Tag: Shut Up Slave

I Must Have Missed the Shooting at the Football Game

Apparently I’m quite oblivious to the news because I must have missed a recent shooting at some football game. At least that’s my guess because unless such an event occurred I can’t see any reason for the National Football League (NFL) to demand that every fan receive a full pat down before being let into games:

The NFL wants all fans patted down from the ankles up this season to improve fan safety.

Under the new “enhanced” pat-down procedures, the NFL wants all 32 clubs to search fans from the ankles to the knees as well as the waist up. Previously, security guards only patted down fans from the waist up while looking for booze, weapons or other banned items.

I must confess that I’m not a real American as I’ve never attended a professional sports game. After reading this story I’m quite happy about this fact because I won’t submit to a pat down just to enter some entertainment event. Yes it’s the right of private establishments to make such a requirement before allowing entry but it’s my right as a free individuals to take my money elsewhere.

The NFL apparently think they’re the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) considering the advice they’re giving to fans:

The NFL recommended the new guidelines before the kickoff of the 2011 season which coincided with the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The league hopes fans will be “patient,” says spokesman Brian McCarthy, and arrive earlier to games to avoid long, punishing lines.

Hear that? If you don’t like the idea of longer lines due to pointless security theater then you’ll just have to arrive earlier. On a related note, does it sicken anybody else that authoritarian mandate such as this are how 9/11 is remembered and recognized? Roughly 3,000 people died in the 9/11 attacks and instead of standing strong against authoritarian measures we’re implementing them. This is what admitting defeat looks like ladies and gentlemen and so long as we continue down this road to serfdom the terrorists are winning.

Fuck the NFL, if they had been receiving any of my money before they certainly wouldn’t be now. Then again I may not have a choice soon if the Vikings receive tax money to build their stupid stadium.

Presidential Newspeak

It’s good to see Obama’s campaign going all Orwellian before things have even started to really heat up. The Obama campaign as started AttackWatch to suppress any criticism of the president:

Join Attack Wire—and help stop the attacks on the President before they start.

When another unfounded attack surfaces, we’ll arm you with the truth so you can share the facts with your friends and family.

Are those mean grumpy old Republicans saying nasty things about your precious Obama? Never fear! Attack Wire will send you reassuring e-mails filled with doublespeak the facts that will explain how Obama was actually in the right. Instead of having to critically think and come to your own conclusions you’ll be able to mindlessly parrot sound bytes sent to you by Obama’s campaign.

This should make it much easier for those supporting another four years of hope and change without actually having any evidence demonstrating Obama ever brought hope or change to the country during his presidency.

On a side note if you’re looking for some comedy gold I suggest you go to Twitter and do a search on #attackwatch. Thanks to that hash tag I’m learning that there are some extremely funny people on the Internet. I’m also learning that this AttackWatch idea may not have been the most well thought out plan.

Meta Censorship

South Korea seems to be a bastion of free speech these days:

In South Korea, even the censors are being censored. Professor K.S. Park, who sits on South Korea’s nine-member Internet content regulatory board, has found his own blog under threat of censorship when he used it as platform to speak out for transparency and free expression.

Did you get that? Even the censors are being censored. That’s about a meta as you can get without being censored in South Koera.

If anybody can read this blog in South Korea let me know because I’ll have to step up efforts to get on their censor list. It’s not because I don’t want people from South Korea reading my blog, it’s because I want to get on as many government lists as possible around the world.

Shut Up Peasant

Remember slave, defiance of the government will not be tolerated:

More than 200 people were arrested outside the White House Saturday following two weeks of protests directed at President Obama in an effort to persuade him to deny final permitting of a controversial 1,661-mile pipeline that would carry oil from Alberta, Canada, to Port Arthur, Tex.

The arrests follow more than 1,000 arrests made since protesters arrived in late August to conduct sit-ins along Pennsylvania Avenue.

Those damned people peacefully assembling to demonstrate their opposition to something the government is proposing! How dare they defy the will of the government! Don’t they know there are procedures in place to contact “representatives” to voice opposition? After all it’s much easier to ignore the peasantry when they’re sending letters and making phone calls than it is when they’re physically in front of the White House yelling.

Proportional Punishment

I’m a fan of proportional punishment. That is to say punishment should match the crime, so if somebody has stolen $100.00 from you then you should be able to get $200.00 out of them (as the thief stole your right of ownership over $100.00 you should be able to retrieve that money and punish him by taking his right of ownership over $100.00). So when I read a story about a man facing life in prison for filming the police you can bet I’m not going to find the punishment reasonable:

When cops in Illinois started inspecting Michael Allison’s vehicles parked on his mom’s property, he turned on his camera while he went to see what the hubbub was about. That didn’t put that happy of a face on the police officer, and now Allison is facing 75 years in prison for hitting “record.”

Authorities have charged Allison, 42, with five counts of eavesdropping, each with a maximum of 15 years in prison. He is looking at spending the rest of his life behind bars because the state is applying an archaic law to modern technology to keep citizens from snooping around cops.

That’s right, Allison is facing 75 years in prison for recording the actions of public “servants.” As public “servants” are supposed to be our employees it would seem logical that we should be allowed to keep tabs on them while they’re on the job. But in actuality they view themselves not as our employees but our masters and thus believe they can rightly demand complete obedience.

