What people suffered and what we learned. (But there’s been worse than these — far worse — when nobody was around to record the history.) Article is from 2006, but timeless.
2 CommentsMonth: May 2014
Starting off with a smile: The Swiss Reaper. Not so funny: Bovard on the “soft racism” of setting lower expectations for minorities in the classroom. Ugh. Heck, if they were going to ban the poster, it should have been for stupid gun handling, not the shadow of a nipple. (Mildly NSFW.) Suit says V.A. cops stomped on an old vet’s head because he was tired of waiting for treatment. Well, that’s one way to get rid of pesky, resource-consuming patients. You don’t even have to take the time for “death panels.” The Shawshank Residuals. Well deserved. When Earth had two…
12 CommentsNobody seems sure what’s going on, not even the spectacularly well-informed Bruce Schneier. But TrueCrypt, the whole-disc encryption program many have relied on for a decade, has either been mysteriously compromised or somebody’s pulled off a hoax. Brian Krebs thinks it’s the real deal and that the secretive TrueCrypt team is sending us all a warning. As some have pointed out, the cryptic “official” announcement that “TrueCrypt is not secure as it may contain unfixed security issues …” could be read as “Not Secure As …” Let’s hope for a hoax. TrueCrypt being subverted would be a major heartbreaker. And…
10 CommentsIs is ominous that these two stories came out within days of each other? Pills containing tracking chips are now being tested on real people. (H/T Wendy) The fedgov is creating a “biosurveillance” system to gain near real-time access to our medical records. In the name of “national security,” of course. And is it even more ominous that these plans are moving ahead just as the fedgov consolidates its control over the U.S. entire U.S. medical system?
9 CommentsGibson Guitar CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, gives his side of the story on how his company got infamously SWATted without even a hint from the feds that they might be doing anything wrong. And here’s a podcast with Juszkiewicz and Three Felonies A Day attorney/author Harvey Silverglate.
4 CommentsApparently neither the Fourth nor the Second Amendment apply when it’s for your own good. (H/T PB from comments.) The real problem, of course, would be solved by getting rid of government schools and all their rigid one-size-fits-allism. Still, this short video is an interesting analysis of what’s being done to boys. And to society’s future. (H/T MJR) Related to the story Gunny alerted us to the other day, the intended target in that Texas case has been ordered to recant her statements to the press. As a condition of parole. Can you spell “First amendment abuse”? What if female…
6 CommentsI don’t usually “do” holidays, except Thanksgiving. But here are a pair of truly touching stories, one for today, and one (though it was just published), for the Mothers Day just passed. War dog helps the family of the soldier he served with. An old man with Alzheimers, two caring cops, and a happy ending. (H/T ML for the smile.)
1 CommentMaybe he really was mentally ill. Who knows? But I’ll also bet that the latest publicity-seeking member of the self-esteem generation, this “supreme gentleman,” this “god,” had his every whim indulged from the day he was born. Mas Ayoob takes him down. So many, many questions. If “the NRA” is responsible for the three he shot, then who was responsible for the three he stabbed? And if “the NRA” is responsible for the stabbings, too, then who’s responsible for the fact that “authorities” repeatedly ignored the content of the little creep’s videos and apparently did nothing to discover whether this…
14 CommentsThat there in the foreground is “Saintly Syrup,” pure maple syrup made (so I gather) as a fundraiser for a church in the upper midwest. It arrived last week in a Big Box O’ Stuff, including the unsaintly (but equally welcome, and equally midwestern) Bloody Mary Mix you see behind. So cool! I knew my correspondent had been spending his snowy spring weekends maple sugaring — but I had no idea he was doing it for a charitable cause. And though he’d hinted I might see a little of the bounty, I was never expecting a precious quart. That’s a…
6 CommentsFor the first time, the heroic Ladar Levison tells the details of why he had to shut down Lavabit rather than betray his customers. The “saddest tourist destination” in America just got worse because of the evil it’s trying to perpetrate against an innocent man. Shades of Kelo. And speaking of governments perpetrating evils against the innocent … (H/T and thanks to JTLaB) Kurt Hofmann gives it good and hard to the tyranno-cop who claimed police militarization was needed because of those non-existent rising rates of violent crime. And to fight American military veterans. Those Texas open-carry activists whose tactics…
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