52 Highlights of 2008
Thursday, January 1st, 2009Okay first of all, this list doesn’t pretend to be the most relevant or interesting links for everybody. This list is coming from me, Jeff Cliff, in Regina, Canada, and I have a particular biased viewpoint, especially when we’re talking about what I think is subjectively the more important of things to happen. So keeping that in mind…
#52: You’d think by now that most of the research on the DMCA has been done in the US, but a group at the University of Washington somehow came out with some refreshingly new research. Their DMCA paper: “how my printer got a DMCA takedown notice”
#51 Steyn’s censored article . This would have been a minor historical footnote, had it not been banned so thoroughly. Now it’s on this list, and Steyn is set to be some kind of a martyr that could easily tip off a global clash of civilizations. This won’t, however be the only censorship entry on this list.
#50 more chinese colonialism in africa
#49 “centralized medical organizations like the CDC really do need to exist in a modern capitalist economy Without the CDC, those markets simply wouldn’t exist. Call them parasites if you need to, but the CDC, or something like it, is necessary; because multibillion dollar markets depend on its existence. However, limits are in order.
#48 Suicide, and in general, the problem of the meaning of life, starts to become a problem worthy of serious global coordinated effort there as problems of basic sanitation, war, and disease start to become, although not solved yet, tractable.
#47 the Conservatives openly flaunting the rule of law while refusing to be held accountable by parliament.
#46 Russia threatens hot nuclear war against poland, just like they threatened a violent reaction to Georgia months before they went in. And worse, there are many incentives for them to actually strike Poland/Ukraine
#45 The CBC continued to drop the ball, all year.
#44 Since the Cadman tape turned out to be accurate, which means Harper committed a felony by trying to have MP bribed. Yet somehow, we re-elected him. Go figure.
#43 With the CDMCA and otherwise, the conservatives tried to criminalize everything!
#42 The green party tried to shut buckdog up through a lawsuit.
#41 This image kind of puts things in perspective, and I’d nominate it for image of the year if I could.
#40 …and This one is probably the most messed up thing I’ve ever seen.
#39 The bailout. FC coverd it
#38 In probably the most manipulative politicking I’ve seen yet, the Conservatives tried to bankrupt the liberals, cripple the block, hurt the NDP and evaporate any hope for the greens in one fell swoop by removing federal subsidies for political parties, while keeping donation levels down. This of course, lead to pretty much open revolt on them, and the creation of the Coalition which should be assuming power any day now.
#37 The perfect storm of food insecurity; the financial industry problems spread all over the world, with many countries stopping exports, having bad crop yields to begin with, all while china & the middle east oil caliphates buying heavy into foodstuffs. Many are starving, this year.
#36 slashdot on computers & africa, and overpopulation.
#35 SDA on Copyright
#34 A neonazi woman capitulates to reason, and canadian inquisitor richard warmen pushes her back into the hardline right wing fold
#32 Pseudoscience in Canada:
i) Kid’s being forced to go to “psychic” councillors in canadian school
ii) Psychic taken as evidence by the court system
iii) MOM BUGS THEIR KID WITH GPS AND AUDIO RECORDING EQUIPMENT, which proves her innocence.
#31 SEC, among other authorities, tempbanned shorting!
#30 Green party gets served lawsuit for being right on agent orange. In 2007, but I didn’t hear about it back then.
#29 Health & Safety law clashed with a HRC tribunal, and as a result, restaurants, never really safe to begin with, will be even more dangerous to eat at. I wish this was the height of the HRC’s lunacy, but they will be featured more further down the list.
#28 for example, in their supporting Sharia law in Canada
#27 China surprised everyone by pulling off persecution of new york falungong
#26 Although the US election went to obama, we probably really don’t know what the vote really was. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and it seems like that’s about as accurate as the US election system is about now.
#25 Geist v. Crookes, along with Warman v. Conservative Blosphere. In general, the blogosphere, both conservative and non, came under attack from all directions by people armed with lawyers.
#24 RIP 1948-2008 UN Declaration of Human Rights.
#23 Inner-city Saskatoon cooperative/food bank/health centre closed by Wall/Saskatchewan Conservatives.Very, very sad — it cost peanuts compared to other initiatives, and gave some degree of a safety net to an area with child prostitutes and gang violence, among other problems. It’s leaving our fellow citizens to die in the gutter, and doing nothing to reduce crime.
#22 but how can we think rationally about these things when we’re drugging ourselves specifically so we don’t have to face up to such problems?
#21 Then there’s the forests in the US, a pretty remarkable tale of our impact on the world which we live in.
#20 Bell gave the middle finger to people in ontario, and throttled everyone, including ISPs which used Bell for connectivity.
#19 Greiving parents in China and Russia were both made into parents for greiving, probably the most cruel thing outside of genocide I’ve encountered.
#18 Marc Emery, last I heard, is still getting steamrolled by the US and Canadian government, and with him, any illusion that Canada is actually a soverign country.
#17 honeybees having trouble around the world–this is a surefire sign of biosphere collapse.
#16 Outside of Saskatchewan, Canada sheds its marijuana prohibition law
#15 Although not as obvious as Rwanda, Congo has its own problems of similar if not greater magnitude.
#13 The US is involved in terrifying things, hiding prisoners from the red cross(which, history shows, there is only one reason for…they knew they were torturing prisoners with no good reason, or that they knew right well that what they were doing could get them prosecuted in the hague)
What’s more; the very highest people in the US government are directly responsible.
#12 Oppression of the first nations continues as the innu get evicted. It’s not merely ancient history—this is happening this year in Canada, folks.
#11 Data was read directly from the visual cortex
#10 You have to do more than Hyperlink to get charged with defamation in Canada, thankfully
#9 the IOC tried to steal the Canadian National Anthem
#8 Ezra Levant, censorship magnet and media gadfly, was attacked by everybody.
#7 Conservatives hide candidates from public, during an election. What were they afraid of?
#6 Along with the greens being practically extinguished by the Conservatives, the liberals being soundly defeated, the Action party falling into internal strife, the Christian heritage party found itself in the sights of the HRC tribunals glare
#5 One of the casualties of all the censorship lawsuits, was the voice of Saskatchewan Saskblogs
#4 And independent news media is now a pipe dream in the west now that Winnipeg Indymedia has been destroyed.
#3 The CRTC, finally making itself useful, pushed the CHR line back a little by refusing to allow them to limit freedom on the internet.
#2 The HRCts tried to hide their mistakes, which there definitely were
#1 And in general the Human Rights Court Tribunals made themselves into a public spectacle. First moderate conservatives, and finally those of us on the left are coming to grips that there is an unaccountable court going around setting bad precedent, and that there is a whole political backdrop(including threats of violence) involved–and that anyone who thinks freely, conservative or not, is at risk.
“CHR commission; if you’re anti-racist, they will investigate you. If you’re a racist, they will investigate you. The only appropriate response is submission”
Well there you go.