Of course he deserved it. After all, “he was at the house, by his own admission, to get high with his friends.” This is a new low even for the atrocious DEA. Can you imagine it being done to you? Woman bites dog. (H/T MLS) Finally, an R politician with some guts and a smidge of conviction. Who isn’t Ron Paul, that is. “In Search of Aryan Hogs.” (Tip o’ hat to Mutti) You should read this even if you think you don’t give a damn about pigs in Michigan. If you use the ShowIP addon for Firefox, beware. Your…
Category: Privacy and self ownership
Owning our own information and telling Big Brother to get lost
Still deadlining. Picked up a couple more small assignments over the weekend. Sanity retreats again — but I shall chase it down and catch up with it! Dogs (and not wolves) use humans as tools. Every dog person knows that; now scientists do, too. (Tip o’ hat to MLS.) Yes. Really. The border fence is to keep the Mexicans IN. Methodists (good for them) demonstrate against private prisons. Would you like your state to make a deal with CCA guaranteeing to keep all its prisons at 90% occupancy for 20 years? Microsoft cautiously and wimpily begins to back away from…
I went to a tea yesterday. Yes, an actual tea. For charity. With big flowery hats on the ladies. And cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off (which, for the record, turn out to be absolutely delicious). One woman wore a wildly purple Central American native dress and a red thrift-store hat with bangles all around that looked like a lampshade. A young acquaintance of hers died last week and she’s aware that our mutual friend J. has pancreatic cancer. To hell with it, says the lady in the bangled hat and floral-toned muumuu, who last I saw her was…
Entering the home stretch on deadlines and having lunch at my place for friends today. Getting more sane by the minute … but will it last? Is there anybody left that Obama, the Pentagon, and the CIA don’t claim the right to kill at random? Oliver nails it: never trust the cloud. “How social media are both enabling and undermining trust is a really important thing for us to understand.” (H/T jed.) Concealed Carry Clothiers. For a non-tactical (e.g. non-obvious) look in vests and belts. (From NTIsurvivor in recent comments.) House passes CISPA. On to the Senate. Special jail wings…
Okay (she says rubbing hands and getting down to work). I may not be capable of brilliance at the moment. But hyperlinks? Those I can manage. xkcd on Skynet. Between the feds and utility companies who you gonna believe on the dangers of solar storms? Mac the Knife reminds me that my Neighbor from Hell could be a whole lot worse. Seriously? We need another spy agency??? Interesting: Ron Paul and the Lucifer Effect. (Tip o’ hat to PT.) So … how much ground do you intend to stand? And for the guys in the audience (with H/T to JS),…
Of course! This is exactly what the U.S. needs: a federal government that can do more. Now why didn’t we think of that? How exactly does a “civil servant” steal $30 million from a town of 12,000? Ten completely ridiculous (and not necessarily SFW) road signs. (Tip o’ hat to C^2.) SOPA is dead. Long live CISPA! Or maybe we should say SOPA is dead; will somebody fer cryin’ out loud put a stake in its heart and bury it at the crossroads??? Does that take-away-your-passport-if-you-haven’t-paid-your-taxes law that’s making its way through Congress also give the IRS the authority to…
So you thought the National Animal Identification system was dead? Silly, silly you. Meet Traceability for Livestock Moving Interstate and … “Chicken Crimes.” (Tip o’ hat to Dan Adams of Earthineer.)
One might ask why the FBI had these training materials in the first place, and whether they plan to throw out the attitudes (yeah, riiiiiight) or just the paperwork. You probably already know Tess Pennington’s online series 52 Weeks to Preparedenss. But it’s always worth a link. And soon? A book! Bovard: “First wheat, now health care.” Drone Studies. A new college major. That is &^%$# repulsive. Security: a crypto-nerd’s imagination vs what would actually happen. S, who sent this, noted that these days they’d probably dispense with the drugs. RelaxShacks.com. Extremely cool tips for getting the most out of…
The Tireless Agorist looks at the burgeoning underground economy in Greece. And Forbes asks if Bitcoin might become the favored currency of an international System D. I’m as skeptical of Bitcoin as I am of every cyber currency (once burned …). And my first thought on reading the Forbes piece was, “What will the USA fedgov’s 900-pound gorilla do?” But one of these days, the flailing arms of that monster gorilla will be able to do … nothing. Some innovation in free-market money will defeat it. If it’s Bitcoin, good for Bitcoin.
The head of the No Such Agency is denying the truth of the Wired article that caused such a stir last week. No! No! Of course they aren’t spying on Americans! How could we even think such a thing? Our own government? Spying on us? Illegally? What, are you some sort of commie pinko subversive Islamist radical agitating racist anti-government paranoid weirdo fanatic? At risk of coming down in the side of panic and hysteria … well, hell, just coming down on the side of reality … who you gonna believe in this fracas? Lessee … one of the most…