Category Archives: Freedom

The Separation of Education and State

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That has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?  I say five people in black robes should declare it a part of the U.S. Constitution.  In his piece entitled, “Ignorance Reigns Supreme” Walter E. Williams gives us the reasons why separation of education and state should be an important goal, though he never actually comes to that conclusion.  That’s my own inference, and I hold it up as a self-evident truth.



With limited thinking abilities and knowledge of our heritage, we Americans set ourselves up as easy prey for charlatans, hustlers and quacks. If we don’t know the constitutional limits placed on Congress and the White House, politicians can do just about anything they wish to control our lives, from deciding what kind of light bulbs we can use to whether the government can take over our health care system or bailout failing businesses. We just think Congress can do anything upon which they can get a majority vote.


Yup.  That would seem to explain pretty much everything happening in government today.


I’ve often (OK, virtually always) had to go back to the very, very basics of the meaning of liberty, so as to have any hope of a meaningful conversation on the subject.  Hardly anyone knows what it means.  Most people think it means you can do whatever you want, and, “Oh, but we couldn’t have that now, could we?”


Basically, the default (i.e. massively ignorant) argument can be summarized in one sentence; “Because you can’t fraudulently yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre (or because the Earth’s climate has been in a state of constant change for billions of years, or because someone didn’t pay their mortgage on time, et al) the government has the authority to run every aspect of your life. QED.”


That’s what wholesale ignorance, nurtured at the state level, has done to us.  That is why we need a constitutional separation of education and state– so as to prevent the establishment of a state education system; “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of education, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”  It should have been written right there in Amendment the First, as equally important to freedom of religion, of the press, and of free assembly, and for exactly the same reasons.

Go Becky!

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Becky Ackers has the TSA’s number:



But none of these facts seem to matter to the TSA. It needs something to justify its existence: Despite six years of patting down passengers, it hasn’t reported uncovering a single terrorist. No wonder it latched onto the nonsense about liquid bombs. Ferreting out and confiscating everyday substances not only makes work for 43,000 screeners, it also fools us into thinking this protects us.


The TSA has always been a political, not practical, response to 9/11. It hassles us at checkpoints not because of penetrating insights on security or some brilliant breakthrough, but because politicians handed it power. Specialists in security didn’t invent the TSA; the Bush administration imposed it on us. So we might hope the incoming president would abolish this absurd agency.


Unfortunately, Barack Obama wants to improve the TSA rather than send it packing. His suggestions for that improvement? Passengers still aren’t screened against a comprehensive terrorist watch list, his website proclaims. Such a list must be developed.


Why? The watch list has already kept Rep. John Lewis (D) of Georgia and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D) of Massachusetts off planes: Will a comprehensive list bar Republican congressmen, too? That’ll protect us about as well as unionizing screeners will – another change the campaigning Obama said he favors.


And the best part:



Becky Akers, a freelance writer and historian, is finishing a book about the TSA.


Remember what TSA stands for.

Ideas for civil disobedience

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I had an email exchange today:



From: “Disobey”
To: Joe


Hi Joe,


I am at that point. I am looking for ideas on how I as an individual can stage a peaceful, non-violent, but dramatic protest. I am willing to go to jail to make my point, but not unnecessarily or with unnecessary punishment if it can be avoided. I bet somebody has a laundry list of really good ideas with the legal implications well thought out. I was hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction?


Thanks,


“Disobey”


From: Joe
To: “Disobey”


Hmmm… I don’t have any such list or know of any. But if you want I will be glad to post the request on my blog and see what others have in mind.,


What aspects of our society do you want to protest against? It makes a big difference…,


-joe-


From: “Disobey”
To: Joe


Hi Joe,


Thanks for the reply. Please put it out on your blog, maybe it’s time to create such a list. In a nutshell, I want to raise public discourse on our disfunctional local school district and the elected officials who do nothing. I suppose that if I mention that I am in California you will just say I am screwed. I am still willing to keep fighting for justice and fairness.


“Disobey”


I keep thinking of Gandhi’s march to the sea to make salt. But I can’t seem to translate it into our time and situation except with respect to making machine guns or something–which has already been tried.


Any ideas?


Update: I don’t have anything for the disfunctional school situation but it seems to me that publicly putting flash hiders or folding stocks on your rifles making them “assault weapons” might be something worthwhile. It’s not nearly as scary as making machine guns.

Quote of the day–Abraham Lincoln

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No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.


Abraham Lincoln
[Additional justification for Roberta X’s position in the first line of the second paragraph that I quoted from yesterday.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Roberta X

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As far as I’m concerned, all governments cross my “line” on Day One. But governments are not like a single baddie confronting one in an alley; you cannot simply shoot them when they try to do you harm. Life can become very inconvenient for you if you even try.


