You don’t say! “The TSA is failing spectacularly at cybersecurity.” You don’t say! “The economy is running on monetary fumes.” You don’t say! Doctors are overscreening for cancer. You don’t say! Fed prosecutors need ethics lessons. Um … maybe. But those lines at Disneyland generally don’t kill you. If that’s all enough to drive you to drink, here’s a 5,000-year-old beer recipe. Not to mention evidence that beer may have helped kickstart civilization. Why the very poor have become poorer. While technically only a book review, this is jam-packed with interesting data and thoughts. But occasionally good news strikes. Terry…
Category: Official thuggery, bad prosecutions, and bad law
The barefoot one didn’t manage to freeze Mama. Reading this article, I’m not sure whether Colton Harris-Moore is a naive young kid or a crass hustler who’s going to head right straight for trouble again when they release him from prison this summer. “This Bud’s for you, America.” Another one to read mainly because it’s by George Will, who writes like a barbed angel. The whole business with Budweiser’s temporary name change is as pathetic as it is cynical. Why are house prices soaring across this Great Land of Budweiser? One guess. When headlines lie: “American Airlines is fed up…
Wow whotta way to go! And what a perfect song to be performing at the time. (H/T L.A.) Twelve ways to increase your anonymity and security online. Very geeky and hardcore, but very good. (H/T Shel in comments) And for the non-geeks: is there a path forward for those who want online security but quail at the thought of TOR or an offshore VPN? You ’60s and ’70s people — you Illuminatus! fans — want a blast from the past? This was obviously written a long time ago when Robert Anton Wilson was still alive, but the crazy life of…
Be patient, citizens! That is an order! Your government is hard at work protecting you. (I do rather wonder what those TSA lines snaking up and down escalators look like. Or worse, feel like to stand in, especially if you’re stuck at the top or bottom where the stairs disappear. But not enough to want to go to an airport to see for myself.) Speaking of gummint “protection,” be glad you didn’t run into this employee of the Federal Protective Service. Whoo. gutsy woman! Militias going mainstream? So sez The Guardian with a surprising minimum of tsking about it. But…
It is surely a mixed blessing to have time to design your own headstone. That’s a wonderful monument, though, and the Vanderboeghs could use some help getting it made. Kudos to Kurt Hofmann for a quote deserving of such immortality. “Trump: Why it happened and what comes next” by David Stockman. (How come presidential advisors never sound either this smart or this liberty-minded while they’re presidential advisors? Only afterward?) Yes, indeedy. We should always believe our heroic protectors when they tell us they need tools like Sting-Ray technology to catch terrorists, child-abductors, and the like. Sure thing. Herschel Smith says…
Pretty amazing way for a 16-year-old to live. (H/T JB) OTOH, some people may just have too much time on their hands. And hatchets and beer in them. (H/T ML) Speaking of too much time and hands … did you know there’s a (not joking) world of rock-paper-scissors competition? (Tip o’ hat to jed) Looking for some good hard science fiction? (H/T MJR) Get businesses freaked out enough about “discriminating against the disabled” and they’ll fall for anything. 12 lessons to learn and hang onto forever. (Especially for business, but plenty have applications in the rest of the world, too.)…
Still sick. More than two weeks now. Whatever you do, don’t catch this thing. It may also be that springtime is complicating matters. I don’t usually get hay fever, but Old Blue looks like Old Green every morning thanks to its daily dusting of yellow pollen, and I’m wondering whether things that normally wouldn’t bother me are affecting me now because my respiratory system is already sensitized by the virus. Whatever this is, please don’t catch it. —– I finally found a dose of OTC meds that knocks the symptoms down maybe 50% while only reducing me to stupid and…
Happened to be at the library and happened to have collected a bunch of interestingly open tabs. So here you go … Five tips for making your social justice pecksniff hoax a success. 🙂 Barefoot Bandit boy, I’ve always felt kind of fond of you. As criminals go, you’ve got style and brains. You reimbursed your victims and you gave $100 to my favorite vet to help animals. But this is just dumbass stupid. Your mother smoked and drank herself to death on government money. Who, other than you, would want to bring her back to life? (H/T CB) What…
You recall DiFi’s insane and impossible encryption bill? Well, the second draft is out and it’s gotten even worse. These loons actually believe if you simply order someone to do the impossible, it must be done. Being so right and so wrong at the same time. Yes, it’s getting scary out there. Yes, it’s amazing how fast it’s happening. But no, it’s not caused by the mysterious collapse of Francis Fukuyama-style “liberalism” nor is it because the ordinary processes of civilization are too commonplace and boring. Legalization is back on the ballot in Maine. Two interesting takes on the transgender…
Talk about swords into plowshares! California city government v*tes to turn a former prison into a cannabis oil factory. Super high-tech tiny house. Pretty cool. (Helps to be a boatbuilder and cabinetmaker.) But c’mon. How much did it cost? (H/T MJR) 🙂 How not to take a gun selfie. And speaking of selfies, I assume this study (which concludes — wow, whodathunkit? — that narcissists are more likely to post and crave feedback on selfies) must have been funded by government. Not ours, fortunately. And speaking of governments: who’s named in the Panama Papers? Named so far, we should add.…