14 Aug 2009
America's unjust sex laws

This is an important article from an increasingly important publication. But what just appalled me was a suggestion in the comments section that I Google terms related to the treatment of juvenile offenders. I did, and came across arousal reconditioning. "Appalling" doesn't do this justice: it's Stanley Kubrick's dystopia come to life.

Individual American politicians have great latitude to propose new laws. Stricter curbs on paedophiles win votes. And to sound severe, such curbs must be stronger than the laws in place, which in turn were proposed by politicians who wished to appear tough themselves. Few politicians dare to vote against such laws, because if they do, the attack ads practically write themselves.

(link) [The Economist]

via Dispatches from the Culture Wars

10:23 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

$18M Contract For Transparency Website Released — But Blacked Out

irony meterIt's pegged...

The U.S. government recently approved an $18 million contract for Smartronix to build a website where taxpayers could easily track billions in federal stimulus money, as part of President Obama's promise to make government more transparent through the Internet. However, the contract, which was released only through repeated Freedom of Information Act requests, is itself heavily blacked out. ProPublica reports: 'After weeks of prodding by ProPublica and other organizations, the Government Services Agency released copies of the contract and related documents that are so heavily blacked out they are virtually worthless. In all, 25 pages of a 59-page technical proposal — the main document in the package — were redacted completely. Of the remaining pages, 14 had half or more of their content blacked out.' Sections that were heavily or entirely redacted dealt with subjects such as site navigation, user experience, and everything in the pricing table. The entire contract, in all its blacked-out glory, is here.

(link) [Slashdot]

07:48 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link