Creeping Totalitarianism

[Excuse me while I rant...] I've never been out of the country, so I've never had to deal with the U.S. Customs Service (or whatever self-important name these tax collectors are using lately), but I hate the whole organization on principle anyway because they're a bunch of weasels who insist on conducting unjustified searches of United States citizens. Police need a … [Read more...] about Beating Customs Agents With Your Laptop

In George Orwell's famous distopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, one of the most oppressive features of his totalitarian world is the ubiquitous surveillance. Every public place---and every private room as well---is always being monitored through a massive network of two-way video cameras called telescreens. Do anything that angered the tyrannical regime of Big Brother and a … [Read more...] about 1984: Social Media Edition

Jon Katz writes about the Boucher case, where the government is trying to get a look at the contents of Boucher's encrypted hard drive: , who talked of the Fifth Amendment right not to reveal one's computer password. On appeal to District Court Judge Sessions, the prosecution fashioned its argument as not seeking a password but seeking an unencrypted copy of the hard drive of … [Read more...] about Subpoena of an Encrypted Hard Drive

While our government was busy using enhanced interrogation methods on suspected terrorists, they were engaging in a shadowy quasi-legal battle against simulated torture, according to the directors and producers of the documentary Graphic Sexual Horror. Other than the railroading of Paul "Max Hardcore" Little, the government's resurgence of pornography prosecutions under Bush … [Read more...] about The Secret Porn Police

A few days ago the Washington Times had an editorial about the new random bag search policy their police are using on the Metro subways. It was mentioned in Flex Your Rights email message I just received, and while I normally don't jump at stories this old, the cluelessness is so astonishing I had to say something. The group Flex Your Rights is not only opposed to the … [Read more...] about Privacy Thieves on the Subway