Month: April 2015

Feinstein Doesn’t Understand How the Internet Works

Dianne Feinstein has made herself famous amongst gun owners by spouting entirely false claims. But she’s not satisfied with simply being ignorant about firearms. She also wants to prove to the world that she’s ignorant about how the Internet works. Her latest crusade is to remove the Anarchist Cookbook from the Internet:

“The arrests of two women in New York accused of plotting to carry out bombings remind us that the threat of terrorism inside the United States endures. We must remain vigilant against these types of attacks and place a high priority on tracking and interdicting such plots.

“I am particularly struck that the alleged bombers made use of online bombmaking guides like the Anarchist Cookbook and Inspire Magazine. These documents are not, in my view, protected by the First Amendment and should be removed from the Internet.

How does she propose to do that? The Internet is a decentralized system where no single government’s rule dictates jack shit. Even if she could declare the Anarchist Cookbook illegal in the United States, which would carry some serious free speech ramifications, it wouldn’t prevent servers in other countries from hosting the book. There is literally no way for the book to be remove from the Internet. The fact that Feinstein doesn’t understand this should be more proof that she has no business writing or voting for any legislation affecting the Internet (just as she has no business writing or voting for legislation affecting firearms).

As an interesting side note the book, despite the title, has nothing to do with the philosophy of anarchism. It was written by William Powell as a response to the fact that the government was trying to send him off to fight a war without his consent (also known as a draft). The book wasn’t about anarchism but about retaliating against a government that would make him act against his will. Unfortunately the title selection has been used as evidence that us anarchists are a bunch of violent psychopaths since its publication.

Defrauding Advertisers

Since I have a lot of libertarian friends it’s no surprise that I see a lot of articles posted on a websites called the Libertarian Republic on my news feed. Personally I have avoided linking to the site with one exception. This is because the site has the atrocious practice of creating top 10 (or whatever arbitrary number they choose) lists where each item is on a separate page. That means you have to click 10 fucking buttons to get through the entire list. I always knew this tactic was to artificially raise the number of page clicks to game advertisers but I never though I’d see one of the administrators of the site so brazenly admit to it. The site recently posted a bullshit top 10 list of reasons why Rand Paul should be elected president (when the site says libertarian it means statist libertarian, which is why I don’t read it). On the site’s Facebook page somebody asked why these top 10 lists always require 10 goddamn clicks to get through and one of the admins chimed in:

defrauding-advertisers-1

So the site is planning on charging readers to see top 10 lists on a single page. I don’t fault the admins of the site for wanting money and see nothing wrong with charging for a service. However the admin’s followup lead me to ask another question:

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Aren’t the Libertarian Republic’s advertisers customers? Isn’t artificially raising the number of page clicks by requiring readers to click 10 times to read a single article defrauding those customers? When you think about it the Libertarian Republic is selling its customers a lot of clicks without providing as many potential readers. Since a site admin claims they care so deeply about customers wouldn’t you think the site would not try to artificially increase the number of clicks by shamefully cutting up top 10 lists into 10 separate pages?

If I were an advertiser on that site I would be a bit miffed that clicks were being inflated through this practice. I might even consider it an act of fraud if sale units of ads were purchased on a per click basis.

Again, I don’t fault the site administrators for trying to make a buck. I do find their claim of being interested in customers a bit dubious when they split top 10 lists up like this specifically to sell more ads though. And if they treat their advertiser customers like this then what incentive do I have to buy a subscription (not that I would since I’m not interested in paying for another statist rag)?

Professional Upbraiding

I’m interested in getting a Beretta M9. Specially I’m interested in the new M9A3. As I was searching for information on if or when the pistol would be made available for sale to non-military personnel I came across what may be the most professional way to tell somebody to shut up and fuck off that I’ve ever witnessed:

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Zing! As I’ve explained before, I carry a .45. However I don’t do so because of some delusion that the .45 is somehow superior to 9mm. I just happen to like .45 and realize that I will almost certainly never be in a situation where what determines whether or not I survive is the caliber of my handgun.

