Category: The World

Taking it in the Back Door

Serious people are using the events of Paris to whine about how The Authorities don’t have enough authority to suspend your right to have a completely private conversation on your cell phone. Their excuse is that Bad Guys might be having conversations about doing Bad Things — a concept that should stink to high heaven of Pre-Crime. The Authorities want to make it impossible for your phone to be completely secure, in the name of catching Bad Guys, never mind that history shows it doesn’t work that way.

I have said this before but let me say it again: A back door that Good Guys can use is a back door Bad Guys can use. It’s a back door that can be used to empty your bank account, steal your identity, stalk you, obtain information useful for blackmail and/or extortion, or otherwise make your life miserable.

Oh, and a couple of last words: Secretary Kerry says there were 12 “problematic” people out of 785,000 Syrian refugees, and that sounds like good odds to me (I wonder how many criminals you’d find if you investigated 785,000 random Americans); and I too will stop using variants of ISIS in favor of the more accurate Daesh, for they do indeed sow discord; and some of my online friends have pointed out that the White House didn’t turn into the Bleu, Blanche, et Rouge house? Please note CONGRESS in the picture above and stop making up things to be upset about.

In Closing: it concerns me that the IRS is baffled; I wonder who looks at that information; “great“; scientific weasel words; perfect except for the errors; manufactured outrage.

France: Je Suis Désolé.

Translation: I am sorry.

Today Paris was rocked by explosions and gunfire. At least 40 are dead so far. Oops, make that at least 60. Nobody yet knows who is responsible, or why. Of course that is subject to change at any moment. Not even the American media dares call it “terrorism” just yet — although it is surely on the minds of many people.

Think your happiest thoughts for France.

Looks like USA Today scored 60% again.

EDIT: The hostages are free, over 150 are dead, and now the word “terrorists” is in play. The attacks were well organized, except for the pesky issue of what they were trying to accomplish.

Yet a few more words on the TPP

Click the image to read the article it came from!

Now that the actual text has been released, it is possible to speak to what is there, rather than just fear of what might be there. So here’s a few of the things that have been said:

  • Some Canadians call the provisions “troubling” and say it’s the “worst” thing for their country. Remember, Canada isn’t really that different from the United States in many ways.
  • Liberals call it a corporate power grab.
  • Most Presidential candidates are against it, including Trump, Jindal, and Kasich.
  • The Financial Times is trying very hard to tow the middle line and calls it a revamp of international arbitration (which seems to me like curing Tuberculosis with a shotgun).
  •  The Boston Globe pretty much says that there’s good and bad, but it’s much too complicated for a “straight up or down vote”, which is exactly what the Senate is going to do thanks to Fast Track Authority.
  • Bottom line: TPP can still be stopped. Make sure your Congresscritters know where you stand.

Have a great week.

If it bleeds, it leads…

And apparently, it can pay dividends: School shootings beget more school shootings. And unlike the days of Parkway South — which I bet you never heard of unless you knew somebody who was there — news coverage may be why. From the CNN article:

Researchers gathered records of school shootings and mass killings from several data sets and fit them into a mathematical “contagion model.” The spread they found was not dependent on location, leading researchers to believe that national media coverage of a mass shooting might play a role.

If you’re the kind of person who prefers to look at the research rather than the media coverage of it, good for you: here it is. Left to your imagination is whether other crimes might be subject to the “contagion model” described by the researchers. My guess is “probably.”

In Closing: dinosaur feathers; apparently he had a heart after all (no loss); stand and deliver all your ideologues.

Is that the best you can do?

Today I came upon this image:

I agree that the news media often choose not to report things that are important in favor of things that get ratings. However, the list of “what you should know about” is focused on environmental issues and barely gives lip service to other important things the media isn’t covering. Here’s a few things you should know about that might not make your evening news:

  • The TPP isn’t dead yet; if it gets ratified, you will have fewer rights and corporations will be more powerful. Heck, you might not even know the TPP was a thing if you relied on the evening news.
  • The cops can use devices that force your cell phone to tell them where you are — unless a judge catches them.
  • You aren’t imagining. You are working harder for less.
  • Those politicians out there trying to earn votes for an election over a year from now are mostly bought and paid for by special interests.
  • There’s probably a kid that died in your metropolitan area, too.
  • There are multiple humanitarian crises going on in the world right now.
  • Over 40,000 Americans commit suicide each year. That works out to one every 13 minutes, and one a day in my city. You might be able to do something about that.
  • Since the list was a bit food centric, here’s a food item: Congress doesn’t think you need to know where your meat was raised.

