Bad Judgement in the Age of the Internet - II

As was the case previously, here are some cautionary tales regarding questionable behaviour and modern technoloby.

The first one is somewhat sad. A freshman at a University in Wisconsin made a series of explicitly pornographic videos with her webcam. The involved stripping and her using some sex toys. She sent them to her boyfriend who was at another university. What happened next is the subject of some speculation on the web.

Either: 1) they broke up and her ex purposely let these video files circulate on the web or 2) he incorrectly filed them on his hard drive and they ended up being picked up as he participated in an online file sharing site. Either way, this poor woman's porn ended up all over the internet. Legend has it that the boyfriend was sent to jail for a year but this is tough to verify. She has gone underground and the videos continue to circulate. Clearly a bad idea on her part but exacerbated by the ease and speed with which digital media can circulate. She's right there next to the stripper from Western on drunkuniversity.com and numerous other sites.

The second one is more sinister. We continue to hear news of child predators trying to lure kids over the Internet. It is a sad irony that someone from the US Department of Homeland Security was caught trying to lure a young girl for sex. Its bad enough that these guys do it but they have to start seeing a trend in these guys getting caught???

The third is more of a success story. Two university students in China used thier webcam to lip sync to Backstreet Boys and circulated it. The "Back Dorm Boys" got famous and are now making money like crazy. They will be used in Pepsi commercials across China. Rather than turning into the light sabre kid from Quebec ( a sad story) these guys got famous and made money. The bad judgement - The Backstreet Boys?????? There is a video around somewhere in my basement of several students with too much to drink doing a Def Leppard video. Fortunately it is analog on tape and will never see the world wide web. Life has changed. Making bad choices is one thing but they can get away from you in the digital age.

Democracy: A Primer - 1

We hear a lot of talk going around about spreading democracy around the world - a noble objective. There is, however, a certain lack of clarity around the meaning of democracy and the specifics of implementation. Here for clarification are a couple of examples of initiatives and where they fall in the Bush Doctrine definition of Democracy.

Bad - the recent elections in Belorus (a former member of the USSR) was condemned by all right thinking democrats and all Republicans period. There was widespread evidence of election fixing and fraud. This is clearly unacceptable and there were murmurings of disapproval from Washington. Subsequent protests were watched by police and eventually broken up.

Okay - in the State of Texas, Republicans moved electoral boundaries around to ensure more Republicans get elected and re-elected. In Illinois it is my understanding that some districts aren't even contiguous (or are marginally so) in order to sufficiently gerrymander the districts to ensure incumbents are rarely defeated.

The difference - apparently if you only hijack individual elections you are making a mockery of democracy. If you create laws that essentially hijack every election you are paragon of democray. I have that on good authority - Tom DeLay.

More to come.

Bribing Nigerian Referees

I think I will go ref Nigerian soccer. The head of the soccer federation in Nigeria said that corruption is rampant. He has told referees that they may continue to take bribes (a guy has got to make a living) but to not change the outcome of games. Isn't that beautiful. Take bribes from bad people and screw them by not changing the outcome. A simple way to improve the honesty in the game and improve the perception of the integrity of the game.

Perhaps the ref's should walk around the field before the game and fans can slip bills into their jock strap while they wave a yellow card seductively. This is one of the dumbest things I've heard yet.

The two faces of Stephen Harper - part B

Oh Steve, we wanted to believe you. You were going to be different - honest - transparent. But alas, you are in the end just another politician.

1) Government was going to be more open and honest. Accountability is a key word. Now the Conservatives are limiting access to Cabinet Ministers and making it harder for the press to report on what the government is doing. Don't worry says Mr Harper. We're honest and we'll tell you what we want to tell you. But you see Steve, we no longer trust you. We might not like the press any more than you do, but believe it or not we now trust them even more than we do you. Even CBC and the Toronto Star. That must hurt but its true.

2) Government was going to work differently. Lobbying by political assistants was simply not going to happen any more. Now two former Conservative assitants, whose bosses are now ministers, have started thier own lobbying firm and are signing up clients who are beating a path to thier door. But!, rationalizes Stevie Wonder (blind to the irony), they were not ministerial assistants and so this is cool. Deposed Liberals can't lobby but good hardworking formerly opposition honest assistants need to make a living and should be allowed to lobby thier now powerful former bosses. Yup, things are different now. The pigs at the trough are now Conservatives rather than Liberals. Apparently we misunderstood.

3) A Conservative MP recently proposed jailing journalists that reported inaccurately. I expect he had a fantasy of strapping certain editorial writers to the rack. He retracted (apparently that's one of the charges that Saddam is up on). Perhaps we should jail stupid and dishonest politicians?? That would take up a fair bit of the additional prison space that the Conservatives are planning to build.