But enough bad news. Since it appears we’re going to the dogs in any case, we might as well enjoy ourselves. Agility competitions for pipsqueak pooches. A writer whose specialty is dogs is saved by one. (H/T for this one!) Forty-two St. Bernards. Plus one tot. Adorable, but I’d hate to be the one who had to clean that yard. (H/T M.) And you may remember the foster dog who came to me in need of surgery to correct a rare birth defect. Well, he got his operation courtesy of our wonderful local vet, went into a prison-pet program for…
Author: Claire
Offshore types are always advising us USians to get a second passport as a precaution against tyranny. I sympathize with this. As I’ve said before, if I were rich, I’d definitely have an offshore hidey-hole lined up, with all the real estate, bank accounts, and tricks of citizenship that that entails. But of course, that’s just the problem. Nearly all advice from the “get out while you can” crowd is directed at people who consider $500,000 to be spare change, not people who consider $500,000 to be some incomprehensible figure that can’t be totaled using any reasonable number of fingers…
If you’re going to the big game today I’m sure this’ll make you feel wonderful, no matter who wins or loses: hot dog vendors with the skills and proclivities of the TSA. Of course, if you turn out to be one of the “suspicious” attendees, you won’t feel good at all if they use one of these on you. (And here’s a video.) But it could be worse, you know. All of which got me to wondering how the fedgov would handle somebody like Lawnchair Larry today. Or for that matter, any of us. So if you’re going to do…
Well, so much for that itty bit that’s left of the First Amendment. Capitol cops arrest documentary filmmakers trying to film a public hearing. (Tip o’ hat to MJR.) Judge makes the right ruling for a change in the case of a cop who taped over his badge. Did you see this strange story about a 12-year-old girl being protected by lions? MamaLiberty, a firearms trainer (among her other skills), discusses thought processes, techniques, and legalities of armed self defense on the BrushFires of the Mind podcast. Apparently she’s becoming a regular for those of you who enjoy listening to…
If you read either Dave Duffy’s blog or Oliver Del Signore’s, you probably already know the saga of BHM senior editor John Silveira and his oddball classified ad. The ad, which appeared in BHM in 1997, became first an Internet meme and recently the basis of a movie, Safety Not Guaranteed. The film — a sort of sci-fi romantic comedy, I gather — premiered at Sundance last weekend to huge anticipation, sold-out houses, and critical raves. John was there and even earned himself a mention in some reviews. (Dave says John got applause from the audience, too.) The movie was…
Good for people who’ve suffered brain injuries that affect speech. Bad in the long run for privacy. National Geographic is usually pretty good. But it appears their new series, which starts next week, sets out only to portray us all as loons. So much for progress. (Tip o’ hat to H.) Here’s a perfect example of the long arm of the U.S. government. Might not agree with this guy 100%. But bless his noble heart. (Nice backgrounder on him, too.) I’ll soon be reading his book. And here’s another doctor with courage — though it may be too little, too…
I turn the blog over this morning to two commentors at Earthineer: Oilman2, who says that small farmers (and by extension many more of us) should opt out. And Earthineer founder Dan Adams who answers that we should opt in.
The strange birth of New York’s gun laws. Oooh, now this is cynical. And fraught with … well, just fraught. (Tip o’ hat to JB.) Darn. They’re ruining it for me! (Tip o’ hat to MJR.) At least Twitter is is trying to mitigate its consent to censorship. “Why Conservatives Should Be Libertarians.” The Barefoot Bandit will probably serve just under five years. Federal and state sentences to be concurrent. Seems a reasonable mercy — and with luck a chance for that bright but screwed-up boy to get his head together. (HT to PT.) A troop of gorillas visits a…
Meant to put this up Saturday morning as a weekend read. It’s a bit long, though a good one even for those of us who already know too much about the prison-state: “The Caging of America.”
Drones over NYC. If you thought SOPA was bad … Rutherford institute tells the Census Bureau to back the heck off. Ominous? Interesting? Ominously interesting. Ditto this: Punching holes in firewalls. How long would it take to break your password? You remember the good old random name generator, don’t you? This may be the best test I’ve seen of Internet invisibility. When I visited with JavaScript turned off (standard practice with unknown sites), it told me I was “very visible” in these days when most sites require JavaScript. But it didn’t tell me anything else. When I temporarily enabled JavaScript,…