AP.  Israeli pilots grounded after protest.

One of the 27 pilots, identified only as Capt. Alon, told the Yediot Ahronot daily he was now ashamed to be a member of the air force. "It's an organization that has no qualms about dropping bombs ... on the densest neighborhoods in the world ...," he was quoted as saying.

This is the heart of the dilemma.  In order to fight terrorists, a nation needs to become a counter-terrorist state.   Israel is a counter-terrorist state.  America is on the road to becoming one.  What does this mean?  More assasinations and reprisals.  A substantial reduction in civil liberties and privacy.  A willingness to inflict wanton collatoral damage.  A tremendous amount of secrecy and an increasing number of secret organizations. 

These pilots were unwilling to accept that. [John Robb's Weblog]

3:59:33 PM    

I have to write a BloggerCon essay about the term "piracy." It'll go something like this. As long as the music industry labels all use of music on the Internet as piracy, and as long as pubs like the NY Times go along with this, the "problem" will never be solved. The music industry is insisting on a moral principle that they don't hold themselves to, that musicians should be paid for their work. They need to clean their house first, and that's going to mean disclaiming ownership of some of their supposed property, and deciding what they want to be paid for, and then asking for (and maybe receiving) help from the online community, in much the same way the US presidential candidates are. The music industry is going over our heads (by going to Washington), and under (by suing users), but the solution is here. First, give up trying to control the old music. We understand that there was no money in this anyway. Don't give up the copyrights, so if the music is used for commercial purposes, like in ad jingles or public radio pledge drives, you can charge your license fees. Then let the Internet have them to distribute and listen to for free, without fear of a lawsuit. Watch carefully to see what happens. We might not need to go to war anymore. Music is that powerful. Specifically exclude the new stuff, the stuff you're making money on, and provide proof that the artists are getting a share of the profits. Having done this, you may get some leaders on the Internet to agree to calling ripoffs of that stuff piracy. More in a bit, after some coffee. [Scripting News]

3:59:13 PM    

The report in question is here: http://www.ccianet.org/papers/cyberinsecurity.pdf

Microsoft's Pernicious Influence. Washington Post: Microsoft Critic Forced Out. A technology executive whose company does business with Microsoft Corp. has been forced out... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

3:55:15 PM