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.
Today a convention begins in chaos, amid cries of law and order, that classic killer of freedom. Today, the media mourns three blue lives, as if the murder of armed agents of the state is worse than decades of police murders of the less politically protected.
Elicitation. Kit Perez wrote an article about it last week. Every one of us should read it. If you haven’t, I’ll wait while you do.
….
I hadn’t heard the term, but anybody who’s been around the Outlaw scene knows the tactic. It’s a way of getting us to snitch on friends, give away secrets, or incriminate ourselves without us fully realizing what we’re doing.
And it works off our ordinary personality traits — anything from a desire to be polite and helpful to a desire to show how smart and “with it” we are. Which is what makes it so insidious.
I’m working on something I hoped to have ready this morning, but given the last few days, I expect you won’t be surprised I’m behind on it. Meantime, here are some links.
And thank you for the warm, wise, empathetic comments about Robbie. So many of you have hit the mark so perfectly — and so many of you have been here yourselves. I don’t yet have the heart to respond in comments, but I’ve read the last couple of comment sections over and over. I can’t tell you how much it helps.
That this is outrageous, racist, murderous, and wrong in every way does not make this any less racist, less murderous, less wrong, or less outrageous.
Okay, the writer has an agenda. And there’s more than a whiff of pop psychology about this. But given that we might soon have an elitist boarding-school boy as president, it’s worth a read. How boarding schools create heartless, insecure, defensive, overly reactive leaders.
Judge Napolitano on the Clintons beating the rap once again. Complete with examples of individuals who were prosecuted for similar, but lesser, actions.
And finally, dog stuff. From Shel in comments: Louis Awerbuck eloquently memorialized his warrior cocker spaniel. From Pat in comments: a little deaf girl teaches sign language to her little deaf puppy. (I’ve fostered three, maybe four, deaf herd-breed dogs and without exception they’ve been devoted, attentive, and alert learners.)
No prosecution for Hillary for exposing state secrets to casual scrutiny and hackery. But the FBI admits — no, bossman Comey himself states — that if one of us damnable peasants did the same thing, matters would be substantially different.
Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. … Responsible decisions also consider the context of a person’s actions, and how similar situations have been handled in the past. …
To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now.
Yeah. Government of the people, by the people, and for the rich, powerful, and scary. So don’t none o’ you little people step out of line, ’cause we’re not even trying to pretend now that you’d get equal treatment under law.
Must admit I also like this part:
I know there will be intense public debate in the wake of this recommendation, as there was throughout this investigation. What I can assure the American people is that this investigation was done competently, honestly, and independently. No outside influence of any kind was brought to bear.
How law and lawyers killed Europe’s Jews and have done plenty of other murder and tyranny. Which is merely the brilliant lead-in to a condemnation of the current “due process is an inconvenient luxury” anti-gun nonsense.
Jeff Jacoby discovers the biggest armed mob in America. Good question, there toward the end. But we already know the answer. (H/T FH)
It’s no longer some vague right-wing conspiracy that’s responsible for the nation’s distrust of Hillary. Now it’s certain corners of the Internet. Hey. Proud to be one of the many.
But wait. If you shouldn’t pay attention to the Constitution any more (because it’s, you know, so un-modern and so full of DWMs who shouldn’t be telling us what to do), then that means we shouldn’t have a president. Or Congress. Or taxes. Because that’s the main sort of thing the Constitution spells out. So … maybe you’re onto something there, Posner, even though you clearly don’t know it.
Hahahahahaha! The co-founder and CEO of ReMax says it’s a darned pity cash-poor renters don’t know about all those juicy 3%-down loans that are still out there despite all those overly restrictive lenders.
Can pot help prevent Alzheimers? Frustratingly academic at the moment. (C’mon, people, how many grams, ingested how?) But more fascinating data.
Courtesy of Fred in comments. Too adorable not to bring forward: Dr. Seuss Taxidermy. (Not a single one of the critters resembling any from my always-most-favorite Seuss book, On Beyond Zebra!, though.
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.
