Angry man pours gasoline on himself. Police arrive. One guess: What does a genius cop do? (Tip o’ hat to P.T.) Intelligent, up-to-date discussion of the Japanese nuclear plant at The Mental Militia Forums. (Tip o’ hat to S.) An era has truly ended. Augustus Owsley Stanley, III is dead. For a brief, shining time, Purple Owsley was the holy grail of psychedelics. Oh yeah, and there was that band he was involved with, too. Oh lord. You know I’m for creators’ rights. But the government version is getting crazier and more Draconian by the day. Absurd. Government by and…
Category: Government
Government evils — but I repeat myself
Eighty-five-year-old sniper still has it. Geez, this seems like the last thing anybody should be thinking about right now. Dumb criminal of the day. He does have a point, though. The lady might be armed. (Tip o’ hat to Rational Review News.) Once again, Massachusetts proudly leads the way. Eejits. (Tip o’ hat to S.) Slowly, the states begin to defy the Fed’s funny money. Yeah, this is just a token gesture. But still … (Tip o’ hat to MH.) This is a token gesture, too. But ya gotta love it. ObamaCare waivers. For everybody. Granted this conference took place…
One of the things I hate, hate, hate about being aware is that every time you think you’ve heard it all, that you’re as cynical as you can get, that no level of governmental depravity could possibly surprise you … you learn something new. Something worse. Sometimes it’s just a little thing you can laugh off. Like Newt Gingrich expecting Christian broadcasters to believe that he cheated on his wives out of patriotism. Or, for that matter hearing commentators claim with straight face that Newt Gingrich is the R-party’s great intellectual light. I mean, you hear these things and it…
Cass Sunstein, Obama admin regulatory czar and longtime Obama advisor, is one of the scariest men alive — and not least because he has the Orwellian gall to claim that his brand of uber-statism is actually … gak! … libertarian. Jim Bovard kicks Sunstein’s backside. The Sunsteinian doctrine in a nutshell: All rights come from government, and your right to free speech or self-defense is no more fundamental than some other guy’s “right” to a cushy job, a comfy house, guaranteed medical care, etc. On the contrary …
From a businessman friend who lives in one of those mega-governed states. He sent the following this morning with permission to blog it: One of my clients is developing alternative energy technology. They actually have a pretty good idea, one that might work and be profitable. They built a proof of concept, small-sized version of their product. Now it is time to build a larger one. I suggested they look at a nearby industrial park. It has the power, the space, and a landlord with lots of free space to rent. Everything looked good until they asked about putting up…
I’m reading The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout. The book is about how to recognize and deal with the sort of everyday monster who won’t stab you with a knife but will stab you in the back at work, cut you off at the knees in your endeavors, or be a murderously awful family member or neighbor. Having gotten close to way too many sociopaths in my younger and dumber years, I’m well armored against the type (knock wood). Still, Stout’s book does have some good information, including reports on recent brain studies of sociopaths. Perhaps the most useful…
Speaking of creepazoid tactics beloved of governments: I’m not sure why Rolling Stone is so scandalized that the U.S. Army in Afghanistan used PsyOps to try to manipulate senators and other power-mongers into sending more troops and more taxbux. I mean, seriously now. It’s illegal. It’s a waste of money. It’s a sneaky attempt to gain more power and influence. It’s business as usual! Where exactly is the news here??? Oh. Maybe the idea that government officials actually have brains to be manipulated? Otherwise, can’t imagine …
Ars Technica has a chilling take on how HBGary — the “security” company that sought to expose Anonymous and ended up getting exposed themselves — wrote backdoors for the fedgov. The article is long and technical, but it gives a shudder-inducing glimpse into one tiny corner of the vast paranoid-industrial complex that’s metastasizing around government.
“Confessions of a Spendaholic.” How to curb compulsive spending. (And that’s not just for people who have closets full of shoes they never wear. Even thrift-store impulses can bite you. Ask me how I know.) Turns out that drug-dog and bomb-dog handlers are unconsciously signaling the animals to produce false positives. That’s aside from the ones who do it deliberately. ADDED: Radley Balko has more on this study and others that show how cop-canine interaction is used to hurt the innocent. “Dogs must be banned from all public places!” (Never fear: spoken with tongue firmly in cheek.) Still, the Brits…
It was wickedly funny when Anonymous hacked the computer system of HBGary after the CEO of subsidiary HBGary Federal, Aaron Barr, boasted that he “pwned” Anonymous and was going to expose their identities. Barr, it appears, was a publicity-seeking, fed-contract-seeking fool who got a grand comeuppance, and parent company HBGary was exposed as being the most laughably insecure “security” company on the planet. (So far.) But since Anonymous put its captured HBGary documents online, the story has gotten thicker and stranger, and the links revealed between the various Gary companies, the feds, and other powerful DC organizations are downright sinister.…