News You Need to Know – Page 76

Patent Office Off to a Good Start

Earlier this week the United States Patent Office invalided the trademarks for the Washington Redskins (it’s a handegg team for those who, like me, aren’t familiar):

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board canceled six federal trademark registrations owned by the Washington NFL club today, ruling that the term “Redskins” was disparaging to “a substantial composite” of American Indians when the marks were granted between 1967 and 1990. The decision does not mean the Washington team must stop using the name.

A lot of people are complaining about this move and claiming that it’s abuse of the Patent Office’s power. Not me. I think this is a great move that needs to be replicated on all intellectual property claims.

America’s Relationship with the Middle East Continues to Baffle Me

I know what you’re thinking after reading the title, who isn’t. But this recent situation in Iraq makes the past relationship look positively simple. Apparently the White House has decided that our puppet government in Iraq needs to get the fuck out:

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration is signaling that it wants a new government in Iraq without Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, convinced the Shiite leader is unable to reconcile with the nation’s Sunni minority and stabilize a volatile political landscape.

The U.S. administration is indicating it wants Iraq’s political parties to form a new government without Mr. Maliki as he tries to assemble a ruling coalition following elections this past April, U.S. officials say.

Such a new government, U.S., officials say, would include the country’s Sunni and Kurdish communities and could help to stem Sunni support for the al Qaeda offshoot, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, that has seized control of Iraqi cities over the past two weeks. That, the officials argue, would help to unify the country and reverse its slide into sectarian division.

So we start a war with Iraq for no discernible reason other than our president at the time got a chubby whenever he ordered the invasion of a country and replace Saddam’s regime with a puppet government. All is well (as far as we’re concerned) and except for sporadic fighting that never ceased we declared the whole operation a gigantic success. Then we decided that we no longer want to sink money into the country so we pull out our combat troops, replace them with mercenaries from whatever the fuck Blackwater calls itself now, and kick back in our giganting embassy.

Things seem to be going fine until out of nowhere (nowhere being Middle Eastern slang for Saudi Arabia) this group called ISIS appears and begins wrecking our puppet government’s shit. On top of being surprisingly successful, ISIS also turn out to be total twats. In fact they’re such twats that Iran offers to put aside its past difference with the United States in order to stomp ISIS down. This news is so glorious that Britain says it will reopen its embassy in Iran. But now the White House wants to get rid of our puppet government and replace it with one that ISIS will find more agreeable.

I generally pride myself with having some understanding of who hates who in the Middle East. But right now I have no god damn clue who anybody, including ourselves, are allied with. The entire situation is a mess, which is why it’s a bad idea to meddle in the affairs of other countries.

As If She Hadn’t Assaulted Us With Enough Terrible Literature Already

Even thought she’s in the grave Ayn Rand can’t help but assault us with more of her shitty literature:

IRVINE, CA–(Marketwired – June 16, 2014) – The Ayn Rand Institute is excited to announce the new publication of a lost Ayn Rand novel. Ayn Rand’s work Ideal, written in 1934, is scheduled for release by Penguin Random House in July of 2015 and will be paired with Rand’s play of the same name into a single volume. The introduction will be written by Rand’s designated heir, Leonard Peikoff.

“We are delighted to share this wonderful news,” said ARI executive director Yaron Brook.

I guess somebody has to be delighted. On the upside it was written in 1934, so it predates Atlas Shrugged. That means it probably won’t contain a three billion word monolog by Objectivist Jesus. On the downside it’s written by Ayn Rand. That means it will have one dimensional characters, a boring story, and the pain that comes from being beaten over the head with Objectivism.

I’m sure there are a lot of libertarians who are already jerking themselves off to the idea of another Ayn Rand novel. Me, I prefer literature that is entertaining and doesn’t try to preach a One True Religion to me.

Johnny Cannabis Seed

Some people in the United Kingdom have taken a page for Germany’s book and begun planting cannabis seeds everywhere:

However, since other places – notably Uruguay and the couple of newly weed-friendly American states – started decriminalising and legalising, British activists have stepped it up, uniting previously fractured groups together under the UK Cannabis Social Clubs banner. The most recent action to come out of the UKCSC camp is an initiative called Feed the Birds, which basically involves people up and down the country planting cannabis seeds in public places in the hope that it will open a dialogue about Britain’s current marijuana laws.

It’s a wonderful way to give the state a gigantic middle finger. But the icing on the cake is this:

Are there any planting spots you’re focusing on in London?

Yup, there are. All sorts of public spaces have been done already, all across London and the UK. I think in the month to come, when the plants start maturing, we’ll start seeing a lot more coverage. Also, to my knowledge, we’ve had a lot of the guerrilla cells targeting politicians’ houses. We’ve also had reports that there’s a grow on property owned by the crown. Hopefully we’ll see something come from that in the next couple of months.

