Category: News You Need to Know

A Testament to Human Ingenuity

We’ve all seen advertisements for The Club, a metal rod that attaches to the steering wheel of a car to prevent theft. Unfortunately it doesn’t actually work, and makes the care easier to steel. Bruce Schneier’s blog once again brings the fact security snake oil just doesn’t work. See the club is easy to remove and works as a tool to assist in the actual theft:

At some point, the Club was mentioned. The professional thieves laughed and exchanged knowing glances. What we knew was that the Club is a hardened steel device that attaches to the steering wheel and the brake pedal to prevent steering and/or braking. What we found out was that a pro thief would carry a short piece of a hacksaw blade to cut through the plastic steering wheel in a couple seconds. They were then able to release The Club and use it to apply a huge amount of torque to the steering wheel and break the lock on the steering column (which most cars were already equipped with). The pro thieves actually sought out cars with The Club on them because they didn’t want to carry a long pry bar that was too hard to conceal.

Yup the one thing about people, we’re an ingenuous bunch. Since we’re talking security against car theft I’ll explain what I do. I have insurance against theft, if my car is stolen and can’t be recovered my insurance company pays me money. It works pretty well as I really have no sentimental attachment to my vehicle.

Does this Mean More Warrantless Wiretapping

Apparently the Obamessiah is comparing the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico to the terrorist attack on 9/11:

“In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11, I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come,” he said in the Politico interview.

Does this mean the oil leak is going to be used an excuse to expand government power over the surfs citizenry? What am I saying, of course it is. I’m waiting for the next OIL LEAK Act (no idea what they’ll make that acronym mean but if they can come up with an acronym for PATRIOT they can do anything) which will expand government powers allowing even more warrantless wiretapping, harassment at airports, and detaining of citizens suspected of colluding with oil companies.

Because Taxing You Along Isn’t Enough

You know all those taxes your state and federal government steal from you (since you aren’t paying voluntarily it’s payment by force which is theft)? One of the things it’s supposed to pay for are public schools. The idea is a portion of your tax money goes to your local school and thus your kids get to go to school for free. Of course free is such an interesting term according to public schools since they make the parents pay for many things including notebooks, pencils, and other miscellaneous items.

Well Beverly High is kicking it up a notch by requiring all parents to buy MacBooks for their kids:

A new program at Beverly High will equip every student with a new laptop computer to prepare kids for a high-tech future. But there’s a catch.

The money for the $900 Apple MacBooks will come out of parents’ pockets.

Yes that’s right on top of taxes now parents have to purchase their kid an Apple MacBook. This is regardless of whether their kid already has a laptop if that laptop doesn’t happen to be a MacBook. Of course the benevolent school will provide a leasing mechanism for those poor unfortunates who can’t afford laptops. But anybody who has filled out and applied for financial aid from a public school knows it’s kind of like getting punched in the mouth for three hours straight. So how much will these laptops cost all together?

Providing laptops to all 1,200 students at Beverly High would cost the school about $1 million, Technology Director Judy Miller said. Last year, the district spent $66,569 on technology.

Wow that’s $1 million of wasted money if I’ve ever seen it. All that’s going to happen is kids will be playing Farmville in class instead of paying attention. Great. Your government at work people.

Bloggers the Modern Pamphleteer

There has been a lot of talk about how we have to come up with a plan to save “journalism” in this country. I use the word “journalism” in the most loose of forms since anybody who reads most non-major media associated news sites (which includes blogs) know we really don’t have journalism in this country anymore. Most “news” produced by places like the New York Times is just regurgitated information they received from the Associated Press. They usually also add in more bias while they’re at it.

Steve Jobs recently spoke at D: All Things Digital where he said he doesn’t want to use us descend into a world of bloggers implying that blogs aren’t a legitimate source of news. The fact of the matter is blogs are a relevant source of news. How many stories do you read on this site alone that are never covered in any detail in major news media sources? Does the Star Tribune ever fairly cover upcoming Minnesota gun legislation? Nope. If you relied on them all you know about the “gun show loophole” is that it allows criminals to buy any gun at a gun show without a background check. Thankfully due to us gun bloggers you know that’s not true and that the “loophole” isn’t a loophole at all.

I was talking with somebody else about this subject and we came up with a rather interesting notion. Today’s bloggers are akin to Pamphleers in the days gone by. Back in the day news was spread often by people handing out pamphlets that they printed off. These pamphlets contained whatever information the printer wanted to portray to the public. You were free to take of leave them as you wanted. Of course it was up to you to determine the legitimacy of the information as it is with blogs, newspapers, and television news sources (the latter two seem to lie more from what I’ve found).

The bottom line is the concept of “accreditation and trusted” news sources hasn’t always been around. I don’t know exactly when it happened by at some point in our history we stopped doing our own research and just assumed whatever the major news outlets told us was fact. This is not how it’s always been.

So yes bloggers are legitimate news sources. We are not parasites preying off of the major media outlets. Many local stories originate from blogs. But as with popular news sources you have to determine what information is legitimate and what information is now.

With Friends Like Them Who Needs Enemies

A while ago I mentioned a Sea Shepard dip shit who illegally boarded a vessel was arrested and would be standing trail in Japan. So what are his fellow crusaders saying? They are most likely cheering their martyr whom is being wrongly persecuted for their rightful crusade against those who would dare defy the will of Sea Sheppard, right? Nope.

