Now here’s an idea: Name various TSA facilities after the jerks who inflicted them on us. Post prominent signs so people in those three-hour lines could contemplate whom to thank.
Finally, a political quiz with enough nuance not to leave libertarians banging their heads. (You may have to click “other stances” to get to the nuanced parts; might depend on your computer’s settings.)
Simultaneously published at ClaireWolfe.com/blog. Please bookmark that link, as the blog will soon be relocating there.
Comments are being shut off here, but comment away over there! Everyone’s first-ever comment goes to moderation, but Bear and I are keeping eyes peeled for new comments and approving them as fast as we can. Also, if you’ve ever embarrassed yourself with a comment typo (and haven’t we all), you’ll be glad to know that Bear (login name: He Who Fakes It Well) has figured out a way to let you edit your own comments. There’s only a brief opportunity — five minutes. You can’t go back the next day and change your entire statement or anything. But if you quickly realize you’ve made an oopsie, you can now fix it.
I’m online more than expected this week — coordinating on the website-to-be, thanking wonderful donors, chasing rainbows, keeping ahead of runaway trucks. You know, the usual. So I figure you guys might as well benefit from some extra posting while I’m at it.
Three years — or more — for possession of an eeeeevil BB gun? Only in New Jersey. I hope this poor schmuck’s fight goes well. (H/T DB)
I’ve always admired Peter Theil. So libertarian. So out-of-the-box. So creatively cheeky. But I didn’t realize he was the founder and chief investor in the ghastly, government-sucking, privacy-raping, Tolkein-savaging Palantir. Ugh. Why would a supposed “libertarian” do such a thing to the rest of us???
So even if you’re a hermit in the woods, you now know that a game called Pokemon Go is The Most Important Thing Ever To Happen In America, Seriously EVAHHHH. What fewer people are talking about is how it makes money off players while savaging their privacy. (Yes, even after its token well-publicized privacy corrections.)
NSFW, but an absolute must for the too-bad-to-be-true category: Has this ever happened to you? (Note: For those who didn’t catch too-bad-to-be-true, this is a parody)
No, darnit. I cannot find the iPhone. Where the heck is it? (H/t Jim B. in comments)
How J.R.R. Tolkein found Mordor on the Western Front. Simplistic. But with the 100th anniversary of the unthinkable Battle of the Somme, apropos.
Bill and Loretta. Yeah, I suppose it’s possible that they really did talk about their families, as Lynch insists with a wink-wink, nod-nod. If so, the conversation probably went like this.
What a cesspit and an illegal tavern tell us about American revolutionary history.
Anybody here still living in California? Plan to continue there after this? And how on earth is that background-check-and-registration-for-ammo going to work? Well, of course ultimately it’s not going to work (except in the sense of keeping people from buying cartridges, which is surely the real point). But I’m trying to think of the costs, the backlogs, the bureaucratic screwups, the unwillingness of FFLs to want to bother, the entirely new bunch of tax-suckers this will require. (It’s not clear from what I’ve read whether the b-c-a-r-f ammo provision will ultimately go into effect.)
And after that load of disgustingness, we close — and cleanse our spirits — with some beautiful courage and inspiration from Mike Vanderboegh.
Well, at least you might have some recourse if Microsoft sneak-upgrades your computer to its Windows 10 malware.
This one’s for you who live within the New Madrid fault zone — or anybody who’s a follower of megaquakes and their lore.
Britain is a part of Europe and will remain so, says Boris Johnson, former mayor of London, prominent figure of the “Leave” campaign, and possible successor to David Cameron.
One of the few relatively dispassionate looks at key issues behind the Brexit. It wasn’t all just “hate!” and “racism!” on one side and “we know what’s good for you” on the other.
Sheesh. And here’s one more good reason to avoid political entanglements with the EU.
Don’t care about the Brexit that’s consuming the world’s media right now? Well, how ’bout a Texit — a Texas exit? (I’m amused at those “constitutional scholars” who say a U.S. state can’t secede from the union. The constitution neither said nor implied that; only overwhelming military force said that. Doesn’t take any scholar to see 600,000 dead people.)
Following up on Friday’s Irish rebellion references, here are 50 things you didn’t know about the 1916 Easter Rising. With photos.
The lefties claim demographics will be on their side in the future. But what if the whole “blue model” of urban living is doomed by telecommuters?
Wait. Brent Spiner and his Dr. Brackish Okun will be back in the remake of Independence Day? But didn’t we see him squished to death by an Evil Alien? No, it seems we saw no such thing.
Humans are funny. It seems people want their driverless cars programmed to kill others, but paradoxically, not kill themselves in exactly the same situations.
No-fly/no-buy equals no freedom, says Judge Napolitano.
