News You Need to Know – Page 130

This is What Bailing Out General Motors Accomplished

The American people footed the bill to bail out the failures that is General Motors (GM) and what has received in return? Jack shit. Well more specifically jack shit and, as Days of our Trailers points out, constant tracking of everybody whose vehicle is equipped with OnStar:

Navigation-and-emergency-services company OnStar is notifying its six million account holders that it will keep a complete accounting of the speed and location of OnStar-equipped vehicles, even for drivers who discontinue monthly service.

OnStar began e-mailing customers Monday about its update to the privacy policy, which grants OnStar the right to sell that GPS-derived data in an anonymized format.

For those who aren’t aware OnStar is a subsidiary of GM so they would have gone under had the market been allowed to operate freely. But the thing you should be taking away from this is the fact that OnStar is not only tracking the location of paying customers but also the location of customers who have cancelled the service. Although OnStar claims they aren’t currently selling this information you know they eventually will be.

Setting this violation of trust aside there is another thing to consider, the possibility of such data being used to retroactively issue traffic violations or setup speed traps. Data collected by TomTom was used by the Dutch government to setup speed traps so it’s not like the scenario I’m hypothesizing is unprecedented.

What $5 Billion of Your Tax Money Buys

So what does $5 billion of your tax money buy? Fancy upgrades for Taiwan’s F-16 fleet:

The US has confirmed plans to upgrade Taiwan’s ageing fleet of F-16 US-built fighter planes.

[…]

US officials said the F-16 A/B fighters will undergo a retrofit which will bring them up to the same standards as the more advanced C/D models.

“After the upgrade, the air force’s combat capability will be advanced hugely,” Taiwanese Defence Minister Kao Hua-chu said at a late-night press conference in Taipei.

This is only one tiny example of American tax dollars being used to arm another nation. When somebody says you must pay your taxes for the benefit of the American people you may wish to remind them that much of the money stolen from us by our government doesn’t go to help anybody here but instead goes to other nations within our empire.

Everybody’s a Critic

Uncle via Fausta’s Blog points out a rather grim story about Mexican drug cartels targeting bloggers who post articles relating to drug cartel violence in Mexico:

Social media users who denounce drug cartel activities along the Mexican border received a brutal warning this week: Two mangled bodies hanging like cuts of meat from a pedestrian bridge.

A woman was hogtied and disemboweled, her intestines protruding from three deep cuts on her abdomen. Attackers left her topless, dangling by her feet and hands from a bridge in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. A bloodied man next to her was hanging by his hands, his right shoulder severed so deeply the bone was visible.

Signs left near the bodies declared the pair, both apparently in their early 20s, were killed for posting denouncements of drug cartel activities on a social network.

“This is going to happen to all of those posting funny things on the Internet,” one sign said. “You better (expletive) pay attention. I’m about to get you.”

The gruesome scene sent a chilling message at a time when online posts have become some of the loudest voices reporting violence in Mexico. In some parts of the country, threats from cartels have silenced traditional media. Sometimes even local authorities fear speaking out.

This is yet another example of why the right to keep and bear arms is so important. Although you may believe something you posted online is trivial and of no consequence it very well may offend or anger the wrong type of person. In this case posts denouncing drug cartel activities lead to brutal murders but you could replace the drug cartels with any group or individual who uses violence to achieve their goals. There only needs to be one psycho to take a statement you made in the wrong way and target you personally either for harassment or physical attack.

Everybody should have a plan and means of defending themselves because you never know when, where, or why somebody may attack you or somebody you care about.

More Delays Caused by TSA

At this point I almost feel bad picking on the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). It’s not because I feel sorry for them but because it’s so easy that it makes me feel lazy as a blogger. The TSA have become on of my personal punching bags because every program they implement in the name of security ends up causing further headaches for those flying while offering no additional security. Case in point their new profiling scheme which ended up causing a four hour backup at the Logan International Airport in Boston:

New security procedures being tested at Logan International Airport caused significant backups at security checkpoints Thursday, according to airlines.

Backups lasted for about four hours after the Transportation Security Administration began testing a procedure that requires more human interaction between security agents and passengers.

The process takes about 30 seconds, but it caused many passengers to be delayed. TSA agents engaged in “chat downs” while checking their IDs and boarding passes.

So now instead of arriving two hours early to make your way through airport security you’ll be expected to arrive four hours early. I’m seeing a market in the not too distant future for people with mobile cots. After a couple more TSA programs jack the wait time up to 24 hours you can rent out a mobile cot and pay an airport employee to push you through the security line while you sleep.

The funniest part of this story though is the fact that the TSA was happy with their performance:

An airline worker said the lines were the worst he had seen in 30 years, but the TSA said they were pleased with how the pilot program has gone over the last month and in time it will help them decide who needs more screening and who needs less.

I’m not surprised by this as the TSA is a government agency and thus doesn’t understand efficiency.

I’m Sure People Will Take PETA’s Message More Seriously Now

I doubt I even need to make any comment on the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’s (PETA) latest idea for getting their message out:

The non-profit organisation, whose controversial campaigns draw criticism from women’s rights groups, said it hopes to raise awareness of veganism through a mix of pornography and graphic footage of animal suffering.

