House Passes National Carry Law

Well I have good news from the front (well I’m not on the front I’m like a commander, safe in my bunker far away)…

http://www.nraila.org/News/Read/NewsReleases.aspx?ID=12506

http://gunowners.org/a052009.htm

In a large 279 to 147 vote your right to carry your gun in national parks has been approved by the House. I would like to point out that 105 of those votes were from Democrats, proving once again that the second amendment is a bi-partisan issue.

The only downside is this is attached to the credit card reform bill which makes me feel a little dirty. I mean we’re using the antis’ tactics against them, but when all else fails fight fire with fire. Not to mention I hate the idea of the government further sticking their fingers into the world of business.

Now we just need to get Obama to sign it which looks likely since this credit card bill is one of his babies.

England’s Child Database Launched

www.internetnews.com – Personal Data of Millions Lost in U.K. Security Breachnews.bbc.co.uk – Database of all Children LaunchedMore proof England is taking the novel 1984 literally…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8052512.stm

Here is the basics of the situation…

The government says it will enable more co-ordinated services for children and ensure none slips through the net.
It will hold the details of 11 million children and young people aged up to 18 years.

Don’t worry though access to the database is limited…

It says 390,000 people will have access to the database, but will have gone through stringent security training.

See they people with access to the database, you know the very few 390,000 of them, will have very good security training. Just like the British government, oh wait…

http://www.internetnews.com/breakingnews/article.php/3712501

But what could possibly be contained in this database? Well the following…

Name, address, date of birth, gender and contact details for parents or carers

Each child also has a unique identifying number

Details of the child’s school and GP practice and for other practitioners or services working with the child

Whether the practitioner is the lead professional for that child

I give it less then a year (and that’s being VERY generous) before the database is compromised and the information contained in it is leaked.

Meanwhile in the Fascist State of Britain

Is somebody you know wearing too much “bling?” Then turn them in…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/5314774/Police-target-people-wearing-too-much-bling.html

Britain’s new police campaign is urging it’s subjects to turn in other subjects if they are wearing too much “bling.” Apparently the government is putting up posts stating that if you think somebody is living a life of luxury and you don’t think they can afford it you need to turn them in.

So if you’re a subject of the crown of Britain and you see somebody wearing any jewelry at all place it safe and call the Ministry of Love, I mean the police.

No Fly, No Buy Act of 2009

Yet another piece of legislature designed to club your rights as if they were baby seals…

http://www.saysuncle.com/2009/05/15/due-process-3/

And the opencongress.org link…

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h2401/show

The summary of this bill is simple, if you’re on the United State’s “no fly” or “terrorist watch” list you will be prohibited from buying guns. The biggest problem (of many) here is you don’t actually have to be guilty of ANYTHING to be on this list. Hence this bill will allow your rights to be stripped simply by being suspected of something, maybe.

Anyways here is the list of asses involved…

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy [D, NY-4]
Rep. Steve Israel [D, NY-2]

Hopefully this list doesn’t expand beyond two idiots.

Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2009

Here we go again (and yes I know this is old news)…

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h2159/show

Another bill to stomp on our right to bear arms, this time in the form of “fighting terrorism.”  Summed up it allows the Attorney General to suspend your second amendment right if you are suspected of being involved with terrorists.

‘The Attorney General may deny the transfer of a firearm pursuant to section 922(t)(1)(B)(ii) if the Attorney General determines that the transferee is known (or appropriately suspected) to be or have been engaged in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of, or related to terrorism, or providing material support thereof, and the Attorney General has a reasonable belief that the prospective transferee may use a firearm in connection with terrorism.’;

That’s right we can now declare somebody guilty based on suspicion. Here is a list of the jackasses, ahem sponsors of the bill…

Rep. Peter King [R, NY-3]
Rep. Michael Castle [R, DE-0]
Rep. Mark Kirk [R, IL-10]
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy [D, NY-4]
Rep. James Moran [D, VA-8]
Rep. Charles Rangel [D, NY-15]
Rep. Christopher Smith [R, NJ-4]

I say everybody write these guys a nice letter stating how much you love the idea of punishing people who are suspected of being involved with illegal activity. After all we can’t wait until somebody is found guilty before we bring down the hammer of justice.

