Posts by Phillip Rhodes

UK is not a surveillance society, MPs claim

British Libertarian Party

Fortunately, you lot have a Libertarian Party now as well. Vote some Libertarians into office, before it's too late:

http://lpuk.org/

Balance, schmalance

<i>Where should the balance between protecting the public and preserving individual freedom lie?</i>

There is no "balance," the proper role of government is to protect our rights. You can't violate the rights of an individual because of something that *might* happen. Actual criminals (eg, anyone who has actually violated someone else's rights) shoudl be punished, beyond that, the government needs to stay the bloody hell out of things.

US government cools on Real ID threats

Viva La Revolutione

Looks like the time for American Revolution 2.0 is drawing neigh. The problem is, I don't think this lot of bloody tossers has the backbone for it anymore. The few of us that still care about little things like Freedom and Liberty will probably be quickly subdued and shipped off to Guantanamo. :-(

FBI issues prosthetic pregnant belly bomb alert

what a load of bollocks

In the United States and in Great Britain, our own government(s) are the biggest threat to our way of life. What's hard to understand is how two lots of people like yanks and brits, both with rich heritages of valuing freedom and liberty (Magna Carta anybody? Declaration of Independence? Thomas Paine and "Common Sense? etc?) have allowed their respective societies to devolve into this near Orwellian state of fascist totalitarianism. I mean, you lot have more surveillance cameras per capita than any nation in the world, right? And both of our governments are trying to implement National ID cards, which should absolutely be anathema to a free society.

Makes one wonder where it's all going to end...

BOFH: Xmas party: Get a wriggle on

Ice Cold Lager?

I thought you Brits drank your beer more or less at room temperature (or just slightly cool), and that drinking Lager "ice cold" was an American-ism?

BOFH: Friday madness

2:58 in North Carolina

it's 2:58 pm here in NC... and I'm pretty sure the clock is stopped. If I had a cattle prod handy I'd almost be ready to use it on myself just to break the monotony of this bloody slow afternoon.

UK gov bans 'terror' suspect from science class

Title

Sounds like you Brits need a modern day Guy Fawkes or something: your government has become just as fascist and totalitarian as ours here in the States. Time to blow it up and start over.

Over here we're still waiting to see if there's a modern day Patrick Henry or Thomas Jefferson to be found to lead the Revolution. Good luck to you lot, maybe the day will come when both the US and the UK can both be considered "Free" countries again.

BOFH: Workplace accidents = 0

Wait a bloody minute

Are you lot saying that this isn't how businesses in the UK really operate?!?

Damn, time to put this visa application through the shredder I suppose... I was all set to move just to see this wonderful working environment!

Google OpenSocial: after the hype, the holes

OpenQabal

Wow, didn't expect to see OpenQabal mentioned here, but that's cool. Everyone should understand however, that OQ is a project to build truly open social-networking using (mostly) existing standards; and is not a new standard itself. I believe most of what we need to do decentralized, federated social networking already exists, and the goal of OQ is to pull those pieces together into a comprehensive but cohesive platform.

As for OpenSocial, I have expressed concern about the fact that the "standard" is not controlled by any sort of standards body such as ECMA or IETF or W3C; but I don't hold that up as a reason to avoid it totally. Defacto standards have their place as well, and Google have apparently committed to releasing open-source reference implementations of the OS standard. In the near-term that's good enough for me, and there is a good chance that OpenQabal will actually implement OpenSocial eventually.

US demands air passengers ask its permission to fly

Ironic

As an American this has me so bloody pissed-off I swear I have steam blowing out of my ears. But I find it ironic that so many of you lot are mocking the US for this, when the UK is even closer to a full-on Orwellian police-state than the US is. Isn't it the UK that has more surveillance cameras per capita than anywhere? Don't you have some of the most restrictive gun-control laws in the world? Wasn't it in the UK that a 17 year old kid was arrested for merely possessing a copy of "The Anarchists Cookbook?"

The bottom line is that "We The People" need to stand up and take back control of our respective countries, whether it's the UK or the US. In two nations with the heritage of Freedom and Liberty like the two of ours (can you say "Magna Carta?" "Declaration of Independence?" etc?) how can we be the people allowing this kind of totalitarianism to overtake us?

Somebody bloody well needs to do something, before fascists take over and destroy two once-noble nations.

Teen sticks Xbox 360 power supply in bowl of water

Redneck / Yank

Redneck doesn't necessarily mean Southerner in the US. If it means anything at all, it really translates to more like "poor and uneducated." Using that definition, there are Rednecks in every state of the US. It's just that within the US, the stereotype (which is mostly invalid, this example excluded) is that many/most Southerners are also Rednecks.

And yes, in the States, Southerners use the term Yankees to refer to Northerners, but to anybody outside the US, it seems common to use the term Yank to refer to any American. It's not wrong, it's just a different perspective.