Category: Uncategorized

Egyptian protesters have attacked the Israeli Embassy in Egypt. What were they mad about (other than the usual)? “This action shows the state of anger and frustration the young Egyptian revolutionaries feel against Israel especially after the recent Israeli attacks on the Egyptian borders that led to the killing of Egyptian soldiers,” Egyptian political analyst…

I was discussing the Drug War with a friend of mine. We got to talking about Drug War racism. He said that a friend of a friend was in the anti-narcotics bureau in Chicago. He says they discussed the subject in depth. The deal is he said, “Blacks have no protection.” If they started arresting…

Five years ago, on the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, I wrote a long post looking back, and I opined that there was a a sort of internal war in the nation’s consciousness: …there’s this huge capacity for denial which not only won’t go away, it seems to take on a life of…

I am often glad I don’ t have kids, because the state would own them if I did. In addition to making it cause for SWAT team invasions for the “crime” of not being hooked up to the power grid, the bureaucratic authorities claim that “social isolation” also provides cause for investigation (and of course…

For as long as I can remember, the theory was that if you wanted electricity, you became an electrical customer and had to pay for it. Well, I just learned about a new rule that you want to live on your own property, you have to be “on the grid” (meaning, a customer of the local…

I don’t like the increasing tendency of parents to saddle their children with difficult and unpronounceable names, and Glenn Reynolds linked a story that’s a particularly awful example. As can be seen in the video, this Longshoreman’s union activist is plenty pissed, and he clearly has a major chip on his shoulder over the unfortunate…

This band is good. Especially the electric violin. So much so that I grabbed my Marine Band C and started wailing. There is absolutely nothing like a harp and an electric violin together. If you play either instrument find your counterpart and give it a try. Let me add that I first heard Bob Dylan…

Ron Paul says the TSA is like a sexual predator. In Wednesday night’s GOP presidential debate held in California, Texas Congressman Ron Paul let it rip on TSA abuses of airline passengers (via TheHill): “If the perpetrators were a gang of criminals, their headquarters would be raided by SWAT teams and armed federal agents,” he…

Electricity. Ain’t it wonderful. Note: you may have to wiggle your cursor on the page to see how the motor is built and how it operates. Cross Posted at Power and Control

As usual I’d like to get caught up, and as usual I am falling behind. Not only can’t I fix the country, I can’t even keep up with the debates among those who claim they can. Fortunately, the video of the GOP debate the other night is available for online streaming, and even more fortunately,…

The title of this post comes from a statement made about 4:30 into the video. Part 2 – Every President since Nixon made it worse Part 3 – Obscene profit motive – Osama Bin Laden made almost all his money selling heroin in the US – Prohibition is a security risk – The more people…

I’ve been gone all day, but the graph that Say Uncle displays made my blood pressure go up as high as the graph. The graph compares the numbers of “delayed-notice” search warrants (authorized by the Patriot Act after trusting Americans were assured they would only be used against terrorists): That’s a more than 100 to…

Researchers at Rice are exploring a new technology that allows wireless devices to “talk” and “listen” on the same frequency could pave the way for 4.5G and 5G networks and could allow wireless phone companies to double throughput on their networks without adding a single cell tower. H/T ECN Magazine Cross Posted at Power and…

From the NAACP Criminal Justice Summit. The title of this post comes from a statement made about 4:30 into the video. I also very much liked the “they weigh the money they don’t count it” from early in the video. H/T Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Cross Posted at Power and Control

I’m going to make some generalizations here so let us not get nitpicky. And each case is an event unto itself. But this is my general principle. What does a lefty want? Your money. Your labor. Sometimes 95% or 99%. That has got to hurt. And it does. But give him the money he wants…

Reuters is looking at the disparities in Drug Prohibition Enforcement in America. The numbers tell the story of a criminal justice system blighted by racial disparities in drug law enforcement: African-Americans make up around 12 percent of the U.S. population, account for 33.6 percent of drug arrests and 37 percent of state prison inmates serving…

Fromma Harrop in an article entitled The Progressives’ Freedom Agenda has this to say about Rick Perry. The third week in July, Republican Gov. Rick Perry said that the U.S. Constitution — whose 10th Amendment limits federal power — gives states the right to decide on such matters as abortion and gay marriage. The fourth…

The Daily Show The above graph is from The Futurist Cross Posted at Power and Control

This is what the Drug War looks like in New York City. From 1978 to 1996, there were 49,326 marijuana possession arrests, according to an analysis for the alliance done by Harry Levine, a sociology professor at Queens College and an expert on marijuana enforcement. The increased enforcement, the policy alliance says, is due not…

While it will probably surprise no one who watches a lot of baseball, I stumbled onto something I hadn’t known before. Nicotine has been shown in a scientific study to enhance athletic performance: Nicotine is widely reported to increase alertness, improve co-ordination and enhance cognitive performance; however, to our knowledge there have been no attempts…