Month: May 2011

So Stupid That It Could Only Come From California

California is the land of really stupid laws and court ruling thus I’m not surprised a ruling stating that unloaded guns are adequate for self-defense originated from that horrible state:

A federal judge ruled Monday there is no constitutional right to carry a hidden gun in public — a decision that dealt a setback to gun-rights advocates who had challenged how much discretion California law enforcement officials have in issuing concealed weapons permits.

Do I really have to point out the fact that a constitutional right isn’t a right if it’s regulated by the government? Color me not surprised that the state would rule a right can be regulated by itself. Still the stupidity is much deeper with this ruling than a simple claim of a right not really being a right:

Gura had argued that Prieto’s policy gives the sheriff arbitrary discretion over a fundamental constitutional right to bear arms.

England countered that California law currently lets gun owners carry an unloaded weapon so it can be quickly loaded and used in self-defense if needed.

That’s the counter argument that was considered acceptable? I guess when you’re being attacked by somebody who intends to murder you you’re supposed to say, “Oh pardon me Mr. Attacker could you give me a second or two to load my gun so that I may properly defend myself?” That argument is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read and I’ve read works by John Maynard Keynes.

I’m not even remotely shocked that such a ruling can out of California as the state seems to have some hatred of its citizens’ lives.

May 12, 2011 Oakdale Gun Club USPSA Match Results

We had our first United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA) match at the Oakdale Gun Club on Thursday and the scores were finally posted. Needless to say I didn’t do so hot which I expected being the first match of the year and all. What killed me were the first two stages; Jenny’s Speed Shoot and El Presidente. Once I drudged through those I feel as though my performance became far more acceptable (still bad but not as bad). Hopefully things will improve as I get back into the swing of things.

EDIT: 2011-06-16 15:55: The word how has been changed to hot in order to make grammatical sense. Thanks again Nicole.

Ron Paul Running for President

Most people who follow this website probably heard this news already but I’m still going to post it. It seems as though the Republicans will have the chance to nominate a great candidate this year in the form of Ron Paul who is now officially making his bid for the presidency.

Don’t get me wrong I’m under no delusions that the Republican Party will allow Dr. Paul to get the nomination as that would be a good decision and the Republicans seem to be fairly adverse to good decisions (as are the Democrats in all fairness). Even if Dr. Paul doesn’t get the nomination it will be great hearing him in the debates just for the common sense factor.

Minnesota House passed The Defense of Dwelling and Person Act

It appears as through not every legislature is worthless as the Minnesota House ended up passing the Defense of Dwelling and Person Act. The vote ended up being 79 to 50 which isn’t as good as I would have hoped but it’s far better than the bill not passing. Now the Senate has to vote on it and Governor Dayton has to give it his signature. Although I hope this passes I’m willing to bet money that Dayton is going to veto it.

Make sure to send a message to the politicians who voted in favor of this bill and thank them. While you’re doing that also find a few minutes to contact the politicians who voted against the bill and let them kindly know that they’re unlikely to return to their position come next election cycle.

Cubans To Be Allowed to Travel Abroad

There comes a point in most communist countries where conditions become so poor that those living there try to flee. Right around this time it’s common for the rulers of these countries to implement prohibitions against traveling abroad and Cuba has had such a restriction for a very long time. It seems that Raul Castro, unlike his brother Fidel, has at least some common sense is planning to reverse this and a handful of other problems that have been harming Cuba since communism came into power:

Cubans will be allowed to travel abroad as tourists for the first time in more than 50 years, Raul Castro’s government has announced.

Cuba is also move more towards a free market as they have found out that a planned economy is impossible:

Since taking over from brother Fidel Castro in 2008, Raul Castro has championed a limited but significant shift to the free market. Last year, he announced that Cubans would be allowed to go into business for themselves in 178 approved enterprises, hire employees and rent out cars and homes.

Castro has also pledged to cut up to 500,000 state jobs and has warned his countrymen that the government can no longer afford the deep subsidies it gives workers.

No it won’t be a free-market but at least it’s a move in the right direction. Cuba will also be reducing the number of employees hired by the state which should free up labor for endeavors that can actually make money. Sure, these policies aren’t going to turn Cuba into a bastion of freedom but I think the people there will see as government interference in their lives lessens the quality of their lives will increase.

It’s not perfect, Hell it’s not even much of a change at all, but it’s a start and every journey needs to begin somewhere.

