Official thuggery, bad prosecutions, and bad law – Page 31

Midweek links

Published January 25, 2017 12:20 pm by Claire

Mary Tyler Moore, RIP. And boy, if that ain’t the end of an era …

So far so good: a second court says the U.S. government has no authority to grab data off foreign servers.

Trump, forget the useless wall. Do something meaningful and get rid of the DEA.

Thursday links

Published January 19, 2017 10:26 am by Claire

“Ethics rules,” eh? How can it be ethical to take someone’s blood or body tissues, use them in research, even patent them and make millions of dollars from them — all without the consent of the person being so used? The Obama administration had the chance to change this barbaric, anti-freedom, anti-privacy policy and decided not to.

And how can it be ethical, moral, legal, or tolerable in a decent society to let this POS cop off while forcing tax slaves to pay millions for his cruel deeds?

“Crowdsourcing Death.” Scott Greenwood ponders some of the more obscure, but inevitable, implications of driverless vehicles.

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Wednesday links

Published January 18, 2017 8:13 am by Claire

The FBI. — yes, the freakin’ FBI. — has cameras on Seattle streets and a judge has just forbidden releasing information about them. Why should the FBI be doing street-level surveillance in U.S. cities (if they’re in Seattle, they’re everywhere else)? We can’t know and I haven’t found a single article that tells more than this one does. (H/T @EasyMac308 on Gab) Why aren’t Americans moving away from impoverished, jobless areas? Government, of course. Oh, there are SO many problems with technocracy — as the technocrats themselves are now learning the hard way (after they made millions of us learn…

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The ATF on the chopping block

Published January 14, 2017 10:15 am by Claire

… which is unfortunately a mixed blessing. Hopeful? Yes, if the new power faction has the slightest real intention of draining the swamp. But it also puts us in a dangerous moment. Very important post from Kit Perez, whose Patrick Henry Society has returned to life. I want one of those patches. (Via Western Rifle Shooters)

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Weekend links

Published January 14, 2017 6:47 am by Claire

Obama really is going out of his way to leave a legacy of spite and pettiness. Poor Cubans.

Improvised weapons are lying all around your house. A lot of you know this. Good thing to be aware of.

To whatever extent I still care about Congress and their doings, I’ve always thought single subject bills would go a long way toward eliminating the worst of the worst law-spewing. All bills should also be readable at high school level and have their provisions completely written out (none of this, “the word ‘commercial’ is dropped from some drivers license ID bill we passed last year” business).

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A few thoughts on ID, privacy, and us vs the snoops

Published January 10, 2017 12:37 pm by Claire

Fakes! I love J.D. Tuccille. That man has the instincts of a swashbuckling pirate. Here’s his latest: “Now, More Than Ever, We Need Fake ID.”* Record number of fake ID seizures,” New York’s government boasted at the end of last year, presenting the Empire State’s residents with a (not unfamiliar) holiday-season gift of arrests and petty law enforcement. “Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that underage drinking sweeps conducted by DMV investigators in 2016 resulted in the seizure of 862 fraudulent licenses and the arrest of 818 individuals for underage drinking, both single year records.” Great going, guv! Your intrepid…

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Tuesday links

Published January 10, 2017 11:05 am by Claire

Doubledamn. Another good man gone. Roy Innis of C.O.R.E. — a pro-gun leader in the black community, among many other things.

Could that friendly tech who fixed your glitchy computer be making more money from the F.B.I. than he is from his regular employer? (H/T MtK)

Here’s somebody else whose first float-tank experience didn’t do a whole lot for his brain. But yipes! He paid $89 for an hour? Major ripoff! (Tip o’ hat to JB)

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Rushing to keep up with everything links

Published January 5, 2017 4:08 pm by Claire

How can Piers Morgan be such a flaming eejit on guns when he talks so much sense about other subjects? On this particular horror he speaks truth. You damn betcha that was a hate crime, and though I don’t believe in special categories of crime that necessitate guessing at someone’s mindset, there’s no doubt whatsoever of the mindset here.

A call for Obama to free the “godfather of grass.”

Even Vanity Fair, which reflexively accepts that Donald Trump is “the enemy,” knows knows the Dems are in absurd denial about why they’ve suddenly become a gigantic pack of losers.

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Wednesday links

Published January 4, 2017 6:58 am by Claire

There will be lots of demonstrations around Trump’s inauguration. None will top this: the DC Cannabis Coalition will give out 4,200 joints, which are to be lit up 4:20 minutes into The Donald’s inaugural address.

Perhaps it’s not much of a loss to the big, wide world, but the Shakers are now down to two members.

Anxiety. It can give your dog gray hair, too.

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Friday links

Published December 30, 2016 10:50 am by Claire

Diagnose 17 diseases with a single blow into a breathalyzer? I doubt it’s that elegant and easy (especially with only 86% accuracy). But an interesting potential development.

Prepare to be shocked: the DEA pays millions to informants with somewhat less accountability than your local library uses to keep track of paperback books.

And if that wasn’t enough of a shock, I know you’ll just faint dead away to know that the Department of (Achtung!) Homeland Security is riddled with bribery and corruption. (I’m truly sorry to deliver all this bad news to you; I know how much you trusted and admired your federal government.)

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Category: Official thuggery, bad prosecutions, and bad law