So you thought the National Animal Identification system was dead? Silly, silly you. Meet Traceability for Livestock Moving Interstate and … “Chicken Crimes.”

(Tip o’ hat to Dan Adams of Earthineer.)

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• One might ask why the FBI had these training materials in the first place, and whether they plan to throw out the attitudes (yeah, riiiiiight) or just the paperwork.
• You probably already know Tess Pennington’s online series 52 Weeks to Preparedenss. But it’s always worth a link. And soon? A book!
• Bovard: “First wheat, now health care.”
• Drone Studies. A new college major. That is &^%$# repulsive.
• Security: a crypto-nerd’s imagination vs what would actually happen. S, who sent this, noted that these days they’d probably dispense with the drugs.
• RelaxShacks.com. Extremely cool tips for getting the most out of your tiny living spaces.
• RFID chips move aside. The RFID tattoo is here. (SO much more stylish, don’t you agree?)
• I have no idea whether John Wayne actually came up with these five rules to remember in life. But if he didn’t, he should have.
• Carlos Miller notes, “Police can shoot people, tase people, pepper spray people, harass people, steal from people, lie to people and arrest people on unlawful charges and they still get to keep their jobs.” But there are limits, you know.

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The Tireless Agorist looks at the burgeoning underground economy in Greece.

And Forbes asks if Bitcoin might become the favored currency of an international System D.

I’m as skeptical of Bitcoin as I am of every cyber currency (once burned …). And my first thought on reading the Forbes piece was, “What will the USA fedgov’s 900-pound gorilla do?” But one of these days, the flailing arms of that monster gorilla will be able to do … nothing. Some innovation in free-market money will defeat it. If it’s Bitcoin, good for Bitcoin.

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The head of the No Such Agency is denying the truth of the Wired article that caused such a stir last week.

No! No! Of course they aren’t spying on Americans! How could we even think such a thing? Our own government? Spying on us? Illegally? What, are you some sort of commie pinko subversive Islamist radical agitating racist anti-government paranoid weirdo fanatic?

At risk of coming down in the side of panic and hysteria … well, hell, just coming down on the side of reality … who you gonna believe in this fracas? Lessee … one of the most diabolically secretive agencies of government, one that’s already been caught repeatedly in unconstitutional, anti-American shenanigans … or one of the finest e-journalist publications in the world (albeit one with its own agenda) whose reputation hangs on its reporting?

Or your own commonsense?

Decisions … decisions …

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The following is from an entrepreneur friend I’ve blogged about before. What he’s going through is a direct result of FATCA. You and me? We might not think we’re rich enough to be affected by this horrible, impossible law. If we have few or no offshore assets, we might think we have nothing to worry about.

But in the long run, we’re all hurt as American citizens become worldwide pariahs, as avenues of freedom are closed off, and as stupid government tricks push our commerce and technology into fear-created backwaters.

Anyhow, from my friend:

I’ve already whined to you about having to close my Swiss bank account. That process has been started. It will end up costing me about $10,000 in travel and fees. I’m moving the money from accounts denominated in Swiss Francs to a firm that will warehouse gold bullion for me – for a fee. I kept gold in my Swiss safe deposit box for annual fee of $150 – and no one, no one at all, know what was inside. Now I will pay a fee to buy bullion, plus about 1.5% of the value of the gold to the new firm every year, and they will know exactly what I have at all times.

It’s better than nothing, but it’s a major loss of money, privacy, and control.

I also had Swiss Travel Cash cards. These were very cool. You pay a small fee to load a card from your Swiss account. You can have cards for dollars, Euros, or Swiss Francs. You can have them for meatspace credit cards, or internet purchases, or as an iPhone app. I had dollar and Euro credit cards. Each card can hold up to 10,000 units of currency. There are no additional fees. The cards have no names on them, just a European mastercard number. You can use them anywhere mastercard is accepted, with a 4-digit pin. See here.

