China: the standard bearer for our future open society

The Saudi government, I hear, will draft UN technical standards for "defining methods to uphold women's dignity":

U.N. Agency Eyes Web Anonymity Controls - CBS News: "A United Nations agency is quietly drafting technical standards, proposed by the Chinese government, to define methods of tracing the original source of Internet communications and potentially curbing the ability of users to remain anonymous.

The U.S. National Security Agency is also participating in the 'IP Traceback' drafting group, named Q6/17, which is meeting next week in Geneva to work on the traceback proposal. Members of Q6/17 have declined to release key documents, and meetings are closed to the public."

I think the word for the shit that is going down around the world, with the full complicity of the private sector is "Orwellian".

But, hey, I love, Big Brother. Or the Chinese government. Whichever applies best.

Anti-fascist=Terrorist (UK police)

TERROR PROBE AFTER ANTI-FASCIST GRAFFITI
I'm keeping the capitalisation this is not the title of an Onion article, this is a real new item from the UK.

POLICE say they have seized a deactivated Kalashnikov rifle, imitation handguns, knives and a number of devices "made from fireworks" as part of a terrorism investigation.

Two men aged 25 and 19, a 16-year-old schoolboy and a 20-year-old woman were this morning still being held at Launceston police station under the Terrorism Act. Another woman, also aged 20, was released from police custody late last night following a court hearing. All five appeared at Plymouth Magistrates Court yesterday afternoon after police applied for warrants of further detention. The hearing was presided over by a London judge who specialises in terrorist matters.

The investigation came about after a sharp-eyed police officer stopped a 25-year-old man – believed to be Andrew Sprague – on Friday night daubing anti-fascist graffiti along the North Street subway under Exeter Street, just a couple of hundred yards from Charles Cross police station.

It is understood the man had sprayed the word "Antifa" – a militant anti-fascist organisation with international links. Their website claims their primary "enemy" is the British National Party, who they say have in recent years "done their utmost to hide their fascist politics beneath a thin veneer of respectability".

Mind-boggling: 1984 through a Monty-Pythin sketch.

Ames on the Alabama shootings

"Reliable is following a classic Reaganomics corporate policy of treating workers like disposable assets rather than as human beings. After all, if you fire employees en masse, and squeeze the terrified remaining workers into overtime work, the result is that it saves rich shareholders and executives a few extra bucks. And that’s a good thing because the rich need to be taken care of first and foremost, or so we’ve been told for the past 30 years by all the vile little Ayn Rand kommisars who somehow worked their way into power in this country. We’ve been conditioned for 30 straight years to accept the insane idea that companies only exist to serve shareholder/executive interests, and that workers are there by the grace of the plutocrats, and if they don’t like it, well, they’re free to quit and find another job. Which is to say, anyone who’s not an executive can fuck off."

Mark Ames has written one hell of a book about such events, I should note...

You want anger, do you?

Getting angry at work may not be a bad thing, and may in fact help you move up the career ladder, researchers believe.

The Harvard Medical School study found those who repressed frustration were three times more likely to say they had reached a glass ceiling.

Thankfully it is noted that "Outright fury was destructive". One can thus assume that the rather intense outbursts of slave worker outrage, all around the world are not helping the upward mobility of those involved...

Also note the conflicting advice laid-off workers are presented with:

Experts warn against real displays of [email] anger [at being fired] over concerns that it could hurt a future job search. Many caution against even a hint negativity.

"Don't show any bitterness. Don't complain. Just be positive," says Donna Flagg, a workplace expert and the President of The Krysalis Group, a business and management consulting firm in New York.

... or prehaps venting your anger is ok only when employed. When you're fired it's a liability one should watch out for.

EU Comission: Lithuanians must keep on rioting

Lithuania, whose attempts to shore up public finances by cutting salaries and raising taxes have triggered riots, must further limit wages to help the economy recover from a “severe contraction,” the European Commission said in a draft report to be published tomorrow

Hot or Not

The United States has used computers to secretly generate terror risk rankings for all American and foreign travelers who have crossed US borders for the past four years. The Associated Press reports that these ratings are supposed to help tell the government if a traveler is a potential terrorist or criminal. The government intends to keep the ratings on file for 40 years, and travelers are not allowed to see or challenge whatever rating they have been given.

Reviving...

1,2... it's alive again!

Am I allowed to utter your hallowed name?

You shall not profane our sacred site with your sacrilegious and blasphemous links; thus "for your protection and ours we have established a procedure for parties wishing to introduce a link to the ATHENS 2004 website on their site. By introducing a link to the ATHENS 2004 official Website on your site you are agreeing to comply with the ATHENS 2004 Website General Terms and Conditions."

Second attempt

"Bush acknowledged that acting CIA Director John McLaughlin had said there was no direct connection between Iran and Sept. 11. But the president said he has long expressed his concerns about Iraq Iran."

The merry march of progress

Russia's poorest face huge cuts in benefits:
System supporting veterans, disabled people and pensioners to be swept away as Moscow reforms aim to cap compensation...

The Abu Ghraib recruiting report. Prospects

"Eleven teenagers have gone on trial in the German town of Hildesheim, accused of abusing and humiliating a classmate and filming his ordeal. "

I was a teenage criminal

"In the government's efforts to protect children from abuse, however, the law also forbids under-16s from engaging in any sexual activity - ranging from 'touching' to full intercourse."

... but they claim they won't actually enforce the law, in such cases. But let's criminalize everything just in case...