Pressure on U.S. to Use More Surveillance
“In general, I think we’re getting used to cameras. Hey, that’s just the way the world is”
No, Orwellian civilizations will never happen. It’s just fiction. NOT!
Islamic rules for beating your wife
From Gandalph 23
Sheik Aal Mahmoud: If the husband wants to use beatings to treat his wife, he must never ever do it in front of the children. It must remain between him and her. It must be done according to the following conditions: He must not cause bleeding or bruise her body. He should avoid her face and other sensitive parts of her body. As we’ve said, the limitations on beating are: They must not cause bleeding, they should not break any bones, they should not be on the face, and they should not bruise her. If the husband violates these rules, he violates the rules of Allah. If she has been hurt, the husband is held liable for what he has done, because the woman is not his merchandise. He cannot do to her whatever he wants. Even if the wife forgives the husband, it does not mean Allah will do the same on Judgment Day.
“Whew!
For a minute there, I was afraid that islam was, you know, supporting men beating their wives, but clearly, they are for the equality of the sexes. Whew!”
Supreme Court Rules Cities May Seize Homes
This is a sad day for civil liberty.
“The 5-4 ruling – assailed by dissenting Justice Sandra Day O’Connor as handing “disproportionate influence and power” to the well-heeled in America”.
Netscape
Supreme Court Rules Cities May Seize Homes
USA PATRIOT Act- Why should I care?
Have you read the PATRIOT Act? Of couse not. Then how can you have an opinion? Here’s the Act.
Electronic Frontier Foundation’s take on the The USA PATRIOT Act.
EFF: USA PATRIOT Act
EFF: RFIDs in Schools
Across the nation, public schools are using RFIDs to turn campuses into pervasive surveillance networks. EFF is fighting to stop these schools from tracking students using RFID technology.
Gov. Perry Signs Bills to Protect Gun Owners’ Rights
God I love living in Texas. This from the TSRA.
TSRA Members and Texans:
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
R i c k P e r r y
For Immediate Release
June 17,2005
Gov. Perry Signs Bills to Protect Gun Owners’ Rights
AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry today signed legislation aimed at clarifying existing firearm laws, enhancing protections for law-abiding gun owners and reducing barriers for gun ownership.
“The right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental right of every law-abiding citizen of our country,†Perry said. “This legislation will clarify existing firearm laws, enhance protections for law abiding gun owners and reduce barriers for gun ownership.â€
The bills Gov. Perry has signed include:
* House Bill 225 (Driver) which extends the renewal period for a concealed handgun license from four to five years without an increase in renewal fee.
* House Bill 322 (Hupp) which reduces all fees for a concealed handgun license for military members and veterans by 50 percent and lowers the age from 21 to 18 for members of the military or veterans to obtain a concealed handgun license.
* House Bill 685 (Rose) which exempts military members and veterans from taking the range portion of the concealed handgun licensing process if they had been weapons certified in the military within the past five years prior to application for the license.
* House Bill 1483 (Frost) which will expand methods by which applicants for a concealed handgun license may pay the fees to include personal check, cash, and credit card. Currently only cashiers checks and money orders are accepted.
* House Bill 823 (Keel) which clarifies the current definition of “traveling†as it relates to someone carrying a firearm. Current law is ambiguous and is interpreted differently by courts and law enforcement.
* House Bill 1038 (Isett) which reduces the fee for renewal of a canceled handgun permit for senior citizen by 50 percent. The current renewal fee for a senior citizen is $70 for a four-year renewal period and this bill will reduce that fee to $35 for those 60 years of age or older.
All bills become effective Sept. 1, 2005.
Copyright 2005, Texas State Rifle Association.
British government to announce widespread smoking ban
Another example of governnent “protecting” their subjects….ah I mean citizens.
British government to announce widespread smoking ban – Yahoo! UK & Ireland News
Anti-gun/Anti-science insanity
This story is so maddening I almost don’t know where to begin.
