Rights Dealing with Amendments Lower or Higher Than Two – Page 13

Riddle Me This, How Does a Broke Nation Pay for Longer School Days

OK it’s no secret that our public education system sucks. As much as I don’t like our current president (due to polices not race, regardless of what his critics say) but I will say his idea for pushing up education makes more sense than Bush’s cronies No Child Left Behind Act.

Obama is making a push to extend the school year. Now I’m well out of school so this really doesn’t affect me. For those of you currently in school all I have to say is suckers!

I’m not sure if extended the school year will improve our education system much. In fact I’m guessing it won’t. I’m not saying this because I want Obama to fail on this, far from it. I’d love to have the base education level in this country go up. The problem though is money. See schools don’t have enough of it already and keeping them open for longer is going to cost more of it.

We also need more high quality teachers. Of course being teachers don’t make shit for money, because there isn’t any, there is no incentive for many people to enter the teaching career. This is where somebody usually says something about teachers going into their career because they want to teach children. That’s true for those currently in it but there are many out there who want to teach children and be a food provider for their family. These people often decide to go elsewhere since proving for their family is more important than helping other peoples’ children.

I’m certainly not advocating the federal government give more money it doesn’t have to education. I am advocating finding means to help schools raise their own money. Having money would open the doors to better learning materials and faculty. Look at all the best schools in the nation they are private. Why? Because private schools make money and hence can afford to buy materials and pay faculty decent wages (hence they can acquire good teachers).

Another cheap thing we can do to improve education is simple, stop running them like prisons. Morale has a huge impact on the effectiveness of people to perform tasks. If a student has high morale they will generally perform their task of learning better. Nothing kills morale quite as effectively as being treated like a potential criminal at all times. Currently many schools subject children to events such as random drug and weapons searches, all day surveillance, random accusations, and worst of all zero tolerance policies. But probably most destructive of all is the public education system being prejudice against students who think outside the approved lines. Take it from somebody who was heavily pro-gun back in high school, at some point you will be hauled into the principal’s office and be accused of plotting to shoot up the school shortly after a school shooting (in my case it was shortly after Columbine and it was a week of Hell).

Shit I’m on a roll so I’ll throw another improvement in. This one of course would involve money once again as most things do but alas it’s a good idea. We should start teaching children important life skills in school. I’m still surprised at how many of my fellow individuals don’t know how to balance a check book, read a legal contract (and boy is that an important thing to know), be proficient in the use of a computer, fix things around the house (luckily my school had shop classes but many no longer do), and think logically.

Yes there should be seminars (we probably don’t need classes for all of the listed things) on basic things like balancing check books and reading legal contracts. I know I read every line of any contract I sign and I don’t put pen to paper until I understand every clause. Most people don’t and willfully sign away the damnedest of things. I firmly believe there should be classes on basic home repair and maintenance as well as logical thinking. If people knew how to do basic home repairs they would save a fortune. If logical thinking was made important we wouldn’t have to entertain all these illogical arguments like gun control (I knew I could slip that in somewhere).

Simply extending the school day isn’t going to accomplish much. In fact I’m at a loss on how we can afford to extend the school day when most schools are government funded and the government doesn’t have any money.

Al Franken Apparently Understand the Fourth Amendment

I’ll admit after voting against the Thune amendment my opinion of Al Franken went from bad to worse. Well Says Uncle pointed to a piece that has bumped up my opinion of Senator Franken. Apparently the man understands at least on piece of the constitution, amendment four. His words on the subject:

Noting that he received a copy of the Constitution when he was sworn in as a senator, he proceeded to read it to Kris, emphasizing this part: “no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

“That’s pretty explicit language,” noted Franken, asking Kris how the “roving wiretap” provision of the Patriot Act can meet that requirement if it doesn’t require the government to name its target.

Good on him. It’s a small hope but there is at least some hope that he’ll gain an similar understandings to the rest of the constitution. Either way I won’t vote for the man until he understands the second amendment, but I’m certainly going to give him kudos where they are due.