The organization Sea Sheppard has Severed ties with Mr. Bethune because he carried a weapon on the super expensive Ady Gil which was stupidly parked in front of a much larger vessel and ultimately destroyed. The weapon? A bow and arrows.

Either way it’s funny to see how loyal these organizations truly aren’t.

So a Police Officer Walks Into A Bar

Or in this case a cafe and is given the boot. This incident has been strumming up some controversy in some areas because a coffee shop booted a police officer out of their establishment. What few people seem to realize is the coffee house is called the Red and Black Cafe. Why is that significant? The colors represent anarcho-communism which is the political belief of the people who collectively own the cafe.

So the real story is a police officer walked into a cafe run by people who don’t like the police of any form of government at all. I’m not surprised he was shown the door in that case. What do I think about this? Well it’s their right to refuse service to anybody they want (in my opinion, not under the law’s opinion of course). If they don’t want to allow police officers into their establishment that is their right. At the same time the police are not legally obligated to protect anybody so since they are restricted from entering the business they could just as easily say they will not respond to any incidents that occur in that cafe. I think it’s a fair trade that would make everybody involved happy.

Drinking, It’ll Give You AIDS

Via No Agenda I learned that the World Health Organization has started a campaign against alcohol (because they research Prohibition in the United States and found that it worked so well). They have a page up titled Call for action to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. There are some real doozies on this page but my favorite is this:

Harmful drinking is also a major avoidable risk factor for noncommunicable diseases, in particular cardiovascular diseases, cirrhosis of the liver and various cancers. It is also associated with various infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and TB, as well as road traffic accidents, violence and suicides.

Holy shit drinking can give you AIDS!

Making Recording the Police Illegal

There is a rather frightening article about the police and their love of cameras, so long as they’re the only ones who have them:

In response to a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse, a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer.

Even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to your defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists.

More or less the same group of individuals who often say nobody should fear being under surveillance unless they’re doing something wrong doesn’t like being under surveillance. This seems to imply they know they are doing something wrong using their logic. The justification for these laws is also sickening:

The legal justification for arresting the “shooter” rests on existing wiretapping or eavesdropping laws, with statutes against obstructing law enforcement sometimes cited. Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland are among the 12 states in which all parties must consent for a recording to be legal unless, as with TV news crews, it is obvious to all that recording is underway. Since the police do not consent, the camera-wielder can be arrested. Most all-party-consent states also include an exception for recording in public places where “no expectation of privacy exists” (Illinois does not) but in practice this exception is not being recognized.

If you or I are out in public we can’t sue somebody for recording us specifically because there is no expectation of privacy under the law. Apparently since the police are better than us lowly surfs they are getting an exception in some states. This is a classic case of rules being applied differently depending on your status (in this case a police officer is a civilian but since they’re employees of the government the government is giving them special treatment). Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying all police officers are beating people on street corners but any officer supporting laws banning citizens from recording their actions while on duty makes it appear as though they have something to hide (by many officers’ own logic).

Society and technology are now at a point where a majority of people are carrying video recording devices in the form of cell phones. Coupled with the cellular Internet access we can share recorded videos with the entire world instantly. Even if the police confiscate your cell phone upon discovering you are recording them the video can already be uploaded to any number of websites making the confiscation meaningless.

This has been used quite a few times to record instances of police abuse which is later used to reprimand the recorded officers. So now the citizens can monitor the police force instead of only the police force being able to monitor the citizens. Some people join the police force because they want the authority and power that goes along with it. Of course these same people don’t want to responsibility and accountability that also goes along with it hence empowered citizens are a bad thing to them.

Banning the recording of police officers (or any public servant) while they are on duty is nothing more than government empowerment at the sacrifice of the peoples’ liberty (which is always the case). It’s one of the few methods we have at our disposal to play checks and balances with the police force. Otherwise it simply becomes a case of our word against theirs which almost always goes the way of the officer under question.

So How’s That Global Warming Working Out

You know all those islands that are sinking due to rising sea levels caused by global warming climate change? Well they’re growing:

In recent times, the inhabitants of many low-lying Pacific islands have come to fear their homelands being wiped off the map because of rising sea levels.

But this study of 27 islands over the last 60 years suggests that most have remained stable, while some have actually grown.

I’m no expert but I believe growing is the exact opposite of sinking. Of course the people who are profiting off of believe in global warming are still spewing their bullshit:

But although these islands might not be submerged under the waves in the short-term, it does not mean they will be inhabitable in the long-term, and the scientists believe further rises in sea levels pose a significant danger to the livelihoods of people living in Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia.

One scientist in Kiribati said that people should not be lulled into thinking that inundation and coastal erosion were not a major threat.

So the “rising sea levels” aren’t actually sinking these islands yet these people are saying the inhabitants of said islands should be worried because “rising sea levels” are going to destroy them? What the fuck?

UK’s Gun Ban in Action

Ah yes the UK’s gun ban the single reason that the island is a perfect utopia where nobody is ever murdered or violently attacked. I wish I lived in the UK where there are no shooting.

Wait I hear reality calling, give me a second here.

You won’t believe this reality just called to inform me that the UK’s gun ban isn’t work. In fact a shooter just murdered four people using and offed himself with a gun. I just don’t get how this could happen though; guns are illegal there! Also the government will protect you!