Britain formally outlaws its ID card scheme and prepares to destroy the associated databases. Yay, Britain! Getting your friends and family members to take the red pill. The video linked at the end of the article is visually deadly, but makes good listening while playing solitaire. Not too many surprises for awarefolk, and it weasels its way into a sales pitch at the end. But it gives clear info for newbies. A friend mentioned this old Hardyville column the other day. I’d forgotten ever writing it. Good for a laugh, I suppose. And it really is mostly true. Happened to…
Category: Privacy and self ownership
Owning our own information and telling Big Brother to get lost
I recently turned in a S.W.A.T article about hapless small business people who got entrapped into (allegedly and unknowingly) bribing officials of an Unnamed African Nation. They’re all facing ruin and prison time. So. Halliburton has now paid $250 million to Nigerian officials to get charges dropped against Dick Cheney. Okay, FBI, where are you when serious bribery is going down??? The really sad thing is that the current article I’m working on for that ‘zine covers exactly the same sort of shakedown and payoff being committed by a corrupt government (but I repeat myself) right here in the U.S.…
First thing: Many thanks to K. and M. whose PayPal donations made my day. And — I don’t know whom to thank for this because Amazon isn’t yet telling — but I see apricots in my future. 🙂 I’ve had too few apricots in my recent past — and one can never have too many of the little beauties in one’s future. Now on with the ranting, raving, giggling, snorting, news reporting, and other distractions of the day: Did you hear the one about the anti-gun legislator who shot an intruder in his home? (Yes, another one of those hypocritical…
Yesterday, we had news of deeper, more difficult-to-foil privacy attacks on our computers. Well, today those very same attackers bring us more honorable news. Yesterday, I also linked to the WikiLeaks donation page and suggested this might be a good time to send money to those lone warriors battling government secrecy. Alas, WikiLeaks.org is no more. Continuing attacks against the site forced it out of existence. BUT. The site came back to life. It’s now at WikiLeaks.ch in Switzerland. Here’s the IP address in case the domain name is killed once again: http://213.251.145.96/. And here’s that donation page again, which…
Creepy marketers want to fingerprint your computer. But don’t worry; Your Government will protect you. Fifty-one percent of polled voters seem woefully misinformed. Or is it 72 percent? So hard to keep track, these days. This would be a good time to donate to WikiLeaks. There are a number of ways — including ones that would protect your privacy from the ignorami who are shouting “Treason!” “Terrorists!” and “Killers!” The TSA is not only conditioning children to accept molestation. But egads, it’s doing it using the same tactics non-government molesters do. Nine trllion in “emergency loans” by the Fed??? Other…
Read this shocker in a “Mike Rogers column this morning: We wrapped the packages and took them to the post office to send to the USA this morning. Alas, while at the post office, we were told that the US Department of Homeland Security has stated that there can be no more mailing of packages that weigh over 1 pound unless we can provide the Social Security number of the recipient. Mike was trying to mail gifts from Tokyo to Arizona. Unable to get a simple gift into the U.S., he compared our country to North Korea or Japan in…
Snowed yesterday. And again today. Between snows, it veered around between rain, freezing rain, sleet and whatnot. You folks in Minnesota, Colorado, or even Oklahoma might wonder why that’s news in late November. But this is in the coastal lowlands of the dreary-but-ever-moderate NorthWET. Snow here usually comes in December or later, if at all. And though it may fall heavily at 8:00 a.m., it’s melted by noon. This snow looks set to stay. The forecasters all said we’re headed into a wet, cold winter thanks to a La Nina pattern. Global warming, where are you when we need you?…
Just going through the motions. Even more moronic than we thought. (Tip o’ hat to Joel and Jim B.) But they sure do seem to enjoy their jobs. Man lets house go into foreclosure over $25 fee. Cutting off face to spite nose? Or method to his madness? Me, I think it’s clear he’s not doing it over the fee, but for the principle of the thing: because the bank did him wrong and now won’t even acknowledge him as a human being and a customer. Companion piece: Just when you thought you understood mortgage securitization. A few months ago,…
Well. That’s something. TSA administrator John Pistole tells Matt Lauer that children under 12 will not be groped. (Video; the comment comes about 4 minutes in.) Your 13-year-old daughter, OTOH … I’m not entirely hopeful the TSA will stick to this policy, or that all those infamously uninformed screeners will follow it. I also notice that Pistole utters not one word about exempting children from pedophile porno-scoping. One thing for sure: even if they do stop molesting the youngest children, let’s hope the public stays angry-angry-angry to the point of resistance. ADDED: Reason TV prepares us for next year at…
Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. — Susan Ertz It’s one of those days that isn’t exactly rainy, but not exactly not rainy, either. Mists swirl between here and the hills. The pavement gleams. A raincoat might be a good idea during a dog walk. Or maybe not. (No unbrella, of course. People in the NorthWET don’t do umbrellas. We may own them, but when you see somebody actually using one, you know they’re foreigners.) After a good, but semi-hectic week, I promised myself a sabbath day. I’m just…