Scrivener's Error: MST 2001

01 June 2015

MST 2001

at 21:04 [UTC–8]

... that is, Mystery Security Theater 2001.

So, the NSA won't legally be authorized to collect massive amounts of message-unit data for traffic analysis, now that § 215 of the ~~TRAITOR~~ PATRIOT Act has expired. Anyone who claims that this means the NSA won't have access to valuable data for traffic analysis concerning potential terrorism hasn't ever paid attention to just how little opposition there is to FISA court warrants.

None of which is going to stop any of the phone companies/wireless carriers from doing exactly the same thing in the name of "marketing research" and "personalizing the customer experience."
Meanwhile, that other visible element of Mystery Security Theater has proven just as effective. Airport screening is wildly ineffective, which is not a surprise to anyone who has ever studied airport security with even a single pair of open eyes, hungover, at o-dark-thirty after an all-nighter the night before.

Mystery Security Theater: Something must be done. Spending large amounts of money on hardware, but virtually none on training and/or human intelligence, is something. Therefore...

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Warped Weft

Now live at the new site. I have arranged some of the more infamous threads that have appeared here by unravelling them from the blawg tapestry (and hopefully eliminating some of the sillier typos). Sometimes, the threads have been slightly reordered for clarity.

Other Blawgs, Blogs, and Journals

These may be of interest; I do not necessarily agree with opinions expressed in them, although the reasoning and writing are almost always first-rate (and represent a standard seldom, if ever, achieved in "mainstream" journalism). I'm picky, and have eclectic tastes, so don't expect a comprehensive listing.

How Appealing is aimed at appellate lawyers and legal news in general. If you care about the state of the law, start here — Howard's commentary is far better balanced, better informed, and better considered than any of the media outlets. To concentrate on the US Supreme Court, don't forget SCOTUSBlog.
Some academics' blawgs with a variety of political (and doctrinal) viewpoints:
- Professor Stephen Bainbridge (UCLA Law) (aka "The Perfesser")
- Professor Jack Balkin (Yale Law)
- Professor Dennis Crouch (Missouri Law) (better known as Patently-O)
- Dorf on Law is a limited-group academic blawg among Professors Michael Dorf (Cornell Law), Neil Buchanan (Florida Law, transitioning to Toronto Law), and Eric Segall (Georgia State Law)
- Professor Michael Froomkin (University of Miami Law)
- Professor Eric Goldman (Santa Clara University Law)
- Professor James Grimmelmann (Cornell Law)
- Professor Rick Hasen (UCLA)
- Professor Brian Leiter (U of Chicago Law/Philosophy)
- Professor Rebecca Tushnet (Harvard Law)
The main European IP blawg of interest remains the UK-based IPKat