- Was “bad training” responsible for Jeronimo Yanez murdering Philando Castile? this article by David Kopel is good, as always. But “bad training” doesn’t excuse the “reasonably scared cop” rule.
- Now here’s a cop who would surely be drummed out of any militarized U.S. police force. Good thing he works in Thailand.
- The harm of unpaid internships (especially for “creatives,” whose work tends to be undervalued both by potential employers and ourselves).
- I’m not sure how this works, but it appears hope is not dead for a distributed, privacy-respecting Internet. One which theoretically enables us to “own” our personal data. We shall see …
- Unusual ways the fedgov may be watching gun owners.
- And to go along with that, how the CIA infected air-gapped networks with malware.
- New Englanders (and I suspect eventually many of us Elsewhereites): disease-bearing ticks are on the rise. (H/T MJ)
- Next time you’re tempted to call 911 for help with a toddler accidentally and momentarily locked in a vehicle, think twice. Or lawyer up first.
- I once thought he might be the greatest actor in the world. Then along came Captain Jack Sparrow and Johnny Depp became merely one of the richest and most self-indulgent ego-driven stars in the Hollywood firmament. Now he’s simply another moviestar moron
- Oh well. Have some cats using dogs as pillows. (Love the photoshopped meme the final photo has become.)
- Finally, just another reminder to go check out “my” F*c*b**k page — which isn’t mine at all, but is maintained by a faithful friend who’s posted some particularly funny stuff lately.
Two comments. The first is about the ways Fedgov spies on gun owners. They do everything they can to spy on lawful citizens with guns. Which is why even at a gun show where things are ‘relatively’ anonymous, I use either cash or prepaid credit cards to purchase anything at all, and most of what I buy there is either ‘kit’ or ammo. It’s also why I normally try to buy guns from private owners – also with cash – instead of gun stores or shows. The less they know about what I’m doing the better I feel about it. I may have nothing to hide, but they have no business getting in my business, so I make it as hard for them as I can. At some point, the budget approval requirement will stop snooping.
Second, re: the Philando Castile killing, cops scare the heck out of me. Not as neighbors or friends or relatives (I have all three), but in any encounter on the streets or highways. They do have the guns, which implies they have the ability to kill me. They are often over-tired or over-caffeinated, either of which could get me killed by a bad decision. If they have partners, they may lie to protect each other. And they have badges, which gives any action they take an assumed ‘right decision’ imprimatur of the state itself in a courtroom – assuming I survive to sue. And I carry weapons, which some officers apparently find offensive.
In fairness, I have to say I’ve never had a real problem with a cop. I even have offers of ‘help if I even need it’ from two. But still, things like the Castile murder make me feel very dicey about who may be pulling me over on the road, so I do things like roll down all the windows, turn on the inside lights if it’s night, killing the engine and keeping both hands up on the steering wheel until the cop gets to the window. So far I’ve never been in any more trouble than a ticket. Whew!
OK, my bad, but I have a third comment. Re: Johnny Depp. I love his work, but he too should stop politicizing his opinions. And to even obliquely suggest someone shoot a sitting POTUS is beyond acceptable. So, I would suggest to ALL ‘non-liberals’, that we tear a page out of the Snowflake Bible (aka Rules for Radicals). We can call our local cinemas and tell them that if they book Depp’s new movie to show, we’ll stay out of their cinema and keep our kids out for a full year at least. That tactic has been used heavily by the lefties – they got O’Reilly fired with it, for example.
RE: Child locked in car for 15 minutes
Not only did they get the cops involved, someone called for an ambulance. And they took the kid to the hospital.
How much is this going to cost? Ticket plus fees, broken window, EMT, hospital emergency room.
Blockstack: Interesting. I think. _IF_ I understand what they’re doing, they
1. Replace the centralized Domain Name System with a blockchain distributed database (like Bitcoin).
2. Replace certificates with ownership keys implicit in the blockchain.
3. Put websites on distributed — cloud — storage (sort of like Amazon S3, with a twist).
When browsing, your browser would do an IP lookup. Now, that’s a check of the DNS. In Blockstack, you’d check the BNS, which is the blockchain equivalent.
The blockchain data will point you to a peer-to-peer (P2P) network that contains the actual “routing” data to steer you to the cloud server(s) for the web site.
The web site is scattered across cloud storage, with the “address” for any given bit of info in the P2P network.
BNS gives address to P2P locations of detailed addresses on cloud servers.
This gets rid of gov-manipulated DNS servers and makes the name system decentralized. No one person can alter it, and it has far more redundacy to prevent name server failures from taking down the ‘Net. You’d have to be the owner of the BNS name to change data. Data is distributed, so the NSA can’t hack into one service and suck it clean.
