[CARTOON] Ramirez: The Official White House Terrorist Identification Chart
Posted: January 31, 2015 Filed under: Comics, War Room, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, Cartoon, Democrats, George Orwell, Gitmo, GOP, Islamism, Jihadism, Jihadist, Orwellian, Ramirez, Republicans, satire, Taliban, Terrorist 2 Comments
Orwellian eBooks Reveal More Than We Realize
Posted: May 18, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Reading Room | Tags: Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Certain World, Irish Times, Kindle, Orwellian, Reading, Winston Smith Leave a comment
John Hurt holds a book in a scene from the film, 1984. Photograph: Atlantic Releasing Corporation/Getty Images
Although the Kindle highlights function is publicly anonymous, there are still serious privacy concerns as it allows Amazon to track and store the reading statistics of customers
For The Irish Times, Sarah Gilmartin writes:
‘The book fascinated him, or more exactly it reassured him. In a sense it told him nothing that was new, but that was part of the attraction. It said what he would have said, if it had been possible for him to set his scattered thoughts in order. It was the product of a mind similar to his own, but enormously more powerful, more systematic, less fear-ridden.”
Winston Smith’s description of reading in the totalitarian world of 1984 may be satirical, but there’s also some truth to it.
We know the feeling of identifying with a book. It is one of the most satisfying aspects of reading, when a character says or does something that we ourselves think but are unable to articulate so eloquently or with an image that really expresses the sentiment.
Reading 1984 as a traditional book, I might have reached for a pen to underline that quotation. Reading it as an ebook, I have access to an enhanced version of this highlighting process. Since Amazon launched its Kindle Popular Highlights, in 2010, readers have been able to leave their own stamp on their favourite ebooks and can publicly share their insights if they want to. Tracking the scattered thoughts and similar minds of readers around the world, Amazon also gives its Kindle customers the option of viewing the most popular highlights of whatever book they’re reading.
Glenn Harlan Reynolds: Americans Rising Up Against Government: Three Examples of Pushback Against the Ruling Class
Posted: February 24, 2014 Filed under: Law & Justice, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Ajit Pai, FCC, Federal Communications Commission, Glenn Reynolds, Orwellian, TechDirt, United States, United States Department of Homeland Security 1 Comment
Massive new gun-registration scheme is also facing massive civil disobedience. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
America’s ruling class has been experiencing more pushback than usual lately. It just might be a harbinger of things to come.
Glenn Harlan Reynolds writes: First, in response to widespread protests last week, the Department of Homeland Security canceled plans to build a nationwide license plate database.
“This is more ‘Irish Democracy,’ passive resistance to government overreach.”
Many local police departments already use license-plate readers that track every car as it passes traffic signals or pole-mounted cameras. Specially equipped police cars even track cars parked on the street or even in driveways.
The DHS put out a bid request for a system that would have gone national, letting the federal government track millions of people’s comings and goings just as it tracks data about every phone call we make. But the proposal was suddenly withdrawn last week, with the unconvincing explanation that it was all a mistake. I’m inclined to agree with TechDirt‘s Tim Cushing, who wrote: “The most plausible explanation is that someone up top at the DHS or ICE suddenly realized that publicly calling for bids on a nationwide surveillance system while nationwide surveillance systems are being hotly debated was … a horrible idea.”
[Order Reynold’s book “The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself” from Amazon]
On Friday, after more public outrage, the Federal Communications Commission withdrew a plan to “monitor” news coverage at not only broadcast stations, but also at print publications that the FCC has no authority to regulate. The “Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs,” or CIN (pronounced “sin”) involved the FCC sending people to question reporters and editors about why they chose to run particular stories. Many folks in and out of the media found it Orwellian…
Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor, is the author of The New School How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself.
Related articles
- Tennessee Law School Professor: (will) Americans ever resist the increasing encroachments on their freedom? (therionorteline.com)
- Americans rising up against government: Column shows that … (teapartyradical.squarespace.com)
- Law professor: Americans are rising up against government (fellowshipoftheminds.com)
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- “Irish Democracy” is Alive and Well and Living in America!: Instapundit (reason.com)
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Ed Driscoll: Is Peak Orwell Sustainable?
Posted: February 10, 2014 Filed under: History, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Congressional Budget Office, Ingsoc, Jay Carney, Michael Goodwin, Ministry of Truth, New York Post, Orwellian 1 Comment
Props to Ed Driscoll for the great headline.
Ed Driscoll writes: It’s no coincidence that the left seems rather Orwellian at times; after all, Ingsoc in1984 was Orwell’s 1949 warning regarding what English Socialism could metastasize into a generation down the line. Why not American socialism?
One of the left’s current (and frequently Orwellian) buzzwords is “sustainability.” Lately, based on recent headlines, the left seems to reaching peak Orwell. Is such a condition sustainable? There seem to be an enormous amount of euphemisms, doublethink and moral evasions in the headlines these days. Here’s a just a taste:
In order to play the losing hand the left have chosen to deal to themselves and the rest of the country via Obamacare, some Ministry of Truth-style euphemisms regarding work and employment have recently become necessary. As Michael Goodwin noted yesterday at the New York Post, “America now has a government that views work as a trap and celebrates those who escape it:”
That is the upshot of last week’s remarkable exchange over ObamaCare. It began when the head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported that the interplay of taxes and subsidies in the law “creates a disincentive for people to work.” The report predicted the mix would lead to fewer hours worked, costing the equivalent of nearly 2.5 million jobs.
Americans Sign Petition to Support ‘Nazi-Style Orwellian Police State’
Posted: October 21, 2013 Filed under: Humor, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: low information voter, Nazi, Obama, Orwell, Orwellian, Petition, Police state, satire Leave a commentPaul Joseph Watson writes: After illustrating their enthusiasm for repealing the Bill of Rights, a video shows Americans happily signing a petition to support a “Nazi-style Orwellian police state,” in what easily represents the most shocking footage of its kind to date.
Citing issues with how the government shutdown has impacted the ability of the police to “keep the community safe,” Dice tells San Diegans that there is a need to “increase the Orwellian system.”
“Not a problem,” responds one man as he signs the petition.
“We just want to model it after the Nazi Germany system to keep people safe and secure,” Dice tells another individual.
After signing the petition to “implement the Orwellian police state,” another man responds, “You find the pot of money though,” apparently more concerned about how much a Nazi-style police state would cost than its actual consequences.
“They’re trying to cut the budget by 20 per cent so we just want to make sure that we can model the police state after the Nazi Germany system,” Dice tells another couple who sign the petition, before adding, “Thanks for supporting the police state.” Read the rest of this entry »
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