Three Cheers for Anonymous!

I'm very pleased that Anonymous has declared cyberwar on ISIS, Al Qaeda, and whatever groups and people were behind the murderous terrorists attacks in Paris last week.   As Anonymous indicates in the above video, the group has always been a fervent and uncompromising champion of freedom of expression - when it was trampled by American police in contravention of our First Amendment during Occupy Wall Street being a prime example.   But with the killing of cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo, the defense of free expression has taken on a new urgency.  Governments have their hands more than full with the attempt to bring those murderers to justice and insure to whatever extent possible that they won't continue.  The cyberwar part of this is crucial, and the good guys - we, who believe in absolute freedom of speech and press - need all the help we can get.  Three cheers for Anonymous for stepping up.  Its joining this fight is necessary and welcome.


My thoughts last week on the Charlie Hebdo attack, as told to Fios 1 News

The Good Wife 4.20: Anonymous

I haven't had a chance to review as much of The Good Wife as I would have wanted this season, but that doesn't mean I haven't been very much enjoying the show, which I have.  Indeed, I think it's the best season of The Good Wife so far, and episode 4.20 has all the winning ingredients - high tech social media savvy, powerful personal and professional stories, and great courtroom scenes.

Aaron Swartz and Anonymous both figure in the 4.20 story.  Swartz, a real life hacker, hounded by the government, who committed suicide just this past January, and Anonymous, a real organization that offers anonymous trenchant criticism and guerrilla reporting, both intersect with Alicia and Will as they pursue a civil suit against a rapist who has managed to beat the criminal charges.   Anonymous has been criticized in our reality for hacking sites of major corporations - and I agree with this criticism - but Anonymous has also played a legally protected (under the First Amendment) and important role in providing information and critique of the government not readily available elsewhere.

In The Good Wife, a new organization representing Swartz and his legacy come up with evidence not available in the criminal trial which proves the rapist's guilt.  Anonymous members show up in the courtroom donned with Guy Fawk "V" masks - to the judge's consternation - but more importantly get a video out to the world online with the rapist in a position which shows he's lying.   The mistrial that's declared is the first step for the rape victim finally getting some justice.

Aside from this powerful story even more "ripped from the headlines" than Law and Order, this episode of The Good Wife gives us a variety of other excellent threads.  Diane's chance of getting a judgeship turns out to be in jeopardy not because of her libertarian fiance but because of Will's quasi-disbarment.  This sets in a motion a possibility of her turning on Will and leaving the firm, both of which I doubt will happen.  But, meanwhile, Alicia may also be tempted to leave the firm, and she gets the details on Cary's move in precisely that direction.  And all of this is happening against the backdrop of the smoldering passion between Alicia and Will coming closer to the surface.

A great season, as I said, and I'm looking forward to the two concluding episodes.

See also The Good Wife 4.1 Meets Occupy Wall Street ...  The Good Wife 4.2: Reunited ... The Good Wife 4.3: "Template-Based Link Analysis Algorithm" ... The Good Wife 4.5 Meets The Sopranos

And see also The Good Wife 3.1: Recusal and Rosh Hashanah ... The Good Wife: 3.2: Periwigs and Skype ... The Good Wife 3.7: Peter v. Will ...  Dexter's Sister on The Good Wife 3.10  ... The Good Wife 3.12: Two Suits  ... The Good Wife 3.13 Meets Murder on the Orient Express ... The Good Wife 3.15: Will and Baseball

And see also  The Good Wife Starts Second Season on CBS ... The Good Wife 2.2: Lou Dobbs, Joe Trippi, and Obama Girl ... The Good Wife 2.4: Surprise Candidate, Intimate Interpsonal Distance ... The Good Wife 2.9 Takes on Capital Punishment ... The Good Wife 2.16: Information Wars