought for Lawfare readers: donate to Lawfare instead.

For us in Eastern Massachusetts it would be WBUR.

So, the next time you hear some NPR station asking for money, in and around its Advertisements, consider donating to your favorite blog.♠

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  No, not this blog.

Another View on Paris

For John, BLUF:  One thing relates to another.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Nicki, writing in The Liberty Zone, is not happy.  There is the attack in Paris and there are the refugees and there is all the activity on campus.

While I don't agree with Nicki totally, I think she raises some interesting points.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Copyright To Get Worse

For John, BLUF:  Will it impact City Life?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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With a delicious sense of irony, I copy the whole post from Law Professor Ann Althouse:

"I had a Supreme Court Justice tell me it’s over for me," said Drudge.

"They’ve got the votes now to enforce copyright law, you’re out of there.  They’re going to make it so you can’t even use headlines...  To have a Supreme Court Justice say to me it’s over, they’ve got the votes, which means time is limited...  That will end [it] for me – fine – I’ve had a hell of a run…."

Drudge added "that web users were being pushed into the cyber ‘ghettos’ of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram":  "This is ghetto, this is corporate, they’re taking your energy and you’re getting nothing in return – nothing!"

There you have it.  Our Congress is going to make the Mickey Mouse Copyright laws even worse.

And, those of us blogging on news articles are not going to be able to mention the article.

This will definitely limit the publics discussion of current events.  That will, in turn, lead to a more ignorant public.  I guess it will help the Democrats.  It definitely won't help those of us who believe in truth, justice and the American way.

Hat tip to Ann Althouse.

Regards  —  Cliff

The First Amendment stops at the Canadian Border

TRIGGER WARNING:  Bad language at the link.
For John, BLUF:  Politeness has a price.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Canada has human rights commissions.  They are supposed to make sure everyone plays nice and acts like polite Canadians, or emigrates to the United States (e.g., Mark Steyn).

Here is an open letter to the Alberta Human Rights Commission, "Dear Alberta Human Rights Commission".♠  And it goes down hill from there, but in a humorous way.  Well, it does start out slowly…

I'm informed that your Commission (via your proxy) considers the word "crazy" an insult.

… and then quickly picks up speed.

This is not by Mr Ezra Levant, but is about him.  Yes, he is back.  The former publisher of the Canadian Western Standard.

He writes:

Here we go again.

This October I will be prosecuted for one charge of being "publicly discourteous or disrespectful to a Commissioner or Tribunal Chair of the Alberta Human Rights Commission" and two charges that my “public comments regarding the Alberta Human Rights Commission were inappropriate and unbecoming and that such conduct is deserving of sanction.”

Because last year I wrote a newspaper editorial calling Alberta’s human rights commission “crazy.”

Have you ever heard of a journalist being prosecuted for being disrespectful towards a government agency? A journalist in Canada, that is — not in China or Russia.

I remember seeing a video, a while back, in which a Canadian Human Rights Commission lawyer reminded Mr Levant that Canada doesn't have a First Amendment, like that was a plus for Canada.  That European view that the People benefit from the Government protecting them from themselves.  Bonapartism.

The Social Justice Warriors strike again.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  From the Blog Small Dead Animals.

Dangers in Blogging

For John, BLUF:  We have to resist efforts to make things "hate speech", which is just another justification for murdering those you don't agree with.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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This time from Nation of Change, we have an article on continuing attacks on (or better, murders of) Bangladeshi Bloggers.  Have I just been asleep, or has there been a recent increase, world wide, in murders of those who would voice their opinions in one form of media or another.  I am sure glad I live in the United States, where we have both a First Amendment and police forces that pay attention (e.g., Garland, Texas).  On the other hand, I worry about police forces that overly intrude on our privacy as a way of keeping us safe.  That isn't good either.

Regards  —  Cliff

Hacked to Death For Speaking Out

For John, BLUF:  If it ever gets to this in the US, we are in deep trouble.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Law Professor Ann Althouse looks at a New Yorker article by staff writer George Packer.  She gives us the last paragraph in the article:

The problem with free speech is that it’s hard, and self-censorship is the path of least resistance.  But, once you learn to keep yourself from voicing unwelcome thoughts, you forget how to think them — how to think freely at all — and ideas perish at conception.  Washiqur Rahman and Avijit Roy had more to fear than most of us, but they lived and died as free men.

