Category: News You Need to Know

Unpossible Knife Rampage

The anti-gunners keep telling us if we place stricter controls on firearms that multiple murder rampages will be a thing of the past. Tell that to four people who were killed by a man using a knife. This happened in Brady Paradise New York where gun control laws are heavily enforced.

Violent people will do violent things regardless of the laws put into place to stop them. When these violent people wish to enact their wrath on other people they will use whatever means available to them. I’m sure an anti-gunner is going to claim the murderer in this article would have done far more damage if he had a gun but the murders all appeared to be deliberately chosen targets, as usual.

So what could possibly be done in these situations? Well a gun works very well for defending yourself against an attacker with a knife. It certainly tips the scale back to your favor.

An Expected Outcome

It seems Egypt’s dictator, Mubarak, isn’t getting the message. I can see that though considering there are only hundreds of thousands of angry protesters yelling for him to step down. Because Mubarak likes power and apparently can’t take a fucking hint he gave a speech yesterday announcing his not-resignation. Needless to say the expected reaction occurred; people are pissed.

The protests in Egypt have remained peaceful (well except when the paid Mubarak shills started inciting violence) which amazes me. Unfortunately for Mubarak peaceful protests only remain peaceful for so long and then the people decide that method isn’t working. I’m not sure if Mubarak simply lacks historical knowledge on the subject but usually the plan B for dealing with dictators is far less desirable for said dictator than simply stepping down would be.

Interesting Mubarak made an interesting statement during his speech:

I say again that I lived for the sake of this country, preserving its responsibility and trust. Egypt will remain above all and above everyone.

It will remain so until I hand over this trust and pole. This is the goal, the objective, the responsibility and the duty. It is the beginning of life, its journey, and its end.

It will remain a country dear to my heart. It will not part with me and I will not part with it until my passing.

Emphasis mine. If Mubarak keeps this up he may be parting Egypt sooner than he expected. I must say I do enjoy watching the final thrashings of tyrannical dictators.

Why Fraud Pays

Why do people continue to do fraud? Because it pays well, often even if you’re caught. Take for example this case over at Bruce Schneier’s blog:

Here’s one scareware operator who sold “more than 1 million software products” at “$39.95 or more,” and now has to pay $8.2 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission complaint.

A man was in charge of an Internet scam where a pop-up appears in your web browser informing you that your computer is infected with some kind of malicious software. These pop-ups then try to get you to purchase software that will disinfect your machine. The problem is these are scams and no reputable anti-malware developer would use such tactics (as it would be the end of their business likely). The software author charges a said amount for the software (in this case $39.95) and that’s that.

Well if you have 1 million customers who paid you $39.95 and are required to pay the FTC $8.2 million you’re only paying $8.20 per sucker leaving you with $31.75 in profit for each person who fell for your scam. That’s a pretty good profit.

According to the story the FTC will use the money to pay back the customers who were suckered into the deal. If this is the case that means each sucker will not be getting all of their money back (we’ll call this a fine for being dumb) or their reimbursement will be subsidized by tax money (which would be a horrible idea). Honestly I’m betting money the FTC never gets around to paying those suckers back.

Let this story also be a lesson to you, don’t fall for scams that claim your system is infected.

You’re Doing it Wrong Take 1,057

I know AOL hasn’t “gotten it” for years but they really flubbed on this choice:

In a bid to make itself relevant again, struggling Internet pioneer AOL Inc. announced late Sunday that it would buy the Huffington Post, the well-known news and opinion site, for $315 million in cash and stock.

Emphasis mine. If you want to make yourself relevant again buying an irrelevant “news” source that makes Fox News look unbiased is not the way to go about it.

Kimber Failures

Kimber is one manufacturer that people seem to either love or hate. I don’t own any of their pistols so I never formed and opinion. With that said this news story doesn’t bode well for their PR department:

Little more than a year after buying 150 collector-grade handguns, officials at the N.C. Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement say the $1,055 pistols were so unreliable they had to get rid of them.

ALE Director John Ledford said the Kimber pistols repeatedly suffered such problems as rounds jamming during training exercises, broken sights and the weapon’s safety button sometimes falling off. He made a deal with a local firearms dealer to swap the pricey pistols for less expensive handguns without spending any additional money.

Maybe my reading comprehension isn’t great but I can’t find anywhere in the article that states what cheaper pistol the department replaced their Kimbers with. Either way spending $1,055 on a pistol is a serious waste of tax payer money when there are so many good options on the market that are much cheaper (Heck a Glock or M&P is going to be less than half the price when law enforcement discounts are figured in). But it seems this particular department likes to waste money, although they claim it’s money obtained through seizures instead of taxes:

An avid gun buff and collector, Chandler ordered Kimbers with special sights and the ALE seal carved into their handles, spending $158,250 provided to the agency through federal seizures involving alcohol, drugs and illegal gambling. The purchase was also approved by Chandler’s supervisor, Gerald Rudisill, the chief deputy secretary of crime control.

I have a hard time thinking law enforcement agencies should get the spoils of their arrests and seizures. On one hand it’s a way to fund a department without tax money but it opens the door for a huge conflict of interest. In order to get more equipment a department has to increase the amount of property they seize which in turn gives grounds to start seizing property of non-criminals. When I say this people usually claim I’m being paranoid and that this type of thing could never happen but sadly they are wrong as evident by the actions of Minneapolis’s own Gang Task Force.

