Monthly Archives: December 2005

Security and freedom blogging

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I recently received an email telling me they liked my little detours into security.  I haven’t touch security recently for a number of reasons.  Primarily my research in that area has be temporarily thwarted by PNNL defying the Freedom of Information Act.  A FOIA request I made back in June which only required they make a duplicate of some of the files on a DVD and send it to me.  I told them who had possession of the DVD, the project name, and the markings on the DVD.  Very simple.  None of the material I requested was classified and although it was originally considered Official Use Only that restriction had been lifted before I left and the material used on a proposal for a a completely open project which we won a contract for.  They are in defiance of the law and my FOIA attorney is working on the problem but my involvement in security issues gets sidetracked by my anger over PNNL illegal activities.  Unfortunately FOIA is a law that doesn’t have any enforcement teeth.  It’s against the law from them to do what they are doing (or rather not doing) but there is no penalties for their illegal activity.  Sort of like making it against the law for you to steal but if you get caught nothing happens–you don’t have to give back what you stole and you don’t get punished for your crime.

Anyway… sidetracked by my anger again…

Alphecca posted this about Bush authorizing eavesdropping on American citizens and wondered why a lot of the people on the libertarian/conservative side of the Blogosphere quiet or indifferent about it.  I haven’t read any news reports that indicated anything of real news.  From my readings (try The Puzzle Palace) and a few hints from other sources the NSA has been doing this for years if not decades.  You shouldn’t act as if your electronic traffic is anymore private than if you were to have a conversation on a crowded elevator.  Encrypting your traffic might make it as private as a conversation on a city street.  I try to encrypt a fair portion of my email and encourage others to do the same.  Most of my web browsing travels, at least part way, via encrypted channels.  This is not because anything in the email or my browsing would be a problem for me if it were decrypted but because it raises the cost for the people doing the surveillance.  The more people that do that the more likely they are to concentrate their limited resources on the people that are high probability threats to our national security.  I talked about this at the Gun Rights Policy Conference in 2000 (do a search for “Huffman” on that page).  If I had the time I would work on some other projects that would further consume resources and release them to the public.  Basically, as others have pointed out, you can’t legislate restrictions on the government and expect them to obey the law.  Government entities rarely obey the law (see here, here, here, here, and the first paragraph of this post for example) if it’s inconvenient for them to do so.  Remember the famous Henry Kissinger quote?  Of course this is the real reason for the 2nd Amendment–a last ditch resort for prevention of tyranny.  But there are other things we can do to help that are much lower cost to us and exact at least a moderate cost from the agents of tyranny.  Encrypting your electronic traffic is one of those things.  It costs them far, far more computing resources to decrypt it that it does for you to encrypt it.

I spent some time catching up on my security reading and came across this on Bruce Schneier’s blog:

According to the three-page document, to preserve the openness that characterizes today’s Internet, “consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement.” Read the last seven words again.

What the FCC is now saying is that people cannot use encryption technology unless law enforcement has the back-door keys to it.  Of course they have to know encryption is being used before they can stop you from using it or demand you give them the keys to the back-door.  I covered that in my GRPC talk and I already distributed a tool to circumvent them to hundreds of people.  What I haven’t done is tell all those hundreds of people about the hidden feature set in the tool–just the ones that paid money for the product.

I should work on some of my other tools.  The price of liberty is eternal vigilance and I need to pay my share of that price.  When the next tool is up and running I’ll talk about it more.  In the mean time check out PGP and Thawte.  The cost to you is low and the cost to “them” is high.

Top court checks out sex club ‘swingers’

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From the Ottawa Sun:

The Supreme Court of Canada is set to rule on whether
spouse-swapping in public venues should be a criminal act. The
ground-breaking case, which could set new standards for decency in
Canadian society, stems from two Montreal “swingers” clubs charged with
keeping a bawdy house.

One defendant, James Kouri, ran the Coeur a Corps bar, where couples
could hook up by paying a $6 cover charge. Every half hour, a
translucent black curtain automatically closed around the dance floor
while people took part in, or watched, sex acts.

Kouri was convicted of keeping a common bawdy house and sentenced to
pay fines of $500 on the first count and $5,000 on the second. He won
acquittal from Quebec’s top court, but the other club owner, Jean-Paul
Labaye, lost his appeal.