Mr Washiqur Rahman was a 26 year old Bangladeshi and blogger and Mr Avijit Roy was an American Citizens, and blogger, visiting Dhaka University, in Bangladesh.

If you won't think about and speak out on little things, what makes you think you will speak out against big things?

Hat tip to the Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Failing to Write Clearly

For John, BLUF:  It is going to be a long period to November 2016.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Headline from The Washington Post, "Walker’s anti-union law has labor reeling in Wisconsin".♠

Well, not exactly "anti-union".  More like anti-public service union.

My Father, who helped organize a Steel Mill in Johnstown, PA, in the 1930s♥ never once complained to me about a lack of union representation during his time as a Federal Civil Servant.♦

Law Professor Ann Althouse notes in a blog post:

These are both big articles, served up for Monday morning, and both are low blows.

The attack on Walker is low, because it uses the terms "union" and "labor" without specifying what I think must always be specified to be fair: Walker's reforms were about public employee unions.  The Walker article is absurdly emotive and sentimental, larded with quotes from nice people who are bewildered and sad.  You have to read to paragraph 5 to get the first indication that Walker's law only had to do with the special problem of public unions, whose collective bargaining is not with private management, but with the government, the representatives of the people, not any commercial operation.

Writing at 9:32 AM on Monday, she goes on to note:

There are over 4,000 comments on the Walker article already, and the top-rated one is: "No wonder Walker scares Democrats so much. He's taken down one of their most lucrative money making scams as well as one of their favorite sources of street muscle." The second highest rated is: "The left is scared to death of Walker." So maybe WaPo's effort to type-cast Walker as a right-wing meanie won't work, but it won't be because WaPo's not trying. And, yes, I know I'm purporting to read The Mind of the Washington Post, even as I'm writing about Scott Walker, The Man Who Cannot Read the Mind of Others.

So, the Press tries to turn something that a lot of voters might favor into something that a lot of voters might dislike.  This is propaganda, pure and simple.

The value of Blogs will be to offer alternative interpretations to assertions by a Mainstream Media that is not always objective in its reporting.

Hat tip to Ann Althouse.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  For readers of The New York Times that would be Mr Scott.
♥  Picture of him and others picketing in front of the gate published in the New York Times.
♦  I expect that if he had complained in front of my Middle Brother, Lance, I will hear about it.  Lance, the Federal Civil Servant.

Maryland County Official Forgets About First Amendment

For John, BLUF:  I think even George would say this is open and shut.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Bullies get away with what we let them get away with.  In this case the bully is Mr Kirby Delauter, a Frederick County (Maryland) Council Member.  He used Facebook to threaten local Journalist Ms Bethany Rodgers.  For—wait for it—for using his name without permission in a newspaper article.

Law Professor and Washington Post Blogger Eugene Volokh has fun with this here  Including.

Uh, Council Member:  In our country, newspapers are actually allowed to write about elected officials (and others) without their permission.  It’s an avantgarde experiment, to be sure, but we’ve had some success with it.

Hat tip to Memeorandum.

Regards  —  Cliff

Gary Becker RIP

I am, reluctantly, deleting from my Blog Roll The Becker-Posner Blog.  Sadly, Gary Becker passed away this year.

05/10/2014

Farewell

In memoriam: Gary S. Becker, 1930-2014.

The Becker-Posner blog is terminated.

Richard A. Posner

Regards  —  Cliff

That Scary Internet

For John, BLUF:  Some can't handle freedom.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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This is from Breitbart, which is talking about The Beeb and its concern about that dangerous area, the Blogosphere:

With questions posed from BBC’s Kevin Rawlinson like “Can a lone blogger bring down a business? … In the online age, do bloggers wield too much power? … Or does the internet’s promise of freedom of speech trump businesses’ need for a way to prevent their profits being hit?” in anarticle published yesterday, you would think bloggers have disrupted all normal forms of economic commerce.

Of course, we could all go back to sitting around the camp fire, swapping ghost stories.

Regards  —  Cliff