Quotes of Interest

Originally Posted by Blaze

For The Love of Russia
A personal word

Yesterday, I spent the day finding out why Serbia would hold such support for Gadafi. To say the least it is complicated.

However, I noted key points.

While looking for a good quote on fighting corruption other than one of mine, I found:
"one does not fight corruption by fighting corruption,"

It appears first to be quoted in an article by Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld in September 1999 in reference the Russian money laundering scandal of that same period. Later the quote was attributed to Daniel Kaufmann. More than likely though it was just standardized internal motto from the World Bank.

The quote is noteworthy and worth so many words because while looking at Serbia, why they would remain supportive of Gadafi; I noted some patterns. Mainly, after the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, I noted:

“Following the Kosovo War, due to the many weapons in the hands of civilians, law enforcement inefficiencies, and widespread devastation, both revenge killings and ethnic violence surged tremendously. The number of reported murders rose 80% from 136 in 2000 to 245 in 2001. The number of reported arsons rose 140% from 218 to 523 over the same period. UNMIK pointed out that the rise in reported incidents might simply correspond to an increased confidence in the police force (i.e., more reports) rather than more actual crime. According to the UNODC, by 2008, murder rates in Kosovo had dropped by 75% in five years.”

In addition, due to the corruption already established, the area has remained a hot bed of horrific crimes of profit by organized criminals.

“Kosovo is extremely vulnerable to organized crime and thus to money laundering. In 2000, international agencies estimated that Kosovo was supplying up to 40% of the heroin sold in Europe and North America. Due to the 1997 unrest in Albania and the Kosovo

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Originally Posted by Blaze

Happy Birthday Eddie!

It is rumored that Eddie went on a bender in Miami!

Witnesses reported that he was seen with an entourage of beefy Cubans boarding a boat with a winch. Sometimes mumbling, sometimes ranting odd phrases like "He'll get the right depth of sound." Some witnesses were worried he was going to do something drastic; but that his entourage was so hot-looking the witnesses knew that his entourage would never let anything bad happen to anyone. The witnesses reported that he kept ranting about some "blonde-hair freak" and how he was "going to get that damn sound, just like that persnickety blonde Russian wanted." It was also reported that Eddie kept saying he wanted "his damn keys" that nothing was going to keep his keys from the Van Halen "sound"





A U.S. Coast Guard boat passes near a grand piano on a sandbar in Biscayne Bay, Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011 in Miami. The piano recently showed up on the sandbar, about 200 yards from condominiums on the shore. The piano, which weighs at least 650 pounds, was placed at the highest spot along the sandbar so it doesn't get underwater during high tide. While officials aren't sure how it got there, they know it won't be going anywhere unless it becomes a hazard to wildlife or boaters. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)



Happy B'day Eddie! Hope it was a dinger!

Originally Posted by Blaze

Keir Thomas – Thu Dec 2, 1:31 pm ET



When the Wikileaks "cablegate" scandal broke last week, those behind the whistle-blowing Website found their servers under heavy load. No surprise there, of course, but an additional DDoS hack attack didn't help.

To remedy the situation, Wikileaks did what anybody else would do by renting some elastic space in the cloud to take up the strain. They chose Amazon Web Services, which, although initially unperturbed by the move, yesterday removed Wikileaks' material without an explanation or apology. It appears Amazon came under political pressure to do so.

{...}

It boils down to what cloud providers consider to be objectionable material. Most service agreements are a little vague on this point, perhaps deliberately so. Amazon's Web Services Customer Agreement says the following, which is wildly open to interpretation and could theoretically let them remove just about anything:

11.2. Applications and Content. You represent and warrant: [...] (iii) that Your Content (a) does not violate, misappropriates or infringes any rights of us or any third party, (b) does not constitutes defamation, invasion of privacy or publicity, or otherwise violates any rights of any third party, or (c) is not designed for use in any illegal activity or to promote illegal activities, including, without limitation, use in a manner that might be libelous or defamatory or otherwise malicious, illegal or harmful to any person or entity, or discriminatory based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age;

Even if the service agreements were crystal clear about what is and isn't acceptable content, there will be many borderline cases that could fall either way. Anybody using cloud services could potentially be at the mercy of unaccountable

...

If it was important enough for me to write, then it was too important for me to sign. If it was important enough for me to sign, then it was too important for me to write.

Harland Cleveland


Harlan Cleveland in DC, 2006.