The Ministry of Defence Has Been Trying to Ban Mike Martin's Book. Mike Martin in Helmand, liaising with local leaders No one likes to be called incompetent – especially not the British army, so they are currently trying to block the publication of a book criticising the war in Afghanistan.
Which is slightly ironic, since Dr Mike Martin's An Intimate War – An Oral History of the Helmand Conflict 1978-2012 is a rewrite of a report commissioned by the British army itself a few years back. I spoke to its author, who resigned from his post as Captain of the British Territorial Army on Monday, in order to expose the problems inherent in the conflict. VICE: Hi Mike. So did you jump before you were pushed? How did the book come about? Why are they trying to ban it? They also said there was classified material in the book, which made the publishers and I concerned because we had no wish to publish that.
The MoD has a strict policy on publishing books and articles. You were serving with the Human Terrain Mapping Unit. But we were not set up to understand that. The Man Allegedly Behind Silk Road, The World's Biggest Marketplace For Drugs. On a bright Tuesday afternoon at around 3.15pm, a handful of plain-clothed FBI agents climbed the stone stairs of Glen Park Library, an unobtrusive building on Diamond Street in San Francisco.
They entered the library in staggered succession, gradually making their way towards its far corner: the science fiction section. There, sitting at one of the faux-wooden tables, was a pale young man with dark hair, jeans and T-shirt. He was on his laptop, chatting with someone online. Staff had not recognised the slim man with wide-set eyes, but then people often came here to use the free public Wi-Fi. Once they opened their laptops they would see a window pop up, offering unfiltered content on the condition they avoided browsing illegal content "out of respect" for fellow library users. His name was Ross Ulbricht, a 29-year-old former physics and engineering student from Austin, Texas. "We're the FBI," his assailants said, adding that everything was under control. Want to Have a Happy Planet? Just Ask Costa Ricans About Their Banks.
November 11, 2013 | Like this article?
Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. In Costa Rica, publicly-owned banks have been available for so long and work so well that people take for granted that any country that knows how to run an economy has a public banking option. Costa Ricans are amazed to hear there is only one public depository bank in the United States (the Bank of North Dakota), and few people have private access to it. 6 Reasons Privatization Often Ends in Disaster. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/ durantelallera October 20, 2013 | Like this article?
Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Private systems are focused on making profits for a few well-positioned people. The following are six specific reasons why privatization simply doesn't work. Econ 101 is killing America. Cameron's proposed filters extend to more than just porn. The British prime minister's internet filters will be about more than just hardcore pornography, according to information obtained by the Open Rights Group.
The organisation, which campaigns for digital freedoms, has spoken to some of the Internet Service Providers that will be constructing Cameron's content filters. They discovered that a host of other categories of supposedly-objectionable material may be on the block-list. As well as pornography, users may automatically be opted in to blocks on "violent material", "extremist related content", "anorexia and eating disorder websites" and "suicide related websites", "alcohol" and "smoking". But the list doesn't stop there. It even extends to blocking "web forums" and "esoteric material", whatever that is. Don't miss: Hardcore sex in 'Nymphomaniac' puts porn actor genitals on cast's bodies The ORG's Jim Killock says: "What's clear here is that David Cameron wants people to sleepwalk into censorship.
PRISM - Is Not What You Think (Illustrated) “Tramp the Dirt Down” The old saw that one shouldn’t speak ill of the recently dead cannot possibly apply to controversial figures in public life.
It certainly didn’t apply to President Hugo Chavez who predeceased Margaret Thatcher amidst a blizzard of abuse. The main reason it must not preclude entering the lists amidst a wave of hagiographic sycophantic tosh of the kind that has engulfed Britain these last hours is that otherwise the hagiographers will have the field to themselves.
Every controversial divisive deadly thing that Thatcher did will be placed in soft focus, bathed in a rose-coloured light, and provide a first draft of history that will be, simply, wrong. As is now well-known, I refused to do that today on the demise of a wicked woman who tore apart what remained good about my country, and set an agenda which has been followed, more or less, by all of her successors.