And that’s just a short list.

In Closing: Liverpool; ramen; resume; then she should find a job that doesn’t require her to do things that conflict with her religion (oh, you thought I was talking about that marriage license thing?); not having the desired effect on his image;

Incitement to violence? What is it?

It’s what the Ferguson Police did, and it’s very important right now. Of course my readers knew that before the riots even started. If you’re interested, the Washington Post is going to be keeping track of police shootings.

Some of you are wondering about the title of today’s post. Tomorrow is the 35 anniversary of the release of the now classic comedy film, Airplane! “Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.”

In closing: flag football and the freaking TPP.

Just Keep Squeezing.

Yeah, just keep squeezing the American people.

Keep spying on them while pretending it’s for their own good — does anybody think they will stop just because a judge said so?

Keep saying that if you have a bad job it’s your own damn fault, so shut up and eat your crap wages and your crap hours that make it impossible to do anything to improve your lot.

Keep saying that free trade agreements are always good and always create jobs despite evidence to the contrary, and how dare you want to know what’s actually in the free trade agreement. You’re just wrong!

Keep blaming the “other,” whether that means Jews or Homosexuals or “Thugs” or “immigrants” or whoever for the things that are wrong.

Just don’t be surprised if the kettle boils over.

In Closing: as we said in grade school, “no duh“; wonder how many years that path will take to trudge.

A few random thoughts about Baltimore

So on one side we have a lot of people saying stuff that boils down to “those people are animals and that’s why they can’t have nice things.”

This attitude ignores the realities on the ground: no jobs, no economic development (because after all who would open a factory there?); a minimum wage that won’t get you above the poverty line and barely allows you to pay rent. Oh yeah, and there’s a teensy weensy double standard in play too.

And hey, why not punish “those people” for daring to want things like the right to get arrested without dying on the way to the station? “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” is for other people?

Sometimes, you need a comic writer or two to put things in perspective.

Of course, it turns out that the situation was at least in part caused by the police — no, not just because they killed somebody. When you show up in riot gear, force adolescents off school busses so they can’t go home, and then wait for trouble, you are the problem and will never be the solution. They came prepared for a problem caused by their own preparation.

And lest we forget that police-delivered death sentences occur in many places around our great country, Raw Story has these “tips”.

In Closing: don’t forget TPP; I bet we’d get “reform” real quick if cops shot up a banker or two; a couple feminism items; really #5 should be first, because you won’t get an interview without it; shipwrecks.

Spy Game

I’ve got a lot of Spying On Americans links for you today. Between John Oliver and Ed Snowden simplifying the whole thing down to They have pictures of your genitals (haven’t seen it yet?) and the PATRIOT Act being up for renewal, there’s a lot of publicity. Like Hansel, it’s so hot right now.

So let’s start with this, since I’ve been linked to it multiple times in the last 24 hours: a nice overview of the major Spying On Americans initiatives.

About the argument of “but we need to collect this data, to prevent terrorist attacks. And stuff.” Turns out that didn’t work. Oh, right, and it’s probably illegal too.

The Snowden Revelations have done good. At least one program was shut down.

Spying On Americans doesn’t end with phone calls and emails. Oh no, they want to know where your car is, too. And they don’t want anybody questioning how they found it.

And come on folks, preventing people from using the phone in an emergency is such a bad idea I can’t even imagine why this is a thing.

In Closing: So let me get this right, leg extensions are bad for you, but plyo is good? Don’t get me wrong, I’m for squats and more squats but plyo isn’t for everyone; a few items on wages and employment and capitalism; seems the NYT kicked up a bit of a storm on higher education; limit your Facebook time; learned the hard way; many domestic abuse victims stay because of their pets; Cyndi Lauper, voice of reason; news with a side order of racism; huh, somebody noticed that the Baby Boomers who swore Social Security would be bankrupt by the time they could collect are, um, collecting; Gary Hart tells the truth. I will never be “Ready for Hillary.”