Month: November 2011

Conversations with Madmen at Occupy Minneapolis

Although I’ve stated several times that a majority of the people at the occupation in Minneapolis are very nice there are also some absolute crazies hanging out amongst the crowds. Since I found myself in the area again I decided to stop by the Hennepin County Government Plaza and see if anything was happening. Needless to say there wasn’t anything happening so I decided to talk to a couple of the occupiers. I did have a couple interesting conversations but two people really struck me as being bat shit crazy.

The first crazy was a violent revolutionary. OK, that title is misleading because this guy was all talk and no walk meaning he wasn’t really violent, but he was advocating violent revolution. I will attempt to paraphrase my conversation with him. A group of occupiers were discussing tactics and this bozo, whom I’ll call Moe for lack of a real name, said we should be taking to the streets with molotov cocktails. According to Moe if they could get 1,000 people to start rioting the government would have no option other than collapsing… or something like that. What really struck me as moronic was when he brought up guillotines. I’m not sure what the recent obsession with guillotines is but it seems some people think lobbing off enough heads will eventually lead to positive change. At that point I raised the obvious question, how did he plan on overthrowing the government and murdering people when a large portion of the populace is armed and the state would simply call in the National Guard. He had no actual answer other than saying if there were 1,000 people rioting the state would have no choice but to list to the rioters. Obviously this bright bulb has spent a lot of time constructing his cunning plan. Either way I just want to make it clear that anybody setting up a guillotine in Minnesota with the intent of lobbig of peoples’ heads is going to be dealing with one really upset Minnesotan with a .308 rifle. This very upset Minnesotan will be shooting every asshole who attempts to operate the guillotine to kill another. Now that I think about it I’m sure there will be more than one Minnesotan involved in this dissuasion strategy.

The other crazy, whom we’ll call Curly, wasn’t malicious but simply stupid. I won’t waste your time paraphrasing the entire conversation which involved some kind of government conspiracy to engineer a stupid germ that will wipe out all people who haven’t received the immunization and other theories on the same level. Instead I’m going to concentrate on Curly’s idiocy in the field of economics and science. Curly is an advocate in ceasing all mineral extraction effective immediately. When he said this I pointed out the bloody obvious and asked him what we’re supposed to do without minerals as our entire society and technology base is dependent on extracted resources. After a brief stare of dumbfoundedness Curly asked what do we need minerals for. I pointed at the building around us, the watch on my write, the cell phone in my pocket, and the very tables the Occupy Minnesota food was sitting on. Then I brought up the fact that without minerals we could no longer build medical technology that saves untold numbers of lives every year. This is where Curly’s lack of basic knowledge came out as he said we have stem cells which can cure any and all ailments. I asked him how we were supposed to access and harness stem cells without advanced medical technology made possible by the minerals we extract and he was unable to answer. At that point I simply walked away less I receive brain damage from the statements he was making.

Somebody is boud to ask why I focused on the negative conversations instead of the positive ones. The answer is simple, the positive conversations don’t make for interesting reading so I’m not motivated to write them down on this blog. This post also serves as a reminder that there are some absolutely insane individuals out there who would love to see those they disagree with disarmed so they could start lobbing off heads with a guillotine.

Monday Metal: White Death by Sabaton

I found something extremely awesome for this week’s Monday Metal entry. When the Soviet Union invaded Finland a total bad ass by the name of Simo Häyhä decided he wasn’t all that thrilled by the Soviet’s attempt to overtake his country and set out to inform them of his displeasure. By the end of the Winter War Simo Häyhä, using a modified Mosin Nagant rifle and a Suomi KP/-31, sent the Soviet military a message by knocking off at least 505 of their soldiers.

While the Soviets managed to inflict a severe wound against Simo, by sending a round through his face, he recovered and lived to a ripe old age of 96. To paraphrase one of my friends, Simo Häyhä and death metal are why nobody wants to fuck with Finland. A great power metal band by the name of Sabaton wrote a song about Simo Häyhä titled White Death which is this week’s Monday Metal entry:

Rioters are Severely Allergic to Shotgun Pellets

Don’t you hate it when roving marauders try to bust up your property and steal your stuff? Luckily there is a way to prevent this from happening by exploiting a well known rioter allergy, shotgun pellets:

“We had people who attempted to break into our building,” the landmark Rotunda Building on Frank Ogawa Plaza outside City Hall, Tagami said Thursday. He grabbed a shotgun that he usually keeps at home, went down to the ground floor and “discouraged them,” he said.

