The Kazmer Report

By Rick Kazmer
rickk@dailyamerican.com

This blog post is intended to make clear a few comments from the Daily American Debate in the Tuesday, May 29, edition.
The freedom of speech is one of the most important features of the country’s government. That should include the ability for anonymous speech — including online comments.
In the latest debate I argued (for the sake of argument and the continuation of that weekly feature) that there was some degree of merit to a bill proposed in Albany, N.Y., that would outlaw unidentified online posts.
While some positive things, including cutting back on cyberbullying, could be accomplished, too much about free speech would be put at risk.
The shield for anonymous speech online is big.
It fortunately allows noble viewpoints to be made public. But unfortunately it protects heinous opinions to be posted by people who won’t identify themselves as well.
The Albany measure should not be passed into law. But the online posters should also be conscientious when making comments.
One more thing: on a practical level it would be impossible to police such a measure in the first place.
For more information go here.

By Rick Kazmer
rickk@dailyamerican.com

An Australian billionaire is planning to build a second Titanic.
Clive Palmer’s vision, according to newspaper reports, is almost an exact copy of the ill-fated vessel that hit an iceberg and sank to the bottom of the ocean in 1912.
Of course the modern version would have all of the latest amenities — the smoke stacks would just be for show.
The Chinese are building the Titanic II. The Chinese navy is planning to escort the vessel to New York.
It is on that point that I am writing this blog entry. There is something strange about the thought of the reincarnated Titanic finishing its predecessor’s route in the company of the Chinese navy. Perhaps this is a way for the Chinese to flaunt their growing influence on the world — here Great Britain and America, we built one that didn’t sink.
Of course, that has yet to be seen. Either this is a decent tribute to a maritime tragedy, or a brazen tease of fate — I haven’t decided yet. More here.