1984 Just Gets Closer Every Year

OK I understand parents wanting to keep track of their kids but there really has to be a limit. I think that limit is crossed once you strap GPS tracking devices to your children and follow their every move. Well a company called Lok8u has a device called the num8 for those overly paranoid parents. It’s a wrist watch that lets you track your child’s every move because that’s better for their development or something I guess. Here’s their excuse:

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Steve Salmon, from Lok8u, said: “Losing your child, if only for a brief moment, leads to a state of panic and makes parents feel powerless. The overriding aim of num8 is to give children their freedom and parents peace of mind.”

Yeah so your saying that if parents lose track of their kid for even a moment it leads to panic? I wonder what was wrong with my parents because they did become paranoid every time I left the house to go do something. And this device doesn’t give children freedom beyond being able to roam where mom and dad say.

Of course people will bring up the whole “if you child is kidnapped you can find them” argument which is bullshit as well. See being this is a wrist watch you can just pull it off a child. For that matter a child can just pull it off, put it somewhere they are supposed to be, and go do what they want. Seriously this surveillance society thing needs to be put to death now.

I don’t see how a child can develop independence while be tracked everywhere they go. You need to let your children get out and explore on their own otherwise they’ll never develop that good old exploratory desire.

So Where’s That Change

It appears as if the current administration is all for extending the three sections of the PATRIOT Act that are set to expire this year. Of course they give the standard bull shit proclaiming how their willing to listen to privacy concerns:

In a letter to lawmakers, Justice Department officials said the administration supports extending the three expiring provisions of the law, although they are willing to consider additional privacy protections as long as they don’t weaken the effectiveness of the law

But of course only if it still allows them to stomp on civil rights:

Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote Sen. Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, that the administration is willing to consider stronger civil rights protections in the new law “provided that they do not undermine the effectiveness of these important (provisions).”

So yeah they are willing to put some clauses in that will “protect” civil rights so long as it doesn’t protect civil rights and nullify their imaginary effectiveness.

So remind me how this is hope or change.

Seriously Obama Take a Break

I mean come on you need to slow down. You’re goal of turning this country into a government controller state is getting out of hand. If you don’t slow down the entire country will be government regulated and controller then what are you doing to do? Sit on your but all day and not have anything to do that’s what.

Why am I brining this up? Because the Obamessiah is now pushing for further government control over the financial sector under the name of an overhaul. He’s going to be giving a speech urging more power to be given to the central bank and Federal Reserve. From the article:

The White House would give the central bank, the Federal Reserve, new powers over huge financial firms and the ability to seize banks whose collapse could threaten the economy.

Yes that’s going to work out just great, give the assholes who helped cause this problem more control. It’s not like the government was encouraging banks to give loans for houses that people couldn’t afford. But hey Obama is going to work on his promise to save or create jobs in the only way he knows how, create more federal agencies:

Mr Obama also wants a new watchdog, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, for products like mortgages, car loans and credit cards and the Federal Trade Commission will gain new powers to protect consumers.

This is going to be great because the federal government has been oh so good at protecting consumers from themselves. Let’s all thank Uncle Sam for taking control of our lives and regulating us heavily to protect us from what we may do to ourselves. Fuck personal responsibility we need to be told what to do otherwise we’ll fuck ourselves over!

If anybody didn’t get smeared with the sarcasm dripping off of that previous statement your obviously wearing a very thick rain jacket.

Security Doesn’t Have to Cost Liberty

In memory of 9/11 Bruce Schneier reposted a previous post of his. In it he explains that so called security measures that came at the cost of individual liberty not only miss the point but also are unneeded. Things like the PATROIT Act and warrantless wiretapping won’t actually help prevent the next attack, instead they take away civil liberty and gain us nothing. Furthermore there are ways to implement security without taking civil liberty:

It’s easy to refute the notion that all security comes at the expense of liberty. Arming pilots, reinforcing cockpit doors, and teaching flight attendants karate are all examples of security measures that have no effect on individual privacy or liberties. So are better authentication of airport maintenance workers, or dead-man switches that force planes to automatically land at the closest airport, or armed air marshals traveling on flights.