“I was standing there and they saw me there, and I lifted it – I didn’t point it – I just held it in my hands,” Tagami said. “And I just racked it, and they ran.”

Rioters are so severely allergic to shotgun pellets just the sight of a shotgun will often send them running in fear. Trying to be ballsy the rioters did do some graffiti work on the outside of the building:

Although they didn’t get inside the building – Tagami, 46, oversaw its $50 million renovation and has an office there – vandals did scrawl graffiti on the outside walls during the post-midnight riot that broke out after Occupy Oakland’s daylong general strike.

I’m sure this could have been solved by placing a few people with shotguns around the outside of the build though.

While I make light of the situation the story does bring up a example of why having a means of self-defense is a good thing. Although I don’t advocate the possession of firearms as a mere deterrent the fact of the matter is an assailant is less likely to attack you or yours if they know you’re in possession of a firearm. As the economy continues to crumble the rate of crime, both violent and property, is likely to increase. Knowing this I think it’s a good idea to obtain a means of self-defense less things turn to total shit in your area and you remain completely unarmed as rioters decide your home or business is a good target for looting.

Hiring Police to Stand Around is Expensive

Anybody who has wandered down to the Government Plaza since the occupiers showed up has likely noticed there are a lot of police officers patrolling the two blocks that make up the Plaza. While those officers aren’t doing anything it sure is costing the taxpayers a great deal of money:

The cost to Hennepin County for security and management of the Occupy Minnesota protests has hit $152,295. The county board is seeking a transfer of funds to cover the cost.

$152,295 just to hire a bunch of cops to walk around? There is no reason the police presence should cost that much. For crying out loud the Plaza is right across the street from the mother fucking police station! It’s not like they even need officers walking around the Plaza as they could just ask one of the officers working in the police station to look out the window from time to time.

Some people I’ve talked to have blamed the occupiers for this burdon on the taxpayers. No, that’s bullshit! The only blame here lies on Hennepin County because there is no reason it should cost that much to hire officers to stand around and do nothing. Hell Minneapolis has deployed three of their $29,000 mobile camera rigs that probably suck enough fuel to power a couple police vehicles. Why do both police officers and those camera rigs need to be used? According to the Minneapolis Police Department those cameras are supposed to magically make crime go away so either those things don’t serve the purpose they’re supposed to or the police aren’t necessary.

Perhaps Hennepin County should hire me to do the security. I can promise adequate security for a fraction of the cost they’re paying right now. Pack up the cameras, send the cops home, and hire a couple of retired individuals to walk around with radios in hand. If the retired guys see something they can call the police who can walk all the way across the street to deal with the situation. There you go, I just saved the country a ton of money while giving some work to retired individuals looking for some income.

Occupy Minneapolis Being Handed an Eviction Notice

It was bound to happen sooner or later but Hennepin County has decided that it’s time for the occupiers at the Government Plaza to pack up an leave, at least during the evening:

According to a memo issued by the county, once snow falls and temperatures fall below 25 degrees, overnight sleeping on the plaza will be prohibited, portable toilets will be removed and a canopy shelter taken down.

County officials announced that winterization of the plaza will begin Friday. That means not only blowing out irrigation system lines but “consolidation” of items left in the plaza, storing sleeping bags during the day and removing all non-county signs.

A copy of the actual notice can be downloaded here [PDF]. To summarize Hennipen County isn’t going to let anybody sleep at the Plaza between the hours of 22:00 and 6:00 and all portable toilets will be removed once the mercury falls below 25 or the first “significant” snowfall occurs (what defines a significant snowfall is never defined).

Now comes the interesting part, what will Occupy Minneapolis’s response be. I’ve been hanging out in the chatroom periodically to see what is being planned but so far there is no generally accepted plan. Unlike many of the other occupy events, the Minneapolis crew is pretty few in numbers meaning they won’t be able to put up much resistance if the police decide to roll in and remove the occupiers by force. Thus civil disobedience is probably out leading the only other option being to plead with a government that has thus far been unwilling to provide much in the way of favorable rulings (although they’ve thrown the occupiers a few crumbs here and there for keep them disillusioned that the county is trying to help them).

Another idea that seems to be floating around is getting the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) involved to bring a lawsuit against Hennepin County although I’m not sure how well that’s going to fly (knowing the ACLU, whom are pretty decent at fighting for free speech and right of assembly, it is likely that they will take the case). This may be the only interesting thing to watch regarding Occupy Minneapolis since the whole tent confiscation occurred on its second weekend.

