“Sorry folks, Independence Day is canceled.” But on the other hand, America isn’t becoming more liberal. It’s becoming more libertarian. (H/T MJR) Now, if only the message could get through to our growing corps of social justice warriors, inflexible bureaucrats, authoritarian congressthings, thuggish cops, etc.
Category: Government
Government evils — but I repeat myself
Oh, so very much boo-hoo-hoo. Former Russian spy (and crook) claims he got screwed by the dishonorable FBI after he defected. “Passive Congress, Communist President, Active Supremes.” So what else is new? Exactly my opinion of nature. ICANN and Hollywood are joining forces to try to end domain privacy. And via Brad at WendyMcElroy.com comes word that Google is now trying to out-NSA the NSA by secretly planting listening devices on our computers via its Chrome browser (and even the open source Chromium version). You, too, can build your own drone. In under 30 minutes, so they say.
Was thinking this morning — no idea why — about a friend who was once arrested on the absolutely magnificent (and no doubt Victorian) charge of “tending to lead an idle, lewd, and dissolute life.” A kind of catch-all charge, I gather, for underage kids who weren’t actually caught in any specific act, but who were nevertheless up to no good. A 17-year-old high school senior, he was busted at a college party where drugs figured heavily. Apparently that high-flown charge was originally invented by reformists committed to the belief that minors were salvageable and as yet incapable of actually…
Until recently, I believed Joel was the only one among us who intended to betray the revolution and become dictator for life.* However, it now appears that others harbor this secret not-so-secret ambition. Just this week (while addressing the hotly subversive topic of pink plastic flamingos**), Commentariat member A.G. weighed in, dubiously claiming benevolent intentions, followed by Dana, who announced a more comprehensive agenda to open his term as dictator for life.*** That got me wondering. How many more intend to betray the revolution and become DfL? Good heavens, it’s possible the field is as crowded**** as the Republican and…
More surprises from the most transparent administration in history. That DoJ gag order against Reason was even more unreasonable than it seemed. Though I gasp at his apparent belief that U.S. cops aren’t hardass enough, Kevin D. Williamson is once again perspicacious. He says we’re seeing “peak leftism.” We can surely hope so, because if the current crop of ranters and banners goes much farther, we’ll end up with full-blown fascism. Drug addiction: It isn’t what we’ve been told. (This book by the writer of that article looks like a must read: Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days…
How will we ever survive without our precious national raisin reserve? And from the same government that confiscates farmers’ raisins, we now have the mad attempt to force rich suburbs to accommodate poor minorities. Your neighborhood is racist if it doesn’t comply. No wonder more states are quietly rebelling against the federal control of all things. Here’s one more small rebellion. (H/T L.A.) How one criminal with an obsession discovered and revealed the obnoxious, illegal Stingray program. (Yes, “they” really were “beaming rays” into his house.) “Same sex marriage, Tolerance, MYOB, Get Off My Lawn & the Constitution.” Seventeen years…
You thought maybe the TSA was the fedgov’s worst example of idiotic “security”? Hey, at least the TSA puts on an impressive pretense. OTOH, it appears that the Office of Personnel Management actually gave root access for all those now-hacked personnel files to contractors in Argentina and … yes, here it comes: China. How Orange is the New Black misrepresents women’s federal prisons. Yes, but it’s a good show. And the memoir it’s based on is even better. More lesbian sex in the Netflix version, but the horror of petty people in power comes across even more strongly in the…
Nicki aims both barrels at one Dr. Rosen who imagines himself qualified to instruct patients in the use (or non-use) of firearms. And Nicki notes the various new attempts to eliminate guns and gun owners without actually attempting any unpopular banning. Then Y.B. ben Avraham writes about the rabid “boycott, divest, and sanction” movement that’s the latest respectable facade for hatred of Jews. Yes, you can have issues with Israel and a state without animosity toward Jews; but as Y.B. reveals, that’s not what BDS is about.
If somebody in private enterprise did this — let alone did it again and again — heads would roll, congressthings would hotly hold hearings, new regulations would strangle business, and the fedgov would mutter about the need to take over entire fields. But … oopsie! (H/T MJR) Here’s one more for the “one term in office and one in jail” concept of term limits. Better yet, former Honorable Speaker Hastert is going down not for some real crime, but for one of those faux crimes that Congress itself invented. “In praise of uncertainty.” The art of running from the police.…
“How Baltimore Became Pottersville.” Bovard riffs on the glories of HUD. Why Mozilla’s decision to attempt to push all sites from http to https