Although there are similar prosecutions happening in the
U.S. it’s frequently a socialist (when you think about it you realize
religion is frequently very socialist) mindset that drives this sort of
prosecution.  The people are just cattle to be
herded/controlled.  They don’t have the brains to make decisions
for themselves.  It’s for the “greater good” that people are
forbidden dominion over their own bodies.

Quote of the day–Toyotomi Hideyoshit

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The people of the various provinces are forbidden to have in their possession any swords, bows, spears, firearms, or other types of arms. The possession of these elements makes difficult the collection of taxes and dues, and tends to permit uprising. Therefore, the heads of provinces, official agents and deputies are ordered to collect all the weapons mentioned above and turn them over to the government.

Toyotomi Hideyoshit
Shogun
August 29, 1558
Japan
[I admire his honest and forthrightness.  If only present day politicians would be so when they demand we turn over our personal protection tools.–Joe]

World Cup 2006: More sex than football!

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I’m not a big fan of watching sports I don’t participate in so I won’t be visiting German for any of the activities described below which are planned for next year.  Lots of other people will though and it sounds like people will have lots of fun “making friends” even when they aren’t watching ‘football’:

BERLIN: Prostitutes, many of them from the neighbouring eastern European countries, are expected to flood Berlin and other cities in Germany during next years football World Cup.

…

Prostitution is legalised in Germany, and those involved in it are supposed to register with the authorities, and pay tax and employee health insurance. This also applies to brothel owners.

German capital Berlin, already has close to 10,000 prostitutes working in the city, and this number is expected to be greatly swollen once the World Cup gets underway. The same goes for Leipzig, Dortmund, Munich and Gelsenkirchen, and other cities where games are taking place.

…

A wealthy Turkish nightclub entrepreneur, anticipating a boom in the sex trade business during the World Cup, recently opened a four-storey, 40-room luxury brothel in Berlin’s Wilmersdorf district, at a cost of 5 million euros.

The brothel is just three S-Bahn (municipal overhead railway) stops from Berlin’s 1936-built Olympic Stadium where key World Cup games will be played, including the final.

Named “Artemis” after the virgin goddess of hunting, the facility is considered a “state-of-the-sex-art” facility. Atop the building, a giant red phallus billows in the wind.

Its owner says that unlike in most other city brothels, the girls active there are free to negotiate their own rates with clients and don’t have to pay “pimp money”.

Artemis is equipped with a FKK (nude) “Wellness Club”, massage, and solarium and a gaily-decorated spiral-ascending stairway. Its owner says entrance costs 7 euros with payment for sex “extra”.

“Romy”, the establishment’s manager, says up to 200-300 men a day have been using its premises in its “opening phase”.

Once the World Cup is in progress, “we are considering staying open 24 hours”, she says with a broad smile. Massive security will be in operation during next summer’s World Cup matches. FIFA officials are saying there will be an unprecedented level of surveillance at matches, so that if violence does flare it can be dealt with swiftly by crowd control experts.

While in city centres a vast body of police will be on duty.

But at Artemis, the staff do not anticipate any trouble at its premises. “We are a pleasure facility,” enthused one of the staff.

Hundreds of sex establishments are to be found in Berlin, as well sex cinemas, massage salons, and a huge number of night clubs catering for every kind of saucy, eyebrow-raising late night titillation. In Germany, the World Cup slogan “A time to make friends” can, it seems, be understood in a number of ways.

Posted in Sex

This is what happens in places without guns–Case II

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In the U.K. where they are ‘more civilized’ than we are in the States no one really needs a gun, right?  Wrong:

Four teenagers were “worse than a pack of wild dogs” when they beat a man to death outside his Chinese takeaway, a court was told yesterday.

Michael Chen, 41, was kicked, punched and stamped upon during the attack in a shopping precinct in Wigan.

His assailants struck him on the head so hard with a stake it sounded like a cricket bat striking a ball.

The gang left him dying in the arms of his girlfriend. His life support system was turned off the next day.

Yesterday the teenagers were jailed for up to 10 years at Manchester Crown Court. None showed any reaction as they were taken from the dock.

…

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Royce told them: “You acted far worse than a pack of wild dogs. The sheer savagery and brutality of the attack… aggravates the offence. It is the sort of street violence that should not be tolerated in any civilised society.”

…

Frightened by the youths gathering in the precinct, Mr Chen, his girlfriend, Eileen, and the restaurant’s chef armed themselves with a spade, a wooden stake and sticks.