The department also replaced some of their assault rifles (correct classification as these rifles appear to have a selector switch to go from semi-automatic to rock ‘n’ roll):

In addition to the new pistols, ALE agents have been issued new assault rifles after leaders determined their $1,495 Swiss-made Sig Sauer rifles, bought in 2006, weren’t up to snuff, either.

You know they could have obtained an M4 pattern rifle for cheaper. Wait that’s exactly what they did and saved themselves some money:

In exchange, a Greensboro firearms dealer provided the agency 120 Bushmaster M4 assault rifles valued at $1,270 each.

Or not:

ALE also got special Eotech 512 “holographic” sights that make a red dot appear on a target, valued at $439 each.

It sounds as though the department just obtained the EOTech sights which requires me to ask what was wrong with the standard M4 sights that the Sig rifles had correct? Who knows but this story does give a nice how to on wasting money needlessly. I guess it’s a good thing I don’t run law enforcement departments as everybody would be issues the most reasonably priced reliable handgun I could obtain (probably a Glock or an M&P) coupled with the most reasonably priced reliable rifle I could obtain (probably an AR-15 or AK-47 pattern rifle).

Fort Hood Shooting Report

I’ve been informed that our government has posted their investigation results of the Fort Hood shooting [PDF]. I’ve not had a chance to read through it yet but being it’s titled Counterterrorism Lessons from the U.S. Government’s Failure to Prevent the Fort Hood Attack I’m betting we’re going to find out that all our draconian anti-terrorism laws don’t work and the recommendation will be to pass additional laws.

I’ll try to find some time to read through it and report on anything interesting but I’m not sure exactly when I’ll have the time.

Oh, I’m Sure

Remember when Obama said the first thing he would do when he got into office would be to close down Gitmo? Funny thing, it’s still operating although nobody in America seems to care anymore. Well it seems on of the prisoners there had himself an accident:

An Afghan inmate at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has collapsed and died after exercising, according to US military officials.

It was of course due to mysterious circumstances. But what’s more interesting is the following paragraph:

Awal Gul, 48, was accused of being a Taliban commander and part of the al-Qaeda network. He had been held without charges since October 2002.

Think about that. He’s been held for over eight years without so much as being charged with a crime. Eight years in prison without any charges or trials. I don’t care if you support the War on Terror, you have to believe that this kind of treatment of people is unacceptable. If we really believed this man was part of al-Qaeda he should have been charged as such. If we lack the evidence to charge this man he should have been released. I don’t think I’m making any unreasonable demands here, just treat so-called prisoners of war as prisoners.

What kind of message does this send out to the world? “Oh hey we love freedom, but only for people inside of our borders the rest of you can all take flying fucks at rolling doughnuts.” Our country is supposedly a “bastion of democracy and freedom.” Maybe we should start acting like it.

It Was Only a Matter of Time

I’m all for peaceful revolutions and protests but also realize that if the demands of the people aren’t met at some point a peaceful revolution will turn to violence. Sadly the time has come for Egypt as their dictator refused to stand down. Sure Mubarak promised not to run for re-election (Egypt does have “elections” but anybody who has ran against Mubarak has found themselves in prison on trumped up charges). The problem is the people wanted one thing and one thing only, Mubarak to get the fuck out.

Now there is fighting between “supporters” of Mubarak (it wouldn’t surprise me if we learn ten years from now that our own CIA started up the pro-Mubarak movement, they’ve done this shit plenty of times before) and those demanding his immediate resignation. Thankfully at the time of this writing it seems Egypt’s military is just staying the fuck out of it. I hope the people demanding Mubarak to step down win in the end but that’s mostly because I’m one of those crazy freedom loving libertarians who despises dictators of all forms.

Health Insurance Company Enrichment Act Ruled Unconstitutional

It seems a federal judge in Florida actually read the Constitution of the United States and thus has ruled the erroneously named Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional:

Judge Roger Vinson ruled that the requirement that Americans purchase health insurance or face penalties violates an individual’s rights.

And there was the main problem with the bill. You no longer had the freedom to choose whether or not you wanted to buy health care, instead you were forced to do business with insurance companies. Due to the way the bill was written this ruling goes against the entire thing not just the mandatory insurance purchase section.

Another thing I found telling was this paragraph:

A federal judge in Florida has declared the US healthcare reform bill passed in 2010 unconstitutional, ruling in a suit brought by 26 states.

Over half (yes only be one) of the states are against this bill. I don’t know about you but I can’t remember the last time over half of the states agreed on anything. Apparently putting a gun to the heads of their citizens and telling them they will buy something didn’t go over as well as our “representatives” thought it would.

This is a good start but you know the decision will be appealed right up to the Supreme Court where we really won’t be able to guess what the ruling will be.

Did You Hear Things are Happening in Egypt

Did you know bad shit is going down in Egypt? If you didn’t you’re apparently the average American because of the handful of people I’ve brought Egypt up to only two knew about the massive civil unrest and riots. Do yourself a favor, don’t be a stereotypical ignorant American and read on on the situation in Egypt. It’s far more important than any shit happening within our borders at the moment.