Categories
Political

Freenet and Freedom of speech

One person I admire greatly is Ian Clarke, the founder and architect of Freenet — the most sophisticated and open distributed network. In an interview in news.com, Ian talks about 9/11’s impact on Freenet, and the greater need for this type of technology today.

When asked the question:

What effect has Sept. 11 had on your drive for online anonymity? Are there more concerns today that Freenet could be used for terrorists’ or other lawbreakers’ activities, and has the project itself felt any official pressure because of it?

Ian responds with:

Well, since Freenet is a publication mechanism, the only way that terrorists could really use it would be to share information with the general public, such as why they must resort to terrorism. Personally, I think this is a good thing. I grew up in Ireland, parts of which have suffered from terrorism for most of my youth. One thing that taught me was that the only way to resolve issues such as terrorism is to understand the other point of view. Simply dismissing people as “evil” won’t do anything to resolve the problem.

Found thanks to link at Boing Boing

Categories
Political

Different Viewpoints

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I read with respect Sargeant Stryker’s eloquent and extremely well thought out discussion about Doc Searl’s comment killing does not justify killing (a misrepresentation of Hanan Cohen’s Death does not justify death).

I may not agree with Stryker’s analysis and interpretation, but I can respect the effort and the interest as well as the careful consideration he gave.

Categories
Political Weblogging

And sometimes you want to sing

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Peace bloggers. We have an official name, now. Of course, can’t have a term without a definition, and my definition of a peace blogger is anyone who believes, as Hodja did, that everyone in the Middle East conflict is right. And we believe this because we know that no one in the Middle East conflict is completely wrong. Takes two sides to make a war. Takes two sides to make a peace.

I guess peace starts with us, doesn’t it?

Unlike the typical warblogger, peace bloggers don’t always talk about peace. We don’t always talk about the Middle East. We don’t always talk about this story or that in the “biased and misrepresentational press”. In fact, there’s a lot of folks who are “peace bloggers” in heart, mind, and soul who don’t talk about the Middle East at all. And you know something, that’s just cool.

It seems to me that If you subscribe to an extremely narrow view of what’s right and wrong, why you’d have to spend pretty much all your time defending your view. So folks like Glenn Reynolds who focus on the Middle East and the evil Arabs and the wrongness of leftist-pinko liberals (me! me!) kind of have to because they’ve placed themselves on a ledge of belief that doesn’t have a lot of give, sure as heck doesn’t have a lot of take, and no room at all for movement.

How many warbloggers can stand on the head of a pin?

I know. It does seem as if there are a lot of warbloggers and they get a lot of buzz and a lot of hits per day and we can feel a bit overwhelmed at times. However, I’m finding that the warbloggers also link to each other in a kind of (close your eyes, AKMA) masturbational frenzy of self link love that’s a bit, well, kinky. However, that’s cool, too.

(I grew up in the generation that firmly believed in “whatever turns you on, as long as you don’t scare the cows”.)

Just because we’re peace bloggers doesn’t mean we have to spend all of our time refuting the warbloggers and crying out for peace. If you’re a peace blogger and read something that you feel strongly about, then post your thoughts, say the words, hum the tune. However, don’t feel you have to speak out just to balance the warblogger word count.

Remember the Vietnam war? Now what was it we were fighting for?

A peace blogger blogs for peace anytime they talk about their dog, show a picture, say a poem, sing a song, debate Post-Modernism, promote a book, talk about our significant others, talk about our kids, our jobs, our friends, about sex (we really do need more sex in weblogging), technology (Radio doesn’t count), and generally talk about life and what about life turns us on.

Always with the remembrance that wars result in people who have had their lives turned off. And nothing…nothing…nothing…will ever justify this.

Honk if you want peace, babies.