Judge: Project Veritas has no First Amendment right to Biden daughter's stolen diary

[smulder]

@gilgongo

I have often also wondered why theists say their religion provides them with moral codes or guidence - is it that they have a limited capacity to construct such codes on their own?

That Mitchell and Webb Look - Abraham

[angusm]

@danimagoo

Some countries have state run lost and found offices, and people are actually required to turn in found items to those offices, even if they did find them in an abandoned field. And then, if no one claims it after x amount of time, you can go back and claim it. I kind of like that approach, and I wish we did it here.

When I was young and naive in the UK, I found an envelope full of money on the street, and took it to the police station, which was a thing that people did back then. And after whatever the requisite period was, when no one had claimed it, I went back and collected it.

As I remember it, there was a collecting tin on the desk with the name of some police-related charity on it, and the cop who was giving me back the envelope looked at me and then looked at the tin in the manner of a man who very much expected that I would share some of my good fortune with the cops. I did not take the hint, but gave him a bright smile and waltzed out of there while he glared at me. And then I took my roommates out to supper (it wasn’t a huge amount of money, but just about enough to cover a meal for four at the Moroccan restaurant we liked).

I told this story to my partner and she marveled at the idea of (a) someone being dumb enough to give found money to the cops, and (b) the money still being there at the end of six months. “You do that in the US,” she said, “you’ll never see that money again.”

[Mangochin]

@gilgongo

I have often also wondered why theists say their religion provides them with moral codes or guidence - is it that they have a limited capacity to construct such codes on their own? Why do you need a god to be good?

Because the people making such claims are usually sociopaths. Immoral people who use religious beliefs as a pretext to act badly to others. Religion and its codes giving dickish behavior social acceptability.

If you need to say a God looking over your shoulder keeps you moral, you’re a terrible person.

[ElQuesero]

I mean, it’s complicated? Daniel Ellsberg certainly broke state secrecy statutes in disseminating the Pentagon Papers to the press. He had legitimate access to them for the purposes of his job only, not permission to use them in other ways.

The New York Times argued (100% rightly imo) that it was publishing them in the public interest. Yet it is a for-profit entity, carrying information like that in its columns fundamentally served its commercial mission of selling newspapers and ads within its newspapers.

[Mindysan33]

@ElQuesero

but it is a for-profit entity, carrying information like that in its columns fundamentally served its commercial mission of selling newspapers and ads within its newspapers.

But, like it or not, in a capitalist economy, that is not an “either-or” question necessarily. The pentagon papers WERE in the public interests, even if it helped the NYT sell papers, too. I for one, am glad that they were published, and that the information that they held were out in the public domain. It was a net good, even if there wasn’t some mythical purity on the part of the paper.

[MerelyGifted]

[gatto]

@ElQuesero

Yet it is a for-profit entity

ellsberg didn’t acquire them for profit, and he wasn’t paid by the ny times.

[MadLibrarian]

Ellsberg also didn’t B&E to steal them.

[partofthepuzzle]

Hmm, her diary was already available on the web. I read it online last year, though I can’t remember where. I assume that it’s been taken down?

[Mindysan33]

@partofthepuzzle

I read it online last year,

[Mangochin]

Nor were they owned by an individual.

[OWYAC]

There was a case covered by the U.K. tv show Fake or Fortune, in which someone found a painting in a garbage dump in Ireland, but the original owner claimed that the painting had been mistakenly discarded and they had enough of a case that it went to court to determine ownership. I don’t know how it turned out.

[Fred_Cairns]

It’s the irony of the name that gets me. “Project Veritas”? You just know it’s going to end up in some horrible legal mess. If they had any kind of foresight they’d name their organisations something like “Expect Nothing”.

[GilbertWham]

Yeah, it’s got those ‘nothing good can come of this’ vibes that you get with ‘People’s Republic of…’ and uniforms with fancy hats and gold epaulettes, doesn’t it just?

[FGD135]

Off topic, but have you seen the Space Force uniforms?

[GilbertWham]

I have not, but I imagine they are fucking ridiculous? And Nazi looking, but with worse tailoring?

[FGD135]

[GilbertWham]

Welp. I was depressingly, horrifyingly right
ETA: the longer I look at it, the worse it gets. It’s the sartorial result you would expect if you told some podunk police dept. that makes all its money off speed traps and shaking down sex workers that they suddenly have a budget for spaceships and lasers, and they need to look the part by breakfast time yesterday, dammit!

[FSogol]

@Fred_Cairns

If they had any kind of foresight they’d name their organisations something like “Expect Nothing”.

“Scumbags for hire” was already taken

[gatto]

i love how the logos around the brim give the look of a cartoon character who’s been hit over the head: stars spinning