4 ms·

Headline should be "Senate Approves Bill to Reinstate most of NSA Surveillance"

datamingle 11y ago
We were literally more free yesterday than today. We should have just left the 'Patriot' Act to expire and replace it with nothing
- infamouscow 11y ago
  Read the last page of the USA Freedom Act, it extends the Patriot Act until December 31, 2017.
mindslight 11y ago
Nytimes is as close to state-run media as there can be under our microkernel government. As to our brief respite from one small part of tyranny: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9642843 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9642843
- yellowapple 11y ago
  > microkernel government Hah. I wish. In reality, it's more of a modular monolith than a proper microkernel.
  - mindslight 11y ago
    The nominal government has ballooned in size, but the whole power structure is still a microkernel architecture. How many aspects of your daily life are determined by insurance companies and private rulemaking bodies? Nothing can get through congress unless it benefits some special interest, illustrating that most power is outside of USG itself, as it is held by capital. Even large scale policy is set by prominent universities that prevail through attrition by repeatedly broadcasting "the way it's going to be". None of these things are accountable to the voters, even if democracy actually worked.
    - yellowapple 11y ago
      That's not a microkernel you're describing. That's a modular monolith with malicious drivers (read: lobbyist-influenced legislators) you're describing. In a microkernel government, said legislators would be running in userspace, and therefore not have a direct influence on kernel-space policies like they do now. The only way our government could possibly be described as a "microkernel" is if it's a microkernel a la AmigaOS, where memory protection is virtually nonexistent (at least in the early versions).
      - mindslight 11y ago
        Our disagreement is a matter of perspective on where the real power lies. > legislators would ... not have a direct influence on kernel-space policies They don't. The kernel is not the federal government, which is but one group of (albeit somewhat privileged) processes. The kernel is economic control, which is why I pointed out that most of your daily life is shaped by non-government processes.
        yellowapple 11y ago
        Then we're not talking about a microkernel government, but instead talking about microkernel socioeconomics. If we stick to the former case, though, then it's not accurate to say that the economy is the kernel of this hypothetical operating system. The federal government very much is; just because it's susceptible to a multitude of security-related bugs doesn't mean that it's no longer the kernel, much like how just because the NT kernel is susceptible to a multitude of security-related bugs doesn't mean that it's no longer the kernel.
        mindslight 11y ago
        As I said, different perspectives on the power relationship between USG and megacorps. It's like someone used a security bug in NT to load a hypervisor. You could say that NT was still "the kernel", but most of the important stuff goes on outside of it.

We were literally more free yesterday than today. We should have just left the 'Patriot' Act to expire and replace it with nothing

infamouscow 11y ago
Read the last page of the USA Freedom Act, it extends the Patriot Act until December 31, 2017.

mindslight 11y ago

Nytimes is as close to state-run media as there can be under our microkernel government. As to our brief respite from one small part of tyranny: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9642843 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9642843

yellowapple 11y ago
> microkernel government Hah. I wish. In reality, it's more of a modular monolith than a proper microkernel.
- mindslight 11y ago
  The nominal government has ballooned in size, but the whole power structure is still a microkernel architecture. How many aspects of your daily life are determined by insurance companies and private rulemaking bodies? Nothing can get through congress unless it benefits some special interest, illustrating that most power is outside of USG itself, as it is held by capital. Even large scale policy is set by prominent universities that prevail through attrition by repeatedly broadcasting "the way it's going to be". None of these things are accountable to the voters, even if democracy actually worked.
  - yellowapple 11y ago
    That's not a microkernel you're describing. That's a modular monolith with malicious drivers (read: lobbyist-influenced legislators) you're describing. In a microkernel government, said legislators would be running in userspace, and therefore not have a direct influence on kernel-space policies like they do now. The only way our government could possibly be described as a "microkernel" is if it's a microkernel a la AmigaOS, where memory protection is virtually nonexistent (at least in the early versions).
    - mindslight 11y ago
      Our disagreement is a matter of perspective on where the real power lies. > legislators would ... not have a direct influence on kernel-space policies They don't. The kernel is not the federal government, which is but one group of (albeit somewhat privileged) processes. The kernel is economic control, which is why I pointed out that most of your daily life is shaped by non-government processes.
      - yellowapple 11y ago
        Then we're not talking about a microkernel government, but instead talking about microkernel socioeconomics. If we stick to the former case, though, then it's not accurate to say that the economy is the kernel of this hypothetical operating system. The federal government very much is; just because it's susceptible to a multitude of security-related bugs doesn't mean that it's no longer the kernel, much like how just because the NT kernel is susceptible to a multitude of security-related bugs doesn't mean that it's no longer the kernel.
        mindslight 11y ago
        As I said, different perspectives on the power relationship between USG and megacorps. It's like someone used a security bug in NT to load a hypervisor. You could say that NT was still "the kernel", but most of the important stuff goes on outside of it.