Ancestry.com has government contracts to digitize old census records and other public records. Often it does the job by throwing the records away.

The article supposes that contracting services is typically cheaper than doing them in-house, but that is often false.

Meanwhile, they usually screw the public or their workers, because the profit must come out of something.

PISSI is massacring the 15000 or so Palestinians that remain in Yarmouk refugee camp after two years of siege by Assad's army.

With Syria being fought over between Assad's forces and jihadis, both sides are horrible, so what should the world do? I don't see any answer, except to defend the Kurds.

I blame this state of affairs on the rich Arab countries that stirred up the violent jihadism when Syrians were doing peaceful protests for democracy. As I recall, they were Saudi Arabia and Qatar. But the US is also to blame, for supporting them (which it continues to do).

Why Don't Surveillance State Defenders Seem To Care That The Programs They Love Don't Work?

I have another theory. I think that the plutocratist government of the US, which is democratic only in form, wants these tools to keep the people down.

In Lincoln, Nebraska, cameras in the downtown area have not reduced crime or helped identify culprits. Most other cities report the same result.

Since the cameras do infringe privacy, let's get rid of them!

Defenders of Wealth Blame Workers For Lousy Recovery, Not Policies Protecting Profits.