After SOPA and other similar miscarriages, the EFF reports on yet another slimy egg laid by fascist parasites; H.R. 3523, or the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 which places the internet under attack again by elevating corporations and government above the law.
An article from The Raw Story cites the ACLU warning this bill would create a partnership between the NSA and US corporations. Yeah, NSA Ltd… just what we need. The article also mentions some formidable backing behind the bill.
Clearly a wave of pestilence is to be expected as TPTB struggle to maintain and abuse power. It is advisable to quickly get into the habit of regularly dealing with such spawns and do your part. To send a letter to congress, please visit this link and make haste. They are fertile with madness and wish to make their nests of corruption immune to the toxicity of ethics and transparency.
The incessant and delirious blabber of “cyber security” is best translated as “info phobia”, or an extreme fear of any awareness that is not centrally managed by high corruption. These creatures thrive in the dark, so shine every light we have on them.
Support journalism and transparency, be creative and do what you can — and if you’re able, make a donation to, or join the EFF.
EIA will be undergoing an intermission. Updates will be few to none, likely for weeks, and perhaps months. While absent, I think I’ll read Adjustment Team and other works by Philip K Dick. I think I’ll pass on Twitchell though, and other suggestions by Troxel, but may give Ghosts In The Meadow a chance if it finds me.
Let me first say that I respect China; I couldn’t have more admiration for a person than I have for the few particular Chinese folks I know. However, and primarily for reasons of health, I no longer respect their hammers. I have always been an Estwing kind of guy — they’re built to last, and even look good, and they are fairly committed to their expressed purpose.
Some folks, for whatever reasons, have acquired improper hammers. Typically I would be indifferent regarding one’s choice of hammer, but last night a friend was injured by one in a peculiar fashion, and I have no doubts about its origin. It might suffice to say that leaving this POS near Hoover’s grave would cause an earthquake, or at least a good deal of tillage. But let me provide the documentation.
It was a cool evening for subtropical Florida, and by the fireplace sat a peaceful man. He was splitting firewood, with an exotic hammer and domestic chisel. Though he had previously served in the military, he had no plans to invade or otherwise disturb the greater Eastern territories. He had even prepared Asian noodles for supper. But this was no deterrent for the patience of the Chinese. The hammer had been crafted with a delayed projectile mechanism which would soon pierce two layers of clothing, including a jacket and t-shirt, followed by a layer or more of flesh.
The Jacket: (Not Jack London)
The Shirt:
The Man & The Wound:
Hopefully he understands that he could have lost an eye, and will hereon exercise additional caution when dealing with exotic tools. It certainly could have been worse, though this smarting lesson may save his or someone else’s eye in the future, and will be good for our economy too.
He now has a memento to remind him of the perils of reckless frugality, and hopefully guide him toward more local quality. And I’m not sure, but something about buying Chinese hammers does seem rather close to shooting yourself in the foot (or stomach) with a pellet rifle, and I can’t see how an Estwing is any worse than that.
For those interested in further insight regarding the subtleties of Chinese warfare, please see Unrestricted Warfare (pdf).
Vote for Ron Paul, keep your eyes, and bring industry back to America.
Apparently I missed it the first time around in 2010, but Guns and Coffee are back. On February 14, 2012, gun-control advocates will shun Starbucks in protest of state law. You read that correctly. Despite the right to apply policy which would prohibit open-carry in their stores, Starbucks has instead controversially chosen to permit it in accordance with state law where applicable. While some of us may respect Starbucks for their passive compliance, others are rather peeved and plan to hit them in the pocket this Valentine’s Day. For this reason, you might choose to show where you stand by making your own coffee on Valentine’s Day, or like me, purchasing a beverage at Starbucks with a two-dollar bill. You might go a step further and wear a Mao (or Rahm) Button while brewing your coffee, or like others, maybe a Guns and Coffee patch while purchasing one.
Here in Florida I won’t be packing much more than cash (and maybe some chocolate), but I do support the Second Amendment, and realize that we may be very close to losing it. While the US economy is toileted, and a growing mountain of instability looms ahead, I simply cannot entertain the notion of a benevolent protector coming to rescue me, nor my friends and family if shit hits the fan. There are simply not enough public-safety officers to even cope with current affairs, and with the way things are going, I dare say, maybe that’s not entirely a bad thing. Personally, I suspect that’s what FEMA-camps and NDAA are intended for.