Today’s earlier post actually began with me thinking about my new TracFones. Then it went off in its own direction, as these things tend to do.
I was disgruntled a month or so ago when TracFone cryptically failed-to-announce that my ancient 2G phones (EDC and backup) were about to become obsolete.
But I’m quite happy about it now. For one thing, once I had new phones in hand, the changeover was automated and easy — as few things are with TracFone. But beyond that, the phones are a pretty big leap past the old Motorola flip-phone whose numbers were getting worn into blurs despite my ardent phone-avoidance.
“If you’re living a normal life, you have nothing to worry about.”
That quote, which appears in this Atlantic article, seems on its surface a mere variation on the old untrue truism “If you’ve got nothing to hide you’ve got nothing to fear.”
Bad, but not news.
But as the headline and theme of the linked article clearly show, data gathering and selling is now truly beginning to affect every aspect of our lives. And is doing so in ways that are used to judge us as “fit” or “unfit” to function in society — ways that permit no appeal. Often it’s done in ways that permit no knowledge of what’s being done to us. Increasingly, the definition of “normal life” is being judged by secret data and proprietary algorithms.
Yet another way cynical, opportunistic cops (and governments in general) quash our desires to be kind to our fellow man. Foul parasites. And apparently Canadian sneaks are no better than U.S. sneaks. (H/T JB)
Ohhhhh gawwwwwwd. Not agaiiiiiin. First Sudafed goes behind the counter and gets your name into a police registry. Now over-the-counter diahhrea meds — yes, Immodium, of all things — get targeted as part of Dreaded Scourge of Opiod Abuse.
It’s one thing to carry your heart on your sleeve. Entirely another to carry your heart on your back for over a year.
Well, I wouldn’t v*te for Trump if somebody put a gun to my head. But even so, being a gay, Hispanic Trump supporter doesn’t merit having your nose broken by leftist thugs.
People have called Windows 10 malware. But I figured that was figurative. Turns out that, given its recent, extremely deceptive sneak-install behavior, it actually is malware, by Microsoft’s own definition. MS’s vile sneakery has been confirmed by knowledgeable sources. Beware any pop-ups from MS!
Fascinating. The FDA and Interpol want to abolish 4,402 international websites selling prescription drugs. This is based on confiscation of 797 parcels in a brief recent period. Think on it. What does that number tell you about the number of parcels that have gotten quietly and safely to customers all this time — customers who are apparently happy with their confidential, and money-saving purchases. People who will want to make similar purchases in the future. Um … good luck with that, bureaucops.
And speaking of confidentiality (or lack thereof) in prescription drug purchasing … the DEA now wants warrantless access to your legal drug records. AND might hassle or arrest you for perfectly legal activity. (H/T to everybody who sent me this link; I already had it, which just goes to show you this is one to pay real serious attention to, even if you blow off everything else you see here today.)
Remember the story in our last links post about cops having a new device to let them steal more money during traffic stops? Thought you might be interested in the Department of (Achtung!) Homeland Security’s more favorable take on it. (And what is it they say about the differences between theory and reality again …?) Alas, the courts, as usual, take the pro-gov line in such matters.
I’m sorry that today’s links have contained so many downers and nothing in the area of nooz you can use. At least we can end on a note of good cheer, courtesy of MJR. Here’s another of those optimistic post-TSHTF flash stories: “Hills” by Joe Miles.
I was thinking this morning about risks — about the chances we take … or don’t take. Not so much risks like whether to shoot for that Xtreme skateboard move or play it safe. But the big, potentially life-changing risks.
Oh, sure, the skateboard move or the jump out of the plane or whatever can also be life-changing. It could squish your ribcage or your pelvis, not to mention your brain. Or it could tell you you have more courage than you knew, courage you could use for good in the rest of your life. But I’m thinking more of the risks where you realize at the time, “If I do this thing, my life will be on a different path.”
So today’s Friday Freedom Question asks What was the biggest risk that you didn’t take (but wish you had) and what was the biggest risk you did take that altered your life?
For me, the biggest risk I didn’t take (and now regret) was that I didn’t drop out of high school and leave home at the earliest opportunity. Sure, it could have ended up as a dead end or with the humiliation of crawling home to “I told you sos.” But looking back, I think it would have shown me I was actually a more courageous and visionary person. It might — who knows? — have led me to opportunities I’d have been confident enough to explore, once I knew I could survive beyond family and prison school.
It’s harder to pin down the biggest risk I did take because the things outside observers told me seemed risky to them never seemed risky to me: leaving a place I was secure and moving across the country to a place where I knew nobody and had no connections — because that place called to me; or quitting corporate communications to be a freedom writer. These seemed less like risky choices than inevitabilities to me (at least once I’d reached the decision-making moment). So it’s hard to say.
