We were all probably hoping and thinking that Glenn Greenwald and his partner David Miranda weren’t behaving stupidly while sending/transporting Snowden documents over international borders. Alas, perhaps they were. Even if you’re in major anti-news mode, you’ve probably heard about or seen Miley Cyrus’ grotesque “twerking” performance a few days back. The ‘Net has been full of tsking about the way “Hannah Montana” turned on her little-girl fans with her crude display of sexuality. But everybody’s missing the point, you see. It’s not that Cyrus’ performance was over-sexualized. It’s that it was racist! Yes. Seriously. Racist. I think this sets…
Category: Government
Government evils — but I repeat myself
Yikes. Sorry. I didn’t mean to be away from the blog this long. Expected to be back with you by Sunday afternoon, but each time I hoped to sit down at the computer, chaos piled on the chaos that was already piled on top of the chaos. And that on top of an Internet connection that’s extremely sketchy and drops entirely every five or 10 minutes. So give me a couple more days to really get coherent, please. By Wednesday I should also have a functioning ‘Net connection, too. Knock wood. Cross fingers. Throw salt over shoulder. Burn incense to…
… doubt no more. The government — and now the UberGovernment — is filled with idiots. Here’s an email (with names redacted) sent by a friend about one of their more less amusing stupidities: Dear Claire, We thought we were under scrutiny because of the words we use, but it turns out the FBI also don’t like the word “Subversion”. My firm (and probably 100,000 other small and large businesses) use the open-source software package Subversion to provide version control of documents and code. The idea of version control is alien to the uber-government, but ignorance has never deterred thugs.…
The last few days I’ve been doing physical labor, spending time in the sunshine, painting rooms — and thinking about America’s UberGovernment. It’s dawning on a lot more people that a government run by secret spymasters is illigitmate even by the most conventional, mainstream standards. Among freedomistas, even those like the folks at DownsizeDC — who are usually pretty polite, mainstream, and hopeful of working within the system — are talking last straws. Edward Snowden’s revelations of the NSA were a shock, though not a surprise. Now this week they’re followed by news of DEA operations that are top secret…
Okay, so here I am. Deadline met. Brief respite from this summer’s chronic busy-ness. Whew. I woke up in the dark this morning and sipped hot, sweet tea as I watched dawn creep in. Watching the world go from black to gray to subtle color has always been one of my favorite things. After months of barely noticing my surroundings, this quiet morning was especially welcome. —– But lounging around in my nightshirt sipping Ahmad English #1, however much a treat it may be for me, doesn’t make great blog fodder. Better blogitude comes from worse news: like the fedgov’s…
“And if he could just give up [his addiction to running for office], he could live a full, productive life as an internet sex freak!” “Predator student loans.” Why are so many commentaries so good at analyzing problems and so lame at naming real solutions? Your “representatives” like spying on you. Even when they aren’t personally allowed in on all your secrets. I guess we can comfort ourselves that the vote was at least impressively close. Oh yeah. Now this is a not-bright idea. In more ways than one. The other day we linked to economist and actor Ben Stein.…
Wow. I never thought I’d agree with Jimmy Carter about much of anything, let alone agree with him twice in one week. But if he actually said, “America has no functioning democracy at this moment” (referring to revelations of omni-snooping), then we are totally on the same radical track. The U.S. media didn’t cover the event where he made reportedly made the remark. But Der Spiegel, a decently reliable source, did. Think on it. A respected* former president of the U.S., a man of the party now in power, observes that his country is no longer of, by, and for…
… and why, although it fills us with frustrated outrage, it’s a time of hope. Oathkeeper Stewart Rhodes nails it. Absolutely nails it. He starts out talking about Adam Kokesh. But then … The more illegitimate and absurd the arbitrary rule of Leviathan, the more it violates our natural rights, the more it has to make examples out of anyone who dares to openly defy it by means of civil disobedience or nullification. You can, and should, expect more of this, and more severe examples. … There is now a large, and growing portion of the American people who correctly…
I’ve been struggling several days to find the right way to say something. Still haven’t gotten there. It would help to be drunk or stoned, I think. Words flow more freely then; connections connect more connectedly. But I’m as sober as a judge I usually am, which is a handicap. Partly, it’s that the thing I’m aiming to say is both huge and … nothing. Both burning with enormity and outrage … and a great big ho-hum. It would shock the bejabbers out of Joe Average (if Joe Average were willing to consider it), but most people reading this blog…
App to “geolocate dangerous guns and owners.” The reviews are the best part. Grate boocks four somer reeding. You know, I don’t usually write about golf. In fact, I doubt I’ve ever written about golf even once in my entire life. But oh wow, the Bubba Watson hovercraft golf cart is COOL! There are a lot of outrageous things about secret gummint spying. One of them is that we’re paying for what’s being done to us. Just in case you’re getting closer to being driven offshore. (H/T Sandy Sandfort, who’s as offshore as it gets.) The most stupifyingly boring video…