“Why Linkedin will make you hate Microsoft.” Wait. What? You don’t already hate Microsoft? But seriously, if they really do what this NYT article says they’re planning, we’re talking whole new levels.
Wow. Beer can, mama bear, and don’t-forget-the-dog save a woman during a long ordeal. But note what she really wishes she hadn’t left at home.
Have you ever sensed that Snopes.com, the great All-Powerful Fact-Checker of the Intertubz, sometimes needs fact-checking itself — particularly on political issues? Turns our you’re quite right. Look who’s providing those political “facts”. Makes me sad. Snopes has been a valuable resource and this is slowly destroying their credibility. (H/T OdS)
Oh, the poo, poo widdle antigun politician. And of course he merely joins the ranks of fellow hypocrites. (That second article is actually about the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the Clintons turning the White House into “a brothel.” Quite gross, really. It mentions Hillary’s fondness for firearms only in passing.)
Registering women for the draft? Sigh. I suppose it was only a matter of time. But if we must have the sort of bogus “equality” that puts women into combat, could we at least do away with the kind of bogus inequality that makes any young people, let alone all of them, slaves eligible for government disposal?
I know these rainbow #shootback posters (Gadsden style!) are old news now in Internet time since Shel put them into comments last week. But they are sooooo beautiful. And so much wiser and more honest than the O-admin’s craven claim that censoring 911 transcripts from the latest murder-for-Mohammed was done “for the victims”.
I have a friend who’s a big, bad felon. You know, one of those eeeevil villains who’s not fit to own a firearm (Unlike Florida jihadi Omar Mateen, who was vetted multiple times by the FBI, found totally a-okay, and breezed through the NICS background check).
My friend’s felony record still stands, but in the state where he now lives (not the one where he committed his savage depredations), he discovered he was eligible to have his rights restored. He went to court and he became a “real” citizen again.
He was raised around firearms and always enjoyed them. Being a serious freedomista he also understands the connection between guns and liberty. So on both counts he was delighted at the prospect of purchasing his first pistol.
Court order in hand (and having waited sufficient time for the order to make its way all the way through the system), he went into a gun store for the very first time in his life. He had a great time checking out various sidearms before settling on a big Glock. Filled out the application. Looked forward to taking his purchase home.
Denied. “Red bar bigger than the gun,” he told me. Heartbreaking.
But it gets worse. A week later, state police showed up on his doorstep on a Sunday afternoon, threatening to arrest him — now or at any time. Yes, now or at any time. Either the state police or the feds can do the honors now that he — this vicious felon — has dared tried to buy a gun.
“Talk about entrapment by estoppel,” he sighs. “This is text book.”
The state cops knew about the court order. They had a copy. But tough luck.
His lawyer says the law is on his side. Even the district attorney says the law is on his side. Both have written letters to the state police confirming that. But the state police will do nothing to clear him through NICS — while being perfectly willing to arrest him now that NICS has wrongly said no.
He says, “I read something about 78k denials for felonies last year (I think), and wonder how many of them are folks like me who spent thousands to get pardons, expungements, restorations at the state level, only to have the feds still deny because they just don’t update their records. According to this USA Today story
there is no working appeals process, so once you’re in [the NICS system as a prohibited person] you’re in.”
Now he either faces a long, expensive legal battle, which he may not win, or a lifelong ban coupled with threats to his safety and his freedom.
His state doesn’t allow private sales, and even if it did he wouldn’t take the risk now that the cops are watching him.
I’m writing to ask if anyone has any experience with something like this. I’m pretty sure my friend will come in, answer questions and otherwise participate in discussion on this.
Oh. And about that eeeeeevil, deadly felony that makes him totally unfit to protect his home or go plinking at a quarry? Thirty-plus years ago he was convicted of possessing $40 worth of crank and $3 of cocaine.
“Yup,” he says, “$43, I didn’t forget the zeroes, weren’t any. Never been a violent person, either.
“I’d like to find out whether I’m alone or if others suffer the same fate, and if so to bring some light to it. It would feel like I helped if we can prevent someone else from falling into the same trap.”
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.
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.
