Legally blind and a successful photographer. Now here’s a growing profession for you: consultants who coach white-collar criminals on how to get along in prison. The sagebrush rebellion rises again. Brothels. They’re now legal in Ontario, Canada. And for some pretty good reasons. “When we were making V we thought the mask might be popular at parties.” And yet another intriguing trailer for Silver Circle. The coins are real; you can buy them from the movie’s store and Ron Paul was photographed last month using one to make a point.
Category: Resistance
Sometimes you need to say “no” to Big Brother
Have you seen the wonderful animated feature Bolt? It’s about a dog who has no idea he isn’t the superdog he plays on TV. He dearly loves his girl Penny who stars in the show with him. But because he views himself as her sole protection against ever-threatening evil, he’s forever tense, forever on guard. Never, but ever, does he relax, play, and just enjoy life. Only when fate leaves him lost on the streets (far from Penny and without his special-effects superpowers) does he learn to be himself, love life — and become a real hero. Yeah, it’s just…
The movie The Hunger Games comes out this Friday. If you’ve read the books(s) you know this isn’t going to be the Twilight-style teen flick that’s being marketed. Can’t blame Lionsgate for the marketing; they want to make money and the Katniss-Peeta-Gale triangle offers a hook to the silly-but-moneymaking Bella-Edward-Jacob triangle that no marketer could resist. At least they’ve been doing their marketing very, very well; it’s been an elegantly teasing campaign. Have you noticed that, never once during all the buildup, have they actually showed the Hunger Games part of The Hunger Games? Marketing aside, it looks like Lionsgate…
Well, while we’re having an “oldies and goldies” day, how about a re-visit to “Twelve Tips for Toppling Tyrants”? It was the Hardyville column that directly followed “Reactive Ralphie” and is an answer to him and others who believe that a constant frenzy will lead us to freedom.
This week seems a good time to go back and revisit Reactive Ralphie (last met in 2005). And seek some balance. More on that later.
Friday brought two horrible-looking pieces of news that have made their way around the ‘Net fast and fearfully: The NSA is building a super data center in Utah. One that can — and will — scoop up the complete text of all our emails, break our encryption, and even report on where we parked last time we went to lunch. And a new executive order is a setup for “peacetime martial law” in America. By now, even Walmartian grannies have probably heard all this, and true paranoids have retreated to underground bunkers with their Super-Whiz-Whacker 3000 assault rifles and colossal…
Couple of weeks ago, I blogged my surprise at buying freeze-dried and dehydrated storage foods at Wal-Mart. Well, today I went back and bought a couple more #10 cans. This time the shelves (nearly denuded at last visit) were chock full and topped with placards that could be seen several aisles away: “Prepare for Emergency.” As I was checking out the selection and prices, a man wandered by, looked at the big buckets of rice, concluded he didn’t need that much, and headed off. A few seconds later, a woman’s voice said, “I wish they had these in smaller cans…
Brandon Smith: “How to become an American extremist in style.” (Tip o’ hat to Jim B. in a recent comment section.) Douglas Herman: “All my heroes died broke, broken, not beaten.” Both those, especially the first, sound a lot like things I have written back in the day. I’m a little jealous. OTOH, it’s nice to sit back and enjoy the first-class rants of others.
Here’s an aspect of the dreadful FATCA that hasn’t gotten much coverage. From jed in comments: homeless by choice (and on principle). “How to Be Creative.” I don’t buy the claim that there’s no such thing as “creative types” (OMG, there are indeed creative types). But the rest is surely true. Creativity isn’t just for artists, writers, and inventors. Neat idea: an urban food forest. Not quite sure, though, how “free” it can be. A U.S. government soldier decides to freelance. (ADDED: The story that it was one “lone nut” “going rogue” probably isn’t going to hold up.) “Gaining Respect…
Average cost of living $150,000/year? I freaking don’t believe it. Not sure I believe this, either. But it makes me all the more grateful for that freezer full of grass-fed beef. (H/T PT.) Now, this I definitely believe: Having power makes you stupid. Something actually good about Rick Santorum. I try not to lift too much from Radley Balko, since I figure a lot of the same people read his blog and mine, but this was too good: Why you can’t smoke pot. (Because there’s sooooooo much money and lobbying for the drug warriors.) “10 Rules for a Literary Feud.”…