A couple of kids in Amherst Mass spend time and money on a science fair project that shows how dangerous BB guns can be. Sounds like a good applied physics and engineering project to me. And very worth while because BB guns can be dangerous and more education about the dangers could prevent injures and maybe even save a life.
But nooooo! Their completed project is rejected. Why you ask? Because BB guns are too dangerous. I wonder how many of the accepted projects used HCL or NH4, or gasp, H2SO4, probably none, they might be dangerous. I myself entered a middle school science fair with a rocket! Thats right a fire breathing 300 mile an hour rocket! Do you suppose that would be dangerous? What kind of science do they study in Mass., Paper Mache? I have an idea! Why don’t we just forbid science all together. Wouldn’t the world be safer and isn’t safety the only thing that is truly important? I mean we don’t really need silly things like individual rights or privacy or exploration and science, we need safety. Safety for the children’s sake. And who better to keep us safe that the government.
Let’s leave the government out of it.
This is an excerpt from interesting article by a heath activist
William Campbell Douglass II, MD, who has been calling for government intervention on the behalf of school children for some time. It seems he has had an epiphany about government involvement in people’s lives. I attached the whole doc below as it is from a newsletter and I cant link to it.
His website: http://www.realhealthnews.com
… The bottom line is this: It isn’t the Feds’ job to protect us from ourselves by limiting what private industry can make and how they can promote their products – only to protect us from what’s patently unsafe. However, it is the combined duty of government, parents, educators and competing free-market entities to provide a balance between the freedom to destroy ourselves with consumption and the disciplined “wise use” that leads to a life full of choices, options and variety. Come to think of it, let’s leave the government out of the “wise use” equation. Can you imagine the government giving out wise advice on any subject?
Sure, it might be simpler if we banned all hazardous things – junk food, cigarettes, guns, motorcycles, fast cars and all related advertising – or allowed the legal system to sue them out of existence…
But it just wouldn’t be America anymore if we did.
Full article
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Student gets low grade for mentioning God
From: American Center for Law and Justice
In her English 101 course, Bethany Hauf, a freshman at a community college in California, was told that she could pick the topic to be discussed in the quarterly term paper. She chose to discuss “Religion and its Place within the Government.†The professor, Michael Shefchik, responded by noting the controversial nature of the topic, calling it one the “two most taboo and subjective topics.†While he approved the paper, he had a specific request that Bethany not mention God in the paper. In fact, in an email, the professor specifically told Bethany “I have one limiting factor—no mention of big “G†gods, i.e., one, true god argumentation.†He went on to say in the same email that the separation of church and state has to be respected, and it would be more appropriate to discuss the topic from a different vantage point. Specifically, the professor stated that “perhaps ‘Religion has no place in government’ would be a more viable and topical subject.â€
After presenting a draft of the paper to Shefchik, as required by course requirements, Hauf was told that because she had written off topic about God, at best, she would be graded 69 out of a possible 100 points. Shefchik told Hauf that among the reasons for the low grade was that references to “God†could be offensive. After presenting her paper on Friday, Shefchik handed out the final grade on Monday and gave Hauf a score of 49 out of a possible 100 points for the research paper.
(more)
Three links: Original Story, Update 1 and Update 2.
Gun Safety 101 Sparks Debate
LOS ANGELES — Arizona schools have added a fourth “R” to reading, writing and arithmetic — rifles.
Students who choose to enroll in this new course learn the safe way to handle a gun and earn one credit — the equivalent to ceramics or photography electives. Critics are gunning the debate; they say handing teenagers loaded weapons equals trouble. more
Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act
NRA-ILA Grassroots Alert Vol. 12, No. 20 05/20/05
HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
CONTINUES WORK ON H.R. 800
On Wednesday, May 18, the House Judiciary Committee met to continue debating amendments to H.R. 800, the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act,” sponsored by Reps. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) and Rick Boucher (D-Va.). The legislation has 254 cosponsors.
Anti-gun members of the committee offered a series of amendments that had no purpose except to try and score political points–including one by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) to eliminate the bill’s statement that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. Scott and his supporters, including Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Maxine Waters (D-Cal.), argued that the Second Amendment wasn’t intended to protect individuals’ self-defense rights–a theory long discredited by modern Second Amendment scholars.