Anarchism 101

While I’m a very difficult person to offend there are things to greatly annoy me. One thing that really irks me is the state and media’s obsession with scapegoats. You can guarantee anytime a terrorist attack occurs it will first be blamed on Islamic extremists and if it later turns out the act of terror was perpetrated by a Christian nothing more will be said about it. Another scapegoat used often by the state and media are anarchists every time a mass act of violence occurs:

City officials stressed that there were isolated incidents of violence led by groups of anarchists among the protesters.

I would be happy if the media would find new scapegoats whenever an otherwise peaceful protest has “isolated incidents of violence.” Pointing the finger at anarchists every time incidents like this occur is just passe. Although I realize nothing I write is going to change the status quo I do know most scapegoats are selected based on a poor knowledge of the selectee’s philosophy and beliefs. Lack of knowledge is a frightening situation for most people which is why lesser known groups are usually the ones targeted for persecution or to be scapegoats. Realizing that a majority of people hold a great deal of misconception regarding anarchism I’ve decide to write this brief (relatively) anarchism 101 post.

First let’s find a working definition of anarchism so we’re all stating on the same page:

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be immoral, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations. Proponents of anarchism (known as “anarchists”) advocate stateless societies based on non-hierarchical voluntary associations.

Like any movement anarchists argue incessantly about what the “true” definition of anarchism is. These ongoing arguments have lead to so many offshoots that one can not even begin to list them all but in general there are two camps of anarchist; collectivists and individualists. Generalizing greatly, collectivist anarchists would be most closely related to the usual understanding of communists while individualist anarchists would be most closely related to the usual understanding of libertarians. In fact the extreme definition of communism involves a society absent of a state where all decisions are made collectively by those involved while an extreme definition of libertarianism involves a stateless society where decisions are made by individuals through a free market system. I would like again to strongly emphasize that those definitions are greatly generalized and I wrote them simply for basic clarification purposes.

Collectivist anarchists consist of anarcho-communists, anarcho-syndicalism, etc. while individualist anarchists consist of anarcho-capitalists, volyntaryists, etc. There are also those who prefer not to pigeonhole themselves into specific subdivisions and thus describe themselves as anarchists without adjectives. As you can see the term anarchist can mean a great number of things and certainly does not lend itself well to being used to describe a group of violent protesters with little or nothing else in common besides their violent actions.

A lesser known fact about American history is that our country actually had anti-anarchist laws on the books. For the sake of this discussion let’s look at what qualified as an anarchist under United States law:

(a) aliens who are anarchists;
(b) aliens who advise, advocate, or teach, or who are members of, or affiliated with, any organization, society, or group, that advises, advocates, or teaches opposition to all organized government;
(c) aliens who believe in, advise, advocate, or teach, or who are members of, or affiliated with, any organization, association, society, or group, that believes in, advises, advocates, or teaches:

(1) the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States or of all forms of law, or
(2) the duty, necessity, or propriety of the unlawful assaulting or killing of any officer or officers, either of specific individuals or of officers generally, of the Government of the United States or of any other organized government, because of his or their official character, or
(3) the unlawful damage, injury, or destruction of property, or
(4) sabotage;

(d) aliens who write, publish, or cause to be written or published, or who knowingly circulate, distribute, print, or display, or knowingly cause to be circulated, distributed, printed, or displayed, or knowingly have in their possession for the purpose of circulation, distribution, publication, or display any written or printed matter, advising, advocating, or teaching opposition to all government, or advising, advocating, or teaching:

(1) the ovethrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States or of all forms of law, or
(2) the duty, necessity, or propriety of the unlawful assaulting or killing of any officer or officers of the Government of the United States or of any other government, or
(3) the unlawful damage, injury, or destruction of property, or
(4) sabotage;

(e) aliens who are members of, or affiliated with, any organization, association, society, or group, that writes, circulates, distributes, prints, publishes, or displays, or causes to be written, circulated, distributed, printed, published, or displayed, or that has in its possession for the purpose of circulation, distribution, publication, or display, any written or printed matter of the character in subdivision (d).

Therefore United States law only covered violent revolutionary anarchists. As there are collectivist and individualist camps in anarchism there is also a divided opinion regarding methodology. In general there are two methods anarchists subscribe to for brining about a stateless society; violent and non-violent. Those who subscribe to the violent methodology would be the anarchists described by the media while those who subscribe to the non-violent methodology would be those who believe in changing society through education and agorism.

Now we have two general philosophies of anarchism; collectivist and individualist which each have two general camps of activists; violent and non-violent. An anarchist’s particular flavor of anarchism is determined by both his general philosophy and methodology along with other ancillary differences.

Simply put somebody who wears black clothing and a face mask, has funnily styled hair, and smashes windows doesn’t qualify as an anarchist. Anarchism is a philosophy not a lifestyle. When the state or media say anarchists started acts of violence you should take it with a gigantic grain of salt because it’s very unlikely that either police officers or reporters actually took the time to interview those who were inciting violence to discover their personal philosophies.

Everything You Need to Know About Gun Control

While those who oppose private gun ownership rant hysterically about hypothetical situations that never occur I’m going to explain everything you need to know about the entire concept of gun control in one concise post:

Germany established gun control in 1938. and from 1939 to 1945 13 million Jews and others were exterminated.

China established gun control in 1935; from 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents were exterminated.

Guatemala established gun control in 1964, and from 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians were exterminated.

Uganda established gun control in 1970 — from 1971 to 1979, 300,000 people were exterminated.

Cambodia established gun control in 1956, and from 1975 to 1977 one million educated people were exterminated.

Dianne Feinstein is an Idiot but I Repeat Myself

We’ve all heard about the Justice Department’s (DoJ) operation Fast and Furious that involved smuggling guns from the United States into Mexico to arm the drug cartels. Any person with two braincells would tell you the sole cause of this problem was the government but Dianne Feinstein, being the stupid bitch she is, is blaming Fast and Furious on America’s “weak” gun laws:

Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that lax gun control laws, not Obama administration malfeasance within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATF), was the real problem uncovered by Operation Fast and Furious.

“My concern, Mr. Chairman, is there’s been a lot said about Fast and Furious, and perhaps mistakes were made, but I think this hunt for blame doesn’t really speak about the problem,” Feinstein said during the Tuesday hearing. “And the problem is, anybody can walk in and buy anything, .50-caliber weapons, sniper weapons, buy them in large amounts, and send them down to Mexico. So, the question really becomes, what do we do about this?”

“I’ve been here 18 years,” Feinstein continued. “I’ve watched the BATF get beaten up at every turn on the road. And, candidly, it’s just not right.”

Apparently anybody can buy any firearm in large quantities and send them down to Mexico yet it took government agents to actually make this hypothetical scenario a reality. Owners of gun stores tried to prevent sales to individuals who they believed were smuggling arms into Mexico but were ordered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to make the sales. Thus the problem doesn’t seem to be “lax” gun laws or even store owners selling any number of weapons to anybody. The only problem in Fast and Furious is the fact the government was directly arming the Mexican drug cartels.

This hypothetical scenario presented by Dianne Feinstein was just that, hypothetical. It wasn’t a problem at all until the government got involved and made a fine mess of things. Anybody who tries to use Fast and Furious as justification to enact stricter gun control laws can sodomize themselves with a retractable baton. The only thing people should be demanding from Fast and Furious is strong government control.

We’re On Our Way to Regulating Over-the-Counter Painkillers

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just released a new scare piece talking about how rampent prescription painkiller abuse is today:

Abuse of prescription painkiller have reached “epidemic” levels in the US, a government report says.

Overdoses of pain relievers cause more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined, the report has found.

This looks spuriously like another of those we-want-more-government-money-so-we’re-going-to-create-a-fear-mongering-report-justifying-that-need reports. Painkiller abuse is nothing new nor something that can be prevented but now the CDC is looking for something new to regulate so it’s the next thing on the list. After all their proposed “solution” to this “epidemic” will likely require new sweeping powers and the hiring of more government goons:

Officials believe state health policies can help reverse the trend.

The report recommends tracking prescriptions more carefully and cracking down on “pill mills” (clinics that prescribe drugs inappropriately) and “doctor shopping” (when patients collect prescriptions from several doctors).

“This highlights the importance of states getting policies right on preventing drug abuse,” CDC Thomas Frieden told the Associated Press news agency.

Here’s the thing, shutting down “pill mills” and stopping patients from “doctor shopping” isn’t going to prevent anybody from buying Tylenol and Advil at their local Target. Thus the only logical direction that can be derived from this report is, ultimately, the regulation of over-the-counter painkillers. I wouldn’t be surprised if the CDC eventually demands that currently over-the-counter painkillers be treated like medications containing pseudoephedrine are today.

I wonder what will happen when the federal government eventually regulates everything in the country. How will individual agencies jockey for more money and power then? It’s likely a very important problem that each agency is currently putting agents in charge of investigating.