No rights at the border

One of the bywords of international travel is that "you have no rights at the border." Customs agents can search anything, take anything, degrade you, and delay or block you. In accordance with this time-honored principle, the Ninth Circuit Court has held that customs agents can rifle all the files on your computer just because they feel like it. It doesn't matter that you're a US citizen; the Fourth Amendment doesn't apply when you're coming back to the so-called "land of the free."

If you don't want to be subjected to this, the best solution is not to travel to other countries. You can leave your cell phone, laptop computer, and PDA behind, but the government can still do any number of other things to you. Besides, this often isn't an option for business travelers. An EFF article discusses some other options. You can encrypt your drive, but then the government can simply steal your computer or refuse to let you into the country. The article suggests having your employer encrypt the business data with a password you don't have, and having an unencrypted account for yourself. This won't stop the custom agents from seizing your computer as punishment, but if you act innocent enough it may confuse many of them so that they won't give you trouble. A note on letterhead saying that company policy prohibits you from having access to the data may help.

Another technique, not mentioned, would be to put confidential business data in a thumb drive and toss it in your suitcase with your underwear.

Ben Stein: No science allowed

Ben Stein, whose movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed has gained him notoriety lately, has outdone himself by explicitly denouncing science. He tells us, "science leads you to killing people."

If he were consistent about this, Stein should have renounced movie-making, which depends on huge amounts of science. He should be wandering around the country with bare feet and an animal skin, preaching against science with only the power of his lungs.

Name change

In a blatant attempt to gain visibility, I've changed the name of this blog to "The Blog of M'Gath: Technology and Liberty."

The White House e-mail fiasco

Timothy Lee has an article on Ars Technica, going into some technical detail, on why the White House has "lost" so much e-mail. Some part of it looks like incompetence, but Bush's policy that the law doesn't apply to him is also a major factor. Incompetence happens more often when it's convenient.

Bush has till May 5 to give a federal court some answers about the missing e-mail. Unfortunately, he can't be put in jail for contempt of court.

Free speech victory in NH

ZeroBrokerFees.com, with the help of the Institute for Justice, has won a victory for free speech on the Internet. A U.S. District Court has granted an injunction against any attempt by the state to require a broker's license for websites that carry advertising for home sales by owners. Judge Muirhead held that there is no defensible basis for denying web sites a freedom which is granted to newspapers.

So if you live in New Hampshire, you can advertise your home for sale on the Internet without fear that the New Hampshire Real Estate Commission will try to shut down the site you use.

Atlas Shrugged movie

Boxofficemojo.com has an interview with Michael Burns, the Vice Chairman of Lionsgate, on the eternally-delayed movie of Atlas Shrugged. This interview shows more signs of doing it right than some earlier discussions I've seen, especially this:

In a strange way, we have to get it right because it is—even though Ayn Rand was Russian—it is the quintessential, one of the few, true American philosophies, so you really have to be true to Objectivism and what she stood for. You can't compromise. More than anything else, we're looking for the integrity of a [Howard] Roark, which, by the way, is not easy, which may be why the movie's never been made, maybe no one wanted to tackle that. But you have to try. It's better to have tried and failed than not to have tried at all.

Found by way of the Cato blog.

1001 Events that Made America

Thanks to LibraryThing for getting me an advance review copy of 1001 Events that Made America! Unfortunately, I couldn't give the book an enthusiastic recommendation, as my review explains.