Tag Archives: freedom

Control of the Internet

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ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is the American manager of Internet domains and Domain Name Service under contract to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, the globally agreed agency responsible for the global Internet. It had been about to sell the Internet domain .org to a private enterprise.

The .org registry is a database of more than ten million websites managed since 2003 by the nonprofit Internet Society. The group decided .org could be better served by a company that could invest returns back into the service.

The sale would have been for $1.1 billion, which ICANN could have put to good use, too.

No more.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra instructed ICANN just two and a half weeks ago that it “must” refuse the sale. ICANN’s acceptance of Bacerra’s diktat was prompt.

As the WSJ put it,

Some readers may remember when Senator Ted Cruz [R, TX] in 2016 warned that ICANN would come under the influence of authoritarian countries once it became independent of the US government.

With its abject surrender, ICANN has placed itself under the influence of [the] authoritarian California Attorney General. The authority consciously ceded to this far left Attorney General sends an ugly message to other companies headquartered, or otherwise operating, in California. Look for further bullying of those companies whose business imperatives clash with Bacerra’s whims. Such businesses might want to think again about their locations.

Micromanagement

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California’s Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has published a list of activities he deems permissible for Californians to engage in while they’re outdoors.

Specific activities, carefully enumerated. Not principles of (social distancing) behaviors, particular behaviors.

Activities Newsom will allow [scroll down to Outdoor recreation] include

  • badminton—singles, mind you, doubles are too many
  • BMX biking—but not just pedaling around neighborhood
  • gardening—again, singles. Your kids or spouse aren’t allowed to help
  • car-washing—here, too, no spousal or kid help. And if it’s a kid chore, he’s on his own
  • tree climbing—unspecified as to whether a boost up is allowed
  • picnics (with your stay-home household members only)—but these persons aren’t allowed to participate with you in any of the above. Go figure
  • throwing a football, kicking a soccer ball (not in groups)—apparently you have to go get your own football or soccer ball after you’ve thrown/kicked it. Or maybe you’re allowed to get your dog to fetch

The list goes on. Throwing a baseball or a frisbee isn’t enumerated, so those likely are barred. Newsom claims his list is non-exhaustive, but it’s entirely too detailed and picayune to believe that it’s not nearly so.

This is the sort of micromanagement that demonstrates both the incredible insecurity of the micromanager and his tyrannical tendencies.

This is not the freedom and personal responsibility that Californians used to have.

Cowardice and Bigotry

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The US Army’s 10th Mountain Division has a Facebook page, and its main page used to have videos posted by Division chaplains Major Scott Ingram and Captain Amy Smith suggesting some prayers.

Of course, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation objected, demanding the posts be taken down and put somewhere else. Such religious bigotry is standard fare for the Left.

What’s especially despicable, though, is the response of those in charge of the Division. Instead of fighting the bigotry, those managers answered the objections by taking the posts down.  Michael Berry, General Counsel for First Liberty Institute, has the right of it.

I cannot believe the legendary US Army’s 10th Mountain Division raised the white flag of surrender to an anti-religious freedom zealot.

Perhaps the Division commander needs to be relieved of his duties. He plainly doesn’t have the…heart…for a leadership post.

“This is about a public health crisis”

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That’s what Progressive-Democrat Governor Laura Kelly, ruling in Kansas, said about her Executive Order barring churches and church-goers from gathering in groups greater than 10 folks after a Federal judge enjoined her (temporarily) from enforcing her diktat.

More completely, she said,

We are in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic. This is not about religion. This is about a public health crisis.

Because religion and public health have nothing to do with each other, or maybe because they stand in opposition to each other.

I’ll set aside the Constitutional argument for the injunction and for eliminating the EO altogether. This is about a Progressive-Democrat’s refusal to recognize the well-documented research that comfort and support are major factors in fighting any disease, whether from boosting an immune system or from fighting a disease in progress. Strengthening the mind, helping build and maintain the emotional strength necessary to keep resisting, to keep fighting, a disease is a critical component in that resistance, that fight.

Religion plays a central role in that support. Isolation, which includes limiting group sizes, is antithetical to that. Denying free access to emotional support, to the succor available in churches, synagogues, mosques, is antithetical to that.

Any doctor knows this. Any man of the cloth, whether minister, priest, rabbi, imam knows this. Any parishioner knows this.

Only a Progressive-Democrat governor ignores this.

Another Crackdown

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Maybe cut from the same cloth: you can’t dispute with me—I’m your government.

The organizer of a protest against New Jersey’s coronavirus stay-at-home order is facing a criminal charge, authorities said.
Kim Pagan, of Toms River, NJ, was charged Friday following the small but noisy demonstration in front of the New Jersey Statehouse in Trenton.
New Jersey police accused Pagan of violating emergency stay-at-home orders issued by Governor Phil Murphy [D] to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Never mind our Constitution with its petty little nonsense about the right of the people…to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Those are just words, as Murphy makes clear:

When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.
…
The question is…which is to be master—that’s all.

There is one critical difference here from the situation in Hong Kong: jury nullification is available, and it works.