I pledged two weeks of good news. Are the two weeks up yet? Because I’ve been trying to resist saying something about the real crap that’s going on. Joel called it “Feinstein’s … Intolerable Act.” (The originals via Wikipedia.) Just two days ago, Mas Ayoob frothed about it. He made excellent points about the “unintended” intended consequences of Feinstein’s proposal. Even Pravda, freavensake, knows we shouldn’t put up with such. And while it’s too early to panic (it’s always too early to panic; in any case, Feinstein’s evil dream isn’t likely to see daylight unless Rs and Ds connive in…
Category: Resistance
Sometimes you need to say “no” to Big Brother
Today is Bill of Rights Day. It was a battle to get the BoR. It’s been a losing battle to keep it. But as long as its individualist principles live in us, it ain’t dead.
I used to nudge people toward encrypting their emails. “Encrypt everything!” I’d burble. “Even your cookie recipes! It protects privacy and drives ‘them’ crazy!” “Quick! Easy!” I continued to burble as I wrote “The Hardyville Beginner’s Guide to Encrypt**n” lo those many years ago (now obsolete, which is why no link). I eventually quit burbling. It’s not that I quit favoring encryption. I just got tired of hearing, “It’s too haaaaaaaaaaard.” I got tired of, “Well, if you want me to encrypt my emails to you, you’ll have to show me how.” Since I might have been the only person…
“Comedian asks: What’s so funny about the Bill of Rights?” There was no monument to the BoR, so he raised the money and got one built.
I swear, if somebody had told me that I would absolutely love a nearly four-hour-long Bollywood musical — in Hindi — about the game of cricket … I’d have thought they were crazy. But somebody must have told me that years ago and I must have believed them. Because Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India is an old favorite. Oh. Well. And there’s one little thing I didn’t mention about it. A lagaan is a tax. And Lagaan the movie is about a glorious tax revolt. And, without violence, it’s about a war against tyrants. The setup: It’s 1893,…
One of the most personal reasons for contempt of government is that government forces people to act against their own consciences. As you know, I’m not a believer, but I think what Obamacare is about to force on the people who own Hobby Lobby is beastly. When Catholic institutions objected to provisions of Obamacare that went against their principles, the fedgov carved out a feeble and bureaucratic “religious exemption.” However, Hobby Lobby — being a business run on religious principles but not being a specifically religious institution — doesn’t fit into the loophole. So government inflicts pain to get “compliance.”…
Thanks to some last-minute assistance — with “last-minute” actually being several weeks ago — and thanks to the work of many volunteers, Rats!, the anti-snitch book, is now live. Find it at http://rats-nosnitch.com/. Four different formats for reading. One bundle of HTML files for mirroring on your own site. All free. Copy and distribute at will. Spread it around far and wide. Post to your blogs about it. Tweet it. Announce it on your Facebook page, mirror the entire site … whatever. The more this gets into the hands of potential victims of snitchery, the better. —– I apologize. I…
Over at The Price of Liberty, Mama Liberty has the first passages of what looks to become a new novel. And it all started with the comment section here at Living Freedom. So. Where’s the real “war on women”? This one could actually be killing some — and all in the name of progress and humanity. (H/T O) “How to send anonymous email without getting caught.” (Thanks to JG for the best article yet on this month’s hot privacy topic.) Alleged “private” enterprise is once again poised to help the fedgov become more obtrusive. Cannabis reform marches on. Whatever Mordor…
A handful of links and two (longish) videos for your Friday and weekend pleasure: Nano-material stops bullets? This I’d like to see. (H/T PT) Among all the other laughs of the Petraeus scandal is the scandalously flawed method the lovers used to hide their email correspondence. (And this guy was the nation’s top intelligence officer?) The Electronic Frontier Foundation has analysis and advice. So does the ACLU. (Tip o’ hat to JG) It’s pretty amazing what the FBI went through to trace emails that probably weren’t even illegal — and the kind of data they had fingertip access to (e.g.…
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it And spills the upper boulders in the sun, And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. — from “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost —– The first polls are closing on the East coast as I start this. We know that, come January 20, some statist will occupy the White House and believe he’s the lord of us all. He’ll preside over the growth of the welfare state and the warfare state. He’ll claim the right to kill us at will or lock us up without due…