Anarchist Freedom

Religious freedom has been in the been the political hot potato as of late. According to Republicans people should be free to discriminate against others so long as they’re doing it for religious reasons. I’ve decided to take a page from their book and will begin preaching about anarchist freedom.

What is anarchist freedom? It’s like religious freedom but for anarchists. The people currently beating the religious freedom drum have been pointing out that a person shouldn’t have to go against their deep religious beliefs by associating with sinners. As a devout anarchist it is my belief that agents of the state are wicked extortionists. Being forced to associate with them goes against my strongly held conviction that extortionists should be kept at arm’s reach.

Since Republicans seem to be a fan of discriminatory freedom I’m sure they will support my freedom to not associate with state agents. This means that I should be free to not pay taxes (disassociating with tax collectors, who were considered the lowest of the low even in Jesus’ time), be pulled over by police officers (disassociating with murderers, thieves, and general aggressors), or follow laws passed by politicians (disassociating with people who believe themselves to be owners of other human beings). It’s really that simple. Once Republicans support my anarchist freedoms I will acknowledge that they are sincere about this whole religious freedom thing.

People are Wising Up

Your masters want you to vote because that gives them legitimacy. The few people who vote the less legitimate their rules appears to be. This is why wonderful bastions of democracy like Australia and North Korea make voting mandatory. So when the number of voters drops dramatically the rulers get worried. Here in Minnesota the rulers noticed that, in particular, St. Cloud experienced a dramatic drop in the number of voters between the last presidential election and 2014’s election and the Minnesota Secretary of State wants answers:

In St. Cloud’s Ward 1 Precinct 1, which includes a large portion of St. Cloud State University, 1,100 voters showed up to cast a vote in the 2012 presidential election.

Two years later, in the 2014 election, that number fell by more than half, to just 343 votes.

A decline in voter turnout during midterm elections isn’t new, but that plunge was even steeper than usual, and Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon wants to know why. Is it a mechanical problem of voter access to the polls? Or disillusionment about the political process itself?

I can tell you that the drop in voter participation isn’t due to mechanical problems or access to polling places. People are just wising up. More of them are realizing that they are going to get fucked no matter who gets elected. Going to the polls takes time. Why would you waste valuable drinking time traveling across town, standing in line, and filling in ovals on a piece of paper? That time could be more productively used by sleeping in, clipping your fingernails, or drinking beer.

Voter participation is only going to continue to drop as people wake up to the fact that being under the boot of another person isn’t ideal. As voter participation goes down the rulers will try to develop schemes to encourage people to go to the polls. These schemes may include raffles for prices, coupons for local businesses, or laws fining people for not going to the polls. Our politicians are jealous of the fact that Kim Jong-un was elected by 100% of his population and want the same claim of legitimacy.

That Should Teach Those Kids a Lesson

Kids make stupid mistakes. In the old days before an all pervasive police state parents usually handled correcting their children’s bad behavior. Today the police try to involve themselves in all matters including children acting stupidly. A group of children from Chicago recorded themselves having sex and uploaded it to Twitter. Police found out and decided to intervene. How did they handle the situation? By kidnapping them and charging them for manufacturing child pornography, of course:

Four Chicago-area teenagers faces felony child-pornography charges after uploading a video of themselves having sex to Twitter. The three boys and one girl, ages 14-16, are being held in juvenile custody until a court hearing later this month.

Both the sex and the posting of the video were consensual—this is not a rape or “revenge porn” scenario. But under Illinois law (as in many other states), minors who post sexually-oriented images of themselves online or even share them privately with one another can be charged as child pornographers.

That should teach those kids a lesson. A felony record will ensure they are never able to get a job and that will likely push them towards a life of crime to survive. Since they would be living a life of crime they would likely have continuous run-ins with the police as they check in and out of jail like some traveling salespeople do hotels. This will ensure that the state has a unending source of forced labor and us tax victims will be forced to pay for their housing, clothing, food, and medical care.

