Category: News You Need to Know

The NRA Gave Me Cancer

I have a lot of issues with the National Rifle Association (NRA) but, in general, I believe the organization means well. Gun control advocates, on the other hand, view the NRA has the direct spawn of Satan. Anything that goes wrong in the world is, according to the gun control loons, the direct fault of the NRA. For example, did you know that the Ebola crisis is the fault of the NRA? I’m not joking on this one. Gun Free Zone linked to an article that would be absolutely hilarious if the author wasn’t being serious:

Every day brings more details about the first case of the Ebola virus to be diagnosed in the U.S. And while experts say there is essentially no risk of a significant outbreak here in the states, much of the public remains worried. A poll by Harvard found that 39% of U.S. adults are concerned about a large outbreak here, and more than a quarter fear someone in their immediate family could get sick with Ebola.

If only there was someone around who could educate the American public about the actual level of risk. Someone who was trusted as a public health expert and whose job it was to help us understand what we really need to worry about and what precautions we should take.

Actually, that is one of the primary responsibilities of the United States surgeon general. There’s just one problem: Thanks to Senate dysfunction and NRA opposition, we don’t have a surgeon general right now. In fact, we haven’t had a surgeon general for more than a year now — even though the president nominated the eminently qualified Dr. Vivek Murthy back in November 2013.

So the fear of Ebola is directly caused by the NRA because it somehow, through its Illuminati connections I’m sure, has prevented a surgeon general from being appointed and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) is totally not telling people that the likelihood of Ebola spreading in the United States is remote.

Although I’m accustomed to gun control loons blaming the NRA for everything wrong in the universe this accusation takes matters to an entirely different universe. First of all I can’t remember any previous surgeon general dispelling fears about previous epidemics such as the yearly flu that was always slated to kill us all. As far as I know the person who filled that position has never even put a dent in the mass media’s rampant fear mongering. Additionally I’m not aware of the NRA having connections to the Illuminati, Bilderberg, Rothschilds, lizard people, or any other group conspiracy theorists such as the author of the linked article are so accustomed to claim is pulling the strings behind the scenes. If the NRA did have such connections I would imagine, as a member, I’d see some pretty stellar benefits.

Really all there is to do about this accusation is point and laugh. It’s downright nutty. In fact it’s probably nuttier than many of Alex Jone’s insane ramblings. Next week I’m sure the author will have a fascinating investigative piece that will determinate that the NRA is headed by Literally Hitler.

Never Trust a Cop

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has a valuable lesson for us: never trust a cop. OK, I’m putting words into the EFF’s mouth. But after it uncovered something nasty in a software package being given out to parents by police departments under the auspices of protecting the children I think my sentiment is fair:

Police chiefs, sheriffs, and district attorneys have handed out hundreds of thousands of copies of the disc to families for free at schools, libraries, and community events, usually as a part of an “Internet Safety” outreach initiative. The packaging typically features the agency’s official seal and the chief’s portrait, with a signed message warning of the “dark and dangerous off-ramps” of the Internet.

As official as it looks, ComputerCOP is actually just spyware, generally bought in bulk from a New York company that appears to do nothing but market this software to local government agencies.

The way ComputerCOP works is neither safe nor secure. It isn’t particularly effective either, except for generating positive PR for the law enforcement agencies distributing it. As security software goes, we observed a product with a keystroke-capturing function, also called a “keylogger,” that could place a family’s personal information at extreme risk by transmitting what a user types over the Internet to third-party servers without encryption. That means many versions of ComputerCOP leave children (and their parents, guests, friends, and anyone using the affected computer) exposed to the same predators, identity thieves, and bullies that police claim the software protects against.

That’s right at least 245 agencies spanning 35 states have been giving parents a malware package under the guise of Internet safety software. Parents who were suckered into installing it got to enjoy a keylogger sending everything typed on the computer across the Internet. Adding insult to injury the transmitted keystrokes weren’t even encrypted. I’m sure the National Security Agency (NSA) has an erection because of this.

