Dan Brown’s got a new potboiler coming out. I like Dan Brown. I wish I could boil the pot like he does. Critics disagree. One says so in a familiar voice. 🙂 Almost a neighbor. Glad he’s not quite. Yet another judge fails to grasp the Fourth Amendment. (H/T JJ) Travis (TJIC) Corcoran’s upcoming novel sounds intriguing. I’d think so even if he didn’t take my name in vain in his trendy self-interview thingie. The Escherian stairwell 😉 Okay, so we’ve all heard about how the IRS illegally targeted tea party and related groups around the 2012 election. And they…
Author: Claire
David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” From a unique perspective. Performed by an actual astronaut in actual outer space. Source for those who can’t see the embed.
Back in the 1990s, the Clinton administration tried to snuff out PGP using the very same obscure regulation it’s wielding against Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed now. Yes, PGP was (and IIRC, still is) a “munition.” The regs didn’t change; the fedgov just knew that was a battle it was going to lose so it backed off. Encryption is everywhere and Phil Zimmerman is a free man. But nothing’s new under the sun reeking pall of Mordor. Now a new generation of regulators — and a new anti-gun president who has vowed to take covert action against firearms if he…
State Department demands Defense Distributed take down files. From Forbes: On Thursday, Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson received a letter from the State Department Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance demanding that he take down the online blueprints for the 3D-printable “Liberator” handgun that his group released Monday, along with nine other 3D-printable firearms components hosted on the group’s website Defcad.org. The government says it wants to review the files for compliance with arms export control laws known as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR. By uploading the weapons files to the Internet and allowing them to be…
Her brother blew himself away with a shotgun on this date. Her anti-gun “friend” wants her to suffer — and hate the gun. She suffers — but knows better than to blame an inanimate object.
Or maybe I don’t. But one of the most vocal Sandy Hook gun controllers has apparently been writing bad checks all over town. It’s awful that Neil Heslin lost his son so tragically. But it’s equally awful that he wants to use that to demolish the rights and safety of millions of good people. He should clean his own house before he tries to make criminals out of the rest of us. —– ADDED: Turns out that writing bad checks is merely one little blip in a long pattern of criminality for Mr. Heslin. Whotta rap sheet this fella has!
Secret to a long life. Heck, even if you “only” live to be 95 instead of 105, you’ll still probably enjoy life more. The health nannies are gonna hate this one.
… which all have to do with science, science fiction, medicine, or technology today … “Open up and say ‘neigh’” — how horses can help teach young doctors to have a better bedside manner. (Tip o’ hat to ML.) I thought he’d died decades ago. No, but that was his compatriot Janos Prohaska. Farewell, Ray Harryhausen, FX pioneer. I’ll bet the words “dog” and “cat” were among those our prehistoric ancestors bequeathed us. … Those ancestors now under the sea? So, is the movie of Ender’s Game going to be good? The trailer has possibilities. But I was never a…
Emailing the other day, a friend happened to drop a great phrase: “whoever, or whatever, is masquerading as Uncle Sam” (unstated but implied was “at the moment”). I thought, now there’s a phrase with the power to wake some sleepy folks. We like to go on about the capital-F Founders. Some people talk as if America was their living, breathing gift to us. In a way, it was of course — the idea and the ideal. But the actual, practical thing those Founders bequeathed us was a mere corporate shell. A shell in the shape of a constitution and institutions.…
I think this makes me the 3,456th gunblogger to “announce” Defense Distributed’s proudest new achievement, The Liberator. Although their video pairs it with images of the Liberator bomber, we know which WWII equipment they really named it after. I believe I’m also the 1,274th blogger to immediately think (if not immediately say), “You can’t stop the signal!” And you can’t, you know. Nobody can. I think Cody Wilson is a brave genius — who’s cruising for a terrible fed-bruising and who’ll deserve our ardent support (and contributions to his legal defense fund) when it comes. I think the hysteria about…