But what about you? What was the big risk you turned away from and now regret? What was the big risk you took and what were its results?
Cops have a new machine that lets them grab money off your prepaid cards right at roadside. But it’s not about the money. Really it isn’t. Of course not! It’s about … um … erm, identity theft! Yeah, that’s what it’s really about. The cops aren’t just getting more bold and efficient about stealing from you. They’re protecting you! (H/T Fred in comments)
Oopsie. Looks as if that gun “documentary” wasn’t the only one Couric and pals artfully edited to make their opponents look like dumbasses.
What is it that Yellowstone tourists don’t understand about “boiling water will reduce you to bones — real quick”? Not the first young guy who’s died this way.
Unions have joined the effort to end mass incarceration and its hope-killing (and employment-killing) after-effects.
Speaking of after-effects and just in case anyone needs to be reminded of what a dangerous person and what a whiny, lying, arrogant biotch Hillary has always been …
Oh no. I knew that fellow gunblogger Northwest Freethinker (aka GayCynic) was very ill. But didn’t know he was gone. He saw to it that he departed in style, though.
Recap: All they were saying, without actually saying it, was that my 2G phones are about to become obsolete. The fact that they weren’t actually saying it, and the fact that any contact with TracFone other than buying and adding airtime is always painful threw me a bit.
But by Sunday, I had a nice little touchscreen 3G phone — $7! — that did everything my old phone did, but could also send and receive photos and had a virtual qwerty keyboard for texting. (This is why I turned down two kind offers for free phones; I really wanted that qwerty keyboard.) All set, thank you!
Not only that, but the process of transferring the old phone’s activation and minutes to the new was quick and easy. Five minutes on an automated call (no conversations with anybody in Mumbai). Two hours later … done.
Interestingly, I was also given the weekend’s use of a somewhat elderly Android smartphone: “Use it, play with it, break it if you like.” I’ve made calls and viewed photos on friends’ smartphones, but never cared to own one myself because they are such major wreckers of privacy.
But avoidance of smartphones puts me behind the curve when it comes to writing intelligently about them. So I was glad to mess around with one freely for a few days.
I hated a couple of major things, but loved a lot more.
Hated: The fact that Android — the “superior” phone OS that lives on something like four out of every five smartphones — is an even more naked Google Evil (TM) than I’d imagined. Fully half the phone’s functions seem designed to force the user onto Google, be identified, and give away any concept of personal privacy.
Appalling. First thing I did was hunt around and turn off geolocation and all the “helpful” report-to-Google functions. But I could see that without setting up a Google account and downloading apps, a person would be losing many of the advantages of having a smartphone.
Yet, oh my, the price of some of those supposed advantages! Even if there are workarounds. Who wants to spend their life engineering workarounds — and still never knowing how many other Google-designed or Google-approved data leaks you’re carrying around in your pocket?
Loved: The fact that, with a TracFone smartphone, airtime cards not only give “triple minutes” (as that 3G phone does), but in addition give triple number of texts and triple MBs of data. Wow. On my old 2G (double minutes) phone and the 3G phone, all texts and browser time come out of the “minutes” budget. So this is huge.
And there I sit with a backup phone that has well over 2,200 minutes on it … which would become 2,200 minutes, plus 2,200 texts, plus 2,200 MB of data if I picked up a $30 smartphone.
If this has happened to you — particularly if you managed to resolve the issue — I’d like to hear about it.
Got a text from Tracfone this morning: URGENT — Network changes in your area — ACTION REQUIRED — You MUST call … Blah blah.
I called and all I got was, “Press 1 if you already have your replacement phone. Press 2 if you need to purchase your replacement phone.” No other info. No option for reaching a human being (which wouldn’t help much, in any case, as I’ve never spoken with a Tracfone rep who could speak English, not to mention they probe for private info and can take hours at customer expense(!) to resolve problems).
I presume TF is about to obsolete my phone. Actually, two phones. One of which I carry every day and is about to run out of minutes. And one of which is a backup only but has 2,200 precious minutes on it.
Not surprising if they’re going obsolete. I’ve had them since sometime in the mid-Jurassic. Still. COMMUNICATION, people!
If any of you dear Commentariat members know how to fix this with minimum fuss (and no damn snoopy smart phones), I’d love to know.
Oh, and if anybody is going to suggest I quit Tracfone and try some other privacy-respecting phone service, keep in mind that said service must operate here in the western edge of nowhere. NetZero doesn’t work here. I tried an AT&T GoPhone for a while, but it was a horrible rip-off, charging me substantially for a day of “use” any time the phone rang, even if I didn’t answer it. Oh, and the only local dealer of privacy phones just closed.
