… also general tab clearing The specific, state-by-state insurance cost increases coming to you courtesy of Obamacare. (Not all states are listed; some, like mine, that have already made insurance unaffordable will see less impact.) “That’s not autism!” A touch of sanity. (Personal note: I have one severely autistic relative who cannot function in the world. I have another who is your basic typical introverted, socially non-adept geek who would today be diagnosed with Aspergers, though he is a fully — if quirkily — functioning person. “Autism spectrum” doesn’t begin to put these two meaningfully into the same category.) Ten…
Category: Guns and Gun Rights
Of course.
On the darker side It’s just theory and the technology of it is very much over my pretty little head. But Bruce Schneier notes that it’s possible to insert surveillance almost undetectably at the microchip level. More evidence that while the NSA may know what you’re doing, it has no idea what its own people are doing. The ACLU doesn’t come right out and call the FBI America’s secret police. But pretty close. Alas, they still imagine the agency might investigate and reform itself. (Via Sipsey Street) But of course, it’s all just okey-dokey-hunky-dory-nifty-zorch because none of it’s unconstitutional! On…
I’m lucky enough to have several friends who keep bees. At one apiary, they strive each year to come up with a clever label. In 2012 (which, as you recall, was the year the world ended), they had the Bee of Doom descending: But this year they outdid themselves. Their most productive hive was also the most protective hive. Although the humans eventually “won” and took the honey, the bees put up a battle worthy of … well, see for yourself: Note the extra “stingers” on those bees. —– I’ve blurred the name and location of their apiary for privacy…
The town of Deer Trail, Colorado, has already received requests (and checks) for 983 drone-hunting licenses — despite not yet having passed a license ordinance. Actually, they’ve gotten more than 983. That’s just where the town clerk stopped counting a couple weeks back.
Jackson county, Mississippi, sheriff Mike Byrd was apparently a typical corrupt cop. If the accusations are true, he used his power to get everything from free lawnmower repair to a murder indictment against an innocent man. Alas, there’s nothing unusual about that. What’s unusual is the way the Christian Science Monitor used Byrd as a tsk-tsking hook for an article about how terribly, terribly dangerous the patriot-supported power of the sheriff is. You know the belief: the sheriff, the highest elected law-enforcement officer, is therefore the highest law enforcer, period. And — in desperate times — that makes him the…
I confess that even though she and I are both considered Gunbloggers (she more than I, though she disputes her gunblogger status), Erin Palette really wasn’t on my radar. Not until yesterday when I noticed this graphic popping up across the gunblogosphere: Blogs like this one and this one and this one told part of the tale. But everybody stepped aside to let Erin Palette reveal what she has gathered the great courage to say about herself. I can’t add anything to what’s already been written. Erin Palette, you got guts. But Erin’s story is also a great testimony to…
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…