Ethics – Page 149 – Public Intelligence Blog

Transparify Will Begin Re-Rating All Think Tanks In December

Phi Beta Iota: A useful step. However, at least as critical is evaluating the sources and methods used or not used by “think tanks.” Most — such as the Brookings Institute — do not use citation analytics and do not do substantive foreign language research. “Multidisciplinary” is not a term in vogue among these largely pedestrian entities. Holistic analytics, true cost economics, and open source everything engineering are foreign concepts to all of them.

2014/11/162014/11/16

Worth a Look: Local Community Bill of Rights

Ethics, Government

Local Bill of Rights and Responsibilities

This Local Bill of Rights and Responsibilities Template forks and extends the CELDF's Community Bill of Rights Template (.pdf). The Bill is an innovative legal framework to empower local governance, over one hundred municipal campaigns within the United States and been credited for stopping hydrofracking in several cities and been spread as far as Europe by Occupy Law in the UK.

Continue reading “Worth a Look: Local Community Bill of Rights”

2014/11/162014/11/16

Clausewitz: I Said War With (mit) Other Means, NOT War By Other Means

Ethics, Government, Military

Everything You Know About Clausewitz Is Wrong

A botched translation of Clausewitz has had an enduring impact on our thinking on warfare.

James Holmes, The Diplomat, 12 November 2014

Specifically, Paret and Howard entitle Book One, Chapter One, Section 24 (page 87 if you have your copy handy) “War Is Merely the Continuation of Policy by Other Means.” That’s how they render “Der Krieg ist eine bloße Fortsetzung der Politik mit anderen Mitteln” into English. Properly translated, however, the title reads “War Is a Mere Continuation of Policy with Other Means.” “With,” not “by.” There is zero ambiguity in the German. The translators, or perhaps their publisher, flub this one.

2014/11/152014/11/15

Berto Jongman: #ConflictFree $201 Billion in Consumer Economics Full of Conflict Minerals [and Oblivious of #TrueCost]

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Ethics, IO Deeds of Peace

A possible model for true cost economics movement.

What's in your technology may shock you…

Your daily life requires vital minerals that may originate in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other countries.

Tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold are referred to as conflict minerals.

EXTRACT

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: #ConflictFree $201 Billion in Consumer Economics Full of Conflict Minerals [and Oblivious of #TrueCost]”

2014/11/10

Berto Jongman: Cryptography Is Rightful Privacy

Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Ethics

Yes, Isis exploits technology. But that’s no reason to compromise our privacy

GCHQ’s new chief would do well to remember that sending encrypted emails doesn’t make you a criminal

EXTRACT

So if Mr Hannigan really wants to have a “mature” debate about this stuff, a good place to start would be with an assurance that citizens who use these tools simply to ensure that their private, lawful communications remain private will not be targeted for surveillance by his new subordinates. In an insecure world, cryptography is a tool for everyone.

2014/11/082014/11/08

Stefan Molyneux: Bitcoin vs. Political Power – The Cryptocurrency Revolution — To Limit Money Is To Limit Political Power!

Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Ethics, Government

When governments can print money,
they do not have to ask the people to make choices.

Tip of the Hat to Tom Miller of Unlimited You Education.

Phi Beta Iota: The Automated Payment Transaction (APT) Tax that remains central to Robert Steele's vision for an honest balanced government in the USA, is an alternative to BitCoin. The APT tax rate is set by national, state, and local ballot. This means that the government must have a balanced budget and bottom line need that is validated by the people, and it also means that the government cannot fund wars, bank bail-outs, and other atrocities without first getting the public to agree to raise the rate.

2014/11/08

SchwartzReport: Communities Booting Big Money Out of Politics

Civil Society, Ethics, Government

With the corruption and gridlock of the Congress and the compromising of the Judiciary the functional domain remaining is local. At this point no one can have any doubt about the pernicious impact of Citizens United, and what has followed. But it is a measure of the level of corruption that this is only superficially discussed in most media. However, as this report describes at the local level where life is actually lived, we are beginning to see healthy pushback.

‘We will only get louder’: Dozens of communities vote to boot big money from politics

Category: Ethics

JZ Liszkiewicz: Think Tank Transparency?