I loathe the violence that guns can bring, but more so hate the violence apt to manifest when they are only available to a certain bunch. It wasn’t long ago that an era of Stalinism Ltd expunged a folk or two, and current [You Ess] policies seem startlingly similar to the framework behind it. I’m not suggesting that’s why I support the Second Amendment — I don’t need a reason for that anyway; I am suggesting that we have a very uncertain future ahead of us, yet no signs that The Powers That Be are interested in making the best of it. Whether you believe in evolution or not, it simply doesn’t move quickly enough to weed out such elements from society in decades, or even centuries. There are more “Stalins” out there, with blind legions to follow — and history has surely abetted quite a bushel of other tyrants too. There are also a lot of people who wouldn’t think twice about shooting you in the face for your wallet or purse. But all that aside, there is still a constitution, and those who seek to usurp it.
Given the choice, I may not be inclined toward open carry, but if you are, and it’s legal, I’m not telling you what to do. I think we’d all want to live in fairy-land if we could, but thankfully some of us realize the unlikeliness of such places — and things can change very quickly even in peaceful lands. Perhaps some gun-control folks have good intentions, but their faith in duplicity might be paving a certain road. If our rights are not exercised amidst the persistent threats which stalk them, then from holster to home they will be banned.
In the pet friendly Starbucks locations, I wonder if in cooperation with the militarization of our society, they’ll permit these things in stores: defensetech.org/2012/02/08/video-the-latest-terrifying-drone-dog/ …I might actually protest that, if I could work up enough courage.
Notes:
I am unsure who originally created the Starbucks Guns and Coffee logo, but it seems www.optactical.com may have created the patch.
In proud partnership with narco-terrorists and U.S. Department of Commerce / NTIS, the TSA has announced its new pre-screening initiative, Preê program, where humans can now enjoy expedited shipping with a chance for touch-free transfer to the police-state of their choice.
Presently, more than 336,000 humans have shipped through TSA Preê lanes. This system affects security by enabling TSA to molest passengers the agency knows less about while providing expedited shipping for those who submit irrelevant personal information about themselves prior to flying.
For those who prefer not to expose their (or their children’s) genitals, the all new TSA Lottery Initiative gives ANYONE (even brown people) the chance to make a sliding-scale ($1 to ∞) bid on a 99% touch-free flight. All proceeds will go to the Zeta Fund and Eugenics Inc. For further information on your probabilities* of winning, please further your education, or consult Ron (or Rand) Paul.
*Roughly the equivalent of playing Russian roulette with an AK-47.
“Good, thoughtful, sensible security by its very nature facilitates lawful travel and legitimate commerce,” whispered Secretary Janet Napolitano. “The expansion of TSA Pre√™ to the nation’s busiest airports will increase our security capabilities and expedite the screening process for travelers we consider our trusted partners.”
“TSA Pre√™ moves us closer to our goal of delivering the most effective and efficient screening by recognizing that most passengers do not pose a threat to security,” said TSA Administrator John S. Pistole. “We are pleased to expand this important effort, in collaboration with our airline and airport partners, as we move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to a more intelligence-driven, risk-based transportation security system.”
If TSA feels a human is eligible for expedited shipping following the TSA Pre√™ vetting process, data will be embedded in the barcode of the human’s boarding pass. TSA will scan the barcode at the insecurity grope-point and may then refer the passenger to a TSA Pre√™ lane, where they will undergo expedited shipping, which could include no longer removing the following items:
Shoes
9-1-1 compliance bag from carry-on
Laptop hard-drive from mainboard
Light underwear/jacket (Heavy OK)
Belt
Diaper
Colostomy bag
Dentures
Preê will be introduced to the following airport locations throughout 2012, hopefully reaching Area 51 in time for the apocalypse and re-election of Obama (or Hillary):
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI)
Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)
Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT)
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG)
Denver International Airport (DEN)
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL)
George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH)
Honolulu International Airport (HNL)
Indianapolis International Airport (IND)
John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
LaGuardia Airport (LGA)
Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (STL)
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)
Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU)
Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)
O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
Orlando International Airport (MCO)
Philadelphia International Airport (PHL)
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)
Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT)
Portland International Airport (PDX)
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)
Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC)
San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA)
Tampa International Airport (TPA)
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC)
Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)
*Area 51 — If all goes well
TSA will continue expanding TSA Preê to additional airlines, airports, planets, and satellites once they are ready to be imposed. Janet Napolitano hinted that Newt Gingrich will be handling Perê fall-back operations at post-apocalypse lunar base facilities.
