I’ve been using the U.S.-based company Cotse.net for email and proxy services for many years, ever since I learned about it from S. Cotse gives good service at a good price. I’ve been a happy customer. There’s nothing at all wrong with Cotse. Except that it’s based in this increasingly thuggish surveillance state. Which has already driven more than one privacy-protecting company to shut its doors. I’m seeking a back-up service. I’ll keep Cotse, but I want to be using a Plan B if the feds drive them out of business, too. So I’ve been reading articles like this one.…
Category: Resistance
Sometimes you need to say “no” to Big Brother
The truly privacy-paranoid reveal their methods. But I suspect some of you already have them beat. (EZ Pass? I mean, seriously, EZ Pass?) (H/T Ragnar for the find.)
The links in this first batch were meant to go in Friday’s “Waves of History” post, but I was running out of time. So here they are — perhaps for some inspiration? Kevin D. Williamson on citizens pushing back. There’s now an online whistleblower support system. Originally written by Aaron Swartz. Maybe in death he’ll be able to prevent someone else from being hounded into suicide by vicious prosecutors. Borepatch: “Obama Agonistes.” Justin Raimondo: “American Apocalypse.” “13 nutrition lies that made the world fat and sick.” It may not be instantly apparent what this one has to do with resistance…
When we look back on the future history of freedom, I think last weekend’s “tear down the Barrycades” march in DC will be remembered as a watershed. A few thousand veterans and friends (including Oath Keepers members) not only ripped down those absurd metal walls while DC and Park Service cops stood by, but they delivered them right to the heavily guarded, paranoia-enhanced White House fence: Return to Sender. And nobody even tried to stop them. Yes, the march was a political event with neocon figureheads like (ugh) Sarah Palin. Yes, it’s probably also true that if George W. Bush…
A fellow blogger said something very kind the other day. After noting that he was trying to stay offline to avoid “outrage fatigue,” he mentioned that he saw me as somebody who could descend to into that state, then pull myself back up and “return to humanity from perfectly natural, periodic sorties of indignation and disgust.” It was kind. I think he’s that sort of person, too. But I wish it weren’t true. I wish I never, ever had to go into that place, only to drag my butt (and my brain) back out of it, time and again. I…
I’m working on one of those Big Idea blogs. Not sure how long it’ll take to bring form out of the void. In the meantime, here’s some cheer. All these are related to the piece I’m working on. The first three images I stole from Ragnar’s Freedom Outlaw page — the only thing on Facebook worth bothering with. Next, here’s one from Random Acts of Patriotism. I never visited that site before, so I can’t vouch for its POV. But it did win my favor by linking to this article noting that v*ters have a higher opinion of hemorrhoids than…
Seattle police continue to adapt well to cannabis legalization. (Though you may have to read carefully all the way through to hear their quiet chuckling.) I don’t know how good this “uncrackable” texting app is. I do know it’s yet another great sign that the tech world will smack down the NSA. (Tip o’ hat to MJR) And this is great, too. Kicking the No Such Agency and defending the Fourth while doing good deeds. In public. Here’s one I’ve been meaning to write a longer screed on but just haven’t been able to get to: the difference between knowing…
“Dogs are people, too.” At least in their abilities to feel and anticipate — something that will come as no surprise to anybody who’s lived with them, but is apparently news in neuroscience. (Tip o’ hat to MLS) Federal theater of the absurd. (I also agree with Carl that the Crazy Horse monument is so superior to Mt. Rushmore in every way that even after the silly feddies remove the barriers I’d still just drive on past and watch free enterprise at work a few miles down the road.) Erm … I don’t usually read Glamour. But I found this…
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…
Ever since Pamela Jones shut down Groklaw and announced she was not only abandoning the site but quitting the Internet entirely in light of the Edward Snowden revelations, I’ve been thinking about this. At the time, though I found her reasons poignant and pertinent, I thought she was overreacting. Now, I don’t know. Personally, I’m not on the verge of quitting. A big part of my life is here. And all of my career (such as it is) is here. That’s been true since 1986 when a client bought me my first 300-baud modem and set it up so I…