The Best Data Protection is Not Having Data

Although I just got done talking about protecting your data via encrypting your hard drive there is a much better means of protecting data that I didn’t cover, not having it:

As both data storage and data processing becomes cheaper, more and more data is collected and stored. An unanticipated effect of this is that more and more data can be stolen and used. As the article says, data minimization is the most effective security tool against this sort of thing.

This advice applies to anything. If there is an absence of something it can’t be taken. If you don’t actually have incriminating data on your computer then it can’t be used against you. If you don’t have a television to steal then a crook can’t take your television. Unfortunately this isn’t very practical and the real problem is one of personal information that is stored by third parties.

Like it or not third parties store a lot of information about you. Even if you’ve never purchased anything online the government likely has countless documents relating to you and your identity. If you use a credit or debit card there is a record of every purchase you make, where you made it, what day you made it one, how much it cost, etc. Most people have cellular phones these days which means a third party, the cellular provider, has your personal information, a history of calls you’ve made or received, your location, etc. Even automobiles are starting to store more and more information about drivers.

I would love to see a world where the amount of data stored by third parties was kept at an absolute bear minimum. Sadly I don’t foresee such a world as personal data is valuable and thus people want to have it.

FBI Surveillance Spyware

It’s no secret that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) use various form of technology to perform surveillance. In this day of high tech gadgets far more information can often be gleamed from a computer than simply tapping phone lines. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was able to use a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain information on the FBI’s Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier (CIPAV) spyware (by the way was that enough acronym soup for you?):

What is CIPAV and How Does It Work?
The documents discuss technology that, when installed on a target’s computer, allows the FBI to collect the following information:

  • IP Address
  • Media Access Control (MAC) address
  • “Browser environment variables”
  • Open communication ports
  • List of the programs running
  • Operating system type, version, and serial number
  • Browser type and version
  • Language encoding
  • The URL that the target computer was previously connected to
  • Registered computer name
  • Registered company name
  • Currently logged in user name
  • Other information that would assist with “identifying computer users, computer software installed, [and] computer hardware installed”

The documents are an interesting read and it really brings up the question of how one could defend themselves against such a tool. This depends on how the FBI installs the software. If they break into your computer remotely to install it the only option available is to ensure your system is locked down as tightly as possible. That doesn’t solve the problem of the FBI sneaking into your dwelling or place of business and installing the software remotely.

This is where full disk encryption comes into play. If you entire hard disk is encrypted there really isn’t much that can be done without the password. Not only can data on the drive not be seen but it also can’t be changed and thus you can’t install software onto the system without the decryption key. Not only does full disk encryption protect your data if your device is stolen but it also protects your from third parties installing software onto the system.

Your Government and Free Speech

I’m sure it’s apparent to anybody who has been reading this site for any extent of time that I’m not a fan of the state. The reason for this is because they managed to find new ways of fucking over the citizenry ever day. Take for example the Bill of Rights which guarantees certain protections against the government; that bill means nothing as the government has basically chosen to ignore those pesky little attempts at protecting the citizenry from tyranny. This time I’m not talking about the second amendment but the first. Behold the next wave of censoring free speech, the PROTECT IP Act:

Surprise! After months in the oven, the soon-to-be-released new version of a major US Internet censorship bill didn’t shrink in scope—it got much broader. Under the new proposal, search engines, Internet providers, credit card companies, and ad networks would all have cut off access to foreign “rogue sites”—and such court orders would not be limited to the government. Private rightsholders could go to court and target foreign domains, too.

As for sites which simply change their domain name slightly after being targeted, the new bill will let the government and private parties bring quick action against each new variation.

As the bill hasn’t be placed onto government websites yet a leaked copy of the text can be found here. The bottom line is this bill isn’t good. So long as somebody can claim a website violates their copyright they can have the site shutdown. This wouldn’t be so bad if the copyright laws in the United States weren’t so fucked up but I’m sure we all remember the Righthaven fiasco.

And the bill doesn’t stop at simply censoring “rouge” domains:

But what the PROTECT IP Act gives with one hand, it takes away with the other. While the definition of targeted sites is tighter, the remedies against such sites get broader. COICA would have forced credit card companies like MasterCard and Visa to stop doing business with targeted sites, and it would have prevented ad networks from working with such sites. It also suggested a system of DNS blocking to make site nominally more difficult to access.

This is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to censorship. It’s trivial to claim a site violates somebody’s copyright under current United States law so it would be trivial to shut down somebody whom you disagree with. Likewise it would take little effort for the government to shutdown a website critical of itself by simply finding a copyright holder who’s material was quoted at some point on that website.

The debate over this bill will be entertaining to watch.