Richard Posner, the influential judge and law and economics scholar, has written a blog reaction to Pope Benedict XVI’s recently publicized comments on condoms. Posner’s argument (that the pope is probably going to have to OK condoms in the near future) has its own sort of internal logic, but it doesn’t relate to anything in real life because all his facts are wrong. What’s mystifying is that the concepts and facts that trip Posner up are not exactly obscure or hard to ascertain. If Posner had bothered simply to reference the Catechism — the very first place one would look, and instantly accessible online — he would have avoided most of the egregious errors he makes.
Archive for November, 2010
Wikileaks Server Was Hit With DOS Attack, No Problem, Amazon to the Rescue
Patriotic hactivist ie Jester claims responsibility. A computer hacker is claiming he temporarily disabled the Wikileaks site Sunday afternoon, right as the latest dump of leaked State Department memos were scheduled to publish on the site. The site was down temporarily on Sunday, the same time the hacker began tweeting he had begun attacking it. “www.wikileaks.org – TANGO DOWN – for attempting to endanger the lives of our troops, ‘other assets’ & foreign relations,” he tweeted late Sunday morning. “Tango down” is a special forces military term for having eliminated a terrorist. He goes by the Twitter handle “th3j35t3r”, which is leetspeak for “The Jester.” On his website, th3j35t3r calls himself a “hacktivist for good.” A “hacktivist” — a hacker-activist, supposedly hacks for a good cause. His cause is preventing young people from being recruited online by jihadists. He does this by hacking jihadist websites, and temporarily disabling them. “PS for me personally WL is a sideshow target, I am more interested in the big jihad recruiting and training sites,” he said Sunday in a direct message to ABC News via Twitter, referring to hacking the Wikileaks website. No worry, Amazon stepped in to help Wikileaks. WikiLeaks, the website that published a quarter-million sensitive diplomatic cables on Sunday, is using Amazon.com Inc. servers in the U.S. to help deliver its information. It sounds like an odd choice, but it could make sense. The site cablegate.wikileaks.org, which WikiLeaks is using for the diplomatic documents, is linked to servers run by Amazon Web Services in Seattle, as well as to French company Octopuce. Wikileaks.org, the site’s front page, links back to Amazon servers in the U.S. and in Ireland. Several Internet watchers, including technologist Alex Norcliffe, reported earlier on WikiLeaks’ use of Amazon services. Amazon and WikiLeaks did not return requests for comment But experts said it was unlikely that Amazon would face legal action for selling services to WikiLeaks. For one thing, now that the information disclosed by the site is already public, it might not be considered contraband, said Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of law and computer science at Harvard University. Doing your Christmas shopping at Amazon? h/t Andrea & CreepingSharia
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Wikileaks Server Was Hit With DOS Attack, No Problem, Amazon to the Rescue
GOP senators signal progress on nuclear treaty (AP)
AP – Republicans reluctant to quickly ratify a nuclear weapons deal with Russia said Tuesday the Obama administration had addressed some of their concerns, raising the prospect for Senate approval of the landmark treaty.
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GOP senators signal progress on nuclear treaty
(AP)
Family: New Jersey man serving 7 years for guns he owned legally
A graduate student with no prior criminal record is serving a seven-year prison sentence for weapons charges
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Family: New Jersey man serving 7 years for guns he owned legally
Virginia governor gives 3 percent bonus to state employees
The boost comes from a state surplus that McDonnell attributed to employees
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Virginia governor gives 3 percent bonus to state employees
Saudi King in New York for Medical Treatment
King Abdullah (NYC) King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Bin Abdulrahman Bin Faisal Bin Turki Bin Abdullah Bin Muhammad Bin Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, is currently recuperating from back surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Get well soon, your Highness. In the meantime, does anyone else think it’s interesting that a foremost leader in Islam travels eight time zones to be treated at a hospital named after a Christian denomination and a Jew?
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Saudi King in New York for Medical Treatment
Grandmother Threw Child to Death at Mall
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Grandmother Threw Child to Death at Mall