Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Bi-Directional Oppression

History suggests oppression is only a top-down phenomenon. Maybe not.

Below are two stories of liberty lost. The first is the traditional top-down, the second a rare (?) bottom-up approach we only see here in America.

MarketWatch: Cisco accused of helping China track dissents.

Cisco Systems Inc. became the subject of a lawsuit which accuses the tech firm of providing the Chinese government with the means of spying on dissents and aiding human rights violations against its citizens.

A lawsuit filed by a group from the Falun Gong spiritual movement alleged that Cisco CSCO +0.06% provided networking applications and technical assistance which enabled the Chinese government to monitor its citizens online...

San Jose Mercury News: Cisco accused of helping China track Falun Gong followers

"We have actual testimony from insiders, and we've amassed three years of data that goes beyond what was presented to Congress," said Lee Crawford-Boyd, a Los Angeles lawyer who brought the class-action suit with attorneys from the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Law Foundation.

Here is a photo we snapped outside the Democrat's convention in 2008. Her pose is forbidden in China.


Not to be outdone... our comrades here in the states are feeling a bit bloated with too much liberty - both theirs and yours. Seattle coffee houses and their customers agree with the mayor's initiative to ban paper cups. Seattle Times: Drive to drop paper coffee cup brews in Seattle:

Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin endorsed the initiative, which urges participants to whip out their own reusable cups for mochas on the go, and opt for ceramic over paper when ordering "for here."

"Let's show that we can do this, and our success will be duplicated in other cities," Conlin said in a statement.

Co-sponsors of the initiative include Sustainable Seattle, Zero Waste Seattle, Caffe Ladro and several other local coffee shops.


UT: Weasel Zippers. Photo from Google Search "Seattle Coffee House".

Questions:
Of the people pictured above, who is likely the most principled?
Who above will fight for not just their rights but for yours too?
Who would you trust in the ballot box?
And a stretch here, but who probably agrees more with the values of America's founding fathers?

Unlike public school, there is a wrong answer.

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