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The End

by | 12:00 pm, April 17, 2013

After 1,704 days, 12,896 posts, 6,625 comments, and three election cycles, we’re hanging up the blog. Yes, you read that right: we’re shutting down PPC. The main driver behind this is a simple lack of time and resources to keep the website going in a form we can be excited about and happy with – [...]

Tyranny, guns and the statist alternative.

by | 2:04 pm, April 16, 2013

The Second Amendment is not about hunting or protecting your house from burglars. It is about fighting tyranny.Until recently, even big-time Democrats like Hubert H. Humphrey accepted this truth: “The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarante…

Colorado Democrat Lawmakers to Sanction Voter Fraud

by | 4:14 pm, April 15, 2013

by Michelle Morin The leftist petri dish gets murkier everyday here in Colorado. Our state will be called Commun-orado after this one passes. The Colorado Legislature has dropped HB 13-1303 which is nothing more than government sanctioned voter fraud. The bill is in its first House Committee as I write this today, April 15th. Among [...]

Those budget ‘cuts’ are actually spending increases

by | 3:56 pm, April 15, 2013

At CompleteColorado.com’s new Page Two, Independence Institute senior fellow Barry Fagin warns against getting faked out by the Orwellian language trickery being used in the ongoing budget debate in Washington, DC: We’ve all heard the typical media spin on the budget negotiations. The Democrats are proposing a “balanced” plan of spending cuts and tax increases, [...]

Hey, Colorado: Billion Dollar K-12 Tax Hike OR End the Education Plantation?

by | 1:27 pm, April 15, 2013

Often it’s very easy to get bogged down in a big education policy debate like Colorado’s SB 213 school finance reform proposal. Then along comes a Denver Post op-ed piece by a motivated citizen that exhales a breath of fresh air: Colorado currently spends about $10,600 per student per year on K-12 education. You can [...]

Scholarship Tax Credits Could Help Denver, Aurora HS Students Overcome Challenges

by | 11:05 am, April 12, 2013

For those who long have rolled up their sleeves to try to improve student learning, the cause of urban high school reform remains one of the most daunting tasks. Even in areas where the most concentrated and sustained efforts at reform have taken place, the promising results have been very limited. Enter a brand new [...]

Education Wonk Fest Tonight on Devil’s Advocate

by | 10:56 am, April 12, 2013

Friday night means public affairs tv with the Independence Institute, so set your TiVO to wonk. First at 8:00, catch research director David Kopel on Colorado Inside Out. Then stay tuned for Devil’s Advocate at 8:30 as guest host Ben DeGrow is joined by Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at American Enterprise Institute [...]

Keep this story alive….please.

by | 10:49 am, April 11, 2013

Be the voice America needs and keep this story alive. The Main Stream Media stopped doing their job a long time ago. Anything that might hurt “their guy” is ignored. Heroes are dead.  We need the truth.

Colorado State Patrol Training UPDATE – Responses from Prowers County Sheriff & the CSP

by | 2:17 am, April 11, 2013

by Michelle Morin This is an update to my 4/7/13 post, “Colorado State Patrol – Christians Need to be Watched, Treated with Caution.” Since posting this, both the Prowers County Sheriff and the Colorado State Patrol have responded.  Here’s what each has said. From the Prowers County Sheriff Jim Faull: PROWERS COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE MEDIA [...]

Cybersecurity Proposal Fail

by | 8:43 pm, April 10, 2013

I have a feeling that there are people at the Heritage Foundation
who don’t really understand technology.

However, there is room for sensible government action that encourages
the private sector to take more responsibility for its
cybersecurity. For example, Congress should encourage the development
of a cybersecurity liability and insurance system that would hold
companies responsible when cyber failures in their products or
services lead to costs on others. This would encourage companies to
invest more in security.

What about Free/Libre and Open Source Software? Software like
Linux, the Apache web server and the Firefox web browser are developed
by volunteers. Which of the thousands of developers do you sue if a
vulnerability in Linux causes a breach? What if a library, developed
by a single person, has a vulnerability that is exploited? Are you
going to bankrupt him because if it?

This is a common fallacy made by people with a corporate view of
the world. There is useful software being developed by individuals all
over the world outside of the corporate space. From a security
perspective, open source software provides a level of assurance that
closed source software can’t match because the code is open for
inspection. You can read the code for yourself to ensure that there
are no back doors and compile from the audited code to ensure that
nothing slips in.

For example, the Chinese company Huawei has be selling dirt cheap
Internet routers in the US. According to a report published by the
House of Representatives, the routers are
under the control of the Chinese governemnt. I have a co-worker
who used to work for Level 3 Communications. They verified that as
soon as the routers were plugged in, they started to phone home to
China.

Because these devices are “black boxes”, there’s no way to know
what they’re doing. With open source software, that’s not a
problem. This proposal would put a damper on the greatest source of
secure software.

Maiffret also mentioned the need for improved cooperation among
private-sector actors. Currently, companies are afraid to share
cybersecurity information for fear of losing privileged information,
being sued, or even being prosecuted.

Do you think that will change once the government starts making
those companies financially liable for security breaches? Of course
not. They’ll be even tighter lipped than they are now.

Congress should amend particular
outdated laws, provide key sharing protections, and outline ways the
private sector can act in its own self-defense. Cooperation shouldn’t
be limited to just passive defense; companies need to be enabled to
partner with the government agencies such as the FBI to actively fight
hackers.

Yippee! Let’s let companies and the FBI begin automated assaults on
suspected hackers. I’m sure there won’t be an problems when they take
out Granny’s Internet provider because she got a virus. And how long
do you think it will be before some MPAA or RIAA exec decides that
anyone pirating a movie or music is a hacker and will launch a cyber
attack to collect information to use in a lawsuit.

I agree that developers should be more security-minded in their
development processes but giving corporations and the FBI free rein to
launch counter attacks is downright scary. The real question is: How
much of our critical infrastructure should be connected to the
Internet. The answer is: A lot less than is connected, currently and,
perhaps, none of it.

All in all, organizations should be doing more to ensure that their
systems are secure. These proposals are not going to get us there.

keep looking »

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