It’s unlikely that every police departments that was peddling this software is directly at fault here. They were probably naive and got suckered in by the company that, as the article points out, used fraudulent endorsements to encourage police departments to buy its software. But the bottom line is still that the departments were distributing malware, which demonstrates that they don’t know what they’re doing when it comes to software and therefore shouldn’t be trusted with such matters.

I said that not every police department is directly to blame. There is one department headed by a real asshole that is directly to blame. That department is the Limestone County Sheriff’s Department. After this news broke the Limestone County sheriff, Mike Blakely, decided that the EFF’s claims were incorrect. In fact he had some pretty harsh words for the EFF:

Sheriff Blakely said, Computer Cop is spyware designed for parents to watch and protect their kids but said the system has been vetted.

“We have had the key logger checked out with our IT people. They have run it on our computer system.” He said. “There is no malware.”

Blakely referred to the EFF criticism politics as an “Ultra-liberal organization that is not in any way credible on this. They’re more interested in protecting predators and pedophiles than in protecting our children.”

You read correctly. According to Sheriff Blakely the fucking EFF, the organization that has a long and proud history of fighting for the rights of computer users, isn’t credible on this. Furthermore he claims that the organization is interested in protecting predators and pedophiles, which would be a laughable claim if it wasn’t obvious that Blakely is trying to poison the well.

If what he said is true, if his department did check out the software, then it is directly at fault for knowingly distributing malware to unsuspecting parents. Were I a parent that received a copy of ComputerCOP from the Limestone County Sheriff’s Department I would seriously consider filing a lawsuit.

A Tip For Those Who Wish To Be Bigots

The more comments I read on various gun blogs the more I realize that there are a lot of bigoted assholes who read gun blogs. Talk about disappointment. As Caleb at Gun Nuts Media pointed out, a lot of gun owners lose their shit when anti-gunners insinuate that we’re all violent psychopaths but then go around and insinuate that Muslims are all violent psychopaths. And if you read through that link’s comments you’ll see his statement confirmed.

It’s obvious that a lot of people in the shooting community are dead set on being bigoted assholes. Fine. Who am I to tell them otherwise? But if they’re going to be bigoted assholes I would appreciate it if they at least understood a very important point: Muslims don’t share a hive mind and Islam isn’t a single undivided religion. Many of the people being bigots against Muslims are Christians, which is kind of ironic when you look at the history of Christianity. Between the Crusades and Inquisition the Church killed a whole heap of people. When I point this out the usual response is that the Church isn’t representative of Christianity, which is why so many different sects exist. Guess what, Islam is the same. There are many different sects of Islam.

The two major well known sects are the Sunni and Shia. But there are other sects as well including Ahmadiyya, Kharijite, and Quranism. Just as there are Catholic, Lutheran, and Presbyterian Christians there are many different sects of Islam. So when you insinuate every Muslim is a member of one big group you are demonstrating your ignorance and your ignorance is probably why you’re a bigot. Let’s look at the current boogeyman, the Islamic State (IS). If you listen to many people in the shooting community you would believe that the IS represents all of Islam. It doesn’t. The IS is part of the Sunni sect of Islam. Specifically it is part of the Salafi sect, which many Sunni clerics consider to be part of the Wahhabi sect. In other words the IS considers itself Sunni but not every Sunni agrees. In fact many Muslims disagree with the IS so strongly that they’re shooting its members.

So if you really feel the need to be a bigoted asshole please at least realize that Muslims aren’t bees, they don’t exhibit a hive mentality. It may even surprise you to know that Muslims are people and like all other people they exhibit individualistic behavior.

That concludes this public service announcement. Feel free to go about your day.

Beware of Snake Oil Salesmen

Yesterday it was announced that the first diagnosis of Ebola infection in the United States has been reported. Obviously it was brought across the unprotected border by illegal Islamic immigrants working for the Islamic State drug cartel (I’m sure that accusation will be making the rounds soon enough)! Sure enough wherever there is fear there are people ready to exploit it. There is also a notable overlap between libertarians and the alternative medicine crowd (and I wouldn’t have it any other way because I love being in a movement that takes in the oddballs). That means I’m being subjected to people screaming about how we need to start taking colloidal silver to stave off Ebola. What is colloidal silver. I happen to know somebody with a chemistry background and I asked him. Hoping for a zany answer I was disappointed when he explained that colloidal merely means particles suspended in a substance. In other words colloidal silver is nothing more than tiny particles of silver suspended in a solution.