New York to Enact “Fat Tax”

In another story dealing with New York the nanny state…

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/05/14/new-york-bill-would-add-fat-tax-video-games-dvds-junk-food

It appears New York is trying to pass a law that would put a tax on anything that “makes kids fat.” In other words they are low on money and the way to make more money is to tax popular things like video games and DVDs.

Senate Backs Carry in National Parks

Look what we have here…

http://www.NRAILA.org/News/Read/InTheNews.aspx?ID=12482

It looks like the senate is down with returning American Citizens’ their right to carry in national parks (so long as they can carry in the state the park is located in). The amendment, which was approved in a vote of 67 to 29, is attached to a bill regulating credit card companies. And further proof that gun rights is a bipartisan issue 27 of the votes for the amendment were from Democrats.

Bruce Schneier Against Cyber Security Tsar

The bastion of common sense security, Bruce Schneier, speaks his mind on the appointing of a cyber security Tsar…

http://threatpost.com/blogs/do-we-really-need-cybersecurity-czar

As the man himself puts it.

Really what I think is it shouldn’t be anybody. We do better without a top-down hierarchy. Our economic and political systems work best when there isn’t a dictator in charge, when there isn’t one organization in charge. My feeling is there shouldn’t be one organization in charge. Not only shouldn’t it be the NSA, it shouldn’t be anybody,

I find myself agreeing with him yet again. I don’t know where this idea of appointing so called “Tsars” came from since we aren’t a Russian Monarchy but it’s getting bloody annoying. Having a single person in charge of anything generally fails. That’s why we have the Senate and Congress (granted they don’t really do their jobs in my book). Our founding fathers saw first hand what having one buffoon in charge does so they set up a system with many buffoons in charge.

Having a single person in charge of anything, especially security, leaves a single point of failure in the system.

European Union Thinks U.S. Should Relinquish Control of the Internet

Yet more news of the European Union trying to screw everybody else…

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/european-union-wants-cut-internet

This time they want some control over the Internet. This is an oversimplification but right now there is an organization called ICANN which acts as a central authority for Internet. Since 1998 they have been working under mandate of the U.S. Department of Commerce. This agreement is up for termination in September of 2009.

The European Union things once this agreement is terminated they should get a piece of the action. Never mind the fact that the U.S. funded and developed most of the technology that makes the Internet your are using right now possible. Never mind that many of the U.S. laws are the reason the Internet has remained on open source of information anybody can use. Nope that doesn’t matter.

Being the Internet is an international entity now it might seem logical to have other countries help in its oversight. The problem I have with this is many European countries are, or soon will, filter content obtained online. China currently is hold the record as the most famous attempt to filter Internet access (which they are failing at since there is no way to filter so much data). But China has no influence over the regulating body known as ICANN so they can’t force filtering for other countries.

If another group such as the European Union gained power over ICANN they could conceivably set into motion a list of items that would no longer be permissible to place online. Remember much of the Eurozone isn’t too big into the whole freedom of speech idea. And the Internet would not be useful if it wasn’t for the freedom of speech. I could see the E.U. wanting to place a ban on all pro-gun sites out there. After all we know how much the E.U. loves the right to bear arms.

European Union Wants Companies Liable for Software

You know I hate the idea of the European Union a little more every day…

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39649689,00.htm

They have another idea that should not be. They want to hold companies and, in the case of open source applications, programmers liable for defects in their code.

To somebody outside of the software industry this may sound like a good idea. Who hasn’t been bitten by a software bug and wanted to unleash their wrath upon the coders? But as a coder myself I can tell you this, programming is hard.

More specifically parts of programming are hard. Getting an application up and running and then getting it to do basic tasks is pretty simple. The problem comes when you want to make those basic tasks reliable.

The damnedest things can cause a bug in an application. Forgetting to terminate a string in a null character in C for instance can lead to worlds of hurt. Sometimes when your application calls on outside code that outside code will cause an unforeseen but in your own code. The bottom line is trying to foresee all possible bugs and mishaps is impossible. This desire of the European Union would create a liability for software companies in that part of the world and probably cause them to move elsewhere. Maybe somewhere that isn’t trying to make life as hard as possible for businesses.