Britain formally outlaws its ID card scheme and prepares to destroy the associated databases. Yay, Britain! Getting your friends and family members to take the red pill. The video linked at the end of the article is visually deadly, but makes good listening while playing solitaire. Not too many surprises for awarefolk, and it weasels its way into a sales pitch at the end. But it gives clear info for newbies. A friend mentioned this old Hardyville column the other day. I’d forgotten ever writing it. Good for a laugh, I suppose. And it really is mostly true. Happened to…
Author: Claire
That’s what I was going to call this post: Why the hell would anybody want to be free? Yes, the question would have been rhetorical and no I don’t mean I’m thinking of taking up communism or nihilism instead of the freedomquest. But seriously. You know from experience that being a freedomista often brings you grief. You get the sorrow of watching your country go to hell. The agony of knowing your children will have it worse than you do. You have to put up with the sneers or uncomprehending stares of people who don’t want to hear perfectly sensible…
Just returned from the post office with the first-arriving Amazon wish list gifts. WhooHoo! But my woohoos were muted by the fact that I still don’t know whom to thank. Amazon hasn’t revealed the gift-givers, but I figured the packages would contain that info. Nope. 🙁 Today’s gifts were for the pups. I already know the giver of the bounteous bag of tennis balls, thank you MS Jordan. But who sent the wonderful Kong Wubba? All three dogs started jumping the moment I opened it, but this is going to be the special toy for Nadja. Poor Nadja is a…
I recently turned in a S.W.A.T article about hapless small business people who got entrapped into (allegedly and unknowingly) bribing officials of an Unnamed African Nation. They’re all facing ruin and prison time. So. Halliburton has now paid $250 million to Nigerian officials to get charges dropped against Dick Cheney. Okay, FBI, where are you when serious bribery is going down??? The really sad thing is that the current article I’m working on for that ‘zine covers exactly the same sort of shakedown and payoff being committed by a corrupt government (but I repeat myself) right here in the U.S.…
Shortly I’ll be shutting down the computer to enjoy a sunset-to-sunset sabbath. (You don’t have the be Jewish …) Light candles. Drink wine. Enjoy peace. Give thanks. Remember things that matter. Before I close the computer for the night — First thanks go to YOU. Once again, I don’t yet know what names to put to the thanks. I wish I did. Amazon hasn’t told me so far. But I see so much bounty pouring in from my wish list — apricots! And more apricots! And wonderful movies. And the coolest flashlight I’ve run into this season. And a dog…
First thing: Many thanks to K. and M. whose PayPal donations made my day. And — I don’t know whom to thank for this because Amazon isn’t yet telling — but I see apricots in my future. 🙂 I’ve had too few apricots in my recent past — and one can never have too many of the little beauties in one’s future. Now on with the ranting, raving, giggling, snorting, news reporting, and other distractions of the day: Did you hear the one about the anti-gun legislator who shot an intruder in his home? (Yes, another one of those hypocritical…
This hasn’t been verified. Could the FBI really put a backdoor into an open-source operating system — and have it go unnoticed for 10 years? Seems dubious. Isn’t a major point of open-source that thousands of geeks can freely examine the code to find and correct bugs, bad coding — and backdoors? In any case, hats off to Theo de Raadt for immediately taking the accusation public. As the creator of OpenBSD, he has as much to lose as anybody. But he’s obviously got a boatload of integrity, too. “A fresh Gallup Poll released this morning reveals that somehow 13%…
Happy Bill of Rights Day. Gotta admit, it was a good darned try. BoR “Lite.” BoR more hardcore. And here’s Jim Bovard’s proposal for making this Anti-Politician Day. Well, that’s a natural. But Jim — a constitutional amendment to make pols obey the Constitution??? I hope you wrote that with a little winking smileyface next to it. OTOH, maybe you should keep a low profile today. Or you might become a “grave threat” like this. Or
It’s that time again. If you’ve got a few spare FRNs, it might be nice to stop right now while you’re thinking about it and throw a few in one or more of these directions: WikiLeaks: You know why they need — and deserve — it. For now this URL and these methods still work — although your credit card may not cooperate thanks to government terror tactics and general cravenness. ADDED: The Bradley Manning Defense Fund. He’s being treated monstrously. Rational Review News, the freedom movement’s daily newspaper. Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Though they’re located in Utah, they help…
A couple of people asked how they can give me a Christmas present. So I’m posting some ways: 1. My Amazon.com wish list. Other Claire Wolfes (Wolves?) have Amazon wish lists. But if you see the one that has California dried apricots, DVDs, knitting books, dog books, anarchist books, and (of course) cool flashlights … you can be pretty sure you’ve got the right one. 2. Send money via PayPal. Click the button, and fill in any amount you wish. “Donate” was the most appropriate button they had. While I’m not a charity, I am a good cause. 🙂 3.…