As for the actual argument that Bill makes, I think Mary Katherine rightly pointed out that he’s inordinately obsessed with the negative. The fact is, complete privacy at home in your own personal property should be preserved, period. Anything diminishing that even slightly is worth taking serious issue with. When I step outside, though, and enter the company of strangers whose actions I have no control over, I don’t mind this kind of monitoring and displaying things on the internet for the public to judge.

Because I just read the post about Romney’s Red Sox gaffe, I’m reminded of a relevant event. I was at the celebration near Fenway Park after the ALCS Championship win in 2004. Despite how delighted Romney and most of the city was after that win, a girl was killed because of it and, more generally, it brought out some of the worst aspects of human nature that I’ve ever witnessed first-hand. I’ve only been able to find video of the celebration/riots after the World Series win, and, having attended both, I remember that as being a relatively more subdued affair and, to the credit of the Boston police, the response to it seemed much safer and more organized. Still, some of the videos are pretty ugly (http://youtube.com/watch?v=y_exBcbZi6s). I could go on a lot longer (even though I fear I’ve already gone on too long), but my main point is that I wish there had been more videotaping of the scene and more of an internet/YouTube culture at the time so that the appropriate people might’ve been held accountable. Both the crowd and the police behaved very aggressively and it would be wrong to assign all the blame to one group or a few individuals without video evidence. (For my own part, I must say that I never felt unsafe or threatened until the police started opening fire with their “less-lethal” bean bag bullet things which really ignited the crowd, but a lot was happening and unfortunately I only have my memory to rely on.)

Anyways, I’ll cut myself short here. Really sorry for the length and the tangent…

O’Reilly’s concerns about police dash-cams are misplaced. Most law enforcement types I know or have heard from say they are a net benefit to police. While the dash-cams do catch police misconduct (as may be the case in the Utah clip O’Reilly showed), they also (1) protect honest police from false allegations of police brutality and (2) provide an objective “witness” to police stops to record things like suspects consenting to searches, suspects running from or assaulting police, and the like.

If she had any guts

Sigh.

But, hey, why get into Bill’s hypocrisy?

If you are serious, instead of just taking shots at MKH, send it to his ombudswoman.

CAM SHOULD BE EVERYWHERE and every public vehicle and delivery truck should be equipped with a GPS.

Cr*p. Is taking drugs also bad? Because I’m totally hooked on this prilosec stuff.

I think he really needs to pass the torch, he’s sounding tired, like the spark has gone out.

And when is the “Girls of Hot Air” calendar coming out? It’s almost Christmas time and I needs a new calendar (in case I forget the order of the months or.. something..).

Yeah, I don’t think you’re alone among our readers anymore in thinking that. What readers we have left, I should say.

Allahpundit on November 28, 2007 at 10:54 PM

Oh come on AP, your alexa is 20,000. Traffic normally fluctuates (especially when you get as much traffic as you do) and you are on the low end of the downward trend. It should start trending back up again due to normal fluctuations by this time next week.

I actually miss seeing MM’s videos. I bet if you could talk the boss into doing a video for Hot Air each week traffic would dramatically rise. Every media outlet could use a little eye candy b-roll from time to time.

I’ll lay off the Catholics if you think that’s driving away the viewers. They are just such an easy target. . . and generally it’s the non-Catholic Christians that get most of the ridicule here if it isn’t from me. I’m just calling it like I see it.

Don’t get so depressed AP, that’s my job.

Michael in MI on November 28, 2007 at 11:23 PM

Good points. I hadn’t even thought of the parental discipline aspect.

Years ago, pre-cell phone videos everywhere, I did something at a major sporting event once that was very atypical of me. Not criminal, but if it got posted on the web, I’d still be mortified to this day. Seems to me the web makes it harder to close the door on certain mortifying events in life.