Liberty-depriving security measures are most often found when system designers failed to take security into account from the beginning. They’re Band-aids, and evidence of bad security planning. When security is designed into a system, it can work without forcing people to give up their freedoms.

Likewise cries for more surveillance also miss the point. Have more data doesn’t always mean you have more usable information, in fact quite the opposite is true. If you gather too much data you’ll have to sift through tons of garbage to find a few good items:

Demands for even more surveillance miss the point. The problem is not obtaining data, it’s deciding which data is worth analyzing and then interpreting it. Everyone already leaves a wide audit trail as we go through life, and law enforcement can already access those records with search warrants. The FBI quickly pieced together the terrorists’ identities and the last few months of their lives, once they knew where to look. If they had thrown up their hands and said that they couldn’t figure out who did it or how, they might have a case for needing more surveillance data. But they didn’t, and they don’t.

More data can even be counterproductive. The NSA and the CIA have been criticized for relying too much on signals intelligence, and not enough on human intelligence. The East German police collected data on four million East Germans, roughly a quarter of their population. Yet they did not foresee the peaceful overthrow of the Communist government because they invested heavily in data collection instead of data interpretation. We need more intelligence agents squatting on the ground in the Middle East arguing the Koran, not sitting in Washington arguing about wiretapping laws.

And this my friends is the difference between the government’s so called security experts and somebody who intimately understands security. Just having more data isn’t a good thing, it’s a liability. Likewise adding bandages to previously exploited security flaws doesn’t accomplish anything either. Security is only effective if it’s placed in the design from the start.

I wish our law makers would realize these things instead of using their “we must do SOMETHING” mentality that we’ve conditioned them to do.

Anniversary of 9/11

I really can’t pass on mentioning today is the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. I’d like to take this time to remember those who died in the attacks, those who fought the terrorists and prevented another plane from killing even more people, and mention a few things.

Since 9/11 security theatre has been ever expanding. The people in the government has used the attack to throw more and more personal rights away. Our representatives, senators, and presidents used this tragedy to strip more and more of our personal liberties in the name of “security.” Now don’t get me wrong I’m not a truther but I will freely admit our government’s reaction to the attacks has established nothing that could secure us from further attacks. Let’s look at what has happened since 9/11 shall we?

1. The passing of the PATRIOT Act.

2. The banning of most liquids on air planes.

3. The banning of carrying anything that could be construed as a potential sharp or pointy weapon. Except knitting needles of course.

4. Gitmo was used to place prisoners somewhere where they didn’t get a fair hearing and trial.

5. We now require United State’s citizens to have a passport before traveling to Canada.

6. The secret “no fly” list.

7. A bill presented to prevent people on the secret “no fly” list from purchasing firearms.

8. “Random” further interrogation by TSA agents simply because you’re a person of muslim decent or a randomly selected sucker used to show the TSA isn’t racially profiling.

9. Warrantless wiretapping.

10. Trying to get a system of national ID cards passed under the names of REAL ID and now PASS ID.

Really is this how we want to honor those who died in the attacks by destroying the thing this country once stood for above all else, liberty? Let’s remember and honor those who died 8 years ago today by voting out those who used those deaths to pass their personal agendas and repealing those laws that not only go against our constitution but against personal liberty as well.

Overstepping Bounds

Sorry about the slow news day here. I promise the project I previously mentioned will be good and will be dealing with gun rights. Anyways back in the world of overreaching government power I bring you a story obtained from Says Uncle.

Apparently Michelle Obama likes to eat food, no surprise we all do. Like most of use Americans she like burgers and hence was found in Spike Mendelsohn’s Good Stuff Eatery. As the chefs made the burgers Secret Service agents towered over them. Once again nothing surprising going on here as it is their job to ensure the protection of the President and the President’s family. The overreaching power comes with this statement though:

Fellow patrons had their cellphones temporarily confiscated to prevent pictures from being taken.

