Global Reset

Since I was away on vacation, I missed some of the details about these local protests (rallies?) against this latest immigration bill. I suppose the big issue is the provision to make it a felony act to be in the country without the proper paperwork. And I have to agree with the protesters: It is ridiculous to consider hard-working “Americans-in-spirit” as felons… And I’m more scared than anybody else when it comes to the idea of putting up a Berlin Wall between the US and Mexico. I’ve always been a supporter of open immigration, but thanks to Harry Binswanger, there’s now a good paper in defense of open immigration covering all of the important points. For example, on the claim that open immigration would cause overcrowding:

Take an extreme example. Suppose a tidal wave of immigrants came here. Suppose that half of the people on the planet moved here. That would mean an unthinkable eleven-fold increase in our population–from 300 million to 3.3 billion people. That would make America almost as “densely” populated as today’s England (360 people/sq. km. vs. 384 people/sq. km.). In fact, it would make us less densely populated than the state of New Jersey (453 per sq. km.). And these calculations exclude Alaska, Hawaii, and counts only land area.

And contrary to widespread beliefs, high population density is a value not a disvalue. High population density intensifies the division of labor, which makes possible a wider variety of jobs and specialized consumer products. For instance, in Manhattan, there is a “doll hospital”–a store specializing in the repair of children’s dolls. Such a store and the many specialized, niche businesses require a high population density to have a market. Try finding a doll hospital in Poughkeepsie. In Manhattan, one can find a job as a Pilates Method teacher or as a “Secret Shopper” (2 jobs actually listed on Craig’s List). Not in Paducah.

I know that I, for one, would love to be able to afford to move into an even denser part of downtown Dallas than where I currently live… But more importantly, I welcome hard-working, freedom-loving individuals of any nationality (regardless of their paperwork status) to live in my neighborhood.

I read about an amazing sting operation that happened here in Dallas where the police have actually captured people becoming publicly intoxicated… In bars! That is some real sleuth work. No question that the police involved deserve a raise for this masterful plan of capturing drunks in the act!

I like John Enright’s comment: “Texas Outdoes [The] Onion!”

I guess this is a preemptive strike against drunk drivers before they get a chance to drive… Where arresting a drunk driver was already a preemptive strike against them before they got a chance to crash. From my apartment, I can literally walk a little more than a dozen steps out my front door and be inside a bar getting drunk. Could that possibly be dangerous for anybody but me?

My friend and colleague, Chowdary, has started a political blog covering the Indian/US/World (in that order) scene. In just a few days, he and his co-blogger have gathered up some strong opinions and filled the blog out nicely. I hope he knows that because he titled the blog The Daily Observer, we are expecting daily updates. Hope he can keep up the pace.

In China, they force American websites to censor the results of certain searches, so that they can ensure that the populace only gets the Chinese Government’s version of the story.

In America, they use a legion of staffers to assault the editorial efforts of an open encyclopedia, so that the populace only gets their version of the story.

via NoodleFood:

What does Google’s collusion with the Chinese government to censor its search results mean? It’s the difference between fact and illusion.

I found the difference between those two search results to be quite disturbing. To recap (if China is liberated tomorrow, I’ll look like an idiot when those links don’t work), if you search for “tiananmen” on the Chinese Google image search page, you get pictures from happy tourists and travel websites. If you execute the same search on our Google image search page, you get pictures of brave Tiananmen Tank Guy (the student who stood alone in front of a row of tanks sent to quell a student demonstration).

Here’s some more I tried:

Chinese Arrest and Chinese Arrest Censored Chinese Arrest Censored

Chinese Dissent and Chinese Dissent Censored Chinese Dissent Censored

Chinese Activist and Chinese Activist Censored Chinese Activist Censored

Perhaps the most disturbing are images of members of the banned religion Falun Gong… Pay close attention to the pictures of Falun Gong practicioners, specifically the healthy physical condition of any practicioner that happens to be shown on the Chinese site.

Falun Gong and Falun Gong Censored Falun Gong Censored

I don’t know how much you can fault Google for this. They can make a lot of money in China, and that’s the price of doing business there. Giving the Chinese people easier access to information than they had before can only help, so it’s a limited win-win. The only people in the way of making it a complete win for the Chinese people would be the Chinese government, not Google. It’s not the fault of American businesses that the Chinese people haven’t overthrown the tyrants yet.

Update, 1/30/2006
I corrected the search links to the Chinese Google home page. While constructing the links, I mistakenly thought that Google may be changing the results based on the country of origin of the IP address that was conducting the search. I though that appending “&cr=countryCN” to the url would fix it, but this actually tells Google to search only the websites that are hosted in China. After modifying the links, the differences between the two searches becomes very subtle. It appears that I did not find any other keywords that were being censored. Tiananmen is the only obvious one, and I would’ve thought Falun Gong would’ve been on the list but the results are identical.

Speaking practically, if Google is not filtering by the IP address of the originator, the censorship of whatever keywords on the Chinese home page makes no difference… Since a Chinese citizen can just choose to use the US (or standard) home page for Google and get all of the results back.

Update Again, 1/31/2006
Apparently, there were some early issues with capitalization on the chinese search page, but Google has fixed those now. I realize now I have no idea what the “cr=” in the url means. If you go to http://images.google.cn and search for keyword “Falun Gong”, you will get censored results. Go into your address bar and remove the “&cr=countryCN” from the url that was generated by Google’s Chinese search page, and you will now see the uncensored results. Is this all the Chinese citizens have to do to see all the results? You know, this whole “censoring the web” idea isn’t making a lot of sense.

Presumably, you are as saddened as I am by the recent ruling of the supreme court which upholds the state’s right to seize property from individuals to give to other individuals (if the state government will generate greater tax revenue as a result of the property “reassignment”). If so, you may be consoled a little by the fact that someone is trying to use the new ruling to seize the home of Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter. His idea for building a hotel on the property of the Justice’s current home will, most likely, generate greater tax revenue for the area, but it’s unlikely to succeed for obvious reasons… Clearly, the Supreme Court meant the state has a right to seize your homes, not theirs. My favorite bit from the press release:

The proposed development, called “The Lost Liberty Hotel” will feature the “Just Desserts Café” and include a museum, open to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America. Instead of a Gideon’s Bible each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged.”

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