While most will be eligible to enjoy Pre√™, certain humans will always be selected via the TSA’s Not So Random Selection algorithms. The engineers behind the TSA’s NSRS Per√™ have combined core elements of bigotry, wantonness, and idiocy into protocol. This has so far resulted in a randomness suitable for most TSA agents, but arguably predictable for average humans. Understandably, this makes little sense — but since questioning it will get you on a No Fly list, please accept their hogwash™ whilst we undergo a fascist coup.
Even in the brave new light of Pre√™, Per√™ remains a tried and tested, preferred method of agents throughout Authoritaria. Coupled with the TSA’s “If you want something, steal something“, “If you see nothin’, fondle something anyway“, and “If you aint seen it before, it’s definitely a bomb, unless it’s actually a bomb” principles, those not so randomly deselected from Pre√™ can still enjoy all the safety of Per√™.
After more than a year of rigorous use, I have joyously retired my nearly indestructible, but buggy (in Linux) Toshiba laptop. I purchased it new, and with it came Windows 7 — which I’ve used on no more occasions than can be counted in the far-eastern half of an octet. Within the same hour of buying it, gparted had done its work, and Ubuntu was installed. It served me well, and still serves ssh/sftp sessions despite its tattered state.
Like many Linux users today, Ubuntu was my first distro. The concept of transparency and freedom was all I needed to venture beyond the proprietary opaqueness of Windows. I still remember the excitement of stepping into the great OSS outdoors — to the point of conceivable embarrassment. Admittedly, back then, Ubuntu was astonishingly excellent. I suffered a hearty quota of frustration in transit; though no matter how confused I became, nor how many times I had to format and reinstall, I trudged forth and away from the prison Gates…
That was five years ago, when Feisty Fawn was the beast of necessary burden. Since upgrading from Karmic Koala, I have been using Lucid Lynx (LTS) and enjoying every day of it. When Shuttleworthsoft pulled from the id of OSS™, Gnome3 & Unity, I cringed, but figured I needn’t begin worrying much until 2013. Spooked by Canonical, I decided to experiment with an alternative anyway. A few months ago I installed Arch Linux on the Toshiba, but never made it past “startx”, which only returned error messages. I got the network up, tinkered around a bit, and after failing again and again to solve video issues, and with pending tasks, I crawled back to Ubuntu, humiliated.
Last week, a long-time Linux-user and digitally weathered acquaintance who had recently moved from Ubuntu to Arch, suggested I do the same. After making several Toshiba-based excuses, he offered to let me have a go at his old Asus laptop, but under the implied condition that I use it for Arch. The Asus was in ugly shape; the monitor casing had come apart and wasn’t gripping the hinges, and a previous attempt at repairing it with epoxy had glued the lid-sensor into a logically-closed state, preventing the boot process. It was also filthy internally and externally.
After an application of J-B Weld and 24 hours, the monitor, (assuming it won’t need be opened again) is better than new. As for the lid-sensor, I filed away the epoxy and soon after, proceeded with /arch/setup. Being spoiled by Ubuntu, and with my last experience, I was a little stressed. However, unlike the Toshiba, the Asus worked flawlessly, and despite its substantially inferior hardware (1G PC-2 RAM, DualCore @2GHz), outperformed the Toshiba (3G PC-3 RAM, DualCore @2.4GHz) without any of the annoyances.