But they were quickly outnumbered and cornered by about a dozen youths, including the four who would eventually conclude the attack.

They needed to arm themselves with rifles and/or shotguns not sticks.  Firearms, of course, are severely restricted in the U.K.  The U.K. politicians who committed the crime against humanity by taking guns away from the victims should have also been on trial and sentenced here.

The next step

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Now that Canada is planning a near complete ban on handguns (the police and maybe some target shooters will be allowed to keep them) what’s next?  We didn’t have wait long before finding out.  From the Hamilton Spectator (Ontario):

Think we’ve got too many gun-control laws in this country? I don’t think we have enough.

Not with the news that the man accused of shooting Laval police Constable Valerie Gignac on Wednesday morning may have had legal access to a hunting gun capable of taking down an elephant.

…

Wendy Cukier, a Ryerson University professor of information technology, and co-founder of the Coalition for Gun Control, agrees. “It reinforces our continued theme about the implementation of the law, and belies the notion that plain old hunting rifles are not a problem.

“Many don’t know they can pierce body armour and shoot bullets 2 km — after all, the Tories say, they are just tools!”

In fact, misinformation about gun crime is rife. Think police are shot by city gangs with handguns from the U.S.? The last police officer shot in Toronto was shot by a disturbed man with his legally owned shotgun, while four RCMP constables were shot dead in Mayerthorpe, Alta., last March by a man on a farm who reportedly had a military-style assault rifle, a hunting rifle and a pistol when he was found dead — despite a 10-year firearm prohibition against him.

Cukier should be a familiar name to readers here.  Do a search for “Cukier” on this blog for more info on her.

They are “priming the pump” for the obvious next step–banning firearms used for hunting.

Quote of the day–Brian Schweitzer

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I guess I kind of believe in gun control: You control your gun, and I’ll control mine.

Brian Schweitzer
Governor of Montana
An avid hunter who has “more guns than I need but not as many as I want.”
The Boston Globe December 17, 2005
[For a Boston paper this is an excellent article on guns.  My only criticism is they seem to think guns are only about hunting.–Joe]

Teaching girls is a capital offense

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I just thought some of the people opposed to the war against the Islamic extremists would want to know about this:

KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) — Suspected Taliban guerrillas dragged a teacher from a classroom of teenagers in southern Afghanistan and killed him at the school gate after he ignored their orders to stop teaching girls, police said on Friday.

…

The fundamentalist Taliban banned education of girls during their rule before being overthrown by U.S.-led forces in 2001.

The guerrillas have carried out a series of attacks in the provinces on schools teaching girls since them, often burning them down at night.

{sarcasm}I suppose a case can be made for keeping women in their proper place.  We certainly have learned our lesson in this country–women got so uppity they demanded the right to vote and look at the mess that caused.{/sarcasm}

I don’t think the anti-war people in this country have a clue as to what we are up against.  This is a culture that not only wants to repress their own people but insists that we adhere to their religion tenets as well.  They gave us our choice, as their religion demands, “convert, submit, or fight.”  Trying to negotiate, insisting “war is always wrong” or “there is always another way” is willful ignorance or such a blind hatred of our freedoms (usually it’s capitalism) they are willing to side with these extremists who rather see us all dead than to suffer our enjoyment of freedom from their religion.  Read the transcripts of the demands by Osama bin Laden and those that are beheading innocent victims.  Then get a grip on reality and chose the only option we have–fight them with prisons, bullets, and explosives.

Quote of the day–R.J. Rushdoony

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The first and basic premise of paganism, socialism, and Molech worship is its claim that the state owns the child. The basic premise of the public schools is this claim of ownership, a fact some parents are encountering in the courts. It is the essence of paganism to claim first the lives of the children, then the properties of the people.

R.J. Rushdoony

Amazing! Fish Or Man WON!!!

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Details are here but the short version is that without the help of a lawyer or any gun rights organization Fish Or Man won his appeal against Ellensburg for carrying a pistol openly in public (in a Fred Meyer store).  I’m not a lawyer and I’m not about to test it tomorrow, but I think this means we can openly carry a handgun, without a CPL, in Washington state.

Way to go!!!!!

Quote of the day–Senator Orrin Hatch

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What the subcommittee on the Constitution uncovered was clear — and long lost — proof that the Second Amendment to our Constitution was intended as an individual right of the American citizen to keep and carry arms in a peaceful manner, for protection of himself, his family, and his freedoms.