Pro-Second Amendment Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) led supporters of the bill in responding to the opponents, and soundly defeating all the anti-gun amendments.
Unfortunately, the “mark up” session was interrupted by other House business, but we expect the bill will be taken up again at an upcoming Judiciary Committee meeting. In the meantime, please continue to contact your U.S. Representative and Senators in support of H.R. 800 and its Senate counterpart, S. 397–without any anti-gun amendments.
To access the most up-to-date information on this issue, and to find out if your lawmaker is a cosponsor, please go to the “Help Save America’s Firearms Industry” heading at www.NRAILA.org. This function will allow you to easily send an e-mail or letter to your U.S. Representative and U.S. Senators. Please forward this link to your family, friends, and fellow firearm owners.
For additional information on effectively communicating with your lawmakers, please go to: http://www.nraila.org/CurrentLegislation/ActionAlerts/Read.aspx?ID=274 (Grassroots Alert, Vol. 12, No. 12).
Arizona rednecks win a round against the ACLU.
OpinionJournal – Cross Country
Minutemen Are People, Too
Arizona rednecks win a round against the ACLU.
BY LEO W. BANKS
Thursday, May 19, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
TUCSON, Ariz.–Anybody who appreciates a good yuck was sad to see the Minutemen pack up their pickups and go home. After all, it wasn’t every day that we got to enjoy the spectacle of sunscreen-lathered ACLU observers chasing volunteer border-watchers through the desert. But in the media bonfire accompanying Arizona’s Redneck Revolt, we saw the cultural divide separating media elites from ordinary people–those with BlackBerries and $150 hairdos versus folks with tobacco bulges in their cheeks. more
More on this subject: Border Patrol told to stand down in Arizona
More Gun Trouble in California
You probably think “So what! I dont live in Califonia.” Well, contrary to all the evidence that may indicate otherwise, California is still part of the union.
From the NRA-ILA
CALIFORNIA
The California Assembly will consider Assembly Bill 352 at anytime. This legislation could essentially ban all semi-automatic pistols commonly used by California gun owners. AB 352 expands the definition of “unsafe handguns” to include semi-automatic pistols that are not designed and equipped with an array of microscopic characters, which identify the make, model, and serial number of the pistol by imprinting the characters on each cartridge case when the firearm is discharged. Please continue to contact members of the Assembly through Monday, May 16, and ask them to oppose AB 352. Assembly Members can be reached at (916) 319-20 (plus your 2-digit district number for the last two numbers). Senate Bill 357 would establish a program requiring serialization of handgun ammunition to be enforced by the Department of Justice. The manufacture, transfer, and possession of non-serialized handgun ammunition after July 1, 2007 would be c! onsidered a crime. SB 357 would also require ammunition vendors and manufacturers to register with the Department of Justice. This anti-gun legislation is waiting to be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Please continue to contact members of the committee at (916) 651-4101 and ask them to oppose SB 357.
TSA and the Abuse of Government Power
Reading the previous post got me fired up yet again, frustrated at the, to use Q Ball’s parlance, “ineptitude†of government. Notice I said government not our government. Because all any government is, is a group of people. And let me say this, people are stupid, people are careless, people are selfish, people are greedy, people are mean and people are evil. Not all, not most, but enough to make life in any free society very frustrating. And in places where freedom is not protected, life can be downright dangerous. Dangerous unless you are wiling to just keep your mouth shut and do as you are told. Since I said “where freedom is protected†I have to add that most people in this country seem to think that freedom is a natural state that mankind will always move toward. That couldn’t be further from the truth and brings me back to my point. These little inconveniences at the airport, the invasive nature of parts of the Patriot Act, the insistence on a national ID card are all part of an incremental erosion of the protections of personal freedom that one day are going to bite us in the ass. Have you read the Patriot Act? Its not easy. Try reading it and see if you don’t agree that it is very hard to figure out all of that document’s intent, let alone the unintended consequences that may result. There is no doubt that some of the Patriot Act was badly needed legislation. But even a lay person such as I can see there is some onerous stuff in there. Look at the definition of a terrorist in this law. And incidentally, most of these things are not protecting us from terrorists.