Along the way, I encountered a few things to be confused about. The first was the “Packages” part of the installation, and perhaps the installation process in general. When I realized I had a net-install CD, and no physical access to a router, I panicked a bit, expecting common wireless issues. Following the Arch Wiki documentations, there were no problems, and long before expected, KDE and Xfce were installed on my new Arch system, I was checking email, and watching videos. There was still some tweaking to do; pacman.conf had to be adjusted, modules and daemons had to be added to rc.conf, and I had a ton of stuff to install and configure. Just as I was feeling somewhat comfortable, it was mentioned that Arch finally initiated long-awaited package-signing. Not to be passed up, I went straight to it, and was soon stuck. I pestered the fellow who gave me the Asus, but was reminded of the Arch Way and instructed to keep reading. Eventually, due to great documentation and a little advice, I completed the process. I am still encountering some difficulties when trying to install certain packages, and I still have yet to figure out exactly why — but I am happy enough to have package-signing to look forward to, There are a few other things still perplexing me, though between patience and trial/error, they should become more clear.
Aside from the annoying consequences of things yet to be properly understood, installing and getting a functional Arch system was much easier than anticipated. I had to pester that fellow a few times, but altogether I think I’ve finally found a Linux distro worthy of confidence which can be customized and kept to my liking. I might not advise that Linux newbies start with Arch, though it’s not impossible, and I wholly recommend it to anyone with a little more experience, or to anyone who really wants an intermediate Linux, free of bloat and other strange things. It may also be wise to go through the Arch installation process in virtualbox before trying to dual boot with an existing OS. If planning a full install, simply make haste and have no worries.
One thing I cannot praise enough is the pacman package-manager; it’s simple, effective, and just plain excellent. The rolling releases model is quite appealing too; update what you want, and not what you don’t, and never have to reinstall Arch! I am also impressed with Xfce; while I miss certain panel-features/apps in Gnome2, I am finding it more and more acceptable. After three days of using Arch, I expect it will become my primary and permanent OS. For midi music-production and possible backup OS, I may add a Mint or Debian partition — unless midi goes smoothly in Arch. I’ve had some difficulties configuring an aliased (secure) Skype, finding trouble harmonizing Alsamixer and Pulseaudio, and am still having other sound difficulties; though I hope to sort them out, and stay put.
After the necessary initiation of package-signing, I proclaim the Arch name dignified. In my opinion, Arch is at the top. For vanity’s sake, I’ll not admit exactly how long it took me to attain a functional, productive Arch system — but I will tell you this: It has so far been worth every minute spent, and I would have only regretted never trying. I might have floundered around in Ubuntu until 2013, wondering what I was missing.
With its growing community, I can easily foresee Arch continuing to improve. It has been said that their documentation is the best, and I can believe it. So far, I have no complaints. I am still shaking off residual newbie-ism; however, Linux has become almost an extension of myself, allowing me to do things otherwise impossible. I value it highly, and aspire to someday contribute to it. In my opinion, Arch preserves the spirit of Linux. For those who want an OS to call their own, it’s a fine choice.
Notes & such:
Wireless: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG chip, which seems to work perfectly in Linux.
There was an odd bug I often experienced in Ubuntu, which hasn’t bothered me since switching to Arch and using Xfce. Loading certain images would cause a user logout. I lost more than few things, and suffered a lot of rage as result of this. It occurred mostly while using firefox, and especially when visiting wunderground.com. This was one of the most annoying and serious bugs I’ve ever come across, and it would occur frequently. I would have a dozen browser-tabs open, text editor, and applications running, and then have to manually restore most it just because I loaded a damned image. I was never able to find a suitable explanation in the forums either. The bug seemed pretty exclusive to Ubuntu (and Mint) — I was using Lucid (LTS). Good riddance!
UPDATE:
While I hate to admit it, the difficulties with sound defeated me. I got sick of hearing everything I did through the speakers. I got terribly sick of my microphone only working locally and not through applications (skype). I was willing to live with an unfixable suspend mode, where the system would freeze upon resume (about 75% of the time). But after days of pulse versus alsa, and absolutely no progress, I formatted again.
It seems to me that sound would be a top priority in the documentation, but I found none that helped. However, to be fair, it must be said that Intel has been unfair. The HDA Intel is strange, but even stranger is that it works perfectly in Ubuntu with no additional configuration.
