Re: Loathing the Texas state legislature
 

Have you investigated how it is funded?

Re: Loathing the Texas state legislature
 

Alas, we didn't play well and they can flat out shoot.

Re: Loathing the Texas state legislature
 

Nothing is changing, unless you start seeing that which you want.

I've never seen the point of blocking them. They pay for what I want to read and they're super easy to ignore.

Oh, boy. So naive.

Re: Loathing the Texas state legislature
 

They will be driven to pay-per-click instead of pay-per-image because it makes more economic sense.

But the more fundamental point doesn't have anything to do with advertising. You give Google (and Bing, if you are one of the two people who use it) data about yourself, and they give you search results -- free!

Re: Loathing the Texas state legislature
 

This was posted in another forum. It's nice to see one of the authors of the Patriot Act get religion (I suspect she takes the position only for partisan purposes, but, who knows, maybe she is starting to travel Lessig's road away from the right and becoming an ACLU ally). But the incident is pretty outrageous, though just as outrageous are the limitations on a court's ability to effectively try the case.

Re: Loathing the Texas state legislature
 

The courts have had a number of opportunities to throw the Patriot Act out. It's an abomination and it is about as constitutionally valid as the Watergate break-in. They just lack a spine.

So many fucking people are whining about not wanting to cause a constitutional crisis. They can't seem to grasp that when the President is freely killing people, we already have a constitutional crisis.

Re: Loathing the Texas state legislature
 

Yeah, I have this on-again off-again relationship with the ACLU that probably needs to be on again. The problem is they do great work with a bunch of stuff, including this one, and then do stupid things like challenge patents relating to fundamental discoveries that would just kill stuff I care deeply about. I listened to a couple of their attorneys talk aobut their patent case a year or two ago and left just shaking the old head.

But the Patriot Act is why I sort of shake my head at that particular write up. If Leahy wrote it, I'd be cheering. But coming from an architect of past constitutional excesses, I'm a bit wary. Sometimes, even when you like the message, you want to shoot the messanger (metaphorically, of course).

Re: Loathing the Texas state legislature
 

You can opt out of that permanently at the install stage. (Whether they're being honest about that is another matter, of course...).

Re: Loathing the Texas state legislature
 

I meant they must have some way of making money, which normally involves data mining or ads.

Re: Loathing the Texas state legislature
 

What a huge victory for Obama.

Re: Loathing the Texas state legislature
 

?

Re: Loathing the Texas state legislature
 

The GOP blinked on the debt ceiling.

Re: Loathing the Texas state legislature
 

I, for one, am shocked.

Re: Loathing the Texas state legislature
 

Me, too. Did the GOP decide they had enough crazy to focus on protecting murders and rapists so they didn't need to tank the economy to keep their base happy?

Any way you look at it, better than a trillion dollar coin.

Re: Loathing the Texas state legislature
 

The really weird thing is that most of his "victories" should not have been a fight in the first place. This is what I said he should do years ago. Stand up to the insane, say "fuck you, you want to shut the Government down, go ahead." That is how Clinton got hand back about Newt and his boys.