Still 75 years for simply recording the police is insane. That’s a longer sentence that many receive for murder. I think a system of justice would require somebody who murdered another to receive a much harsher punishment than somebody who simply recorded a police officer. Hell I’m not even sure how the state can justify enforcing a law against recording police officers in the first place.

It’s Not Safe For Your Safety

Remember the mobile body scanners that the Department of Motherland Homeland Security (DHS) developed and deployed? If not an article about the machines can be found here. Basically they’re vans with integrated x-ray devices that drive around and look inside of other vehicles. Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center we now know that the mobile body scanners produce too much radiation to be declared people safe. One of the retrieved documents [PDF] states the following:

Yet the DHS authorized these vehicles to drive around cities exposing anybody who the vans pass by to doses of radiation too high to certify the device as a people scanner. Remember these vans are for your own good and we need them to keep you safe. If you don’t like being exposed to high doses of radiation then you must be a terrorist!

The Sacrificial Lamb Has Been Found

The government has finally found its sacrificial lamb in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Fast and Furious fiasco, acting ATF director Melson. In fine government tradition of dealing with corruption not only was a single sacrificial lamb found but the lamb wasn’t actually sacrificed, instead it was simply moved somewhere else in the Leviathan:

The embattled head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is being replaced in the aftermath of a botched sting operation that allowed guns to knowingly fall into the hands of violent criminals in Mexico.

Kenneth Melson will be replaced as acting ATF director by U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota B. Todd Jones, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday. Jones is expected to assume the new position on Wednesday. Melson is being reassigned as a senior adviser on forensic science in the Office of Legal Policy, the department said.

Your government at work.

One of These Things is Not Like the Other

Gibson was raided a couple of years ago over the use of “illegal” wood. Although no charges have been filed the company’s seized property has yet to be returned. Strangely enough is appears one of their competitors, Martin, uses the same wood but hasn’t been raided. It’s nice to see yet another case of the government selectively enforcing the laws it passed.

The Government Working Hard to Keep Our Streets Safe

I’m glad we have the government watching over us and ensuring our safety. For example they’re suing a trucking company for allowing admitted alcoholics to drive trucks. Sorry I made a mistake, I meant to say the government is suing a trucking company because that company fired a known alcoholic:

The federal government has sued a major trucking company for its firing of driver with an admitted alcohol abuse problem.

Alcoholism is classified as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the suit maintains, and therefore employees cannot be prohibited even from driving 18 wheelers due to their histories of abuse.

The state’s justification for the lawsuit can be found here. Basically the government is pissed because the trucking company would dare permanently suspend somebody from driving one of the company’s trucks after it became known that the driver had an alcohol problem:

According to the EEOC’s suit (Civil Action No. 2:11-CV-02153-PKH in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas), the driver at the Fort Smith location had worked for the company for five years without incident. In late June 2009, the employee reported to the company that he believed he had an alcohol problem. Under U.S. Department of Transportation regulations, the employer suspended the employee from his driving position and referred him for substance abuse counseling. However, the employer also informed the driver that the employer would never return him to a driving position, even upon the successful completion of a counseling program. During the investigation, the EEOC discovered drivers at other service centers whom the employer had allegedly subjected to similar treatment.

As an employer Old Dominion should have the right to determine who can and can’t represent the company and in what capacity. If Old Dominion doesn’t want to allow people with a history of alcohol abuse to operate one of their semis then they shouldn’t be required to. Personally I’d prohibit anybody with a history of alcohol abuse from driving one of my vehicles. It seems like an unnecessary liability to allow otherwise.

Let’s also look at this case from a different angle. The state has the capability to revoke drivers’ licenses at will and they often do for people who have been caught driving with an arbitrarily set percentage of alcohol in their system an arbitrary number of times. So even though the state is more than happen to prevent people with a history of alcoholism from driving private companies aren’t allowed to do something similar. I’m not surprised the government would make a move like this because the move makes no sense and making no sense is what government does best.

Several Justice Department Employees’ Kids Probably Have New Guitars Now

Sebastian over at Snowflakes in Hell pointed out that Gibson, a well-known manufacturer of guitars, is a little pissed off that their property was stolen by the government without reason:

The Federal Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. has suggested that the use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Department’s interpretation of a law in India. (If the same wood from the same tree was finished by Indian workers, the material would be legal.) This action was taken without the support and consent of the government in India.

It’s nice to see the government enforcing its interpretation of laws in foreign countries. Heck the Indian government didn’t even need to be consulted because our federal government is efficient like that. So what’s required to investigate a guitar manufacturer for potentially violating the United States government’s interpretation of Indias law? Apparently machine guns and theft but not criminal charges:

In 2009, more than a dozen agents with automatic weapons invaded the Gibson factory in Nashville. The Government seized guitars and a substantial amount of ebony fingerboard blanks from Madagascar. To date, 1 year and 9 months later, criminal charges have NOT been filed, yet the Government still holds Gibson’s property. Gibson has obtained sworn statements and documents from the Madagascar government and these materials, which have been filed in federal court, show that the wood seized in 2009 was legally exported under Madagascar law and that no law has been violated. Gibson is attempting to have its property returned in a civil proceeding that is pending in federal court.

A dozen agents with machine guns are absolutely necessary to raid a guitar manufacturer, they’re a dangerous lot after all with their thin wood strips and guitar strings.

This probably all went down because the head of the Justice Department wanted to give his kids guitars for Christmas.