Surprisingly there are no scientific papers describing tests that demonstrate colloidal silver being an effective treatment for Ebola virus. But we all know those testing labs are in the pockets of Big Pharma (that’s what my alternative medicine advocate friends tell me). So where are the claims that colloidal silver is effective against Ebola virus? From companies selling colloidal silver. Shocking, I know.

But I’m here to tell you that you’re being scammed. Colloidal silver is not the treatment you should be seeking. As a person who has read a great amount on the history of alchemy I feel it is important for me to explain how diseases work and why colloidal silver is ineffective.

Aristotle explained that there are four elements: earth, wind, water, and fire. These four elements have specific qualities. Fire is primarily hot and secondarily dry. Air is primarily wet and secondarily dry. Water is primarily cold and secondarily wet (yup, water is wet secondarily). Earth is primarily dry and secondarily cold. The human body is in perfect health when all four qualities are in balance. If one quality becomes more than another there is imbalance and that is how illnesses occur. The name for the cold derives from the fact that it is an imbalance due to an increase amount of cold in the human body[1]. Therefore treating illnesses requires restoring balance to the human body.

You’re probably wondering what causes imbalances in the human body. The answer to that is simple, impurities. How does one counteract impurities? By introducing purer substances. It is well know that silver, due to its low reactivity, is a fairly pure metal. But there is an even purer metal and due to how severely imbalanced a human body must be to become ill with Ebola we will need the purest substance there is. Gold just so happens to be that substance. It is the purest of all substances, which is demonstrated by its low reactivity. As it is the purest metal people should be looking to take colloidal gold instead of colloidal silver. I know, I know, gold is really fucking expensive. But that is mostly due to a combination of its scarcity and purity. Luckily for you I have a solution for this problem as well. We must cease funding all other research and divert those resources to relearning the art of creating philosopher’s stones. With philosopher’s stones we can take an abundant but impure metal such as a lead and transmute it into gold. Once we regain that ability we will cure humanity of all ailments. In other words I just explained how to save the entire human race from Ebola virus. You can thank me later.

Most of you who read this probably recognized it as bullshit. The theories of alchemy based on Aristotle’s four elements have long ago been disproved. But the diatribe I spewed above is no less scientifically sound than the claim that colloidal silver cures Ebola virus. At least what I wrote above was, at one time, scientifically sound based on the available knowledge at the time.

When I wrote this one of my friends jokingly remarked that I was in the pocket of Big Alchemy (which is now my tagline). Meanwhile the people advocating colloidal silver mocked me and said that my claim was bullshit and not based on any scientific research. Talk about irony. But what really irks me about this whole mess is the predatory nature of these colloidal silver peddlers. They have a bogus product and use fear to convince people to buy it. In that way they are similar to the state. And that’s downright irritating.

[1] Unlike most of this article, this claim isn’t bullshit. The name for the common cold originally comes from the belief that it was caused due to an increase in the cold quality. This was due to too much water element, which was believed to be responsible for symptoms such as a runny nose. You can read about this and other interesting facts regarding the history of alchemy in The Secrets of Alchemy, which is an excellent historical book and not some zany new age shit claiming to teach alchemy.

Self-Proclaimed Progressives are So Anti-War They Want to Help the State Buy More Bombs

Remember the old days when George W. Bush was in office and the anti-war “left” was demonstrating against his war mongering ass? Remember how concerned they were about ending the wars during the 2008 presidential elections? What the fuck happened? After Obama assumed office and proved his war mongering credentials the anti-war “left” didn’t say a peep. In fact many of the people who were demonstrating against Bush’s wars are now supporting Obama’s wars. Salon has turned into one of the biggest war apologist rags out there. For example, it has an article discussion how the neocons have it all wrong about the war against the Islamic State (IS) and that a different approach to murdering Middle Easterners is needed. And, of course, it has an article talking about who profits from the new war. You would think the anti-war “left” would be looking for ways to starve those who profit from the war of resources. But instead of advocating tax protests against the war it annoyed electrons to complain about companies not paying taxes.

