• Did you know there’s an organization called Dogs Against Romney? And that one of its members just got stopped by a cop for doing (in effigy) what Romney once did to his family dog?
• A courageous colonel busts hierarchy to tell truths about Afghanistan. (Tip o’ hat to M.)
• “Take that, Hobbes!”
• “Less lethal.” Yeah. In other words — more likely to be casually fired at people who irritate the cops.
• Help wanted at the TSA. :-)
• Oh, what to think? It’s a crime and a shame when innocent owners have their assets seized. But can they be called “innocent” when they’ve helped the fedgov seize others’ assets in the past?
• Tell me, please, are you even the teeny-tiniest bit surprised at this so-called news?
• Introducing the government’s latest unpaid spy. (Tip o’ hat to D.)
• Not sure what this implies about the U.S. electorate. But DA, who found the link, thinks it has more to do with feeling disenfranchised than with lack of interest. Might also speculate that in 2008 young people were excited by Obama, while these days the only person who could possibly be excited by him might be Michelle, in bed. And even that’s dubious.

Finally, last week I linked to a new National Geographic series that looked as if it might be about to profile all “doomsday preppers” as laughable loons. H, who first called my attention to it, has watched the first episodes and says it’s nowhere near as supercilious as it might have been.

He does wonder, though, about the wisdom of some of these folks, outing themselves …

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The End of the American Dream recently took apart two of the FBI’s infamous “look for a terrorist under every bed” brochures. You know, the ones that tell members of different professions whom they should report to the fedgov. In this case, one is a literal “look under the bed,” since the brochure in question addresses all us EEEEEvil terrorists who might be checking into hotels and motels.

But as frequent-contributor MJR discovered, all manner of professions get their own terrorist-hunting help from the fibbies. (The differences and similarities between the flyers are fascinating.)

Among other things, tattoo artists — yes tattoo artists! — are advised to suspect (in what has become the FBI’s standard tortured style of English) “People or Groups Who Make repeated returns with multiple individuals requesting identical tattoos.”

Hey, in that case I know nine Dreaded Terrorists who need to be slammed into Gitmo right away! And I’m sure they’re terrorists because in addition to requesting identical tattoos, they’ve also all used multiple aliases (another Sure Sign). At the time they got their suspicious tats, they were going by the aliases Frodo, Samwise, Galdalf, Legolas, Merry, Pippin, Boromir, Gimli, and — the multiple-aliasing obvious EEEEEvil mastermind, Aragorn, aka Strider, aka The Dunedan, aka Longshanks, Wingfoot, Telcontar, Elfstone, and Thorongil.

The Fatherland (Achtung!) is clearly in danger as long as they — and we! — remain on the loose.

And don’t imagine I’m joking. The Fellowship of the Ring really were terrorists, at least from Sauron’s point of view. They wanted to overthrow the government of Mordor, didn’t they? And they hoped to achieve it via a highly destructive sneak attack into the heartland of that realm.

And we. Well, the evidence against us has been overwhelming for some time.

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• If you’re going to the big game today I’m sure this’ll make you feel wonderful, no matter who wins or loses: hot dog vendors with the skills and proclivities of the TSA.
• Of course, if you turn out to be one of the “suspicious” attendees, you won’t feel good at all if they use one of these on you. (And here’s a video.)
• But it could be worse, you know.
• All of which got me to wondering how the fedgov would handle somebody like Lawnchair Larry today.
• Or for that matter, any of us.
• So if you’re going to do something “illegal,” best to do it by proxy. Or Lego. :-)

I fear that in the last couple of days of not posting (deadlining, sorry), I may have lost track of all the hat tips due for links. So hoping I’m not leaving anybody out, thank you’s to P, F, H, and M.)

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• 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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• 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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Okay, the reporter makes a few statements that reflect cringe-worthy ignorance. Still … this is a good report. And the last line (last paragraph if you read instead of listen) is just howlingly marvelous.

Seems NPR is also coming to understand the nicely Outlaw concept of “law-abiding law breakers.” :-)

Side note: This is the first time I’ve ever seen any news about the LeBaron clan that wasn’t about weird murders. Instead we’ve got honest people defending themselves against murderers.

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• Cowboys, superheroes, and freedom.
• Intelligent dogs party down.
• Are the NDAA and the upcoming Enemy Expatriation Act two pieces of the same puzzle?
• Writers: You may want to may want to avoid self-publishing via Apple iBooks Author.
• The evolution of the U.S. dollar. (Tip o’ hat to D.)
• Yet another reason to be glad you don’t live in New York.
• You’ve heard about the long arm of the Feds reaching to New Zealand to shut down one of the biggest sites on the Web without due process — showing that the MPAA, the RIAA, and the fedgov hardly need SOPA. You heard about the first swift response (you go, Anonymous). But here’s the bigger story, longer term: “Hollywood Must Die.” As a movie fan, I hate to say it. But we’ll all be better off if Paul Graham succeeds.
• Good time to review your digital rights vs the police. (Here’s the one page version (.pdf).)

(Several tips o’ hat to MJR)

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You’ve been hearing about the seeming hordes of tourists and businessfolk who in recent weeks made the mistake of imagining that New York City has semi-sane gun laws.

And you wonder, don’t you, how the heck any gun owner could be so oblivious? There’ve been so many newsbits since mid-December about naive out-of-staters deliberately exposing themselves to NYC anti-gun Authoritah that we could be forgiven for imagining that there’s some mysterious species of gun-owning lemming that heads eastward to its doom at this time of year.

One well-known gun-rights writer and one semi-hemi-demi-pseudo-quasi famous one have taken that issue on this week:

In an article appearing today at Paladin Press, I delve into the old question of “Ignorance of the law …” (I am, of course, totally in favor of ignoring most law; but that’s not the same thing.)

And earlier this week, John Lott mused in print about whether those bumbling NYC visitors should have to pay for their folly. (The Lott article has some confusing omissions in it and isn’t up-to-date on developments in one case; it’s still a good one.)

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