OK, now it’s time to be serious for a moment. Making kids felons is not an appropriate way of handling these types of situations. Felonies haunt people for life and labeling somebody a felon before they even have a chance to get a job is fucked up. This is especially true when you consider kids make really stupid decisions because they lack the life experience necessary not to. But bullshit like this will continue to happen so long as police are allowed to involve themselves in situations that really should be handled by parents.

Finally, A Gun Control Group That Makes Sense

Gun control groups usually claim they want to reduce violent crime but then turn around and try to take firearms primarily from peaceful people. But there is finally a group that is targeting a major sources of violence in this country, the New York Police Department (NYPD):

An anti-police activist group calling itself “Disarm NYPD” is aiming to strip officers of their firearms and boot them from certain neighborhoods entirely.

Disarm NYPD writes on its website that its aim is “combatting police violence through direct action in NYC and beyond.”

Instead of cops, the group wants to form what they call “conflict resolution bodies” made up of residents, attempting to make the police force obsolete.

OK, Disarm NYPD isn’t actually a gun control group but if it manages to get the NYPD disbanded it would disarm some of the most violent gang members int he country. Not only do members of the NYPD gang have a history of violence but they are go unpunished in most cases because, well, they’re an officially recognized and endorsed gang by the city government.

Another Positive Aspect of Indiana’s So-Called Religious Freedom Bill

Helping me as a consumer make more informed purchasing decisions isn’t the only positive aspect of Indiana’s so-called religious freedom bill. As it turns out the men in suits in the marble building didn’t fully comprehend what religious freedom means. There are a lot of esoteric religious out there. For example, there are religions where smoking cannabis is a holy ritual:

While Governor Mike Pence (R) was holding a signing ceremony for the bill allowing businesses and individuals to deny services to gays on religious grounds or values, paperwork for the First Church of Cannabis Inc. was being filed with the Secretary of State’s office, reports RTV6.

Church founder Bill Levin announced on his Facebook page that the church’s registration has been approved, writing, “Status: Approved by Secretary of State of Indiana – “Congratulations your registration has been approved!” Now we begin to accomplish our goals of Love, Understanding, and Good Health.”

Levin is currently seeking $4.20 donations towards his non-profit church.

I’m sure the government will quickly utilize the exemption it left for itself to intervene in these kinds of matters. After all, religious freedom to most of the people involved in passing this bill means Christian freedom. And when they do utilize their exemption I’m going to trot it around like a prize pony because it will be yet more evidence that the state doesn’t care about voluntary association but loves selective discrimination.

As a side note I also want to point out that the stock image used in that article is probably the single greatest stock image I’ve ever seen.

How Not to Defend Yourself

Contrary to what many opponents to legalized self-defense claim there are many instances of individuals successfully defending themselves every day. From the aware individual who managed to avoid a violent situation by crossing a street at the right time to the individual who regretfully had to draw their concealed firearm and shoot their attacker successful incidents of self-defense are all around us. But there are people who mistake self-defense for vengeance. This story that happened in St. Paul is an example of vengeance:

Last night around 5:30 p.m. two armed robbers approached a man near the Hmongtown Marketplace at Como and Pennsylvania Avenues in St. Paul’s North End.

He pulled out a gun and exchanged shots with the would-be robbers.

Everything up to this point qualified as self-defense. Two armed robbers certainly make for a case where their target can reasonably assume that their life is in immediate jeopardy and lethal force is therefore justified. However the defender wasn’t satisfied with stopping there:

Then, when the robbers jumped in their car and tried to escape, he hopped in his car and chased them for more than a mile down Thomas Avenue.

Self-defense ends with the threat does. Once your attackers flee you can no longer claim self-defense if you continue responding aggressively. In this case the defender became the attacker when he chased down the fleeing robbers and engaged in a second gunfight with them.

I encourage everybody to learn skills that make them more able to defend themselves. Knowledge is one of those skills. You need to know the laws regarding self-defense otherwise you may end in a cage.