These self-proclaimed progressives are a bunch of fucking hypocrites. When the neocons are in power they’re anti-war through and through. But once thier guy is ordering the bombings they become a bunch of apologists. And then when their ideology gets caught between two of their pet issues, opposing war and demanding everybody pay taxes, they always side with whatever will benefit the state even if it means more people dying.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, the anti-war “left” and self-proclaimed progressives aren’t leftists. In the traditional left-right political paradigm the people on the left opposed the king while the people on the right supported him. Well if you’re demanding people pay taxes knowing damn well that that money will be used to fund a major surveillance apparatus, a police state, and war efforts then you’re supporting the king and can’t very well call yourself a leftist. If a future election results in a Republican president I don’t want to hear any of these hypocritical fuckwits suddenly protesting the country’s wars. They had their chance when Bush was in office and blew it when they started supporting the wars under Obama. Now we know their true faces, which are dyed in the wool supporters of the king.

Just Because Somebody Assaults You Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Be Nice

Just because some assholes was inconsiderate of your feelings and assaults you doesn’t mean you have to be inconsiderate to them. Old Hickory, Tennessee is home to an individual who knows how to let bygones be bygones after the dust settles:

The man, identified as Joshua Dobson, apparently got into an argument with his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend, identified as Michael Young over the well being of the girlfriend’s child, of whom Young is the father.

That escalated into Young coming to Dobson’s home, with another man, identified as Troy Weiss. Weiss and Young assaulted Dobson. Fortunately, Dobson was armed and able to open fire on the pair of suspects, striking Weiss twice.

Dobson then grabbed a medical kit from his home and began performing first aid on Weiss. Once he was stabilized, Dobson drove him to the hospital.

Now that’s a great example of not letting your anger get the best of you. And rendering first aid to an aggressor would be interesting from a judicial standpoint. I’m curious if it would help you case since one could argue that you were likely a reluctant participant on account of your lack of desire to see the guy dead. Obviously I’m not a lawyer and don’t even play one on TV, I’m just tossing the thought out there.

Either way it was very kind of Mr. Dobson to get his attackers to the hospital. I commend those who show great mercy to their foes after the threat has ceased.

The Internet Thanks Police Officers

Apparently police apologists forgot about the fiasco that was #MyNYPD. Despite the backlash received for that attempted publicity stunt the 17th annual “Thanks a Police Office Day” went on. And not surprisingly the Internet responded:

Public ire spilled over once again yesterday, with the 17th annual “Thank a Police Officer Day” going about as well as the #MyNYPD hashtag campaign did back in April. The observance, conceived and promoted under the banner of lawyer Andrew M. Hale’s Whole Truth Project, is meant to further that group’s aim of combating negative assumptions about cops.

Instead, social media users took the opportunity to reinforce those unflattering stereotypes.

The article provides a lot of Twitter comments from people who are unhappy about the police state we live in. It’s no surprise that the backlash was pretty severe this year after the fiasco in Ferguson, Missouri. As modern policing becomes more and more adversarial it’s likely that publicity stunts like “Thanks a Police Officer Day” will garner more and more angry responses.

Amazon to Start Extorting Tax Money from Minnesotans

Bad new fellow Minnesotans. Starting on October 1st Amazon is going to begin extorting tax money from us:

Minnesotans don’t have much longer to get orders from Amazon.com tax-free.

Starting Oct. 1, the online retailer says it will start collecting sales taxes from Minnesota residents. Online-only retailers don’t have to collect state sales taxes if they do not have a physical location in a state.

I’m a big fan of Amazon. Hell, I’m a Prime subscriber. The free shipping I received from Prime from the amount of merchandise I purchase from Amazon more than covers the subscription cost. Part of the reason I prefer Amazon is because it doesn’t collect taxes that are used to fund militarized police, drug prohibitions, and stadiums for whiny rich bitch sports teams. Now that that’s changing I’m going to start doing less business with Amazon and more business with retailers that don’t extort money from me to fund my oppression.

