Month: July 2010

They Needed a Law for This

The Senate went and passed a bill being touted as the “libel tourist” bills. What this bill does is prevents a person in the United States from having to acknowledge a libel lawsuit in another country. It seems a popular way to shut somebody up is the file a libel lawsuit against said person in a country where you are most likely to win.

The strange thing is I didn’t realize our country would force somebody to acknowledge such a lawsuit. I figured if somebody from a foreign country sued you over something that violated the Bill of Rights you were under no obligation to acknowledge that lawsuit while inside of our borders. Apparently that wasn’t the case.

Flying with Guns

I’m sure you’ve heard enough people say you should pack a gun in with your luggage if you don’t want it to be riffled through without you present. Well here is a Defcon talk about doing exactly that.

For those of you who aren’t aware the idea behind this is simple. In order to fly with a firearm said gun must be placed in checked luggage. The luggage must be a hard sided case that is locked. But here is the real kicker, it must be locked in such a way that only you have the key. TSA approved locks (locks that can be opened by a TSA master key) aren’t approved for luggage containing firearms. This means anytime the luggage is to be opened you must be present to unlock and relock the case.

About Time

Adobe has been receiving a ton of flack form the security community recently due to all the holes being exploited in their Reader and Flash applications. Well it appears Adobe is finally sandboxing Reader in the hopes of preventing malicious exploitation of the software.

I’m sure not many people think too much about receiving a PDF. I mean it’s a document that is read-only. Well except for the fact that PDF’s can include JavaScript which is executable by Reader because… it was bad idea gets included into the product day I guess. Hopefully Adobe gets their sandbox working correctly although I’m skeptical looking back at their previous security practices (quarterly update cycles anybody?).

He Gets an ‘A’ for Effort

Sometimes criminals deserve a little nod for creativity. Take Daryl Simon who was a fraudster and facing prison time. In the hopes of getting leniency in his sentencing he tried showing the court he was a good Samaritan by photoshopping himself helping people attending physical therapy.

That takes balls… and a heaping helping of stupidity. It appears his Photoshop-fu is weak as he was caught. For punishment at being bad at Photoshop he received an additional 50 months to his sentence. Still funny though.

Papers Please

Yeah the title I chose is way overboard for this little post but I thought it was funny so that’s what I used.

Some stores like to check your receipts when you leave their establishment. Best Buy is notorious for doing this, almost more-so than pushing their shitty “extended warranties” on customers. Well it appears Bitter over at Snowflakes in Hell got the special treatment from Wal-Mart.

I’m pointing this out to point out something else people don’t often know. When you are leaving a store with your purchased goods and you are asked for a receipt you are under no obligation to show it. The burden of proof that you’ve stolen something (because somebody who just payed for something obviously is in the business of theft as well) if they want to get the police involved. Funny enough the only way they can detain you is if they get the police involved… which requires them to provide the police with above mentioned evidence.

There are two ways you can think about this. The first is checking the receipt it little hassle and is easier than fighting over it. The other way of thinking about this, which is what I believe, is a store has no right to accuse a paying customer of theft. That’s what they are doing when they ask to check you receipt; telling you they believe you’re a crook. It’s a practice that pisses me off and frankly is the reason I rarely shop at stores such as Best Buy.

Logic Hard

Yet another fine Letter to the Editor brought to you by the Red Star:

Guns
Car wash slaying shows how tiffs can turn lethal

Anthony Hartman, a 22-year-old Eagle Scout, is dead from a bullet allegedly fired by Jonas Grice, a 27-year-old described by his parents as a “good kid” who is “not one to go out and bully or pick on anybody.” There was apparently a small altercation at a car wash, and before other customers even realized anything had happened, a young man was dead on the floor.

This is an excellent example of why I want fewer guns in my community, as any minor tiff can become deadly when someone has easy access to a gun.

GERI L. ARMSTRONG, MINNEAPOLIS

First of all I must bring up this fact. Somebody who is 27 is not a “good kid” because you cease being a kid after you turn 18 in this country.

The author of this letter, whom is an idiot, says this situation is a reason for stronger gun control laws. On the surface this sounds logic until you stop to realize how little facts are given. The author describes the situation as a minor altercation but doesn’t even mention what the altercation was over.

But the idea of minor altercations turning in shootings was tossed out the window the second right to carry laws were passed. Now there are more guns on the streets than ever with people being able to legally carry firearms on their person. What has happened? Well violent crime has continue it’s downward trend. No I’m not saying right to carry laws are the reason for the downward trend in violent crime; I am saying an increase in the number of available guns doesn’t increase the violent crime rate.

Here in Minnesota for example we have tens of thousands of people who hold carry permits. The violent crime has been on a downward spiral which seems impossible if a higher availability of firearms causes minor altercations to escalate into shootings.

The problem is violent people are violent.

I Doubt this was Caused by Availability of Guns

We all know the anti-gunners like to claim the high availability of guns in the United States is the reason for our crime rate. They claim nations with stronger gun control laws are safer. Personally I think violence has more to do with social strife than laws and Mexico is a good example. Another violence incident occurred in Mexico. This time 17 people attending a birthday party were gunned down in the country dead south of us.

Whenever a spree shooting occurs here the anti-gunners bitch and moan about how we need stricter gun control laws and had such laws been on the books the spree shooting wouldn’t have happened. The bottom line is Mexico has some pretty strict gun control laws and they experience enough violence every day for several industrial countries. The problem is they are a failing state with a government more corrupt than Chicago’s politicians.

Which brings up to the fact most of the violent cities in the United States have a combination of strong gun control laws and social strife. Minneapolis for instance doesn’t have that horrible of a crime rate until you get into the northern territories where the slums are. Much of Chicago’s violence is in South Chicago. New York has the Bronx which is pretty well known for being a shit hole.

Violent people will be violent. Criminals will be criminals. If there is a law preventing a criminal from getting a gun they will ignore said law and get the gun. Those of us in the pro-rights community keep bringing this up and presenting our evidence yet the anti-gunners keep putting their fingers in their ears and screaming “LA LA LA” at the top of their lungs.

Gun Owners of America and Partisanship

I’ve been ripping on Gun Owners of America (GOA) quite a bit recently. My main beef with them is that they seem to spend all of their time bitching about the National Rifle Association (NRA) instead of doing something to eliminate gun control laws. Recently they’ve been going on about the NRA’s potential endorsement of Harry Reid who voted for the Brady Act back in 1993.

The problem? Well Kay Bailey, a Republican, voted for the same act. Why does that matter? Because she has an A rating from GOA. This seems to prove the point that GOA isn’t a second amendment organization but a conservative organization. They spend time talking about non-second amendment related issues and take those into account when grading politicians. The NRA on the other hand usually focus almost exclusively on gun rights.

I wouldn’t have a problem with GOA if they didn’t spend all their time whining and claiming they are the only no compromise second amendment organization out there. But to top it off they do that while bashing the NRA who actually work to get shit done.

Once again I state if you’re disenfranchised with the NRA please send your money to an organization that gets things done such as the Second Amendment Foundation.

I Write Like…

Breda posted a link to a page that analyzes your writings and tells you who you write like. I decided to plug in several of my posts over the last several months and see who I write like. Apparently I’m schizophrenic in my writings.

My post about the recent Detroit Iron Maiden concert nabbed me this:

I write like
Cory Doctorow

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Apparently when I write about the Second Amendment Foundation my style takes on a slightly scarier fashion:

I write like
H. P. Lovecraft

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

And I had a few other random authors pop up but Corey Doctorow was certainly the most popular author brought up by my writings by a wide margin.