When a close friend was going through a nasty divorce, her wealthy in-laws paid a pack of lawyers to freeze all her assets, the better to steal the house and get custody of the kids, I handed her my dollar card and whispered the pin in her ear. She was able to hire her own lawyers and sort things out. I was repaid in full. The kids are with her. There were no records of the spending, no way for the other sharks to get at this money.

Now its gone. I got a polite but firm email stating that I have to close out all Swiss Travel Cash cards by June 1. Like closing the Swiss bank accounts, this applies to all US citizens.

I realize there won’t be much sympathy for a rich one-percenter. Actually I’m just breaking into the 10% class, the ones who make 43% of US AGI and paid 70.5% of total income taxes. But once the idea of class war is accepted, the lines get blurry. It really doesn’t matter if I’m in the 1%, 5%, 10%, or even 20%.

What matters is that I’ve been cut out of the herd, and forced into a series of ever tighter chutes, and I know what lies ahead.

I read libertopia dreamers who write about anonymous digital cash. It’s not a dream, it is cold plastic reality, but it is being denied to Americans while the rest of the world moves ahead.

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The other day, RL sent this link. It’s to a nice, friendly, good-humored, free site that helps people compose letters to the FBI requesting their infamous files.

You just fill in your personal info and the site produces a letter you can print out and send off to find out what the FBI’s got on you. Nice convenience.

Naturally, despite all its cheerful disclaimers, the site makes me want to wrap my entire self in tinfoil several layers deep.

There was a time, I suppose, when I held the common fear: If you ask for your FBI file and you don’t already have one, they’ll start one. (The site says this is probably an urban legend, but I don’t agree.)

Now, more likely, it’s as RL joked: my file would be so big I couldn’t afford the printing costs. (He’s writing for his, though, and maybe his infamous “ties” or “links” to me and other dangerous radicals will show up in it.)

So … Have you ever seen your FBI files? And if not, do you want to? And if you want to, would you be able to poke your fingers far enough out of your tinfoil wrapper to use the services of that site?

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• Remember those strange underwater dog photos that went viral last month? Turns out the photographer is getting the success he deserves (which often doesn’t happen with ‘Net phenomena) and sharing his goodness with shelter dogs. (Tip o’ hat to F.)
• Unlike, for instance, killer PETA. The most over-crowded and hectically run big-city pound is better for animals than those creeps.
• The true prices of things.
• This came from S. with a one-word comment: Eeeewwwwwww.
• Elegant solution: post-earthquake container housing. (H/T MSJ.)
• One of those small, strange stories that comes along every once in a while (and makes writers want to produce explanations).
• “First We Conquer Iceland.” I mentioned the other day that Icelanders are thinking about adopting the Canadian Loonie as their official currency. Wendy McElroy has a nice, light-hearted take on it. I don’t know how far this will go, but it seems strange that nobody in the mainstream is noticing that the only country to bounce back from its self-caused financial catastrophe is considering adopting a non-U.S. (and for that matter, non Euro, currency to replace its homegrown.

This is probably just as copyrighted as copyrighted can be, so I’ll take it down it anybody protests. But TS sent this in light of my recent Neighbor from Hell problems and it was too funny not to post. Prolly won’t be trying that technique any time soon.

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But if I posted it, poor old Dave would be compelled to fire my sorry self from the blogging crew.

Reader JP sent it to me this afternoon. It shows an airport “security” checkpoint.

Picture a conveyor belt. Picture a male TSA agent in blue uniform. Well, partially in blue uniform. Partially … not. Picture a blonde woman passenger with, shall we say, unusually developed glands. She is emphatically not wearing any uniform of any sort.

Said TSA agent has said passenger bent over conveyor belt and is … um … subjecting her to an unusually thorough probe. Without using … blue gloves. Or hands.

He’s saying to her (I paraphrase), “Women have unique places to hide weapons, which is why I perform such diligent searches. It’s for your own good.”

JP says he found the cartoon on an “interesting” site. You know, one of those that people don’t generally admit to visiting.

Is there anybody left who takes the TSA seriously?

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