I conclude only a little differently than before; if your hardware is friendly, try Arch. If it is not, well, then prepare for some serious frustration. If ever I find the right machine, Arch will be my first choice of OS.
Rum:
Sometime not long after midnight on 1.3.2012, Ricky Lee Leer, Stephen C. Webber, and a Third homeless man were drinking rum. In a wooded area somewhere near the 3100 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way, where things would soon go hyper bizarro, Webber was tending the grill. Despite the rum and anticipation of grilled food, Ricky and Webber weren’t enjoying each other’s company. If only Webber realized this sooner.
Ricky was probably a difficult guy to get along with — though you’d never guess by looking at it him. The Third guy was likely doing well enough, at least until his buddy Webber accidentally knocked over the grill, inadvertently making him a witness to the terrible event which would immediately follow. That’s when things got pretty unusual, pretty quickly too. Whether or not Ricky previously exhibited warning signs may be conjecture, but one might safely assume he was less than charming, and that if there were any, they weren’t taken gravely enough. Ricky drew a machete, and without hesitation hacked at the neck of Webber, decapitating him. The Third guy tried to intervene and failed. Perhaps wisely, he fled, and reported the incident to the police. The authorities eventually arrived, and when they did, found Ricky still at the scene — apparently content and still drinking rum. Aside from needing a drink myself after hearing the story, that’s all I know of the Ricky L. Leer affair. My sentiments are with Webber, his family, and the poor fellow who witnessed the horror.
The perils of poverty:
In the early morning hours of 10.14.2003, my former friend Rick Peirce, owner of Cafe Kaldi Coffee shop, and kind hearted fellow, didn’t wake up for over two months after having his skull crushed with a hammer while he slept on the Ringling Causeway pier. Miraculously, he was found by a mutual friend on a rare morning walk — just in time to save his life. I say “former” perhaps inappropriately; he is still my friend, although he died a few years after his recovery. But forget about him (as the police did); he was homeless, had lost his cafe along with everything else he previously owned, and was just a steel worker who thought he could keep pace with pre-2008 Sarasota rent.
But maybe I’ll make a few more notes on Peirce’s case. The morning he didn’t wake up for 60 days, was the morning he was due to meet with an attorney who had accepted his case (pro bono) against a criminal officer who had recently assaulted him. He had pending charges against an officer who had abused and hit him with a flashlight on a rainy night just a week or so before. I remember Peirce telling me of how the two officers taunted and insulted him that night, finally throwing his driver’s license into a puddle on the ground before letting him go.
While Peirce was in a coma, I met with a journalist who was covering his story. We went to the pier, examined the area, and asked questions. While looking around, we observed something that has kept me curious for years. A surveillance camera was mounted on a thick metal pole about halfway along the pier. Who ever woulda thunk it! I called the camera company that day, provided the model number, and asked who maintained its footage. I was quite surprised when they said it was a dummy model, with no function beyond appearing to have one. I have no convictions, but do have have suspicions.
A few weeks, or perhaps a month later, a preacher had gone on a walk with his dog somewhere near Centennial Park. If I remember correctly, he was on a dock, where he was stabbed to death and robbed by two shitbags. I clearly remember having the privilege of speaking with the officer who caught them very shortly afterwards. I had expected they would be connected with Peirce’s case, but they never were. As far as I know, Peirce’s case has never been solved.
Not long before Peirce’s plight, I remember the homeless musician who was a familiar face to many in the downtown area. I don’t remember his name, but remember his face, and the report of his death. He was sleeping in the Burger King parking-lot near Sarasota Memorial Hospital, when the driver of a tow truck allegedly ran over him, crushing his head. Many people were upset at the news. Some discarded him as an alcoholic, and shrugged. He did drink, but I never minded seeing him about.