Senator Orrin Hatch
Chairman, Subcommittee on the Constitution,
Preface, The Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

Any idea what this is about?

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From the clueless Gun Guys:

 It’s not like we ever took anything CCRKBA said seriously (after all, it is run by Alan “Tina” Gottlieb)…

“Tina”?  A play on “tiny” because Alan is rather short?

Probably it’s because they can’t think of anything factual or rational to say about the CCRKBA.  They have to resort to name calling to make themselves feel better.

U.K. supermarkets to stock sex toys

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“Anything you want me to pick up at the grocery store on the way home honey?” 

“Yes.  I’m fixing a special desert tonight.  Would you please bring home an aersol can of whipped cream, a Pocket Rocket vibrator, and package of AA batteries?” 

From news.telegraph:

Asda is to become the first supermarket to stock sex toys, after striking a deal with Durex over its range of vibrators and lubricants.

The move follows Superdrug’s decision to stock the toys.

The supermarket chain, which promises that the products will be on a high shelf, out of the reach of children.

Catherine Gort, Durex’s marketing manager, said that the decision was a “sure sign that as a nation we have become more at ease with our sex lives”.

Posted in Sex

Deceitful news reporting

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The Seattle PI reports:

In an effort to drum up support for a proposal requiring background checks on those who buy firearms at gun shows, a gun control advocacy group reported a survey strongly supporting the idea. 

Washington Ceasefire conducted the survey, asking 403 registered voters whether they would be more or less likely to support candidates who wanted to close a loophole in state law that allows gun sales without background checks at gun shows.

…

Current state law allows people to buy firearms at gun shows without a background check, although federal law requires such checks when the firearm is sold at a store.

There is a problem with this article.  This last sentence is false.  And I’m willing to bet (an extremely rare thing for me to do) the survey takers worded their question(s) in such a way that they mislead the people being surveyed in a similar manner. 

The truth is Federal law does not even define a gun show let along make some sort of exception for them.  The laws that apply at a gun store apply at a gun show, the parking lot at the mall, and your backyard.  There is a reason these people lie–the truth is painful to them.  They cannot hope to get their way if they stick to the truth.

Gay marriage lawsuit in Iowa

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I’m surprised this is occurring in Iowa.  California, Massachusetts, and even Washington state.  But Iowa?  Apparently the Iowa constitution looks friendly to the pursuit of gay marriage via the courts. 

DES MOINES — A gay rights group filed a lawsuit on behalf of six gay and lesbian couples Tuesday in Polk County District Court, asking for the right to marry for same-sex couples.

Lambda Legal, which has spearheaded the same-sex marriage drive across the country, said it wants full recognition of the civil rights of same-sex couples.

I’m all for gay marriage but I’m not comfortable with it being implemented via the courts.  I would prefer that it happen legislatively or via a popular vote of the people.  Particularly when it is indisputable that the original intent of the constitution or law being utilized was that marriage only be for men and women.  The original intent may have been wrong but there is a procedure for changing it that should be utilized.  Changing the meaning via the courts is just wrong.  Freedom of the press could just as easily come to mean the government printing office has the freedom to print the news but private or corporate “press” is not.  You think it couldn’t happen?  Look at what has happened with the Second Amendment.

Quote of the day–Cullen Hightower

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Our laws can be friendly to those who obey them, and too often useful to those who don’t.
    
Cullen Hightower
[Among the most useful laws to those that disobey them are the laws that attempt to ban or restrict goods or services.  The black market always finds a way whether it is something physical like booze, guns or recreational drugs or some service such as high interest loans (loan sharking), gambling or prostitution.–Joe]

Someone at PNNL earns some brownie points

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I previously reported PNNL screwed up a corporate American Express account I had at PNNL by not forwarding the bills to me after my wrongful termination.  I received a bill from American Express last month then tried to call AE a couple times and had the call dropped or otherwise wasn’t able to get things straightened out.  Honestly, I didn’t put much effort into it.  I would get so angry over it that I just wanted to ignore it.  I got another bill on Saturday and opened it up yesterday.  Surprise!  The bill has been paid.  I presume someone at PNNL read my posting (I know some of them do read my blog) and made sure it got taken care of at that end.

Whoever you are, thank you.