You’re Doing it Right – Page 26

Warning Shots are Never a Good Idea

There is a lot of bad self-defense advice out there. One of the more frequently recycled pieces of bad self-defense advice is to fire warming shots in an attempt to scare away a threat. This advice is commonly given by individuals who don’t understand self-defense laws and vice presidents (but I repeat myself). A man is now facing the consequences of following bad self-defense advice:

Chris Harris said he was coming from church when he and his girlfriend were surrounded by nine men looking for a fight. He said men made threats and the couple was scared for their lives, but Harris explained he was the one that ended up in cuffs. And facing some pretty serious charges.

“It was one of the most scariest experiences I have ever been though,” said CC Roxby, Harris’ fiancé.

“They surrounded me saying some pretty vulgar things like they were going to rape my wife in front of me, cut me,” Harris said.

Roxby said she called 911, but one man continued to be aggressive.

“The kid kept advancing on me, saying it wasn’t a real gun, and I would much rather shoot a shot into the air to prevent them from attacking me rather than them attacking me and me shooting someone,” Harris said.

“The cruisers were coming down the street at that point and the young men ran away,” Roxby said. “Instead of them following the gang, the officers arrested Chris for firing a shot into the air.”

Some people are probably asking what the living fuck is going on here. Let me explain. Warning shots are a bad idea both defensively and legally. Defensively a warming shot is a loose round, which means where it lands is anybody’s guess. That’s a major risk to innocent bystanders.

Legally speaking warning shots take away your claim of being in immediate fear of death or great bodily harm. By firing warning shots you legally admit that you believed the situation could be resolves with something less than lethal force in that moment so employing a lethal weapon was not warranted. In other words, legally speaking, if you use a firearm you damn well better believe that lethal force is the only option left to you to preserve your life.

Based on the description of the situation, nine aggressive opponents against two individuals, I would argue that lethal force was certainly warranted. But firing a warning shot was not because of the potential risk it put innocent bystanders in.

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun

With a double barrel pump action shotgun:

The DP-12 goes down a completely different, and decidedly unconventional, path. It has 2 7-round tube, but it also has 2 barrels! That’s right…a double barrel pump gun. Two rounds are chambered with each pump; the trigger is then pulled 2 times, the first to fire the right barrel, the second to fire the left barrel. Pump, and you’ve got 2 more rounds.

Every since I was mowing down Strogg with Quake 2’s super shotgun I’ve wanted a double barrel pump action shotgun. Now somebody is finally producing one and I’m afraid I may not be able to resist buying it when it’s released.

Technology is Trumping Statism Again

Regardless of the laughable claims made by an author at Daily Kos, market anarchism is showing how practical its rhetoric is once again. This time the place is Venezuela, the problem is currency controls and economic collapse, and the solution is Bitcoin:

(Reuters) – Tech-savvy Venezuelans looking to bypass dysfunctional economic controls are turning to the bitcoin virtual currency to obtain dollars, make Internet purchases — and launch a little subversion.

Two New York-based Venezuelan brothers hope this week to start trading on the first bitcoin exchange in the socialist-run country, which already has at least several hundred bitcoin enthusiasts.

While the Venezuelan government continues its attempt to control its population through economic controls its power is quickly fading as its economy collapses and more people turn to the “black” market for basic necessities. This is similar to what happened during the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Once the state’s controls have been circumvented its death is inevitable.

Decentralized Coding Schools

I’m a big fan of decentralized systems. One of the greatest benefits of the Internet, in my opinion, is how it decentralized access to information. You no longer have to go to a library to acquire a research article or attend a university to learn the fundamentals of scientific fields. While having access to information is much of the battle qualified instruction is extremely useful. To that end a group of hackers have proposed a really neat method for instructors to teach programming skills without having to rely on centralized universities:

The idea is that if you’re planning to work on some programming tutorials at, say, your local coffee shop, you’ll announce when and where on Hackvard, and other aspiring programmers will show up and join you—regardless of what languages they’re learning or what materials they’re using. When you have some time to learn, you can check to site to see if anyone nearby has announced a gathering. These events could lead to the formation of ongoing study groups, or they could just be one-off gatherings. The point is just to get people together, so they can support each other as they learn the craft.

I think this could be useful not just for teaching programming but as a system where already skilled programmers can help each other excel even more. Sometimes the hardest part about learning programming or continuing your education in programming is finding other people who share your interest and have the skills necessary to assist you. Hopefully this idea does well or, if it doesn’t, inspires an even better idea.

Fun with Medieval Weaponry

I enjoy learning how to use a katana. In fact I enjoy it so much I plunked down too much money to buy one (although, granted, it’s not sharp but the point is a nasty little bitch). When I discuss that I’m learning how to use a katana with friends their first reaction is usually to ask why (and insinuating that there’s no point and my time is being wasted). Obviously a katana, like any medieval weapon, is pretty lame when compared to modern day lead throwers. But once in a while I come across a story that proves that medieval weapons are still effective at what they do:

Morgan Jr. says McGowan entered his home through a window.

Morgan Jr. says he reached for the spear which he keeps close to his bed.

“This door is open within five seconds, probably within three seconds; this door was open and he was standing no more than two to three feet away from me,” Morgan Jr. says. “I looked at him, I didn’t see any weapons however I was terrified.”

Morgan Jr. says he was able to stab McGowan once.

Polearms: fucking up people’s shit since forever. While a pointy stick may not be the epitome of weaponry today it can still wreck a day if you get within its range.

