American Buddhist Net

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Talks with China over censorship have reached an apparent impasse and Google, the world’s largest search engine, is now “99.9 percent” certain to shut its Chinese search engine, the Financial Times said on Saturday.

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This is getting interesting. Whatever else, if Google leaves there will be a strong reaction in China. Dirty politics aside, the nub of this issue is an open Internet versus a closed one. Google is favored by better educated Chinese, who will probably still be able to access it on servers outside of China. Ultimately, I don't think China has a chance in this fight if the US plays its cards right, which so far it has been doing. Clinton's strong statements about Internet freedom last week and the FCC's proposals today greatly enhance Google's position. Clearly, these statements were made with an understanding of the Google-China dispute. I have had almost nothing but problems with US foreign and domestic policy for a long time, but this all looks fine to me. The Chinese model for the Internet has essentially no argument in its favor. At the same time, the US cannot easily abandon its own basic principles of free speech, so the two are natural adversaries on this front. Add to that the power of an open Internet on China's population and you have another reason for the US to take the position it has. Progressive Chinese should want China to lose this one. Ultimately, this matter comes down to technology, and that is one genie no one - not even China - will be able to put back in the bottle. ABN

BEIJING — One of China’s top Internet regulators warned bluntly on Friday that any move by Google to stop censoring its Chinese search engine would be “irresponsible” and would draw a response from Beijing.

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The issue, simply stated, is Internet freedom or not. The Chinese model of a closed and restricted Internet is horrible. I hope they utterly and completely fail. I hope Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Europe also fail in their short-sighted and cowardly attempts at censorship. Right now, the USA is the only major voice in the world supporting an open, uncensored Internet. Americans should be paying attention to world trends and domestic ones and never allow anyone to abridge our freedom of speech. Do not give an inch on this matter because all of world history stands in the balance. ABN

The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether vitriolic anti-gay protesters who picket the funerals of US soldiers are protected by free speech laws.

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Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia's High Court on Thursday granted a Hindu woman custody of her child after a bitter court battle with her estranged Muslim husband, who converted their children to Islam and then took possession of them.

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Hong Kong's top lawyers and Chinese officials are trading blows over the legality of a new campaign for democracy in the former British colony that frames an upcoming special election as a de facto referendum on political reform.

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The parents of a profoundly disabled 11-year-old girl have won a court case to have her sterilised, prompting claims that the ruling amounted to an "abuse of human rights".

The Australian girl, known only as Angela, suffers from an extreme form of Retts Syndrome, a neurological disorder. She cannot communicate and "acts as a three-month-old baby would".

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Internal CIA documents reveal a meticulous protocol that was far more brutal than Dick Cheney's "dunk in the water"

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LOS ANGELES — James Gray once saw himself as a drug warrior, a former federal prosecutor and county judge who sent people to prison for dealing pot and other drug offenses. Gradually, though, he became convinced that the ban on marijuana was making it more accessible to young people, not less.

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Senior industry figures expect controversial measures against illegal filesharing to become law before general election

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RIYADH: A Saudi cleric’s fatwa last week calling for those who promote co-educational environments to be put to death has shocked international and Saudi communities, according to a report.

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Saudi women to be allowed to argue cases in court

I have obtained a copy of Williamson County’s arrest warrant affidavit, concerning Barry Cooper’s allegedly false police report, placed in the process of trying to catch a police officer stealing money. Images of the first two pages are below this text; click them for larger versions. A PDF of all three pages is available here.

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Compare Cooper's arrest for doing a sting on a police officer with New York City's Operation Lucky Bag, where cops leave a wallet or purse on the subway and then bust anyone who picks it up and does not immediately give it to the nearest cop even though the law in NY is that a person has 10 days to return a lost item they have found. The good people of Texas should be paying Cooper to do what he did and thanking him for having done it. Police stealing is a much more serious crime than not returning a purse or wallet even after the 10-day waiting period has expired, let alone before. ABN

CHICAGO (AP) -- A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a civil lawsuit accusing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for the alleged torture by U.S. forces of two Americans who worked for an Iraqi contracting firm.

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Well-worth reading. ABN

By Peter J Brown

Japan's Okinotori Island, which has a Tokyo postal address even though it lies roughly 1,770 kilometers south of the capital and it is actually a pair of tiny islets, has become a bone of contention for China.

Among other things, China refuses to grant it island status, and refers to it instead as an atoll, reef or simply a rock. By doing so, China hopes to throttle back Japan's plan to create an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) there. The dispute over Okinotori, which Japan calls Okinotorishima, persists because it involves strategic concerns and rights to undersea resources over an area that is roughly equivalent to the entire land mass of the four main Japanese islands.

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A TEEN has been arrested for listening to what police deem offensive rap music.

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Americans, beware! This is where hate speech laws lead. ABN

Malaysia's largest English-language newspaper has refused to publish a prominent commentator's column on the caning of three Muslim women, weeks after it got into trouble with the government over a similar article by one of its editors.

Social activist Marina Mahathir said The Star spiked her weekly column Wednesday because of concerns that such sensitive articles could jeopardize its printing permit. All publications in Malaysia must renew their printing licenses each year to operate.

..."[T]here is room for courage, to stand up for freedom of speech. If we capitulate every time, then why bother publishing at all?" she wrote.

..."What is the point of censoring the mainstream media when there is the freewheeling Internet? The other point we should make to people like The Star is, what is the point of constantly sucking up to the government when they can still turn around and bite you?" Marina said.

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Visitors to Monticello don't learn how Jefferson cultivated poppies, and his personal opium use may as well never have happened.

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Mr Taylor's contribution to the prayer room is something I find disagreeable (from the sound of it), but if I had seen his "offering" I expect I would be quite encouraged at the thought that he clearly regards "religion" (however that is supposed to be defined) as important enough to him to hate to such an extent. It's almost a commendation, in a strange, inverted kind of way.

I can only speak for myself as a Christian, but this kind of picky, sulky, self-absorbed, "persecution obsessed", hyper-sensitive attitude of "offence taking" at every slight and perceived slight will be the death of this country, quite frankly.

I have the right to strongly disagree with atheism (which I do), and to express that view in perhaps colourful ways that reflect how I feel about what I consider to be a ridiculous explanation of reality. Therefore I have to also accept that atheists may have equally strong views that might offend me. It's called freedom of thought and conscience.

It seems to me that what really lies behind this hyper-sensitive "offence taking" is a kind of self-centredness in which people refuse to engage with others or allow other people's lives to impact their own: "I want to live in my cosy little world, and woe betide anyone who says or does anything to disturb me." It's quite existentialist in a Sartrean kind of way: "Hell is other people" said the great Jean-Paul. It has absolutely nothing to do with authentic Christianity.

So here's the solution: dump the offending material in the garbage, acquit Mr Taylor, and let's all grow up and move on.

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The above passage is a comment below the story "Militant Atheist" found guilty of religious harassment. To my mind that law is sheer farce and the British must have taken leave of their senses. I hope we never see anything like that in the USA, though our hate crime laws have already taken us half-way there because under those laws what you say or have said may be used as proof of "hate" in the prosecution of another crime. ABN

"The airport is named after one of my heroes and his view on religion was pretty much the same as mine. I thought it was an insult to his memory to have a prayer room in his airport." That was part of the evidence given in court by the self-styled "militant atheist" campaigner Harry Taylor, 59, to why he left anti-religious materials in the multi-faith Prayer Room of Liverpool's John Lennon Airport (pictured).

...Harry Taylor is now on bail awaiting sentencing on 23 April. Religiously aggravated offences carry a potential seven-year prison term.

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Viacom is unlikely to sue bloggers for posting their own clips of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, contrary to reports floating around on the Internet. The company clarified its position to Ars on Thursday, noting that it tries to be as permissive as possible when it comes to fair use and that individual bloggers have never been on the studio's radar.

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SAN FRANCISCO--Homeland Security and the National Security Agency may be taking a closer look at Internet communications in the future.