Thankfully there are a massive number of online retailers who haven’t caved to the pressure of state governments. I recently ordered an item from Newegg and didn’t pay a dime of taxes on it. Many online firearm parts and accessories retailers only collect taxes from people living in the state they have a physical presence in. This announcement from Amazon is good news for them because it means they will get more of my money and since I do most of my shopping online that’s not an insignificant chunk of change.

Another Suspect Managed to Materialize a Gun from the Back of a Squad Car

We have yet another incident of an individual being cuffed, frisked, and placed into the back of a squad car only to materializing a gun. Unlike the previous stories of this scenario the suspect didn’t “shoot himself” but aimed his gun at an officer, which forced that officer to shoot the suspect dead:

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating the officer-involved shooting that took place Thursday morning in West Savannah on Augusta Avenue, between Eagle Street and Cumming Street. The victim, Charles Smith, 29, was handcuffed behind his back and in the process of being arrested during the incident. The encounter was caught on video, according to GBI. An autopsy on Smith’s body will be done at the GBI Crime Lab in Savannah Friday.

“After being placed in the patrol car, Smith was able to move his hands to the front of his body and kick out the window of the patrol car. The officers said as Smith attempted to exit the patrol car they saw that he had a firearm. This encounter resulted in officer David Jannot, shooting and killing Smith at the scene,” according to GBI.

I’m sorry if I sound a little skeptical. How, exactly, are these suspects ending up in the back of cop cars with guns? With how often this situation seems to be happening you would think police officers would be extra diligent to make sure they do a thorough pat down of anybody they’re cuffing and detaining. That is, of course, assuming these situations aren’t just executions being performed by officers and written off as suicides or covered up by having a spare gun to drop at the scene. While I’m not normally one to buy into such theories easily the fact that these people have been detained and thrown into the back of cop cars makes the official stories sound pretty fishy.

Posse Comitatus? Never Heard of Him.

Here’s an interesting scenario. Say for a moment you’re a judge. You have been given the job of ruling on whether a lower court’s ruling is valid. But this case isn’t any old case. This case involves a man who was convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography. Here’s the kicker, the evidence used to convict him was collected through a Navy program that scanned every computer in the state loaded with a specific file sharing program. In other words the evidence, which is damning, was only available because the military overstepped its boundaries and took it upon itself to enforce civilian law. Do you overturn the ruling and set a person possessing and distributing child pornography free or do you allow a precedence to be set that allows the military to enforce civilian law? That’s the position judges Judge Berzon, Andrew Kleinfeld, and Diarmud O’Scannlain found themselves in:

A federal appeals court said the US Navy’s scanning of the public’s computers for images of child pornography constituted “a profound lack of regard for the important limitations on the role of the military in our civilian society.”

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) practice led the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals to suppress evidence in the form of images of child pornography that an NCIS agent in Georgia found on a Washington state civilian’s computer. The agent was using a law-enforcement computer program called RoundUp to search for hashed images of child pornography on computers running the file-sharing network Gnutella.

“…RoundUp surveillance of all computers in Washington amounted to impermissible direct active involvement in civilian enforcement of the child pornography laws, not permissible indirect assistance,” Judge Marsha Berzon wrote for the San Francisco-based appeals court.

I wouldn’t have wanted to be those judges. Possessing, manufacturing, and/or distributing child pornography is one of those crimes where the mere accusation is usually enough to destroy one’s life. Being the judge who allowed an accused child pornographer to go would be a bad position to be in but overturning a conviction would far worse. A lot of judges would probably cave to the political pressure and allow the ruling to stay. In fact O’Scannlain felt that the ends justified the means. But judges Berzon and Kleinfeld decided to not be total shitbags and and stuck down the ruling as the evidence was collecting in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the military from involving itself in civilian law enforcement.

I’m sure there are people on O’Scannlain’s side. After all child pornographers may hold the rare status of being a group of people hated more than Hitler. But allowing the ruling to stand would have opened the door for a lot of law enforcement abuse. Effectively it would have set a precedent that allowed law enforcement to bypass a lot of paperwork and legal obstructions by having the military perform surveillance for it. While warrants aren’t much of a check against police abuse they are more of a check than the military has to submit to.