The Rings
The latest in our society’s chronicling…
- The state apparatus is going after people’s loved ones in revenge/intimidation of reporting leak information. Glenn Greenwald was only the first.
- There are two classes of people: slaves and masters. Masters create the morality for the slave class, and selectively ignore or defy that morality as they please. The FBI revealed how fully it is a member of the master class last week. In Colorado, politicians are going as far as issuing each other license plates that make the master class invisible to police.
- The US is at war, apparently – but it is classified as to who it is against. Absurd doesn’t even begin to describe the “wisdom” of our betters these days. Perhaps it is against the people, or the free press. After all, why else would government officials barge into the Guardian’s offices, destroy information about NSA leaks, and state: “You have had your debate. There is no need to write any more.” They are running terrified. What information is left to leak that they are scared of getting out? Does revolt approach?
- A study tells us what we always knew: power corrupts those who wield it.
- Any gross growth to this economy has been in favor of part-time jobs at expense of full time jobs. Cronyism does not create jobs, and government subsidy is completely ineffective.
- Take it with a grain of salt, of course, but student debt does significantly decrease the wealth one accumulates during a lifetime, according to one study.
- Big governmentalists pick and choose what aspects of government they support. The NSA is too far for some, but why draw the line there?
- Eritrea and the US are the only two countries on the planet that require citizens living outside the country to pay income taxes.
- There is no terrorist threat, and last week’s was made up to distract from and justify the NSA surveillance. File under “Been Saying It For Years”
- Most journalists are yes-men of government action, and Time magazine’s employees are some of the best. Recently, an editor tweeted: “I can’t wait to write a defense of the drone strike that takes out Julian Assange.”
- The DEA has been using unlawfully NSA data to arrest drug criminals. The worst part? The evidentiary trail is often forged, and the prosecutors and judges jumping at the opportunity to convict don’t realize it. Then again, prosecutors are beyond justice (Masters) anyway, so it is not as if their knowing would matter much…
- The crypto-net is slowly being destroyed by government. Tor (a site that allowed for the anonymous traffic that has helped aid many of the democratic uprisings in MidEastern states in the past few years) was taken down in part the other day. Lavabit (the encrypted email Snowden used to leak information to the press) is closing down, rather than complying with government requests to possess all encryption keys – and the founder, put on gag order, swears off the use of email forever, saying “If you knew what I can’t tell you, you wouldn’t use it either.” Another encrypted email service, Silent Circle, is doing the same.
- Disney is part of the problem of our self-esteem-is-everything culture.
- The college loan racket is a problem of big government.
- Legal positivism means actual truth has no value, and the world is true as we make it. Included under this umbrella is a new high (low?) of a spokesperson for the new educational common core stating that an answer of 3 x 4 being 11 may be acceptable depending on how it is justified.
- We are all felons now: a new proposed measure would make any unauthorized use of a computer a felony. Check your FB at work? That’s more than a year in jail!
- The income gap has increased markedly since Obama took office – but don’t worry, he has denounced it anyway.
- A possible measure of bubble-inducing credit financing exists in the Skyscraper Index. That is, when skyscrapers start going up, it signals gross malinvestment that will have to be liquidated in some form or other later…
- Why do young people like Ron Paul? Because he isn’t patronizing about government.
- A new study shows religious people are much “nicer” than atheists, and they give to charity far more often. REAL?
- Gay marriage: this gave me pause – Tolkien vs. Lewis on the issue.
- Bastiat was Catholic! And as it turns out, he was prescient yet again: Spain taxes sunlight.
- No foul play, in my opinion, but a famous hacker who could turn off pacemakers from a distance died just before publicizing the technology.
- Argument #70972936976 against democracy:
Big breath before facing the day… Check out the “Kyle” post for a laugh. Things are getting to serious around here…