Ha! There’s some nice road-rage poetic justice for ya. The pink police state. How the country becomes more authoritarian and rule-bound at the same time some personal behaviors become more “allowed.” Another scientific study that proves what’s blatantly obvious to dog people: dogs get jealous. (HRH Princess Ava Prettypaws has spent her whole life trying to insert herself between me and any other critter I ever pay attention to.) Radley Balko on victim disarmament and race. I’m so glad to see Radley’s vital work in the Washington Post. Aw, do poo widdle senator. Him suffering so much him dust had…
Category: Monkeywrenching
“I know where your cat has been.” Yes, even your cat pictures aren’t safe from Internet snoopers. It’s time for conservatives to stop defending the police. Actually, it’s way, way, way past time. But the article is still a good beginning. (H/T Sipsey Street) Sometimes early birds are too early. But ohboy do I understand wanting to “pick up the bucket” just to cross it off the to-do list. That was a monster body blow Obamacare took yesterday. Not likely to be fatal, though we can hope. I don’t know who did it or why. But the elaborate white-flag operation…
So, do you think Phil Zimmerman’s Blackphone will become the smartphone of smart people? Or …? It could become a crime in Washington state to help the NSA. Government contractors or workers providing electricity or water to an agency violating the Fourth Amendment would be criminals. (They ought to do this in Utah, where that hellish data center gobbles millions of gallons of precious dry-state water.) H/T PT Another of the many ways in which Obamacare is helping. Clever or creepy? Yeah, depends on who (or which alphabet soupers) get their hands on these snake, worm, and otherwise creepy-crawly robots.…
If you read nothing else today read “Things Not to Do” from the Raconteur Report. Then for heaven’s sake, don’t do them! ‘Cause you know, if you did, you might be an Outlaw. (Big tip o’ hat to someone who doesn’t want a H/T. I believe this also came via WRSA) People of goodwill. As opposed to politicians. In the year of Edward Snowden, Time’s Man of the Year is the pope??? More evidence of why the MSM is dying of cluelessness. First time I ever saw verification that anything labeled “organic” is is actually healthier. Makes sense here, though.…
When I heard that the NSA was not only gobbling up email, but also hacking address books by the millions, my first impulse … well, it wasn’t to laugh. But Carl-Bear, stepping into the breach, came up with a sweet little monkeywrench. This works because … wait for it … really … seriously the NSA can’t filter spam. You can filter spam. Your grandmother can filter spam. Thunderbird can filter spam. Everybody and his uncle’s ISP can filter spam. The NSA … not so much. So go. Monkeywrench away. Instead of abandoning Gmail and Hotmail and all those other snoop-ready…
Wired has the background on just what the fedspies did that prompted Ladar Levison to shut down the privacymail service, Lavabit. It was a heck of a principled thing Levison did, and a gutsy one, shutting down a service with 400,000 paying (including about 10k paying; correction from Steve in comments) customers rather than betray those who trusted him. We already knew that. What we didn’t know (among other things) was how he handled the fed demand when he was finally forced into a corner after a hard fight: The judge also rejected Lavabit’s motion to unseal the record. “This…
Jim smacked me with this Google screen-grab*: Anybody who’s ever met me or anybody who knows my famous camera-shyness knows that ain’t me. There’s another woman out there who shares my name and does some public speaking in her professional specialty (nursing, I think). She’s probably long rued her accidental Google connections with me. My first thought was, What? Is Google now just grabbing photos of any old Claire Wolfe and pairing them with me? I figured that was probably a photo of poor Nurse Wolfe, who would no doubt now have even more reason to hope I get cooties…
Monkeywrenching seems sadly neglected these days. Do a search on the word and you’ll mostly turn up references to Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang or various acts eco-defense (or eco-terrorism, depending on who’s writing about it). Since the Homeland (Achtung!) Security State has gotten us in its grip, it seems the peasants are afraid to toss their sabots into the machinery of tyranny. Then, too, things are different in a non-industrial society. You could say that Anonymous is a champion of monkeywrenching — just on a technological level. Monkeywrenching, in one form or another will always have a place…
You know, it takes a lot more brainpower to write long, thoughtful, personal posts than it does to toss out a little news (maybe accompanied by a bit of snark or righteous indignation). So while I continue working on the “Perspective” Blog Tome, news (and one really good laugh) it is for today. “Anonymous has left the building.” “The logic of surveillance.” (H/T JG) This isn’t exactly nooz. It’s from last month. But it makes me proud that the Northwest is a national center of anti-surveillance activism. You go, monkeywrenchers! This pertains to yesterday’s “Perspective” blog. Gretchen Rubin of The…