Posts by Blinkstr

US customs: Yes, we can seize your laptop, iPod

My lord...

I love the fact that all of you are complaining about being searched. What are you afraid of? Perhaps the border folks will find your porn collection?

Only 'unlawful threats' would invalidate McKinnon extradition

Wow @ Sean

It's a little odd how we in the US are 'knuckledraggers' when something like this comes up, but when EU needs help resolving a problem (sometimes with force) we in the US seems to be the first people you scream for.

How about the next time France gets invaded we just let you deal with that.

McKinnon loses Lords appeal

Strange...

It's strange how the folks on the other side of the pond feel they can generalize about the US and US citizens. Apparently we are entirely too much like wild animals to be allowed in your part of the world for a visit.

I personally take offense every time I hear someone assume the fact that I am an American means that I'm any one of the following:

1. Uncivilized - In the US Civil and Criminal system Prisoners are not tortured at all according to what I've seen. (I've had to visit several institutions where we keep those folks who insist on breaking our laws in the course of setting up, configuring, or fixing both networks and computer equipment.) With the exception of the atrocities that happened with military prisoners from the latest Iraq war, I'm not aware of ANY torture taking place. Even those, once they were found out, were taken care of. The officers in charge of that situation were severely punished (Although I don't think they were punished enough)

2. Stupid - Just because a few of the tourists that we send over there act like poorly trained baboons with a sense of 'you can't do that to me because I'm an American' doesn't mean all of us are like that. Quite frankly the one time I had the privilege of visiting Europe, I followed the old adage of 'when in Rome do as the romans do'. In general, the only time I had a problem was when someone found out that I was an American. Otherwise, no one knew the difference aside from my poor command of the French and Italian languages.

That aside, I honestly don't really think it matters much on where he is tried as long as he pays for his crime(s). I really do tend to think that he's going to get a fair trial on either side of the pond. I really don't feel like paying for his 'rehabilitation'. I have to say that if you folks want to try him, then keep him over there and YOU pay for it.

And the locked door analogy doesn't really apply to hacking. Even on an unsecured machine he would have had to defeat several barriers to get to the point where he could grab the documents that he wanted. Granted, whoever didn't set group policy for strong passwords that change every once in a while and such is a MORON.

US man cuffed for executing lawnmower

Yeah hokaaay...

What got him taken 'downtown' in the first place was the fact he fired a weapon within city limits. Once the cops got there they found that the weapon he fired was a Sawed off shotgun (VERY illegal in the states). They took his ignorant butt to jail.

Once they got him to jail they probably did a breathalyser and found that he was drunk as well.

IMHO, he got what he deserved and he's getting of pretty easy. NOTHING good can come from a drunk guy with a weapon that can spray ammo in wide patches for quite a bit of distance.