Month: September 2009

1984 Just Gets Closer Every Year

OK I understand parents wanting to keep track of their kids but there really has to be a limit. I think that limit is crossed once you strap GPS tracking devices to your children and follow their every move. Well a company called Lok8u has a device called the num8 for those overly paranoid parents. It’s a wrist watch that lets you track your child’s every move because that’s better for their development or something I guess. Here’s their excuse:

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Steve Salmon, from Lok8u, said: “Losing your child, if only for a brief moment, leads to a state of panic and makes parents feel powerless. The overriding aim of num8 is to give children their freedom and parents peace of mind.”

Yeah so your saying that if parents lose track of their kid for even a moment it leads to panic? I wonder what was wrong with my parents because they did become paranoid every time I left the house to go do something. And this device doesn’t give children freedom beyond being able to roam where mom and dad say.

Of course people will bring up the whole “if you child is kidnapped you can find them” argument which is bullshit as well. See being this is a wrist watch you can just pull it off a child. For that matter a child can just pull it off, put it somewhere they are supposed to be, and go do what they want. Seriously this surveillance society thing needs to be put to death now.

I don’t see how a child can develop independence while be tracked everywhere they go. You need to let your children get out and explore on their own otherwise they’ll never develop that good old exploratory desire.

The New York Times Proves Once Again They Hate Gun Owners

We all know and hate the New York Times. What other paper can you find that constantly berates gun owners as some kind of social sum that should be eliminated? But here is a shocker presented by Snowflakes in Hell, the New York Times is actually being more anti-gun than the Brady Campaign itself. Seriously wow.

See the senate just vote in favor of a bill that will allow those of us traveling with guns to travel on Amtrak. Of course we have to follow the same policies as we do when traveling on airplanes with firearms. But according to the New York Times that’s crazy and is showing preferential treatment to gun owners:

Proponents said the change was needed to put Amtrak back to its pre-9/11 gun policy and equate it with airline security measures that allow unloaded, locked handguns in checked baggage. This is lunatic reasoning for a nation supposedly sensitized by the 9/11 attacks. Why should gun owners be treated as privileged travelers?

Yeah I’ll refer you back to Snowflakes in Hell on this quote. But I never really though that having to check a gun on an airplane was a privilege. In fact I’ve always seen it as a nuisance. Oh and for shits and giggles:

If the Senate wants to pass a bill on Amtrak, it should provide the money to hire more security guards and create a real passenger rail system. Generally, it should just stop its demeaning homage to the gun lobby.

Considering the federal government already does pay to keep Amtrak afloat I think Amtrak should be required to allow us to exercise our second amendment rights while riding aboard. After all we shouldn’t have our federal government funding infractions against this country’s own constitution. Just a thought.

Ah the Internet how I Love Thee

So yeah I have to be in Boston on business. I’m the only one here tonight from work and don’t know my way around at all. Likewise my hotel is off the main transit lines. Thankfully due to knowing so many people online I have a contact here that was able to give me a ride from the airport to the hotel. Seriously this Internet thing isn’t only a great source of information but a great source of contacts.

So Where’s That Change

It appears as if the current administration is all for extending the three sections of the PATRIOT Act that are set to expire this year. Of course they give the standard bull shit proclaiming how their willing to listen to privacy concerns:

In a letter to lawmakers, Justice Department officials said the administration supports extending the three expiring provisions of the law, although they are willing to consider additional privacy protections as long as they don’t weaken the effectiveness of the law

But of course only if it still allows them to stomp on civil rights:

Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote Sen. Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, that the administration is willing to consider stronger civil rights protections in the new law “provided that they do not undermine the effectiveness of these important (provisions).”

So yeah they are willing to put some clauses in that will “protect” civil rights so long as it doesn’t protect civil rights and nullify their imaginary effectiveness.

So remind me how this is hope or change.

Potential Light Blogging Again

Man I really hate saying this again and again, I’m starting to sound like a broken record. Anyways I’m traveling for work again and blogging may be rather light although due to the massive amount of light blogging as of late I’ll try not to let it slip.

I’ll try to get some preemptive stories posted that will publish tomorrow.

Bedtime Stories for Libertarian Households

Via Says Uncle we have bedtime stories for libertarian households.

The first two are “The Three Little Pigs Learn That If You Own A Rifle, You Can Build Your House Out Of Any Damn Material You Want” and the second one is “Goldilocks Violates Some Property Rights And Is Lucky She Doesn’t Get Shot In The Face.”

Great stories that should prove some life lessons.

Wow Windows Vista Really Failed

I never liked Windows Vista but it just dawned on me how big of a failure it was. There is a story on Slashdot about how Microsoft wasn’t going to back port a patch made in Vista and Server 2003 to XP. My first reaction was to complain how they won’t support their operating system even though their new one isn’t out yet.

Yeah I totally forgot there was a version between Windows XP and Windows 7 called Windows Vista. Yup it was so bad I suppressed the memory of it’s existence.

New 1911 with Amazing New Features

Wow I just went over to The Firearms Blog where I saw a picture of what appears to be a brand new 1911 with some amazing features. Here is the picture:

Nothing a few interesting things? Well first the gun doesn’t have an ejection port. This may seem strange but this 1911 seems to be advanced enough to not actually shoot the bullet and eject the casing but shoot the bullet and casing out together. I’m not sure if this is a new caliber or bullet design but it certainly will make recovering your brass a bitch.

This gun also appears to have some kind of double trigger system. I’m unsure what this is supposed to do although I theorize it’s a method of getting around the ATF ban on machine guns. If a gun fires two or more rounds per trigger pull it’s a machine gun. Meanwhile if you have two triggers lines up together you can pull one and fire the first round. After that the front trigger will move back to press into the rear one firing another round with one trigger squeeze. This is obviously a self defense gun as this will assist the user in performing double taps.

This is certainly going to be an interesting gun when it’s officially introduced. I’m surprised it was covered in a campus newspaper actually. I’m guessing some students there helped develop it.