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Living Freedom Posts

Midweek links

  • The (insouciantly charming) symbolism of launching a Tesla into space. (And before anybody goes objecting to Elon Musk and his very existence, you might want to read the comment by UnReconstructed, who happens to be a real rocket scientist, over at Joel’s place.)
  • Commander Zero on meeting folks: a real-world example.
  • Oh, yeah. This is what the country needs (she says rolling her eyes): ICE wants to become an intelligence (sic) agency. 10 Comments
  • John Perry Barlow, one of the saddest RIPs

    And good luck to us all with such giants departing. John Perry Barlow — a lyricist for The Grateful Dead, founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and writer of one of the most soaring statements of Internet freedom left the earth yesterday. His long-ago “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace” proved to be a failed prophesy. But if it can’t make your heart sing even now, it’s possible you’ve misplaced your heart: Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask…

    8 Comments

    More on FEMA’s latest follies

    After I posted yesterday about FEMA’s most recent “heck of a job, Brownie” moment, Shel got to digging. Who, he wondered, is this Tribute Contracting LLC — this inexperienced Tiffany Brown who knew how to play the federal system so well that she snookered herself a $156 million deal she didn’t have a prayer of fulfilling? A deal to deliver 30 million meals to Puerto Ricans desperate for hurricane relief. Well, naturally she can check off every box on the “you have to hire me if I’m no damn good” list. But even with that, you have to ask (or,…

    17 Comments

    Tuesday links

  • Biometrics for cops. After years of overtime abuse Baltimore cops will have to clock in and out with their fingerprints. (No mention of what they’re going to do about all those other abuses like planting guns and drugs. H/T MJR)
  • The Berlin Wall. It has now been down as long as it was up.
  • What was that they were saying about FEMA’s disaster response having improved since the Katrina catastrophe? Well, yeah, I guess delivering 50,000 meals out of a contracted 30 million is … something. 8 Comments
  • What to do with old JPFO shirts?

    These were among the few leftover items JPFO sent me in the year before the organization died.* They’re “vintage” but still new. What should I do with them? “Raise Your Hand” shirts: T-shirt, large; hoodless sweatshirt, small. Battle of Athens 50-year commemorative shirt: small (two-sided design with more info about the battle on the back) “Life Preserver” shirts: small (two-sided design with list of genocides on the back) I also have a few belt buckles & such that may emerge as I gradually rescue the house from construction chaos. Problem is that the shirts are all smalls, except for the…

    11 Comments

    Weekend links

  • Don’t even bother trying the “too irrational to be a terrorist” defense.
  • Seems this teacher never learned either the Bill of Rights, school district policy, or elementary human interaction during her education.
  • Who’s behind the Trump dossier that the FBI relied on? Oh, this gets so thick and deep I can’t even go there. But it does help explain why the left — which has always rightly distrusted the FBI — is suddenly in love with its historic nemesis. (H/T DBH) 14 Comments