“Well,†you say, “ if they are not protecting us from terrorists then why is the government doing this? Are you saying that the government wants to take away our freedoms?†No, I’m saying the government is people and people are stupid. Case in Point. NASA is part of the government, ostensively a particularly smart part of the government. NASA spent years and millions of dollars to build a spacecraft. They launched that spacecraft, flew it all the way to Mars and then crashed it smack into the planet because they screwed up the conversion from English to Metric measurements. They didn’t mean to do it. I’m sure they are very sorry they waisted our time and all that money. Never the less the spacecraft did incinerated in the atmosphere of Mars. Thank God it was just time and money that we lost on that occasion.
We all need to support the war on terror because its real. However, since most of us cant actively participate in this war it is up to us to fight for our way of life and freedoms in another way. We have to stay vigilant and tell our representatives how dissatisfied we are with the TSA, the Border Patrol and every other government agency that has its own self interest at heart instead of those of the American people.
Want to get angry? Read these two articles.
Abuse of Government Power
Faced with the obvious problem of not being able to locate plastic explosives carried on the body, the Transportation Security Authority (TSA) — with its now expected ineptitude — has decided that, usual standards of morality be damned…more
Border Patrol told to stand down in Arizona
U.S. Border Patrol agents have been ordered not to arrest illegal aliens along the section of the Arizona border where protesters patrolled last month because an increase in apprehensions there would prove the effectiveness of Minuteman volunteers…more
Wired News: No Real Debate for Real ID
Get ready for a national ID card. “Zeeze paperz are not in order!”
Wired News: No Real Debate for Real ID national ID card.
More on the Serialization of Handgun Ammunition
From NRA-ILA:
CALIFORNIA
SB 357 would establish a program requiring serialization of handgun ammunition to be enforced by the Department of Justice. The manufacture, transfer, and possession of non-serialized handgun ammunition after July 1, 2007 would be considered a crime. SB 357 would also require ammunition vendors and manufacturers to register with the Department of Justice. SB 357 passed out of the Senate Public Safety Committee and is on its way to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Please contact members of the committee at (916) 651-4101 and urge them to oppose SB 357. AB 352 is expected to be heard on the Assembly floor May 9. AB 352 expands the definition of “unsafe handguns” to include semi-automatic pistols that are not designed and equipped with a microscopic array of characters, which identify the make, model, and serial number of the pistol, etched into the interior surface or internal working parts, which are then transferred by imprinting on each cartridge case when the firearm is fired. Please contact members of the Assembly at (916) 319-2800 and ask them to oppose AB 352.
Florida Castle Doctrine Bill
From: NRA-ILA
On April 26, Governor Jeb Bush SIGNED SB-436, “Castle Doctrine” into law (Chapter No. 2005-27) It takes effect on October 1, 2005.
A great deal of erroneous information has been written, published and spoken about Florida’s new “Castle Doctrine” bill.
Claims that the new law will turn Florida into the Wild West are not only an insult to intelligent people but give a patently false portrait of what the bill actually does.
The Florida “Castle Doctrine” bill does basically three things:
One: It establishes, in law, the presumption that a criminal who forcibly enters or intrudes into your home or occupied vehicle is there to cause death or great bodily harm, therefore a person may use any manner of force, including deadly force, against that person.
Two: It removes the “duty to retreat” if you are attacked in any place you have a right to be. You no longer have to turn your back on a criminal and try to run when attacked. Instead, you may stand your ground and fight back, meeting force with force, including deadly force, if you reasonably believe it is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm to yourself or others.
Three: It provides that persons using force authorized by law shall not be prosecuted for using such force.
It also prohibits criminals and their families from suing victims for injuring or killing the criminals who have attacked them.
In short, it gives rights back to law-abiding people and forces judges and prosecutors who are prone to coddling criminals to instead focus on protecting victims.