That’s the way to do it. Plant cannabis seeds at the homes of politicians. Sadly they’re more or less immune from the war on drugs otherwise they would get a nice taste of a no-knock paramilitary police raid at two in the morning that ends with their dog getting shot and their newborn baby getting burned by a flashbang grenade. But it still sends a message about the futility of trying to control the spread of a weed.

Not So Heavily Armed

My fellow denizens of the Twin Cities we may be having a guest from Wisconsin in the near future (heck, he could already be here). The dude, who goes by the name Eric “Buck” Hall, is a recently released felon who stole a truck with a couple of guns in it:

On Saturday in the same county, Hall allegedly stole two vehicles, with one of them containing a scoped rifle with hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a pump-action shotgun. The weapons have yet to be recovered.

On Sunday, Hall is suspected of stealing yet another vehicle in New Auburn, Wis., this one a tan 2000 Chevy Silverado pickup truck owned by a volunteer firefighter. That vehicle remains missing.

Hall is described as 5 feet 10 inches tall, 170 to 190 pounds, with blue eyes. He has numerous tattoos, wears glasses and has a goatee and beard.

The truck has Wisconsin license plate JE7691. It has several pink and hunting-themed stickers, as well as emergency lighting and siren.

Anyone with information about this case is urged to call the Chippewa County Sheriff’s Office at 1-715-726-7714.

OK, now that the public service announcement is out of the way I do want to point out the phrasing of the article. It states that Hall is heavily armed:

A scoped rifle and a pump-action shotgun aren’t things to laugh at but I don’t think possessing them really qualify as heavily armed either. In my book heavily armed implies the ability to lay down sustained fire for an extended period of time. Doing this generally relies more on the accessories than the weapon. Unless Hall has a good number of magazines and the scoped rifle is a magazine fed weapon I don’t think he’s that heavily armed. If he only has one or two magazines or the rifle is a bolt-action then he can’t really sustain firing for very long before he has to open a box of ammo and insert rounds into the gun’s magazine(s).

Again, neither weapon mentioned in the article are something I’d sneer at. But I think saying he’s armed would be more accurate than heavily armed. Anyways if you see this bloke steer clear of him, it sounds like he may have a few screws loose (oh, and if you’re anti-gun you might want to put one of those “guns banned here” signs around your neck so Hall can’t shoot you).

US Marshals Auctioning Off 29,656.51306529 Bitcoin

Do you have $200,000? Are you registered to participating in auctions held by the United States Marshals Service? Have you been looking to buy a lot of Bitcoin? If you answered in the affirmative to all three then I have an auction for you:

This auction is for 9 blocks of 3,000 bitcoins (“Series A Blocks”) and 1 block of 2,656.51306529 bitcoins (“Series B Block”).

The Bitcoin were supposedly seized from Silk Road although the auction description specifically states that they are not the Dread Pirate Robert’s. What I find interesting is that no trial has been held regarding the Silk Road so I’m not sure how the seized property is being auctioned off. It’s almost as if the state can just take your shit and sell it without due process. But being the land of the free I know that we couldn’t possibly have some kind of civil forfeiture laws that allow the state to get away with such things.

As of this writing Bitcoin is hovering right around the $600 mark so, assuming the Marshals get around market value for the Bitcoin, the auction is looking to bring in approximately $17,793,907.839174. That’s a nice chunk of change.

Activism Fail

Readers of my blog know that I have a major problem with the way homeless individuals are treated in our society. Various stores and apartment complexes in the United Kingdom have been busy installing spikes designed specially to prevent homeless individuals from sleeping on their property. Libertarians will point out that private property owners have a right to do such things and as a libertarian I concur. But as a decent human being I will also point out that doing so violates the don’t be a dick principle. Therefore it didn’t surprise me when activists decided to vandalize the spikes. However the vandals failed miserably:

They were all carrying buckets, which I soon found out were full of concrete. Tipping the containers all over the spikes, the stuff inside landed with a messy thud on the ledge. The activists then tried to spread the concrete out with some wooden slats, but it looked a little thick and wasn’t really budging.

When they dashed down a side street, I caught up and asked one what exactly they were doing. They explained that they were trying to drown the spikes in concrete, rendering the ledge non-spikey. “These [spikes] are in places where people are trying to find a cosy, less wet place to put their head down,” one said. “These are places that the underclass rely on. We give [Tesco] our money and this is how they treat us.”

[…]

After our chat they prepared themselves for a second round. This time they poured concrete mix directly out of a bag, then mixed it with the water al fresco. This mostly resulted in a powdery mess and a load of concrete-y water running down the pavement.

The lesson from this story is if you’re going to do activism don’t fuck it up. Have a plan and understand the elements that plan relies on. For example, if you’re planning to cover anti-homeless spikes with concrete understand how to work with concrete. Doing so will help you understand that concrete hardens over time, which means mixing it before you’re onsite is risky unless you don’t have far to travel. Likewise dumping concrete mix on a ledge and pouring water over it will simply cause the mix to wash away. What you really need to do is bring concrete mix, water, and a container to combine the two in to the site you’re going to be working at.

Take some damn pride in your work. If you believe something is worth doing then learn how to do it well. Otherwise people are just going to laugh at you.

Good Guy Tesla

In a very positive, and unusual, twist of events Tesla Motors has decided to compete on the quality of its electric cars instead of relying on an intellectual monopoly:

Yesterday, there was a wall of Tesla patents in the lobby of our Palo Alto headquarters. That is no longer the case. They have been removed, in the spirit of the open source movement, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology.

Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport. If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal. Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.

This move may single handedly do more for electric car development than anything else. Patents are the great barrier between markets and innovation. They prevent inventors from utilizing incremental advancements to create new incremental advancements and stifle innovation as patent holders see no reason to continue improving a product so long as they have a monopoly on it. My hope is that this move will lead other companies to do the same but I’m guessing that won’t be the case.

Only Hillary’s Wealth Allowed Her to Go So Far Into Debt

Hillary Clinton has been trying to build sympathy by claiming she and Bill went broke during her stint ~~as a war criminal~~ in office. In all likelihood they simply shuffled their money elsewhere so they appear to be broke on paper but I digress. Assuming she has been telling the truth (I know that’s a pretty big pill to swallow but stay with me) and the Clintons are actually millions of dollars in debt. For that to even happen the Clintons needed to be both wealthy and have perceptible future value:

The story with the Clintons is that they left office millions of dollars in hock to various law firms. But this wasn’t some random financial misfortune that could have happened to anyone. If you found yourself in legal hot water, you wouldn’t possibly be able to hire the Clinton’s lawyers. No firm would let you run a multi-million dollar tab. The reason the Clintons were able to get away with it is that it was always obvious that Bill had enormous post-presidential earnings potential. This is a situation where the Clintons’ ability to go so deeply into debt is a sign of the vast economic privileges they enjoyed. Not just the ability to become millionaires after leaving office, but the ability to access certain aspects of the millionaire lifestyle even before leaving office.

To put it into social justice warrior language the Clintons’ wealth privilege (which is probably derived from their white privilege or something) is the only thing that enabled them to go millions of dollars into debt. It will be interesting to see the social justice warriors’ take on this matter. On the one hand Hillary is a woman and therefore a member of the oppressed class. On the other hand she was wealthy and has the ability to be wealthy again so she is certainly riding some serious wealth privilege. From what I’ve seen wealth privilege tends to override almost any oppression points and therefore Hillary is probably in shitlord territory.

Ermahgerd Weapon Lights

Do you have a weapon light mounted on any of your rifles or handguns? If so you’re a bad person. At least that’s what I get from the Denver Post’s recent article disguised as a study that attempts to link weapon lights to negligent police shootings:

In a deposition, Flanagan expressed his remorse and made a prediction.

“I don’t want anyone to ever sit in a chair I’m in right now,” he said. “Think about the officers that aren’t as well trained, officers that don’t take it as seriously, and you put them in a pressure situation, another accident will happen. Not if, but will.”

Flanagan was right. Three months after the October 2010 shooting in Plano, a 76-year-old man took a bullet in the stomach from a New York police officer trying to switch on the same flashlight model.

At least three other people in the U.S. over the past nine years have been shot accidentally by police officers with gun-mounted flashlights, an investigation by The Denver Post found. Two victims were fellow officers.

In Colorado, Denver’s police chief banned the use of tactical flashlights with switches below the trigger guard after two officers accidentally fired their guns last year.

One of the officers may have shot a suspect when his finger slipped from the flashlight switch to the trigger, firing a bullet into a car window of the fleeing driver.

How your finger could slip off of a light activation button located on the grip is positively beyond me. But reading through this article one is supposed to take away how dangerous weapon mounted lights are. In reality the article demonstrates that police departments provide poor training for offices.

I’m a firm believer that you should become intimately familiar with any weapon you plan to carry. You should know how everything on it operates normally, how it will likely fail, and how to recover from any failures. If you add accessories to a weapon you plan to carry you should know how to properly use them. Any failure due to inadequate training isn’t an indicator that the equipment is faulty, it’s an indicator that the training is faulty.

If police departments are having problems with officers and weapon mounted lights it demonstrates that those departments really suck at teaching their officers how to use weapons with attached lights. In my opinion it also demonstrates the poor quality of the officers since weapon mounted lights aren’t fucking rocket science. On lights with with a switch in front of the trigger guard I guess I can kind of see a scenario where a very inept person could negligently discharge the firearm when trying to activate the light. But I can perceive of no scenario where a light with a grip mounted switch could lead to a negligent discharge when the user went to activate the light. The trigger finger doesn’t even touch the switch. I think you would literally have to be retarded to fire a gun when you were really trying to press the grip mounted light switch.