Richard Weaver called modern man a moral idiot. Here is a quote from his fundamental book "Ideas Have Consequences": "It is the appalling problem, when it comes to actual cases, of getting men to distinguish between better and worse. Are people today provided with sufficient rational scale of values to attach these predicates with intelligence? There is ground for declaring that modern man has become a moral idiot."
Now, you can come to Yahoo to learn about finances, get the news, meet your mate, buy a car, find a job, sell your house, play games, discuss culture, you name it, and Yahoo will offer it to you. There is one way they can not tell you because they don't understand it themselves -- it is morally wrong to cooperate with secret police of a totalitarian state that send people to jail for dissent.
Here is a Financial Times story on the topic:
Yahoo faces scrutiny in China case
By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington and Richard Waters in San Francisco
Published: August 7 2007 20:30 | Last updated: August 8 2007 00:24
A US congressional committee is investigating whether Yahoo intentionally misled Congress over its role in exposing the identity of a Chinese journalist who was sent to prison for a decade.
The House foreign affairs committee announced the probe last week after new documents showed possible discrepancies in Yahoo’s 2006 testimony at a congressional hearing about its co-operation with Chinese authorities in the case against Shi Tao. The Chinese reporter and editor was arrested after posting material on a website about a government crackdown on media and democracy.
Michael Callahan, Yahoo senior vice-president and general counsel, said last year that the company had “no information” about the nature of an investigation by Chinese authorities when it divulged identifying information about the activist.
But the Dui Hua Foundation, a California-based human rights group, released documents that disputed Mr Callahan’s version of events. The translated documents showed that the official request to Yahoo from the Beijing State Security Bureau sought information into a case of suspected “illegal provision of state secrets to foreign entities”. Such a charge is frequently invoked against political dissidents in China.
Joshua Rosenzweig, the foundation’s manager of research, said the wording of the request “should have raised a red flag” at Yahoo.
A Yahoo spokesman said the description of the investigation was too vague to give the internet company any clue about its real nature, and that the disclosure of the document therefore supported Mr Callahan’s statement before the House committee last year.
“There are very legitimate law enforcement cases that can use that wording, including terrorism,” the Yahoo spokesman said.
Tom Lantos, who chairs the foreign affairs committee and has compared technology companies that divulge information about its users to Nazi collaborators, said Yahoo had “a lot of secrecy to answer for”.
“Covering up such a despicable practice when Congress seeks an explanation is a serious offence,” he said.
In the 18 months since the committee hearing, three other instances have come to light in which Yahoo handed over information about suspected dissidents to Chinese authorities, all three of which pre-dated the Shi Tao case. The Dui Hua Foundation last week published a document showing Yahoo had handed over information about a user in 2002 over an investigation into “suspected inciting of subversion”. The user, Wang Xiaoning, was later sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. [link]
Yahoo is not alone. Google and Microsoft are participating the the despicable game of doing censorship work for Chicoms.
The words of Richard Weaver pronounced almost sixty years ago are harsh, but true. Modern men have become moral idiots.
Yahoo!
posted by: jrtelegraph
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