Re: Germany Rules On Computer Data Privacy

Yay for the plight of computer data. At least something is still getting a bit of respect these days.  

"....in a ruling that German investigators say will restrict their ability to pursue terrorists."

Isn't it amazing how rapidly democratized values some times end up globally genericized these days?

I'm still wondering why the U.S. has not yet adopted laws that allow them to beat citizens with bamboo sticks. What's it been now, a good 4 to 5 years since that American boy made big time global news by way of violating laws (jaywalking, littering, cursing, or something like that) in Taiwan, or Singapore, or some where over that way, for which he was ultimately punished by being publicly beaten with a stick as their laws permit? I still remember some of the pop reaction that erupted in the masses after that news "serve's him right!.... if America still knew how to discipline their youngins, we wouldn't have alla the problems we do!!", and the like. It's mass sentiment lke that that makes me wonder that perhaps Americans, collectively, have been beaten so soundly, and repeatedly, for so long with other equally effective sticks, like taxes, that they no longer have the senses left to notice that they are still being repeatedly beaten with clubs like taxation, as well as invasions upon their private life / info / data.

This is a bit OT, but back during the second week of January, there was some local news reported here at the local/county level. It was reported on the front pages of the local rag that is the only daily rag produced in the small town that technically is this same county's largest city. The story started off describing the state of woes and angst presently manifesting among the the board of County Commissioners.. The gist of this is, the board is unable to raise local taxes, such as property taxes. The main reason why they are unable to raise local taxes is because through recent year's cycles of having raised and raised again local taxes, the last time they raised local taxes (last year) they reached the maximum limit "celing" currently allowed by the existing statutes / ordinances of this county's laws. This news story directly quoted a few board members who had no reservations about stating that they would by all means raise taxes again IF the existing ceiling / law allowed them to, but it doesn't. The story then attempted to portray this situation as one beset with grid-lock (a familiar trigger word), floating the idea that without the ability to raises taxes, again, the board was therefore stymied, unable to do the great works, unable to perform the things that they alleged were what/why they were elected in the first place....... public works.....spending.....yada yada yada. Woe is them. The latter part of this article quoted one of these same board members commenting on a neuvo crypto tax maneuver recently pulled off in the city of Pittsburgh 100 miles to the west. What was most telling to me about this admission was the fact that the ink on that new law in Pittsburgh itself had not even fully dried yet. In fact it had only taken effect January 1, and local merchants were still at this time (2 weeks later) pursusing legal recourse (seeking an injunction) to suspend that new ordinance to allow for further deliberation. Meanwhile, 100 miles to the east, county board members did not let this get in their way. They were very quick to seize upon that tactic of their much bigger urban sibbling and were already being publicly quoted as desiring to use them as their current role model for things democracy. A latter part of the same article quoted (paraphrased)  "well, if we could enact some ordinance like Pittsburgh just did, we would not have this gridlock angst that we are currently experiencing, and this would allow us to get on with the job of doing what we were put in office to do".

The globe at large has now had over 6 years to genericize as they see fit model portions, punchlines, politics, propaganda and the like of things post 911 legislative - like the Patriot Act, now passing for legislation around all parts of the democratized world. I estimate it is roughly 4200 miles from Washington D.C. to Berlin. As the commercial crow flies, this journey is routinely completed in 9 hours give or take. As commercial legislation flies, travelling at approximately 700 miles per year would still have been ample time for European nation states to have reached the point of attempting to genericize whatever notions or components of notions of legislation suited their legislative fancy.... such as addressing undue restrictions upon the abilities of their investigators pursuing terrorists. Perhaps thwarted authorities in Berlin should visit Pennsylvania to see how genericized democracy is by comparison travelling at 2600 miles per year. Who knows? They may not find the legislative solutions to the private data of their citizens they are after, but in the process they just might discover some creative alternative in how to further tax those same citizens.