Twenty open tabs in three browsers on two computers. I read and think about last week’s shocking-but-utterly-unsurprising revelations about NSA snoopery. A thousand thoughts run through my head but not a single word makes its way into electrons. No, it’s no surprise at all that a government agency that was created in secret and is still called “No Such Agency” now reigns so powerful — and will continue to dominate presidents and congresses, no matter who elects them or what letters they have after their names. It’s also no surprise that not a single MSM news source mentions the Fourth…
Category: Government
Government evils — but I repeat myself
Anybody who grew up in a dysfunctional family knows one of the cardinal rules: The person who mentions a problem is the person who caused the problem. Let some low-on-the-family-totem-pole person raise a destructive issue that’s hidden in plain sight and all hell breaks loose. No, the family doesn’t suddenly wake up and say, “OMG, you’re right. We have to do something about that!” Instead, everyone within earshot rounds on the poor sap who dared mention the family secret and the bullying begins: “Why are you always such a troublemaker?” “If you’d just learn to keep your mouth shut, everything…
I haven’t been at the computer much today. Have actually had Things To Do and a Life To Live. But several times in my very brief newsly perusals, I’ve encountered the oh-so-shocked question: “Did Holder Lie Under Oath?” The question always leads to this or something like it — Our Esteemed Attorney General denying all knowledge of targeting any reporter under the handy-dandy (to tyrants) 1917 Espionage Act just days before getting caught doing exactly that. He personally signed the warrant to go after Fox Newsy James Rosen as a “co-conspirator” in the supposed espionage. It’s not the targeting of…
Well, isn’t that cozy? A top Obama donor is the founder and CEO of a company that will soon control about one half of all medical data on Americans. She’s 85. Just graduated from college. And already has herself a job. Ray Manzarek is dead. Jim Morrison might have gotten most of the press, but Manzarek was the real genius behind the haunting sound of The Doors. “Some of my best friends are germs.” Long, but fascinating. Maybe a leisurely weekend read.(H/T S) You see the wonderful thing about equality for women? We get equal opportunities for political corruption —…
Lessons from the singing spaceman (and a reminder of how only NASA could ever have made outer space so darned dull). Beretta says bye-bye Maryland. The Lulz Liberator. This one was made on a cheaper printer, fired multiple shots, and has a rifled barrel. Nope, you really can’t stop the signal. “We’ve comforted ourselves in all of this with the belief that, while government might potentially have all of this power, it would rarely use it or that, when it did, its use would be well-intentioned and circumscribed. Plus we had rules and systems to stop any abuse: The Bill…
With the veritable plethora* of scandals abounding now in Obama’s DC, it’s fun wondering which will become the Scandal du Jour — that is, the one that’ll last more than a week. No, the scandal that lasts won’t be the horrendous treatment of prisoners in Gitmo or the slaughter of children via drones. Though both are outrages of war-crime proportions, those are just the usual ho-hummers. No doubt most Americans wish more furrin’ kids would be blown to smithereens and would rejoice if everybody in Gitmo were waterboarded six times a day. Will the lasting scandal be Benghazi? Probably not.…
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…
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…
No fair! How come the CIA doesn’t deliver bags of cash to me? I’m sure I could stay bought at least as well as the typical third-world puppet. (We all know those standards aren’t too high.) It’s a sure thing I could find some cronies to share the loot with. Heck, I’d probably have cronies crawling out of the woodwork as soon as they learned I was the source of buckets of untraceable dollars. I’ll bet I could even find a warlord or two to fund. So why not me? Why not you? But since it’s not us, I’d like…
Well, more honest than certain modern counterfeiters we all know and love. Over the weekend, Snopes.com brought up the charming, touching (and true) tale of “Mr. 880,” whose perfectly awful counterfeit $1.00 bills stymied the Secret Service for 10 full years. Must be a lesson in there somewhere … Source for those who can’t see the embedded video. And here’s another account of Mr. 880’s story, with an ending that sounds just a little too good to be true.