Free Expression in Washington?

CNN carried a somewhat disturbing story tonight. The article states that Sheehan was arrested in the House gallery for not covering an anti-war slogan on her T-shirt. While I personally think that Sheehan is a bit of a nut, I find it ironic that that an exercise of the First Ammendment is considered unlawful in the House.

It's the Truth - Really!

Imagine that a man declares, "I have never robbed a bank". But let's suppose that while the man had never robbed a bank, the man had robbed a credit union. The man's statement is still technically true, even though the man is clearly trying to convey a false impression.

Many of the Bush administration officials have been giving speeches this week defending the legality of certain government actions. When reading the transcript of one of these speeches, I came across the same kind of situation I just described. The official made a statement that was technically true, but was carefully constructed to make the listener believe something else. I have to admit that the wording was extremely clever.

I guess it all depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is.

The Dying Fourth Ammendment

According to this Washington Post article, the Bush administration has issued subpoenas to Google, Yahoo, and other search engines requesting a copy of their search logs. Google is fighting the subpoena in court, but the other search engines compiled. So is the Bush administration fighting terrorism? Organized crime? Espionage? Unfortunately, the answer is not any of the above. The administration wants the traffic so it can analyze ways to restore anti-porn laws that have been struck down by the courts as unconstitutional. I don't see what constitutional basis the government has for being able to force Google to provide the information.

The search logs of a major search engine like Google are a major treasure trove of information. Not only do they contain the search terms, but they contain the IP address of the requesting machine, possibly the browser identification string, and can be used to identify patterns of search requests by an individual. The government could identify people who have searched for "Howard Dean", "ACLU", or "Guantanamo". Does anyone remember Nixon's "Enemies List"? Also, search terms don't include the context they were made in. A search term like "child porn" might indicate a pedophile, or it might have been used by a psychology grad student researching ways to fight online porn. And while most user IP addresses are dynamic, the originating ISP may have records. It would only be a matter of time before the government subpoenas them too.

If Google can be forced to provide its search records without the government showing probable cause, then there is no reason the government can't force everyone in the United States to provide all of their computer records to the government. After all, someone in the United States must have used their computer to commit a crime.

Mayor Nagin Strikes Again

The Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, made his way back into the news today. According to a CNN news article, Nagin said "This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans." And yet Mr. Nagin's racist attitudes haven't been challenged by the media. Can you imagine the controversy that would result if the mayor of Livonia, MI said that it was God's will that Livonia is a majority white city? And the ultimate irony, I think, is that Mr. Nagin made his comments on the day celebrating Martin Luther King's legacy. Dr. King stated so profoundly on August 23, 1963, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Sadly enough, judging people by their skin color is still too common, whether it be by individuals like Mr. Nagin, or by white extremists in Howell, MI.

I applaud Dr. King and his dream, and I truly hope that one day my children can live in a world where they are judged based on the content of their character.

Some Michigan History Trivia

Tonight I hung out with one of my friends and his fiancé at Ashley's, which is a great little pub in Ann Arbor. One of the topics that we discussed was the Michigan-Ohio War. For those of you who aren't from either Michigan or Ohio, back in 1835, armed hostilities broke out between Michigan and Ohio. The cause of the conflict was a section of land known as the "Toledo Strip". The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 defined the Michigan border as that "which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan". However, Ohio wanted the entrance of the Maumee River, and so they claimed an additional eight miles north of the legal boundary. Soon the politics got out of hand, and the State of Ohio and the Michigan Territory sent armed militias to fight. Thankfully, there were only two instances of bloodshed during the war. A Michigan sheriff was stabbed by one of the Ohio militia members, and a mule belonging to a farmer was killed. Other than that, the militias spent most of the summer of 1835 lost in the Black Swamp around Toledo. Some interesting articles on the topic are here and here.

In the compromise settlement that followed, Ohio won the Toledo Strip. Michigan gained the additional 2/3 of the Upper Penninsula. Michigan may not have liked it at the time, but we clearly came out ahead.

Some Saturday Night Ramblings

I flew out of Reagan National this morning, and had my first encounter with the new "puffer machines" that the TSA is testing. Basically, the puffer machine is a box about three times the size of a typical metal detector. You step into the box, and then a series of high pressure "puffs" of air get directed all over you by little chrome nozzles. The machines are supposed to have the capability to test for certain chemicals used in the manufacture of explosives. The directed jets of air reminded me of the air jets used in some of the attractions at Disney World. I'm guessing that they would be somewhat disconcerting to anybody who is not used to flying. Their primary drawback is that they are very slow. Despite light passenger traffic, the screening line was fairly backed up. I don't want to imagine what the lines will be like on a Friday afternoon.

The puffer machines are meant to serve as a counterterrorist mechanism, but I wonder if they themselves may be an ideal terrorist target. If the machines were subverted and used to distribute airborne bio-agents, infected individuals would then carry the agents all over the world. Let us all hope that TSA maintains extremely tight security around the machines when the security checkpoints aren't manned.

On a happier note, I saw Cinderella Man tonight with a friend. The movie is excellent. I think that it is probably the best boxing movie I have ever seen. The depression-era scenes reminded me of how much we all have to be thankful for. I am so thankful that I have food on the table, a roof over my head, and heat. We in modern day America have been blessed with so much.

War Without End

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

--- Benjamin Franklin, "Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759"

Unfortunately, the citizens of the United States seem to have forgotten Mr. Franklin's sage advice. People are quite willing to let politicians sacrifice their liberties in the hopes that we will win the "War on Terror". Unfortunately, the war against terrorism is not a conventional conflict that has a finite duration. Terrorism, in one form or the another, has been around since the dawn of mankind. While the level of terrorism will ebb and flow, it will never go away completely. This does not mean that people need to live their lives in fear. People are far more likely to die in a car accident than being involved in a terrorist incident, but you don't see people quitting their morning commute. In the same way, people should keep going on with their lives, and not give up their freedoms due to fear.

Commission Advoidance Schemes?

The New York Times had an article today talking about how more people are selling their houses directly, as opposed to using a realtor. Obviously, realtors aren't happy about potentially losing their gravy train. One realtor griped that "For Sale By Owner" is a "commission-avoidance scheme". That quote struck me as very funny. I propose that realtors all give me money, and if they don't, then I will call it a "charity-advoidance scheme".

I was thinking about the numbers a little. The typical real-estate transaction charges the seller six percent. Assuming a house sells for $200,000 (which would be considered cheap in Ann Arbor), the real estate commission is $12,000. A typical mid-level white-collar professional can bill $100 per hour, which would mean that $12,000 would cover 120 hours of work. Does anyone really believe that the typical realty transaction comes anywhere close to that amount of work?