Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
This week the UK went, as we put it, "full Orwell" with a plan to remove children from homes that it suspects might radicalize them. Plenty of people struggled to put their reaction to this into words, but That One Guy got there first and won the top spot for insightful with his response:
"I know, let's give them even /more/ reasons to hate us!"
So taking away children, without having to present any real evidence or anything beyond suspicion of what might happen...
Well, I'm sure any parents who've had their children taken away will respond to the matter in a calm and collected manner, understanding that Big Brother really does know best, and would in no way make for a perfect target for any terrorist recruiters looking for people who might have a very real reason to hate the UK government and nothing left to lose, having already lost that which was most precious to them.
Meanwhile this week, Congress was pushing a car "safety" bill that we dubbed "a big gift to the automakers." JustShutUpAndObey won second place for insightful by correcting this choice of phrase:
It's not a gift when it's bought and paid for...
For editor's choice on the insightful side, we've got two comments from the world of broadband. First, after Slate published an article in favor of unnecessary broadband caps, sorrykb found an explanation in the details:
Per the Slate article, Eli Dourado is a research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and director of its technology policy program.
[boggles]
How could the a person in such a position be so misinformed?
[googles]
"The Mercatus Center was founded and is funded by the Koch Family Foundations."
Oh. Never mind.
Next, TheResidentSkeptic shared a personal tale of broadband woe:
I watched with glee as Verizon installed fiber - not only in my neighborhood, but right through my property. Their repeater was on the pole in MY yard.
So, I called to order. "Not available in your area".
Over on the funny side, we start out on our post about the sketchy legal threats by a company that claimed to have made a food-scanner, but whose video showed some very curious timestamp anomalies. Sorrykb is back with a first place win for a possible explanation:
I don't see why everyone keeps going on about the impossibility of TellSpec's food scanner technology when the big story is that they've invented a time machine.
For second place, we're back to the world of broadband, this time on the net neutrality front in Canada, where Rogers Cable was mid-flip-flop after becoming a victim of traffic discrimination. David pointed out that this "unexpected" behavior is... expected behavior:
Since when are corporations incapable of simultaneously wanting their cake, eating it too, and suing it for breach of intergastric property rights?
Speaking of the cable industry, our first editor's choice for funny comes in response to another bizarre stance, this time the notion that millennials will stop cord-cutting once they have kids. Angel swiftly summed up the stupidity of this idea:
Yes because nothing says "Let's Add yet another bill to our expenses" like having a few babies
Finally, after the CIA director's personal email was hacked and found to contain official documents, one anonymous commenter couldn't help thinking about a relevant bill (give or take a vestigial P):
If only we had CISPA, this never would have happened...
That's all for this week, folks!
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