Land of The Free?

Walls of the City  reminds us (by way of Sharp As A Marble) that while we continue to speak of ourselves as the Land of the Free, we certainly are no longer:

30 years ago, you’d just assume that anything that wasn’t obviously contrary to morality was legal. That is, you’d have a built-in default setting of assuming liberty. And that assumption of liberty would then propel you to take actions.

But now, you have to assume that many things that aren’t contrary to morality are illegal anyway. And so you now have — quel coincidence! — a built-in default setting of assuming prohibition. And that assumption that many of the things you’d like to do are illegal and criminal thereby reduces your desire to take any action at all.

Can you name all of the crimes in your state that are felonies? Can you name all of the crimes in your state that are misdemeanors? Have you ever uttered the words, “Is that legal?” without actually being able to intuitively guess whether it is or not?

Welcome to the club. And the problem.

You should go and read the whole thing.  It’s well worth your time, and even has some Latin words in it!

The Country for whom I would have probably died (in Vietnam – had I not been a disabled 4-F) no longer exists.  She does on paper (The Constitution), but that was long ago, and like Benghazi, is no longer relevant.

Did you know The United States has more prisoners per capita than any other Nation?  How many of these folks zigged when they should have zagged?  Or were caught with weed.  Or carrying a gun for protection?

Lets stop electing people to legislatures to pass more incomprehensible laws.  Lets elect them to remove laws.  And hold those accountable who messed everything up.  THEY are the people who should be afraid. And incarcerated!

WHO Has Your Back?

Too much privacy advocacy is done by a self-appointed expert class who, believing their own preferences to be universal, beseech legislators and regulators to mold or even remake the information economy. I have nothing against self-appointed experts—I am one, and some of you have been falling for my schtick for a decade. But the hubris of claiming to know how things should come out? That’s too much.

So the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s “Who Has Your Back?” report is real stand-out. Using a clear, six-star grid, they assess how well major Internet companies and ISPs do when it comes to key dimensions of privacy protection.  (Jim Harper/Cato@Liberty)

It’s worth going to the link above and determining who (or if) your ISP has your back.  Remember a couple years back when *blog name redacted*  had his Internet service terminated, and his home raided w/o benefit of a warrant because of potentially inflamatory statements he made in his blog?  It was Massachusetts, so, the State revoked his gun permit and confiscated his firearms, too!  With no due process involved and the full cooperation of his ISP with the authorities.

So much for protecting the customer…

Go check out the grid, and be enlightened.

Slow and Steady Wins the RACE, Part TWO…

The Manchin-Toomey background check amendment, one of nine proposed changes to a gun control bill currently being debated in the U.S. Senate, on Wednesday failed to get the 60 votes required for passage.

Fifty-four U.S. Senators voted “aye” and 46 voted “nay.”

The proposal, named for Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) and Patrick Toomey (R-Pa.), would have expanded existing background checks on gun buyers to cover firearms sold at gun shows and via the Internet.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid voted against the proposal. He was joined by Democrat Sens. Baucus, Begich, Heitkamp, Pryor.

“Reid voted no for procedural reasons,” CBS News’ Major Garrett explains. “As Majority Leader, a ‘no’ vote allows him to bring the amendment up again.”

Arizona Republican John McCain voted in favor of the bill. He was joined by Republican Sens. Collins, Kirk, and Toomey.  (The Blaze)

There were nine amendments proposed.  None passed, including some pro-rights amendments.  BUT, debate continues on so-called ‘gun control’ in the Senate.

DETAILS HERE

In short, we’re not done yet.  Perhaps we’ve won a battle, but certainly not the war.

THIS has yet to occur…

We must stay on-point and remain vigilant!

h/t Glenn Beck

“We have to keep our phoney-baloney jobs, gentlemen!”

You remember FEMA?  The federal agency created by President Jimmy Carter accused of everything from building relocation/education camps to not having been activated quick enough by President G. W. Bush during Katrina?

Well, the current President did his photo op showing he personally was overseeing emergency efforts with Sandy.  Then, once the election was over he skedaddled to wherever, and this is what the FEMA office looked like, essentially abandoning Staten Island and other areas…

And, he then reportedly wasted no time in reaffirming his support regarding the U.N. Small Arms Treaty.  And BATFE is interested in meeting with the NSSF(!)  And Mayor Bloomberg has presented a 40 point plan to on how to institute more gun control without Congress needing to act.

Welcome to the new, rejuvenated, President Obama administration.  Three days after re-election.

It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

h/t Stately McDaniel Manor, Shall Not Be Questioned

Banished from school because of his genes!

Natural News.com reports on a disturbing trend in public schools…

(NaturalNews) An 11-year-old California schoolboy named Colman Chadam has been banished from his school and forced to transfer to another school because he carries the genetic mutation for cystic fibrosis. The boy shows no symptoms of the disease and appears to be in perfect health. He is being banished from his own school solely due to the genetic code he carries.

