Fortunately, Biden stayed up all night last night trying to solve the fiscal cliff. Or maybe unfortunately.
Joe Biden tried to ban email encryption back in 1991
121–126 of 126 posts
Re: Joe Biden tried to ban email encryption back in 1991
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's less about his politics and more about his intelligence. This post - that he tried to to introduce such a sweeping and dangerous law without a single thought about the consequences - is a perfect example of that.
I think you need to read the top comment on this thread to understand why the stuff you are saying here is nonsensical. If you want to keep perspective, it's important to remember that the world of 1993 looked very different from that of 2012. Very few people believed that every teenager in America would be using the Internet as their first line of communication, or that the Internet would steadily consume retail, fi…
In a representative democracy, we look to our leaders to evaluate conditions and legislate (or not legislate) based on what we hope is the same or better information than we have at the time. The Internet was new to most, but being explored commercially, in 1993. At the time, security was a major consideration that people were still trying to figure out, but encryption was a part of that conversation.
I am saying that in this case Biden either failed to collect information about what was going on at the time, or did collect that information and purposely wanted to stifle the innovation that was occurring. Either way, regardless of politics, these are not displays of the intelligence I expect from an elected leader.
Re: Joe Biden tried to ban email encryption back in 1991
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you need to read the top comment on this thread to understand why the stuff you are saying here is nonsensical. If you want to keep perspective, it's important to remember that the world of 1993 looked very different from that of 2012. Very few people believed that every teenager in America would be using the Internet as their first line of communication, or that the Internet would steadily consume retail, fi…
In a representative democracy, we look to our leaders to evaluate conditions and legislate (or not legislate) based on what we hope is the same or better information than we have at the time. The Internet was new to most, but being explored commercially, in 1993. At the time, security was a major consideration that people were still trying to figure out, but encryption was a part of that conversation. I am saying tha…
It has nothing to do with intelligence. Rather, it's about ability. You have to understand that none of these elected leaders make their decisions in a vacuum. They instead rely on experts to give them the correct information with a clear explanation of the consequences of each choice. With encryption this wasn't very possible at the time, since back in 1993 not many people understood encryption especially in terms of how critical it would turn out to be for innovation.
Re: Joe Biden tried to ban email encryption back in 1991
#124Re: Joe Biden tried to ban email encryption back in 1991
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ooh, wow, arguments from authority. As you are so learned, and Chaïm and Ronald aren't here, perhaps you'd care to offer their more proper reading of Orwell. And as you're so learned, you'll immediately know my remark as a paraphrase, and of whom. Right? Because when I read a book, I do so in such a fashion as to repeat its argument, rather than assign others reading I couldn't do properly in the first place. Nor can…
You may be correct, but it's obscured by the fact that you're being a dick. Don't do that.
>You may be correct
Nah. Every claim he made is demonstrably incorrect, with the exception of his initial point that '"Sense of the Senate" language is often important in judicial and / or executive interpretation.' This claim is also incorrect, strictly speaking, but if we're charitable and substitute 'occasionally' for 'often', it at least adds something to the discussion. What it doesn't do is show Thomas to be wrong. "Sense of" resolutions aren't legally binding and rarely, if ever, impact public-facing policy. They do, on occasion, impact government-facing policy, for example SCOTUS recess appointments. The rest of his comments are blather and, while worthy of a good chuckle, are unworthy of response.
Re: Joe Biden tried to ban email encryption back in 1991
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
You may be correct, but it's obscured by the fact that you're being a dick. Don't do that.
>You may be correct Nah. Every claim he made is demonstrably incorrect, with the exception of his initial point that '"Sense of the Senate" language is often important in judicial and / or executive interpretation.' This claim is also incorrect, strictly speaking, but if we're charitable and substitute 'occasionally' for 'often', it at least adds something to the discussion. What it doesn't do is show Thomas to be wr…
"Sense of" clauses often determine the precise allocation of appropriated funds. Indeed _committee_reports_, which lack the dignity of a full vote of either House, or a Presidential signature, are treated by executive departments as determinative of public spending. They are the primary mechanism for designating "pork barrel" spending and thus are treated as the primary targets of lobbying efforts.
I know this because I have worked on those bills.
I do not know the legal or regulatory landscape around telecommunications in nearly such detail. But knowing the importance of such language in a REALLY significant corner, I would be very, very slow to regard any of it as without "impact [on] public facing policy." Not without a very thorough explanation of why exactly it was meaningless, and regarded as such generally throughout the industry.
Again, I don't know the industry. I do know that the making and implementation of law is a very complicated business, where the black and white readings of law do not yield the simple answers one might expect from logical analysis. And I know that in very important corners of government language like this, and still further from law than this, is effectively determinative of federal policy. So blanket claims that "sense of" language are without any real force are "demonstrably incorrect".