The Department of Homeland Security's top cybersecurity official told CNET on Wednesday that the department may eventually extend its Einstein technology, which is designed to detect and prevent electronic attacks, to networks operated by the private sector. The technology was created for federal networks.

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When the Feds say they may "eventually extend" something like this, it usually means that they are already doing it and want to test public opinion to see if they can do more. Why not just start quartering troops in our homes? ABN

California officials who oversee the spending of billions of dollars in California's Medicaid prescription drug program failed to disclose free flights, hotel rooms and meals funded by pharmaceutical companies. One of the officials, the chief of the pharmacy division at California's Department of Health Care Services, helps decide which drugs will be among the $8.5 billion worth of medication that California will dispense to low income people.

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This was a clear violation of written laws and an equally clear violation of one of the most basic ethical principles in the world--conflict of interest. Yet these incidents are treated as if almost nothing had occurred. The article concludes: a Medi-Cal spokesman confirmed that pharmacy officials had taken about a dozen trips since 2006, acknowledged that they should have been reported as gifts and said the omissions would be corrected. If this were an isolated incident, I would probably not even post it, but it is par for the course in that vast and lucrative area where medical science and politics meet. ABN

PHILOMATH, Ore. — Organic farmers fear this year's spring breezes will be carrying pollen from genetically altered sugar beets, which they say could render their crops worthless, and they hope to persuade a federal judge this week to halt the plantings nationwide.

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Thirteen Chinese newspapers have boldly published a joint editorial calling for Chinese to be given freedom of movement across the country.

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Wrangling over Copyright Protection Treaty

Recent leaks suggest the 39 countries negotiating an international copyright protection treaty could require Internet service providers to ban repeat piracy offenders from using the Web. The German government, however, has now voiced its opposition to the proposal, which has been heavily criticized by civil rights activists.

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In a war played out in the media, a father is fighting a restraining order against taking his daughter to church. While it's couched in terms of religious freedom, the real story is a bit more complicated.

Rebekah Shapiro has primary custody of their daughter, and Joseph has regular visitation. The couple had allegedly agreed to raise their child Jewish, but Joseph, seeking to expose his 3-year-old to his Catholic faith, had her baptized last November. When she learned that her daughter had been baptized without her consent, Rebecca obtained a temporary restraining order in December 2009, forbidding Joseph from "exposing Ela Reyes to another religion other than the Jewish religion during his visitation."

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Can a family court prevent a parent from taking his daughter to church?

"Most of the Supreme Court justices who two years ago said the 2nd Amendment protects individual gun rights signaled during arguments Tuesday that they are ready to extend this right nationwide and to use it to strike down some state and local gun regulations," David A. Savage reports for the LA Times.

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Earlier this year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech in which she made it clear that Internet freedom would be a major theme of the US government's attempts to get information to the citizens of repressive governments. Things haven't change much in the interim, with the conviction of Google executives in Italy serving as a reminder that it's not simply repressive regimes that put companies in legal hot water. With those events as a backdrop, the US Senate's Judiciary Committee heard testimony today on Internet freedom that emphasized how challenging it will be to find a way to open up the flow of information in repressive regimes.

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Google’s China Exit Strategy: Watch This Space

Web Firms Under Fire to Protect Human Rights

U.S. unveils cybersecurity safeguard plan

BERLIN — Germany's highest court on Tuesday overturned a law allowing authorities to retain data on telephone calls and e-mail traffic for help in tracking criminal networks.

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Employees at Catholic Charities were told Monday that the social services organization is changing its health coverage to avoid offering benefits to same-sex partners of its workers -- the latest fallout from a bitter debate between District officials trying to legalize same-sex marriage and the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.

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by Edward C. Corrigan / March 1st, 2010

There is a controversy raging in North America over Israeli Apartheid Week (March 1-7 2010).1 A resolution was passed in the Ontario Provincial Parliament which was unanimously supported (only 30 MPPs voted) and declared the comparison of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to apartheid as “odious.” To quote an article in the Toronto Star Canada’s largest circulation paper.

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