• Well, so much for that itty bit that’s left of the First Amendment. Capitol cops arrest documentary filmmakers trying to film a public hearing. (Tip o’ hat to MJR.)
• Judge makes the right ruling for a change in the case of a cop who taped over his badge.
• Did you see this strange story about a 12-year-old girl being protected by lions?
• MamaLiberty, a firearms trainer (among her other skills), discusses thought processes, techniques, and legalities of armed self defense on the BrushFires of the Mind podcast. Apparently she’s becoming a regular for those of you who enjoy listening to podcasts. (The interesting stuff starts nearly 10 minutes in.)
• Google (in its guise as Blogger) is adopting country-by-country censorship by redirecting you to a country-specific site, depending on your IP address. Dumb as this is in general, it really plays havoc on those of us who have variable IP addys and sometimes appear to be surfing from furrin parts.
• Even the victims who had the scariest encounter with him have some sympathy for the Barefoot Bandit.
• I never thought I’d link favorably to PETA. But I ran across this poster while doing an image search on a completely unrelated topic. Thought it was pretty darned good, even if PETA is to animal welfare as the U.S. government is to freedom.

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If you read either Dave Duffy’s blog or Oliver Del Signore’s, you probably already know the saga of BHM senior editor John Silveira and his oddball classified ad. The ad, which appeared in BHM in 1997, became first an Internet meme and recently the basis of a movie, Safety Not Guaranteed.

The film — a sort of sci-fi romantic comedy, I gather — premiered at Sundance last weekend to huge anticipation, sold-out houses, and critical raves. John was there and even earned himself a mention in some reviews. (Dave says John got applause from the audience, too.)

The movie was nominated for the Grand Jury prize (the big one) and though it didn’t win that, it did get a writing award and is sure to get a distribution deal. Although RottenTomatoes.com has just three reviews as of tonight (which ain’t bad for a film not officially available yet), they’re all glowingly positive.

So nice going, John Silveira. I always knew you were a star.

Now I can’t wait to see this thing!

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• Good for people who’ve suffered brain injuries that affect speech. Bad in the long run for privacy.
• National Geographic is usually pretty good. But it appears their new series, which starts next week, sets out only to portray us all as loons. So much for progress. (Tip o’ hat to H.)
• Here’s a perfect example of the long arm of the U.S. government.
• Might not agree with this guy 100%. But bless his noble heart. (Nice backgrounder on him, too.) I’ll soon be reading his book.
• And here’s another doctor with courage — though it may be too little, too late for millions of children: “Ritalin Gone Wrong.”
• Thugette. Every time I see stuff like this, I recall how, just five or six years ago, we were constantly assured that Tasers would be solely used in encounters that would otherwise call for deadly force. The term “compliance tool” was never uttered. Now it appears they’re merely “educational devices.”
• Of course the lie about inflation is even bigger than this says.
  
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I turn the blog over this morning to two commentors at Earthineer:

Oilman2, who says that small farmers (and by extension many more of us) should opt out.

And Earthineer founder Dan Adams who answers that we should opt in.

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• The strange birth of New York’s gun laws.
• Oooh, now this is cynical. And fraught with … well, just fraught. (Tip o’ hat to JB.)
• Darn. They’re ruining it for me! (Tip o’ hat to MJR.)
• At least Twitter is is trying to mitigate its consent to censorship.
• “Why Conservatives Should Be Libertarians.”
• The Barefoot Bandit will probably serve just under five years. Federal and state sentences to be concurrent. Seems a reasonable mercy — and with luck a chance for that bright but screwed-up boy to get his head together. (HT to PT.)
• A troop of gorillas visits a human camp. (First couple of minutes are boring; stay with it.)
• The halo effect. And its impact in politics. (HT Beth and Dave Gross.)
• A free privacy tool for you Windows users. And another. Both look useful and — better yet! — easy to use. (Courtesy of JB.)

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Meant to put this up Saturday morning as a weekend read. It’s a bit long, though a good one even for those of us who already know too much about the prison-state: “The Caging of America.”

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• Drones over NYC.
• If you thought SOPA was bad …
• Rutherford institute tells the Census Bureau to back the heck off.
• Ominous? Interesting? Ominously interesting.
• Ditto this: Punching holes in firewalls.
• How long would it take to break your password?
• You remember the good old random name generator, don’t you?
• This may be the best test I’ve seen of Internet invisibility. When I visited with JavaScript turned off (standard practice with unknown sites), it told me I was “very visible” in these days when most sites require JavaScript. But it didn’t tell me anything else. When I temporarily enabled JavaScript, it told me more than I thought it would, given all the precautions I take.

Tips of hats to SC, MJR, H

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… sometimes just by doing nothing to dogs.

I have a house guest this weekend. Canine. Female. She’s angelically sweet, adores (and is submissive to) the other dogs, and wants nothing more than to love on and be loved.

Unfortunately, in her 1-1/2 years, she’s had not one second’s worth of training. She’s boisterous, destructive, un-housebroken, doesn’t know a single command, and has borne at least one litter.

She’s absolutely gorgeous and when I put her in my backyard kennel (which fronts on the local makeshift soccer field), she was immediately surrounded by neighborhood boys admiring her for all the wrong reasons: “That’s the most buff pit bull I’ve ever seen!”

Because of course she has to be a pit bull on top of her other disadvantages.

I finally had to move her inside for fear that someone’s admiration might turn into kidnapping and heaven knows what fate. (I already caught one teenager trying to get into the kennel.)

She’s with me for only three days until she can be transported to a rescue in another county. On Friday another woman pulled her (with her owners’ cooperation) from a garage where she had spent her whole life.

The family that owned her thought they loved her (and the seven other dogs tied up or running around their house). They were aware enough to be adamant that the dog — Perro Loco — not go to anybody who would “fight her.” They seem never to have abused her. But OMG, how much harm you can do to a dog just by doing nothing to a dog!

I hate to admit it. But sweet though she is, I can’t wait to get her out of here. I only hope the out-of-county rescue (which supposedly has an excellent pit bull rehabilitation program) can save her from the typical pit bull fate.

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