In which a visibly uncomfortable MK…

I was thinking this meant MK being uncomfortable trying to defend her positions. But I saw it as MK being uncomfortable having to not say “O”Reilly, quit acting like such a dweeb!”

What readers we have left…

You can’t believe Sitemeter was actually operational Saturday and Sunday can you?

The net magnifies a momentary error into a life-changing event.

Spirit of 1776 on November 28, 2007 at 10:47 PM

Yep. The other thing that I do not like about how some private citizens use the power of internet video is to frame issues using selective editing. It is bad enough when the mass media selectively edits video or selectively edits a story to only release certain facts about an issue to frame the public’s opinion of the issue (a prime example being the reporting on the war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Israel-Hezb’Allah war effort in Lebanon, etc). But now we also have private citizens taking video on their camera phones and such and then selectively editing it, putting it up on YouTube and framing an issue in a way they want it.

One example that I can think of is something that went “viral” on MySpace among some of the people I have on my friends list (basically, I have a network of people who support the military or are part of the military). This one gentleman posted a YouTube video from a soldier who claimed that he was unjustly beaten by law enforcement at the airport. The soldier and his family were trying to gain support for his court case. Initially, I think everyone (including me) was sympathetic simply because we reflexively take the side of the soldier and wanting them to be treated well. However, I watched the videos that he provided and I did not see it as clear cut as they were presenting it. From what I could tell, the soldier was actually going out of his way to cause trouble after being held up by security, which then caused him to miss his flight, since the security checks took so long. And then the key part of the case, where he was supposedly beaten unjustly, there was not a clear view of what happened on the provided video. In addition, the full story was not shown in the video. However, this did not stop people from completely sympathizing with the soldier, mostly simply because he was military, and completely condemning the airport law enforcement.

There was another former MySpace friend of mine who posted a video that was taken by some teens who were stopped by a cop for skateboarding in a part of the local downtown area where it was illegal. The video starts with the cop yelling at the kids and in the process of cuffing one kid and putting him to the ground and then running off to chase after a few of the other kids. In addition, you hear the teens in the video asking angelically “what did we do wrong? why are you doing this?” This looks bad, of course, and, of course, most of the people commenting on this blog were bashing the cop and sticking up for the kids. “All they wanted to do was skateboard. That mean, mean cop! What’s his problem!?” Well, first of all, we don’t know the history of these teens with this cop. We also don’t know what happened prior to the cop taking the kid down and putting him in cuffs on the ground. But that didn’t stop people from making up their minds about the entire situation and labeling the law enforcement baaaad and the teens just angelic, innocent angels who just wanted to skateboard (in an area where it was illegal).

And these are only two examples. There are also plenty of examples of kids doing this in school to try to get teachers in trouble. There is definitey the possibility for this sort of thing to get completely out of hand, especially with kids getting more and more internet savvy. And especially in an era in which kids are given more and more ‘power’. ‘Back in the day’, parents could enforce discipline in their own homes with their children, but now just think of a kid getting spanked or slapped by their parents for being a brat and misbehaving, but getting it on video somehow and then turning around and putting it up on YouTube to make their parents look like abusive parents.

It’s really out of hand. And these are just a few examples.

My solution is not to deny people the right to do this, but simply to make sure people are aware that this happens and that we cannot believe everything that is posted on the internet. In fact, a good rule of thumb would probably be to assume everything is not true or only partially true until we can verify everything.

Yeah, I don’t think you’re alone among our readers anymore in thinking that. What readers we have left, I should say.

Referring to MKH, I do enjoy her work, so to speak, but MM rules! She would have had a more appropriate response to the all-knowing guy who is looking out for you…

What readers we have left, I should say.

Oh, is the party over? Can you give me a link to a site for good news site for alpha males? :)

MKH is the only reason to visit this site (well, and the Catholic flame wars and robot videos).

Yeah, I don’t think you’re alone among our readers anymore in thinking that. What readers we have left, I should say.

This site is too sophisticated for the masses!

- The Cat