They claim to be addressing speed and latency issues, but I think it’s going to be inherently slower than current/conventional systems. As the ‘Net continually gets more bandwidth, that might not be a noticeable (at the human user level) problem.
I’m less sure of the security aspect, at the gov level. This will deter a lot of freelance black hats, but I still don’t see what’s to stop the NSA from becoming a blockchain miner (the folks who verify and distribute the blockchain for lookups). They’d have trouble arbitrarily _changing_ someone’s entry (i.e.- stuff like redirecting traffic to a fake site), but they’d be able to see all the addressing to the P2P network. If they’re also part of the P2P, they’d be able to see where all the data is and suck it up. It would just take a little longer than it does now.
Does anyone more knowledgeable about this stuff know if I’ve got the basics? It’s outside of my area of expertise, and I just read the introductory white paper.
non-cops don’t understand what it’s like to live in constant fear of death, which is why we are not entitled to judge them.
It would be interesting to compare statistics on cops killed pulling over black males, and black males killed while being pulled over, to see which has the most reason to fear death.
Read history. There’s only one list. Everybody’s on it.
There are a lot of unarmed, politically-correct, social justice warrior intellectuals who are going to be almighty surprised when they find themselves in the same camp where freedomistas are held.
“Read history. There’s only one list. Everybody’s on it.”
I am so stealing that line, with credit to you of course, for my signature line over at Claire’s Cabal.
BTW, the Cabal is hoppin’ right now. If you’re a member and haven’t dropped by in a while, this is a good time. If you’re not a member but want to be, contact me.
http://www.clairescabal.com/
The article on unpaid interns reminded me of this: http://www.27bslash6.com/p2p2.html
Um, just who is entitled to judge cops, in your opinion, Larry? Saying only cops can judge cops, is kind of like letting coyotes judge coyotes for killing sheep, don’tca think? If they can’t take the stress of ‘constant fear of death’ (debatable, based on conversations with the cops I know and knew), then they should find another line of work. Your statement seems like a prescription for wholesale murder of suspects in the streets, without any due process. But then we won’t need any ‘re-education’ camps, will we? And all we need do is hope the local LEOs like us better than they do the lefties.
Seriously, I’m not trying to start a peeing contest here, but I really disagree with your ‘we can’t judge cops’ statement. Seth Rich was supposedly stable, until 10 DC cops came into the room and kicked everybody out. Then he died with nobody but cops in the room. But we can’t ‘judge’ that? Gimme a break. Were they all in danger from a man with two bullet holes in him?
It’s not larryarnold’s statement, David. He’s quoting Scott Greenfield from one of my linked articles — and questioning Greenfield’s statement, I take:
http://blog.simplejustice.us/2017/06/22/lessons-of-philando-castile-and-the-reasonably-scared-cop-rule/
Oops. Apology to you both. I did not read all of the links, and apparently that’s one that I didn’t. It wasn’t clear to me that it was a quote – obviously. Duh! Feel free to delete my comment Claire, if you didn’t already.
David, maybe it will be your big mistake for the month. I’ve certainly done the same.
Claire, you’re welcome to it. I was remembering Vietnam, after we left them and the North took over. First in line for re-education were the professors and teachers, and I suspect many of them were not expecting it.
I wish I had more time for the Cabal. For some reason, lots of people want to learn to shoot. I don’t think it’s only because Texas is dropping the state fee for a license to carry from $140 to $40.
Thanks Larry. Very gracious of you to let me off so easily. Much appreciated. I hope it’s my big mistake for the month. I’ve made a few too many ‘big ones’ the last several decades…. Ha!
I’ve never really understood the “training” excuse, even though it appears fairly often. Are we all just supposed to not notice that we didn’t require any training to not be homicidal maniacs?
“I wish I had more time for the Cabal. For some reason, lots of people want to learn to shoot. I don’t think it’s only because Texas is dropping the state fee for a license to carry from $140 to $40.”
Good reason for being busy. 🙂 FWIW, one of the current threads at the Cabal is why you should always get professional firearms training — and what constitutes good training beyond the basics.
It’s not so much what the entertainment morons are saying that bothers me. The twisted crap that goes on in their heads is most terrifying – that and the drooling mobs who worship them.
One cop’s take on the Philando Castile shooting. A major point he makes is a very logical one; if police don’t take the initiative at an individual level to get proper training, there will be more of these. http://www.activeresponsetraining.net/the-philando-castile-shooting-and-some-advice-for-my-cop-readers
[…] h/t […]
“The president’s made it clear that we should denounce violence in all of its forms, and if we’re going to hold to that standard than we should agree that that standard should be universally applied,” Mr. Spicer said.
So, no more government then. Good deal!