Oh, and to answer the question of why I’m learning how to use a katana, it’s because I’m a history nerd and the katana has always interested me as a weapon.

Behold the Ghost Gunner

Many gun rights advocates complain that anarchist don’t do anything to advance gun rights. While they’re pander to politicians, attend meetings, and advocating for or against legislation they see us not doing so and assume we’re just sitting around with our thumbs up our asses. But we work smarter, not harder. With the realization that any political gain can be reversed down the road we look for ways to bypass the political machinery altogether.

One of the anarchists on the forefront of the gun rights battle is Cody Wilson. He brought us the first notable 3D printed handgun. Now he’s bringing us a milling machine designed specifically to produce AR lowers:

When Cody Wilson revealed the world’s first fully 3-D printed gun last year, he showed that the “maker” movement has enabled anyone to create a working, lethal firearm with a click in the privacy of his or her garage. Now he’s moved on to a new form of digital DIY gunsmithing. And this time the results aren’t made of plastic.

Wilson’s latest radically libertarian project is a PC-connected milling machine he calls the Ghost Gunner. Like any computer-numerically-controlled (or CNC) mill, the one-foot-cubed black box uses a drill bit mounted on a head that moves in three dimensions to automatically carve digitally-modeled shapes into polymer, wood or aluminum. But this CNC mill, sold by Wilson’s organization known as Defense Distributed for $1,200, is designed to create one object in particular: the component of an AR-15 rifle known as its lower receiver.

Gun control is irrelevant in a world where anybody can manufacture a firearm. And that’s the goal, make politics irrelevant by utilizing technology:

Wilson’s goal of enabling anyone to privately fabricate an untraceable gun is part of a larger anarchist mission: To show how technology can render the entire notion of government obsolete. He’s spent the last two years developing firearms designed to be printed as easily as ink on a page, neutering attempts at gun control. “This is a way to jab at the bleeding hearts of these total statists,” Wilson says. “It’s about humiliating the power that wants to humiliate you,” he says.

Why beg masters for scraps from the liberty table when you can build your own liberty table and eat as much as you want? A popular agorist saying is “Agora! Anarchy! Action!” In it’s even on a poster

The keyword is action. Anarchists, I would argue, have a tendency to directly take action over the statists’s tendency to ask others, specifically politicians, to take action. We prefer to get our hands dirty, which is necessary when you’re working for radical change. I do wish politically active gun rights activists well but if the political atmosphere starts looking bad again us anarchists will ensure that any guns banned by the state are readily available to as many people as possible.

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 17^th 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.

Number One Reason to Upgrade to iOS 8

iOS 8 was released yesterday. I have it installed on my iPhone 5 and can say that it’s a decent upgrade (LastPass can now fill in my user names and passwords in Safari, which is the highlight of the upgrade for me). But the best feature of iOS 8 is one that doesn’t seem to be getting a lot of coverage:

On devices running iOS 8, your personal data such as photos, messages (including attachments), email, contacts, call history, iTunes content, notes, and reminders is placed under the protection of your passcode. Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access this data. So it’s not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants for the extraction of this data from devices in their possession running iOS 8.

Security changes to iOS 8 seem to have made it technically impossible for Apple to fulfill warrants demanding it extract data from a customer device. I’m glad to see Apple taking security against government agents seriously. It also goes to show just how untrusting companies have become towards the government after Snowden released the National Security Agency’s (NSA) dirty laundry. Before then I doubt Apple would have invested resources to ensuring it couldn’t comply with government data requests and it almost certainly wouldn’t have advertised the fact so prominently.

However it is important to keep in mind that the scope of this protection is only on the device itself. If you upload data to iCloud Apple can still comply with any warrants demanding it turn over customer data. So if you value your privacy it’s a good idea to upgrade to iOS 8 and not upload your data to online storage services.

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.

Hoarded Cash May Be Circulating In the More Awesome Economy

The Federal Reserve bank has expressed displeasure at the fact that all of the funny money it printed hasn’t been circulating in the economy. As always the Fed is blaming people who save, err, hoard (I really need to get a newer version of the Newspeak dictionary) money for all of our country’s economic woes. But one economist has put forth an interesting theory. Edward Feige hypothesizes that a lot of the “hoarded” money is making it’s way around the more awesome economy, which is usually referred to derogatorily as the black or underground market:

Maybe. But another explanation was put forward by the economist Edward Feige, who argued recently that a lot more cash than traditionally assumed is circulating domestically. Where others estimated that half or more of all U.S. currency flows overseas, he said 75 percent or so is actually at home.

Again, is it just sitting there because of low interest rates
and economic doldrums?

Nope. Feige estimates that, in 2009, “18-23% of total reportable income may not properly be reported to the IRS.” That missing $2 trillion or so makes for a rather lower income tax compliance rate than the official 83.1 percent estimated by the IRS.

Which is to say, according to Feige, the money isn’t being hoarded (although some is certainly stashed for a rainy day), but
it’s being channeled into the shadow economy of otherwise legal goods and services to escape taxes and regulations. Much of it probably flows to outright illegal black market activities, too. But the huge increase in cash in private hands suggests less in the way of massively increased demand for hookers and blow than it does a growing parallel economy.

If so this is good news as it indicates that people are still producing and consuming but they’re also not paying the violent gang known as the state its demanded protection money. As we know every dollar of tax revenue obtained by the state allows it to build more bombs, hire more armed thugs, and improve its surveillance apparatus. Every dollar kept from the state is therefore helping protect innocent lives and thus the larger the more awesome economy becomes the safer most of us will be.