A review of climate optimism: the valid points they make, and the side that they brush over.

The EFF has endorsed "real privacy protections", but I have doubts that their approach is strong enough to achieve the goal of protecting privacy. The basic philosophical flaw is that they don't recognize that real privacy requires anonymity.

There are parking garages in the US and Europe which require the motorist to enter the car's license plate number into a digital system. Other parking garages take a photo of every car that enters, or every car that leaves, which would imply recording the car's license plate number.

When considering a proposed privacy protection law, we should challenge it with this question: would it be absolutely forbidden for the parking lot ever to make any of those license plate numbers available to any government agency, except under direction of a specific, narrow court order?

We we talk about deleting records to protect privacy, we must ask about any backup systems that might hold these license plate numbers past the time that the car has exited. Are they a security hole that threatens motorists' privacy?

Of course, sending any of that data to a cloudy system which could store a copy outside of the parking lot itself would totally destroy the privacy of those motorists.

Massachusetts has established a toll collection system that saves data about motorists' travel in order to bill them. Those operating the system would argue that this is permitted because the system "needs" to hold on to that data in order to collect the tolls. Given the choice of that particular system of billing, retaining the data that long would appear necessary.

If the law accepts such a weak standard of "the minimum necessary", it won't protect privacy. A real standard of respect for privacy would prohibit that system of billing. We know that it is possible to collect tolls without recording who pays them. That being so, collecting the identity of those who pass the toll station should be forbidden.

A Colorado thug has been sentenced to jail for killing Elijah McClain.

Israel's assassination (we assume Israel arranged it) of a HAMAS leader-in-exile may provoke Hezbollah to escalate war with Israel.

I expect that Netanyahu's officials foresaw that result, and may have sought it. The more enemies are actively fighting Israel, the more Biden will find it hard to put any pressure on Israel to be less bellicose.

*Americans living in their cars are finding refuge in "safe parking lots".*

It is better than nothing, but shamefully inadequate.