I can’t cite all the cases of homeless homicide in Sarasota, and would prefer I couldn’t cite a single one. I’ve heard of other events which haven’t been committed to memory, but know there are too many. It seems some of them can be pinned — at least to some extent — on local politics. Perhaps in the past we’ve been able to blame homelessness on laziness, exercising self-righteous indifference, and treating them as pests. We could even continue to do so, but I doubt we could take ourselves too seriously. There are those so foolish amongst us that they would rather incarcerate than tolerate the homeless. Hopefully, it is those fools who will someday fill the prisons themselves.
Psycho SRQ:
I guess it’s supposed to be a secret that the Sarasota jail is managed by a private corporation, which when under the name of Correctional Services Corporation, was traded on the NASDAQ as CSCQ. That approximately 50% of Sarasota’s taxes are spent on Public Safety is probably not a secret, but more so a quiet fact. And I’m not sure how well known Sarasota’s crime statistics are, which have been rated among the more crime ridden in the nation.
Despite the peculiarly high budget for public-safety in Sarasota, it seems things don’t add up. Maybe it will just take time for our new $50,000,000 police headquarters to have an effect?
Many will remember the two English tourists who were shot dead near the Ringling Art School:
I guess it’s normal to be shot after 3am — or so one might begin wondering after the comments made in the video doubting the reasons for tourists walking near the Ringling Art School after dark. Ringling Art School might very rationally be said to exist in “Newtown“, and rumor has it, students live there (which sometimes make friends). Furthermore, growing up in England, they probably never expected to be gunned down next-door to one the poshest art schools in the nation, especially after reading propaganda brochures parading Sarasota as paradise. But never mind what others say[1], just accept that the filthy limeys had read the secret crack-brochures, or had a weakness for Newtown aesthetics.
While staying within less than 1/4 mile of the Ringling Art School over the holidays, I would frequently hear gun-shots (not fireworks), and on the occasions when officers would respond, it was always very, very quiet. When compared to the melodramatic circuses typically resulting from someone little more than farting too near a downtown oligarch — complete with helicopter, sirens, and plethora of squad cars — I wonder a bit about what’s going on. But not too much; I’ve got some ideas.
Just a few weeks ago, two friends were robbed and assaulted in the same week. One friend was on his way to give a calculus lesson for someone, when he was knocked from his bicycle and beaten by multiple attackers. A few days later, the other friend was on his way home when he suffered the same fate, also on his bicycle. The first incident was within a hundred or so feet from Ringling Art School, while the latter was no more than a mile north.
Headless — figuratively speaking:
I remember frequently seeing a fellow at an old cafe I used to frequent. I don’t know what his circumstances were at that time, but I have recently begun seeing him around again, and they are clearly decrepit. After suffering a stroke, the right side of his body barely functions, and he has nearly lost his powers of speech too. He walks with a substantial limp, completes all tasks with a single hand, and is homeless. All of his belongings are carried on a three-wheeled bike. Last week, temperatures reached freezing, and I’ve since heard stories of ice on windshields, and sleepless nights. On the morning after the cold-front, I encountered the guy at a coffee shop, wearing shorts and a thin tattered jacket. Several folks pooled together some cash, and we took him to the Goodwill where we purchased him trousers and a suitable coat. That same day his bicycle broke, and several others and I helped fix it, with a lot of effort. A few days later, his tire burst. Being unable to keep up with such a situation myself, I wrote a to a local and wealthy “philanthropist”. I requested assistance for this individual, and explained his truly and irrefutably disabled state, but never got a reply. I made phone calls, and talked to strangers, all to no avail. The only one who ever offered help was homeless himself. I am not too naive, but after that day, it became apparent if it was not a headless society I lived in, it was certainly a heartless one. I’ve not given up on the chap, but I’ve nearly given up on Sarasota.
According to wikipedia, “In January 2006, the city of Sarasota made national news when the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty ranked it number one on the groups’ list of twenty “meanest cities” in America in their published report A Dream Denied: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities.”[24]
I remember this well, as I was also living out doors during this time. It had become a crime under city ordinance to use either pillow or blanket, and one could barely stop to tie their own shoes without being harassed by law enforcement. I also remember people dying. What needs to be realized, is that homelessness is not a passing phase. It will be dealt with through heavy-handedness and detention, or by creative intelligence and good will. It will get worse, and will become familiar to all for whom it is presently foreign. We can sweep the mess under our carpets and clutter our consciences with rubbish, or we can work to improve the situation. I’m going for the latter.
