Hattix

Give the government, regardless of what country you are, a power and the government will abuse its intent.

After the global financial crisis took down a few Icelandic banks, the UK government used anti-terror legislation to freeze their assets in the UK which further hastened their demise. They didn’t use an actual “terrorist” part of the law, but the part they used would never have got through commons if it wasn’t piggy backed on a knee-jerk bill. Where’s the connection between financial screw ups and bombs in streets? There isn’t one.

The US recently removed North Korea from “state sponsors of terrorism” because they agreed to a nuclear disarmament deal. Where’s the connection between nuclear disarmament and militia with AK-47s? There isn’t one.

If we give the government a power, they will use it. They do not care why or how. The “spirit” of the law is irrelevant, only its letter. The failure we make is that politicians sell their laws on that spirit, on the “it will save us from the jihadists” and don’t tell us when they use it for entirely different reasons. We didn’t give them these powers to abuse like this, to extort trade concessions.

I haven’t posted much lately, it’s purely laziness, so here’s a few stories that have caught my eye over the last few days.

BBFC defeated in Manhunt2 release. Morality, especially someone else’s morality, should not be law. The BBFC took a bloody nose in this one, its own regulation didn’t support its position and a government report due later this month supports removing the BBFC as the dominant authority on video game rating.

Glaciers receding faster than ever before. The base rate from 1990 to 1999 was 30cm/year, which is now increased to 150cm/year and still increasing. One glacier in Greenland lost 290cm in 2007, another in Norway lost 310cm in 2006. The number of worldwide glaciers which are actually getting bigger is now in single digits.

BBC’s iPlayer for mobile devices was “hacked” by nothing more complex than pasting the completely unprotected URL into a web browser. While offering unencumbered downloads is to be applauded, it wasn’t the intention here as the BBC don’t have permission or right to offer programming for more than 5 days after air.

Muslim ultra-conservatives win elections in Iran. Because everyone else was banned from running for not being Muslim-conservative enough. I shit you not.

Terrified reactionists who just so happen to be running the damned country are widely being reported to have suffered a bloody nose at the Old Bailey as jail wasn’t sentenced but nothing could be further from the truth.

In truth, a young Muslim woman and a contributing tax-paying member of society was arrested, tried and convicted of terrorism for nothing more than a few bad poems she posted online and owning “of owning terrorist pamphlets, including The Al-Qaeda Manual” according to the BBC. Why do we not see similar arrests made for owning copies of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, the various works of Lenin or works that have caused more conflict throughout history than any others, the Holy Bible and the Q’ran? Exactly what kind of society forbids mere information, speech, if the Government doesn’t approve of it? The same kind of society the Islamic extremists want to turn the world into. Our most valued liberty, that of free speech, has not been taken from us by evil bearded turban-wearing terrorists, but by Whitehall and the traitors to Britain in Government.

Those extremists probably don’t realise that they’ve successfully convinced the West to use its left hand to chop off its right hand. In the name of defending our “freedom”, we’re surrendering it instead. We’re not fighting a threat to freedom, we are that threat.