“We’re hoping to reach a whole new audience of people, some of whom will be shocked by graphic images that maybe they didn’t anticipate seeing when they went to the PETA triple-X site,” said Lindsay Rajt, PETA’s associate director of campaigns.

Right, because when organizations want to be taken more seriously they always turn to pornography.

Put Out or Pay Out

There have been some interesting precedences set by court cases throughout human history and this has to be one of the more interesting ones:

The 51-year-old man was fined under article 215 of France’s civil code, which states married couples must agree to a “shared communal life”.

[…]

But the 47-year-old ex-wife then took him back to court demanding 10,000 euros in compensation for “lack of sex over 21 years of marriage”.

The ex-husband claimed “tiredness and health problems” had prevented him from being more attentive between the sheets.

But a judge in the south of France’s highest court in Aix-en-Provence ruled: “A sexual relationship between husband and wife is the expression of affection they have for each other, and in this case it was absent.

So in France I guess the new ruling states both parties in a marriage will either put out or pay out. I’m guessing this precedence will be used quite extensive in France’s not too distant future.

I Must Have Missed the Shooting at the Football Game

Apparently I’m quite oblivious to the news because I must have missed a recent shooting at some football game. At least that’s my guess because unless such an event occurred I can’t see any reason for the National Football League (NFL) to demand that every fan receive a full pat down before being let into games:

The NFL wants all fans patted down from the ankles up this season to improve fan safety.

Under the new “enhanced” pat-down procedures, the NFL wants all 32 clubs to search fans from the ankles to the knees as well as the waist up. Previously, security guards only patted down fans from the waist up while looking for booze, weapons or other banned items.

I must confess that I’m not a real American as I’ve never attended a professional sports game. After reading this story I’m quite happy about this fact because I won’t submit to a pat down just to enter some entertainment event. Yes it’s the right of private establishments to make such a requirement before allowing entry but it’s my right as a free individuals to take my money elsewhere.

The NFL apparently think they’re the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) considering the advice they’re giving to fans:

The NFL recommended the new guidelines before the kickoff of the 2011 season which coincided with the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The league hopes fans will be “patient,” says spokesman Brian McCarthy, and arrive earlier to games to avoid long, punishing lines.

Hear that? If you don’t like the idea of longer lines due to pointless security theater then you’ll just have to arrive earlier. On a related note, does it sicken anybody else that authoritarian mandate such as this are how 9/11 is remembered and recognized? Roughly 3,000 people died in the 9/11 attacks and instead of standing strong against authoritarian measures we’re implementing them. This is what admitting defeat looks like ladies and gentlemen and so long as we continue down this road to serfdom the terrorists are winning.

Fuck the NFL, if they had been receiving any of my money before they certainly wouldn’t be now. Then again I may not have a choice soon if the Vikings receive tax money to build their stupid stadium.

Some Good News Regarding Righthaven

Remember those assholes at Righthaven? Yeah the guys who were going around suing website owners for posting links to material whose rights were purchase by the lawsuit happy pricks. Well it looks as if their business strategy of suing everybody isn’t working out so well for them:

Despite its backing by the billionaire Warren Stephens family, Las Vegas copyright lawsuit filer Righthaven LLC warned today it may have to file for bankruptcy because of a series of setbacks in its litigation campaign.

The warning came in an emergency request by Righthaven to a federal judge in Las Vegas that he stay his order that Righthaven pay $34,045 in legal fees to attorneys who successfully defended Kentucky message board poster Wayne Hoehn against a Righthaven lawsuit.

It couldn’t have happened to nicer people.

Shitty Situations

File this story under sad but amusing. The Metro Narcotics Agency in Las Cruces, New Mexico forced a woman with no criminal history to submit to a cavity search. After having a hand shoved up her ass and nothing being found the woman was then billed for the pleasure:

A Las Cruces woman has been charged $1,122 by a local hospital for a forcible body cavity search ordered by the Metro Narcotics Agency that did not turn up any illegal substances.

She is now asking the county to pay her hospital bill.

Ultimately the Narcotics Agency footed the bill but not until the woman took the case to court. Why the Agency didn’t pay the bill as soon as nothing was found is beyond me but then again how the government can force you to submit to a cavity search is also beyond me.

Success As Defined By the State

If you spent a bunch of money to violate the rights of motorists by setting up and manning DUI checkpoints what would you define as success? According to the agents of the state in Salt Lake City checking 2,000 cars and finding 0 drunks constitutes success:

UHP Sgt. Ted Tingey said in two spots, officers found no drunk drivers out of approximately 1,000 vehicles that came through each checkpoint.

“It’s a great opportunity to see that people maybe finally are getting the message to either have a designated driver, take a taxi ride home, or call a sober friend to come pick them up,” he said.

Or it could be that the drunks know where your checkpoints are and take an alternate route. But that’s OK because violating 2,000 peoples’ rights is fine so long as one drunk is caught… even if they haven’t caught a drunk yet… so they tell me.

Checkpoints are another way for the state to accuse you of a crime they have no evidence of. They turn everybody entering these checkpoints into de facto criminals where innocence must be proven as opposed to guilt. It’s another example of the state shitting all over due process.