According to The Register, US Military spy-drones may be tossing Windows and switching to Linux. If so, the community may finally get a piece of the action, and geeks will have compensation for lacking machismo. With the help of Shuttleworth™ and Unity, the interface could be very user-friendly for teenage recruits remotely piloting the drones, and would look comfortably similar to their iphones. Stallman may object to proprietary hardware, but no one will listen. If gnomes are involved, Torvalds may warn of an “unholy mess“, but Clem could tidy it up with a little cinnamon and a fork.
With colossal nemeses like Apple and Microsoft, Linux could use the popularity. There’s nothing like boasting responsibility for civilian casualties, massive surveillance capabilities, and wielding the potential power of the open-source community to Unite™ and steer their drones toward conscientious objectors. It is even possible that people could be intimidated into using only Linux, under duress of large – but invisible – bombs.
Benevolent angels such as SOPA and the DHS should discourage government abuse of GPL — and there should be plentiful counter contributions as well. The harmony between the intrinsic transparency of OSS and that of US Government, would be the perfect match for openness and accountability.
All in all, I foresee jubilee, and better drones. Linux is about freedom, and the US Government is too. Let the penguins fly again – with a vengeance!
What do Ybor City, Irish stout, and Albania have in common?
On Saturday, January 7, the FBI arrested Sami Osmakac for attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Sami allegedly had plans to terrorize sheriff’s departments, nightclubs (including an Irish pub), a Starbucks coffee shop, and the Army. Like other recently “foiled” and unfoiled plots (1,2,34), the arrest was the result of under-cover FBI operations.
Preventing catastrophe is sensible enough, but in the strange light of NDAA, and other extreme abuses of power under the guise of national security, it would be foolish to not wonder where it stops. In a country of over 300 million people, the practice of nurturing evil will definitely produce results; the plenitude of stress, crazed ideologies, and stupidity make this a fertile field. But what additional effects might guided negative influence have? If we were to do this for every prospective crime, or ill ambition, our potential for foul things may be endless. Just imagine what the FBI could accomplish if given unfettered access to mental-institutions for purposes of extrapolating sinister plots!
Public safety and security are difficult subjects. In the particular case of Osmakac, a serious threat seems to have existed. Maximum extraction of the enemy appears an effective strategy; knowing how far they’ll go, what they’ll do if given the opportunity; and efficient debilitation. Hopefully the FBI asks how far they are willing to go themselves.
The axiom of absolute power corrupting, may be worth mention. If a subject aspires to vandalize a building, but is distracted by under-cover agents proposing “bigger and better” things, is it possible that a new dynamic has been added to the situation?
“I was only going to graffiti the facade of a bank, but when some little green man informed me that I could destroy the entire galaxy, I decided to go with that instead“. – Hypothetical bad guy
If someone is sick enough to aspire to harm others, then it does make sense to address them accordingly. To arrest a potential murderer on a misdemeanor when patience will yield a felony or worse, would be counter-productive. Despite these considerations, I remain skeptical of such methodologies when terror is involved. After all, terrorism is big business, and pretending to fight it has become one of the most thriving industries around; look at the curriculum of any university in 2012, and you’ll see “Homeland Security” listed.
The notion of weeding out extreme volatility from society makes sense; what makes none, however, is cultivating it — all while letting the the most dangerous terrorists remain unprosecuted and ever plotting. Foiling plots and dramatizing hypothetical terror is one thing; but some are still awaiting satisfactory explanations for tangible events of terror — See: 9-11, 7-7 London, and OKC-Bombing,etc, etc.
Hopefully such efforts will be fairly distributed between hypothetical threats and real threats. We scarcely need to manufacture terror when so much already exists and continues to erode society. In a country with a war on consensual crime, journalists, and critical-thinking, my hopes are not too high — and with the world’s largest prison population, I think I know what to expect. New America; land of the incarcerated, paranoid, and insecure, where you are free to call fascism democracy, drink yourself to death, and bask in endless debt.
Link to video of suspect causing problems at Lady Gaga show.
