Does anybody — anybody? — remember just 22 years ago when microbrewers Bert and Sherry Grant were hounded mercilessly by the ATF for daring — those foul, vile, deadly criminals! — to put nutritional labels on their ale? Well, this time next year the FDA is going to start mercilessly hounding microbrewers who — those foul, vile, deadly criminals! — fail to put nutritional labels on their products. (Via Tam). Ah, the land of the free and the home of the overgoverned! Ain’t it grand? I wonder if the FDA checked first with the ATF to see whose contradictory book…
Category: Official thuggery, bad prosecutions, and bad law
A social-justice pecksniff explains that there’s nothing wrong with suppressing free speech and erasing history. It’s just a way of achieving a better future. Meanwhile, both members of the formerly well-regarded Couple Christakis have now fled Yale because they can’t work in such an environment. Kevin of The Smallest Minority takes all of three lines to explain weapons of war You already know the USPS has been photographing the outside of all your mail (“security,” of course). Now they’re offering to email you the photos. As a service. (H/T ML) The answer to terror: tougher (armed) citizens, not bigger government.…
Jim Bovard tries to go home from making a speech and gets investigated as a terrorist bomber. Seems this adorable little drug “kingpin” learned her trade from her rough, tough, posturing DEA daddy. Yeah, I know there’s a difference between fantasizing and actually taking steps toward committing torture, murder, and cannibalism. But seems to me that when you use the power and tools of your profession to choose and track specific victims, you’ve crossed that line. I’ll bet the appeals court would have seen that clearly had Gilberto Valle been anything other than a cop. Washington, DC: 2161 pot busts…
It’s long. It’s thorough. It’s a just-published Cato policy analysis by Dave Kopel on the costs and consequences of “gun control.” And in shorter, rougher language, El Neil excoriates those who would even ban useable information about firearms. (Found via Rational Review News) Canadian judge fines man $1 for growing pot. Oh, the times they are a changin’. (H/T MJR) OMG. This article about the addictive Internet is fascinating — until the author gets down to proposing “solutions.” Then it’s just creepy, and not because of what the developers are doing. Speaking of creepy, Chucky is far from the only…
I’m deadlining this week. Friend Sandy Sandfort has stepped in with an original two-parter about one of everybody’s favorite subjects: politicians moving their lips.
Sandy has a new website in the works. If you’d like to be notified when it goes live, contact Sandy at sandy-at-privilegedcommunications-dot-net (corrected address) with the subject line “new website notice.”
Sandy would also like to exchange some of his Bitcoin for USD (which can be sent to his U.S. bank, though he resides in Panama). Contact him at sandfort-at-gmail-dot-com if you’re interested in making the trade.
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TRUTH IN GOVERNMENT? YOU BETCHA! (Part I)
A Short Guide on How to Read Government “Tells”
By Sandy Sandfort
I don’t need to tell readers here that governments lie. We all know that lies are fundamental to manipulating the citizenry. This does not mean, however, that you shouldn’t pay attention to what government spokespeople say. If you know how to listen, you can gather vital intel to protect yourself and your family. By understanding why certain things are said—or not said—you can improve your chances of surviving government-created calamities and maybe even come out ahead of the game sometime.
Governments do have “tells” just like poker players. If you learn to read those tells, you have an edge over the other players at the table. Believe me, in America, with a third of a billion players at the table, you really want to have that edge.
Wow. Somebody thinks federal employees aren’t paid enough when compared with people in “similar private-sector jobs.” The article never explains what private-sector jobs are similar to … oh, career money confiscator, thug who tells businesspeople how to run their businesses, or professional killer of nursing mothers. Integrity. Doctors Without Borders refuses Pentagon money to rebuild Pentagon-bombed hospital. There is a war on Christians. It’s being conducted in the Middle East and to a lesser extent in the regulations of western governments. Not at or by Starbucks. F*c*b**k: Now testing a new form of creepy. Yes, it appears (certain) black people…
In case you’ve wondered how a jury could watch a video of a cop executing a man in cold blood and still vote to acquit, it’s because authoritarian mind-warping is so very effective. Lisa Mearkle. Remember the name. Lisa Mearkle. Idaho deputies ask rancher to put down an injured bull. Before he can, they put down the rancher. The family tell their story. I wonder what the “official” story will be. In all the news about local cops getting away with murder, Jim Bovard reminds us that their federal brothers and sisters are still doing their share — and still…
Willie Nelson’s crusade against big pot. This is good. Really, really looooooong, but good. Project Veritas does it again, as officials at Vassar and Oberlin attempt to save poor, offended students from pocket copies of the U.S. Constitution. And along those same lines … (short video; H/T MJR) The dead “hero”: just another corrupt, threatening cop. Making Shakespeare politically correct. And dumb. Kevin D. Williamson declares Obamacare dead. Jose Fernandez-Partagas: one of those weirdly fascinating footnote people. I discovered him in an endnote to Isaac’s Storm. Strange life, strange (but awesome) end. Makes you want to know what made him…
Take driverless cars, for instance. If we were in a less tech-perilous, tyranny-seeking time, I think most of us would be excited about them.
You and I may be skeptical about a specific new technology, but we tend not to be technophobes. We’re not ones who reject the new out of hand. We may not want to buy the first flying cars or be on the first ship to colonize Mars or the Moon, but we probably have friends who do want to and maybe even know a few who will. We jumped on computers years ahead of the average and were getting acquainted on BBSes before the Worldwide Web tempted slower adopters in.
So no, we don’t innately distrust tech.