The End of the American Dream recently took apart two of the FBI’s infamous “look for a terrorist under every bed” brochures. You know, the ones that tell members of different professions whom they should report to the fedgov. In this case, one is a literal “look under the bed,” since the brochure in question addresses all us EEEEEvil terrorists who might be checking into hotels and motels. But as frequent-contributor MJR discovered, all manner of professions get their own terrorist-hunting help from the fibbies. (The differences and similarities between the flyers are fascinating.) Among other things, tattoo artists —…
Category: Government
Government evils — but I repeat myself
The recent, much touted not-actually-so-good news on jobs, gets an appropriate answer from Abbott and Costello. (H/T M.)
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…
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 newspaper that said, “Up yours” to the Internet. A bit of good news from the Supremes — though (typically) it may not mean much in practice. This Saturday is Data Privacy Day. Though since it was declared such by Congress, it may not mean much in practice, either. Good one, MamaLiberty. Did those guys in the SUV really have curly earpieces, too? LOL. Two lessons from the Megaupload seizure. Big lessons. May God (if any) keep and preserve Glenn Greenwald. Simon Black echoes the sentiments. “Another reason to homeschool,” sez D, who sent this link. What kind of screwed-up…
The crisis takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you would have thought …. It took forever and then it took a night.” — Dr. Rudiger Dornbusch The people who make wars, the people who reduce their fellows to slavery, the people who kill and torture and tell lies in the name of their sacred causes, the really evil people in a word – these are never the publicans and the sinners. No, they’re the virtuous, respectable men, who have the finest feelings, the best brains, the noblest ideals. — Aldous…
I just heard from Dave Duffy, who posted this on his blog. Backwoods Home’s website will go dark for 12 hours tomorrow, Wednesday, January 18 — joining Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla, and other sites to demonstrate what the Internet would look like under the rule of SOPA, PIPA, and the evil cabal of government and its crony corporate owners. I wish we’d had more time to make the announcement, but my heart cheered when I got Dave’s email. See you after the blackout! Under the reign of crony censorship, that might not be the case. —– I’ll save Wednesday’s planned blog…
Not that I think jail is a sensible solution for anything here. But imagine if every government VIP whose projects went wrong were treated like this. “Does America Now Qualify as a Police State?” Well now, there’s a no-brainer … But inventiveness never ceases to amaze. Bush war crimes under investigation. Not in the U.S., of course. Even “Raging Grannies” are against SOPA now. Its House and Senate (PIPA) sponsors have blinked. Not good enough, still. But progress. Hey, what about the poor dog’s privacy? (Tip o’ hat to JB.) Ron Paul money bomb for South Carolina still going strong.…
Today from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Central Time, Oathkeepers founder Stewart Rhodes and friends will be giving a LiveStreaming presentation on the modern Intolerable Acts. That’s the NDAA, the proposed Enemy Expatriation Act, and related monstrosities like the USA-UNPatriot Act. Though no force on the planet could get me to sit still to watch four hours of streaming video, and my cynical and anarchistic old heart doesn’t believe in the constitutional governance these folks hope to restore, I think this will be interesting. Most of all, I like (in a terribly sad way, of course) the meme that these…