This is being reported by Fox News, Daily Mail and other news outlets.

What we’re seeing here is the beginning of the application of eugenics in public schools. This is how it starts: Banning little boys and girls because of a “bad” gene sequence, even if they have absolutely no symptoms and are living in a state of perfect health. Next it progresses to racial genetic profiling, with declarations that people of certain races are “genetically inferior” and therefore unable to be taught in public schools, we’ll be told. And from there, as history has shown, it moves into a eugenics phase where mad scientists backed by government power pursue forced sterilizations of those who don’t have the “correct” genetic profile.

From there, it is of course a small step to firing up the gas chambers and just doing away with anyone who doesn’t have the right genes. As HBO host Bill Maher recently said, “I’m consistently pro-death. …My motto is let’s kill the right people.”

Of course, the phrase master race won’t be used.  Too many negative associations.  It’s a hop, skip and a jump to what happens next.

Bar Carry

FreeThinker blogs about there being a place for ‘bar carry’.  Of course, his perspective as a gay person is the most dangerous part of the night is that which falls between bar and car.

I’ve no disagreement with him.  It’s probably the same for us straight folks, too.  (He agrees, later in his post).

A number of States specifically prohibit bar carry (AZ being one), one is currently debating it in their legislature, and I believe a few allow it.

And statistically, there doesn’t seem to be much difference in improper acts by armed individuals in these environs.  Save, of course, the persons targeted may respond in kind.

I’m a libertarian.  I see this blanket restriction as an assault on my rights.  It might not be the wisest course of action to consume alcohol while armed, but is it wiser to be an unarmed victim?  Of course, as an armed individual, I remain responsible for my actions and their consequences.  Like driving.

I believe it was Massad Ayoob who stated “If you need to carry a firearm to where you drink, you need to find a better place to drink.”  Perhaps.  But gays and women and the disabled (yours truly) have rights too.  Including the right to defend themselves against attacks initiated because of who they are.  Just like straight males in good health should.

h/t Gay Cynic

Resistance Is Futile

Borepatch recently posted about how a student ‘got in trouble’ for correcting a public school teacher in class.

It’s sad that the teacher – and, by extension, the administration – are so short-sighted that admitting they were wrong and finding of fact is not the message.

Towing the line and shutting up is.

“…accepting my teaching without resistance.”

Preparing the children for the future.  They don’t need re-education camps, they already have them.
(and this was in 1994!)

h/t Borepatch

Judge Does The Right Thing…

A New York FEDERAL Judge!!!

Military Detention Law Blocked by New York Judge
A federal judge temporarily blocked enforcement of a part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that opponents claim could subject them to indefinite military detention for activities including news reporting and political activism.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan today ruled in favor of a group of writers and activists who sued President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the Defense Department, claiming a provision of the act, signed into law Dec. 31, puts them in fear that they could be arrested and held by U.S. armed forces. ~

~Hedges, who testified he has been a foreign news correspondent for 20 years, said he has reported on 17 groups that are on a State Department list of terrorist groups. Hedges testified that after the law was passed, he changed his dealings with groups he had reported on, Forrest said.

“I think the ruling was not only correct, but courageous and important,” Hedges said in a telephone interview yesterday.~

Go and read the specifics.

h/t Knuckledraggin’ My Life Away and Bloomberg.com news (seriously?)

FM 3-39.40 Internment and Resettlement Operations

and I ask, whose paranoid are you? links to a Prison Planet posting with the frabjous title:

Yes, The Re-Education Camp Manual Does Apply Domestically to U.S. Citizens

Go and read the posting and the accompanying 326 page U.S. government document (I’m not finished with it, yet) and let me know.

Is it time to don our respective tin-foil chapeaus and gear up, is this simply an intel game (How many troops would be necessary to invade Australia?), something darker, or Dachau revisited?

Operators are waiting to take your calls.

“Nobody Move! Take this bus to Havana!”

And I ask, whose paranoid are you? links to a Prison Planet.com article, explaining how Houston Police AND the TSA (!) will be traveling undercover on Houston buses with the following mandate:

A new program in Houston will place undercover TSA agents and police officers on buses whose job it will be to perform bag searches, watch for “suspicious activity” and interrogate passengers in order to ‘curb crime and terrorism’.

This is a wake-up call for Americans who had hoped to avoid being harassed by TSA agents by not using airports.

TSA agents are now being used to literally occupy America with an expansion of the 9,000 plus checkpoints that were already operational last year. 12 more TSA VIPR teams (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) will be added to the 25 who are already present at transportation hubs throughout the country.

I keep having to revert to donning my tin-foil hat.  I’m beginning to think I shouldn’t ever remove it!

God forbid I’m ever asked for my papers…

h/t WP, Paul Joseph Watson