Yes the Secret Service confiscated the cellular phones of people in the restaurant so they couldn’t take pictures. Of course in this country there is no expectation of privacy when out in public and hence it is legal to take pictures of anybody in public. Well almost anybody apparently. I think a statement involving code dead hands should go here.

I Repeat, if You Criticize Obama You are Racist

From Says Uncle we have another example of the Obamessiah’s critics being labeled racists. This time the word socialist is being redefined by an Obamessiah follower to mean nigger. That’s right he claims when you say socialist are actually being derogatory to the president’s race not his financial policy to ~~bankrupt~~ save the economy through printing trillions of dollars. Here is the video:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3dFh8YYd70]

This is an effective way to stop people from using their first amendment right. All you have to do is attach a pariah label to your critics. For the connivence of those who hate the freedom to criticize here is a list of the proper label to use on those who don’t agree with you:

white call them racist.
if a man and you are a woman call them sexist.
isn’t willing to pass your law increasing government powers to spy on citizens call them terrorists.
isn’t willing to pass your law to “protect the children” call them pedophiles.
is using anything off of this list call them assholes.

Hopefully that clears things up.

Dissidence isn’t OK when It’s Against Obama

A short by excellent post over on the Smallest Minority sums up something that’s been bothering me since the election.

Back when Bush was in office everybody was making fun of him. Let’s be honest nobody liked him and he did nothing good for the country. Many people were using the old phrase, “Dissidence is the highest form of patriotism.” Fast forward to the new president. All of the sudden it’s not OK to question of criticize the president. Once again he’s, so far, done nothing good for the country. In fact as much as his supporters hate to hear this he’s promoting the same idea as Bush, which is to say we need to print tons of money to insert into the economy in order to avoid another situation like the Great Depression.

Furthermore Obama has been breaking promises left and right. I remember him clearly stating that he would sign no bill into law until there was a five day review and comment on it. I remember during his campaign he was talking about how he would abolish warrantless wire tapping? He then turned around and supported FISA. But my absolute favorite was how he said the new administrator wouldn’t have lobbyists and then turns around and hire lobbyists.

Of course whenever this is pointed out to a worshipper of the Obamessiah you get a deluge of insults ranging from being a Republican (Apparently that’s somehow an insult while being called a Democrat is considered a compliment. I don’t get that.) to, the insult that appears to be the favorite among his devoted followers, a racist. Back when he was running for the Democrat nominee I was already being called racist because I wasn’t supporting him (In fact I was supporting Ron Paul.). Likewise Hillary’s supporters would call me sexist so they had their own emotionally derived label for me that had nothing to do with why I wasn’t supporting their nominee.

The bottom line is Obama isn’t God even though you can’t tell when talking to his most devoted followers. He’s human and he fucks up just like the rest of us. And when you fuck up it’s best to be corrected so you don’t fuck up again. I always say if I were to purchase a company I’d get a list of all the whiners, bitchers, and moaners. Once this list was in hand I’d bring them into a meeting and make them my advisory board with the idea that they will complain about things that need to be looked at. Of course to avoid pointless bitching I’d tell them if they guide me right they get a bonus but if they guide me wrong there would be consequences. The reason I say and believe this is because I like criticism. Criticism is the only way I know how to correct my fuck ups.

Being our elected officials are our employees I feel it is not only our right but also our duty to let them know when they do something right and when they fuck up. Obama is in this same boat. You have a right to free speech period so make it useful. Criticize Obama and the rest of the administrator when you don’t agree with their actions. It’s a patriotic to want the best for your country and you can only get the best for your country if you work for it. And remember anybody who tries to call your ideas dangerous or you a racist is somebody who lacks any real arguments or facts to go against you with. These are the ones who argue emotionally instead of through facts. Don’t take it, let them know they are fucking up.

And now I leave you with the picture that started this new firestorm: