Month: July 2013

Police Open Fire Because They Mistook a Cell Phone for a Gun

Advocates of gun control want to grant a monopoly on gun ownership to the state. If they managed to get their way people like this would be the only individuals who could either own guns or determine who can own guns:

Las Vegas police responded to a call of a suicidal man who pulled out a cell phone and pointed it at them, perhaps to record them, prompting an officer to shoot at him.

The officer missed but the man fell to the ground anyway where police arrested him.

“The individual reached into his pocket, he pulled out a dark object, pointed it at the sergeant in a manner like he would be firing a pistol,” explained Deputy Chief Al Salinas of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in the above video.

Thank Odin that police officers are notoriously bad shots. Unfortunately they’re also very bad at determining whether or not an object in somebody’s hand is a weapon or not. Personally, I’ve never mistook a cell phone for a firearm before and when somebody pulls out a cell phone and points it at me my first assumption is that they’re recording me.

We all know how this case will turn out, the officers who opened fire will be given a paid vacation until this fiasco blows over. After the media is done covering the incident the officers will be cleared of any wrongdoing and will return to the streets where they can open fire on another unarmed person. Meanwhile the person who was shot at will likely be charged:

The man, who has not been identified, will most likely be charged with assault with a deadly weapon as well as battery with a deadly weapon because prior to the shooting, he had been throwing landscaping rocks at the officers, according to Salinas.

Welcome to America.

State Spying Expands Beyond the Internet and Phone Network

When Edward Snowden provided proof that the National Security Agency (NSA) was spying on Americans some people began to blame technology. They said such rampant spying wasn’t possible before the advent of the Internet. What was even more foolish were the claims that old forms of communications, namely the postal service, were far safer than online communications. As it turns out the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been recording every letter sent through its system:

WASHINGTON — Leslie James Pickering noticed something odd in his mail last September: a handwritten card, apparently delivered by mistake, with instructions for postal workers to pay special attention to the letters and packages sent to his home.

“Show all mail to supv” — supervisor — “for copying prior to going out on the street,” read the card. It included Mr. Pickering’s name, address and the type of mail that needed to be monitored. The word “confidential” was highlighted in green.

“It was a bit of a shock to see it,” said Mr. Pickering, who with his wife owns a small bookstore in Buffalo. More than a decade ago, he was a spokesman for the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group labeled eco-terrorists by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Postal officials subsequently confirmed they were indeed tracking Mr. Pickering’s mail but told him nothing else.

As the world focuses on the high-tech spying of the National Security Agency, the misplaced card offers a rare glimpse inside the seemingly low-tech but prevalent snooping of the United States Postal Service.

Mr. Pickering was targeted by a longtime surveillance system called mail covers, a forerunner of a vastly more expansive effort, the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program, in which Postal Service computers photograph the exterior of every piece of paper mail that is processed in the United States — about 160 billion pieces last year. It is not known how long the government saves the images.

Internet services can be taken overseas to jurisdictions outside of the NSA’s direct control but letters can only be legally sent in the United States through the USPS. This monopoly on first class mail makes the postal system even more vulnerable than Internet services in my opinion.

In the end this story proves that there’s no safe avenue for communications in the United States. Every channel is being observed by the state and we must always assume anything we send is being intercepted and recorded. Encrypt your shit people.

Closed to the Public

Advocates of gun control are becoming more cult-like every day. A common feature of cults is to cut members off from outsiders. This helps prevent unwanted influences from convincing cult members to leave the cult. Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona congresswoman who was shot in the head, decided to visit Raleigh, North Carolina to promote gun control. What makes her visit notable is this little tidbit:

Giffords and Kelly discussed ways that they say increased gun controls can coexist with the Second Amendment and the right of Americans to own guns. The event was not open to the public and was organized by Americans for Responsible Solutions.

Emphasis mine. In order to prevent dissenting opinions from messing up Gifford’s message outsiders weren’t allowed to attend. This separation was probably necessary to prevent members of Americans for Responsible Solutions from straying. It’s difficult to retain members when the entire platform your organization exists to promote is both an oxymoron and entirely impossible to achieve.

Monday Metal: Amen and Attack by Powerwolf

Between the corpse paint, opera trained vocalist, organ, and lack of taking themselves seriously there’s a lot to like about Powerwolf. I’m happy to say that the band is coming out with a new album this month and, if the music video they released from the album is any indicator, it’s going to kick ass. This week we’re starting off the week with Amen and Attack, the newest song by Powerwolf:

Independence Day

It’s July 4th, which means millions of people across the United States are waving red, white, and blue flags; launching off fireworks; and feeling patriotic. I will be partaking in the ritual of blowing shit up because such a ritual should be practiced every day but I will not be celebrating my patriotism as I have none.

But in the spirit of Independence Day I will take a moment to reflect on how I’ve made myself more independent. Years ago I moved my cloud services to my personal cloud. I am no longer reliant in Google for my e-mail, calendaring, and address book as I host all of those services on my own system. When I say my own system I mean my own system. My server is sitting in my dwelling, not on a rack in a data center located somewhere I’ve never heard of. I’m still living within my means, which means I have no debt and can declare myself independent of the banking cartel. Although I’m no model of physical perfection I do exercise regularly and try to eat healthy so I’ve been able to keep myself independent of the pharmaceutical industry that grips this nation with an iron fist. I carry a firearm, which allows me to protect myself and those I care about instead of relying on, and hoping that, the police to keep me and mine safe.

Waiving flags and declaring your love for Big Brother is no way to celebrate a holiday called Independence Day. If you want to do the holiday justice celebrate by making yourself more independent. Even little things like learning to brew beer or repair your means of transportation can make you a more independent person.

Have a great Independence Day and try not to blow yourself up.

Lying, It’s What People with No Argument Resort To

Gun control advocates generally aren’t the most honest individuals. Since most of the prophecies they’ve made in the past have failed to manifest they have become more reliant on outright fabrications to support their holy crusade. Sometimes these lies come in the form of manipulated statistics and other times they come in the form of misrepresenting current firearm laws. This is an example of the latter:

One of Connecticut’s gun manufacturers, PTR Industries, is departing the state in a melodramatic huff for gun-friendly South Carolina, complaining about the tightened gun safety laws enacted in Hartford by conscience-stricken legislators following the Newtown massacre.

The sad truth, of course, is that PTR Industries and the rest of the gun industry have absolutely nothing to fear from Connecticut’s tougher controls on military-style assault rifles and large-scale bullet magazines. That’s because in 2005, Congress and President George W. Bush, in shameless obeisance to the gun lobby, immunized arms manufacturers from damage suits by gunshot victims. The gun lobby had sought this protection after relatives of the eight sniper victims in Washington, D.C., won $2.5 million in damages from a rifle manufacturer.

This outrageous law, called the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, can only be envied by other industries whose products might affect public safety.

From an editorial in the New York Times

If you read the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) you’ll note that it protects gun manufacturers from civil liability actions. In laymen’s terms the law prevents somebody who injured themselves with a firearm through negligence or was injured by a criminal using a firearm from bringing a civil liability lawsuit against the gun manufacturer. What the law doesn’t do is immunize gun manufacturers from local prohibitions. If a state passed a law that prohibited the manufacture of standard capacity magazines a manufacturer manufacturing standard capacity magazines could still be brought up on charges.

Implying that firearm manufacturers are immune from all laws because of the PLCAA is a lie, plain and simple.

Civil Disobedience is Beautiful

I have to hand it to Colorado gun owners, they aren’t going quietly into the night. Magpul was giving away magazines and gun owners decided to hold a magazine swap at the Colorado Capital:

DENVER – Gun rights advocates held an ammunition magazine swap at the state Capitol in Denver on Monday to defy a new state law.

During the “Magazine Swap at the Capitol,” activists urged people from Colorado and surrounding areas to buy, sell and swap magazines that hold more than 15 rounds.

[…]

More than 50 people attended the protest event at the Capitol with many passing ammunition magazines around a circle of people.

Civil disobedience is a wonderful thing. From what I can find it appears that no arrests were made during the event, which really goes to show just how toothless the new prohibition is. More swaps like this should be held and people from surrounding states that can still purchase standard capacity magazines should attend in droves.

Another Day, Another Dog Murdered by a Cop

This shit is getting ridiculous. A man in Hawthorne, California was walking his dog and video taping the police, both perfectly legal acts. The police, obviously having something to hide (their logic, not mine), kidnapped the videographer and shot his dog. Not only did they murder the man’s dog but they did it in a residential area, a place where needlessly discharging rounds is very dangerous. What follows is the video of this event, which contains graphic content (as most videos involving the police do):

Being a police state, I’m sure the officer will be receive several days of paid vacation while this incident is investigated by his friends. Upon finding no wrongdoing on behalf of the officer he will return to work and the fact that a psychopath continues to walk around with a gun will be entirely ignored.

Conscription

One of the ugly concepts that rears its ugly head from time to time is the idea of mandatory “national service.” One of my friends, who is ironically as Democratic as they come, posted this opinion piece by Michael Gerson:

The impetus for this discussion has come from the military. During an event at the Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival last year, Gen. Stanley McChrystal offhandedly endorsed universal national service for young people graduating from high school or college, fulfilled in either a military or civilian setting. His particular concern was the growing disconnect between the less than 1 percent of Americans who serve in the armed forces and the rest of the country. The result is not only an unequal distribution of burdens but also the unequal development of citizens. “Once you have contributed to something,” McChrystal said, “you have a slightly different view of it.”

The first sentence really shows what mandatory “national service” is about, finding more meat for the grinder. America has embroiled itself in several overseas wars and it wants to embroil itself in more. Empire building on this scale requires a lot of soldiers and enlistment rates aren’t what they used to be. Conscription, which the fascists are trying to relabel national service, is an easy way to fill the military ranks.

Relabeling conscription allows the state to use another ploy, civilians service options. Before Obama’s election most of my friends that self-identify as Democrats were anti-war and most of them remain anti-conscription today. Needless to say, since my friend who posted this self-identifies as Democrat, I had to point out the obvious fact that “national service” is merely a fancy word for conscription. In reply he said that there would be civilian options for “national service” such as AmericCorps and the Peace Corp. The civilian option is the carrot on the stick that lures people who otherwise oppose conscription to support the practice.

While most of my friends who self-identify as Democrat oppose mandatory military service many of them support mandatory civilian service. Collectivism, after all, always entails some kind of mandatory service and people who self-identify as Democrat, at least in my experience, are generally collectivists in disguise. What my friend, and many supporters of mandatory civilian service, fail to consider is that the civilian options can be taken away. Passing a law that requires individuals to perform work of the state’s choosing is easier to accomplish if a majority of supporters of both major parties can be suckered into supporting it. Passing said law is difficult, changing the rules of conscription once the laws is passed is relatively easy. In the end, if said law was passed, the civilian option would be stricken from the record in a short amount of time. Before you know it “national service” will be synonymous with military service.

Those who accept conscription must also accept the idea that the state owns individuals. If the state owns individuals it can make them do whatever it wants. Since the state’s existence is entirely dependent on expropriation, and the primary purpose of the military is to expropriate wealth from foreign countries, it will use individuals to expropriate wealth, which means anybody conscripted will almost certainly be placed in the armed forces. I hear several self-identified Democrats saying, “But they promised a civilian option!” Once you accept the idea that the state owns individuals you also necessary accept the idea that the state can change the rules whenever it wants because the people are its property to do with as it pleases.

Mandatory conscription would be a disaster in this country. The only reason higher ups in the military advocate the practice is because they want more people to send overseas to die. No matter what they promise to get popular support for conscription they will ensure that, in the end, every conscript is forced into the military.