Roberta X
December 10, 2008
Governments, Sandlines And Me
[Roberta hasn’t said anything previously in the “Three Percenter” vs. “Pragmatist” debate and I have said very little. She explains why for both of us.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Bruce Schneier

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Of course the terrorists used Google Earth. They also used boats, and ate at restaurants. Don’t even get me started about the fact that they breathed air and drank water.


Bruce Schneier
December 8, 2008
Mumbai Terrorists Used Google Earth, Boats, Food
[Apparently some people are making sounds about how bad it is that Google Earth exists. Essentially, because something can be used for evil purposes the “government should do something”. It’s the same mindset that has lead them to restricting knives (for all the good it has done) and banning fire extinguishers in the UK. It’s not guns, knives, or Google Earth that are the problem yet some people continue to push forward with their brain set to “11” on the insanity scale. As near as I can tell there are few explanations:



  1. The people “in charge” are unwilling to use rational thought when addressing the situation.
  2. The people “in charge” are unable to use rational thought when addressing the situation.
  3. The people “in charge” have ulterior motives for increasing government control of society.
  4. Some combination of the above.

Regardless of the pathology these people have no business receiving a government paycheck let alone making decisions that adversely affect the lives of millions of people.-Joe]

Quote of the day–Thomas Paine

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Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.


Thomas Paine
[Which is why every effort should be made to keep government at the smallest size necessary to accomplish its necessary and authorized functions.–Joe]

Quote of the day–William Earl Dungey

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So, since I know how to use machine guns, automatic weapons, submachine guns, rifles, pistols, explosives and other such – like I know how to find the proper place and time to defecate so as not to upset the public nor my friends and family – I don’t need the regulations, laws and infringement on my rights to be armed and dangerous. I also don’t advocate destruction of my community, government nor world to make it my way – but then I do think there are more good people in the world than bad – but the bad ones tell lies, cheat and dishonor their ancestors for personal gain and general stupidity. I remain, armed and dangerous, but then that is all in my mind and not in yours, you never think about me – just the old man in the back of the room.


William Earl Dungey
December 6, 2008
One issue people, arise and think…. it matters

Franken and the “Recount”

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This touches close to home for me, since our now WA state gubnuh “found” enough votes after recount after recount, to turn a loss into a victory.  Ann Coulter gives us more detail from the Minnesota senatorial race than you’ll find anywhere in the Old Media;



According to Michael Barone, an examination of King County [Washington State] records showed that nearly 2,000 more mail-in ballots had been “cast” in King County than had been requested.


I was immediately suspicious when WA state went to an all mail-in voting system.  Now I’m not suspicious– I know.



But Gregoire got to be governor — having done unusually well among the imaginary voters of King County.


The head of the Washington State Democratic Party orchestrating this ballot theft was Paul Berendt. Guess who is advising Al Franken on the Minnesota recount right now? That’s right: Paul Berendt.


Surprise, surprise.  We now have evidence of an interstate rent-a-cheat.  Coulter adds;



And, per usual, the Republicans clearly haven’t the vaguest notion what is about to hit them.


Clearly.  The Republicans are too busy trying to appear nice, and can’t be bothered with vague abstractions like the rule of law, or the state and federal Constitutions.  I never could, and can never refer to them as the Grand Old Party.  For now, it’s the Party of the Perpetually Clueless, or PPC.  The trouble with the clueless is that they never know they’re clueless, and cowards always have a perfectly good rationale for doing nothing.

Quote of the day–Richard K. Willard

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Just as studies showing the dangers of prejudice and error in jury trials should not undermine a criminal defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights, neither should studies purporting to show the dangers of private gun ownership undermine law-abiding individuals’ Second Amendment rights.


Richard K. Willard
D.C. versus Heller–brief Amicus Curiae Of The Heartland Institute in support of respondent.

Unintended consequences of the TSA

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Via Bruce Schneier:



They both say there are organized rings of thieves, who identify valuables in your checked luggage by looking at the TSA x-ray screens, then communicate with baggage handlers by text or cell phone, telling them exactly what to look for.

“This is a laptop here, VCR here and it’s located in this area of the bag. Here’s the color of the bag. They give them all the information they need to know.”

“He was going through the bag like he was searching it? Yeah searching it.”

Sky Nguyen knows firsthand. He took this picture of a TSA screener with his camera phone after he saw the agent steal his iPod.

“You saw the Nano in here? Yeah inside here between the glove and palm.”


With 20/20 hindsight it makes perfect sense. With 10’s of thousands of low paid people having access to property you normally have locked you have a huge attack surface (please excuse the geek talk).


As Bruce said:



Someone should investigate the extent to which the TSA’s security measures facilitate crime.


TSA is a crime. It’s government searching without a warrant. It’s also nothing but A Security Theater.

It makes perfect sense

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In formerly Great Britain they banned nearly all guns, they have essentially banned self defense, and they are talking about registering and banning knives. With that sort of mindset it follows perfectly well that they have banned fire extinguishers as well.


Via Ry.

The mocking of H-S Precision contest winner

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Sebastian had a contest (which I intended to link to but never got around to in time) and the results are in. It is a very deserving entry. Congratulations Tim.

Quote of the day–Thomas W. Malone

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The new information tools symbolized by the Internet are radically changing the possibility of how we can organize large-scale human efforts.


For most of human history, people have lived in small tribes where everything they did was known by everyone they knew. In some sense we’re becoming a global village. Privacy may turn out to have become an anomaly.


Thomas W. Malone
Director of the M.I.T. Center for Collective Intelligence
November 29, 2008
You’re Leaving a Digital Trail. What About Privacy?
[I am concerned that our shrinking privacy are just one component in an increasingly socialist and tyrannical world and the associated lowered standard of living.


Let me explain.


Capitalism was coincident with the greatest advancement in the human standard of living. I have to wonder if privacy is an essential part of capitalism and what the consequences of no privacy of association will be. If your business competition is friends with “big brother” any business deal you try to work on can be torpedoed. It won’t be the market that decides which company is the most successful. It will be who has the best connections to the watchers. And socialism apologists are all for government watching.


And certainly lack of privacy means a lack of freedom. Your ability to escape an abusive relationship or government will be severely impacted.


See also this QOTD.–Joe]

“Papers please” no longer needed

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If you have a cell phone and it is turned on your cell phone company knows where it is within a few hundred yards. If the government wants this data from the provider it generally (emergency exemptions apparently exist) has to get a court order.


However, the FBI has the technology to trigger phones into giving up their serial numbers and their phone numbers. This does not require a court order! Currently they use a van to drive around town and try to find their target. But that doesn’t have to be the way they always do it. All they have to do is put this technology on major travel routes and in travel hubs and they can do a pretty good job of tracking a large proportion of the population. If they put up their own devices on most of cell towers around the country they can track every active cell phone in the country.


I write software for mobile phones for Microsoft and it is rare that a day goes by where we don’t talk about and implement privacy protections for the customer and now I find out the Federal Government is actively working to defeat us.

Quote of the day–Mahatma Gandhi

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As I proceeded further and further with my inquiry into the atrocities that had been committed on the people, I came across tales of Government’s tyranny and the arbitrary despotism of it’s officers such as I was hardly prepared for, and they filled me with deep pain. What surprised me then, and what still continues to fill me with surprise, was the fact that a province that had furnished the largest number of soldiers to the British Government during the war, should have taken all these brutal excesses lying down.

 

Mathatma Gandhi
An autobiography. The story of my experiments with Truth. There are many versions but I have this one.
[H/T to Ry who has the background on another, more famous quote, from Gandhi. Gandhi is no stranger to my QOTD posts either:

–Joe]

Quote of the day–Timothy Lynch

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A new generation of young people who have never heard of Ruby Ridge are now emerging from the public school system and are heading off to college and will thereafter begin their careers in business, education, journalism, government and other fields. This generation will find it hard to fathom that the federal government could have killed a boy and an unarmed woman and then tried to deceive everyone about what had actually occurred and, in some instances, rationalize what did occur. That is why it is important to remember Ruby Ridge. Someone needs to remind the young people (and everyone else) that it really did happen — and that it will happen again if the government is not kept on a short leash. No one will learn about the incident when they tour the FBI facility in Washington. It goes unmentioned for some reason.


Timothy Lynch
August 21, 2002
Remember Ruby Ridge
[Read the whole thing if you don’t understand why we are outraged.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Bruce Schneier

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Ephemeral conversation is dying.


Cardinal Richelieu famously said, “If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged.” When all our ephemeral conversations can be saved for later examination, different rules have to apply. Conversation is not the same thing as correspondence. Words uttered in haste over morning coffee, whether spoken in a coffee shop or thumbed on a Blackberry, are not official pronouncements. Discussions in a meeting, whether held in a boardroom or a chat room, are not the same as answers at a press conference. And privacy isn’t just about having something to hide; it has enormous value to democracy, liberty, and our basic humanity.


We can’t turn back technology; electronic communications are here to stay and even our voice conversations are threatened. But as technology makes our conversations less ephemeral, we need laws to step in and safeguard ephemeral conversation. We need a comprehensive data privacy law, protecting our data and communications regardless of where it is stored or how it is processed. We need laws forcing companies to keep it private and delete it as soon as it is no longer needed. Laws requiring ISPs to store e-mails and other personal communications are exactly what we don’t need.


Rules pertaining to government need to be different, because of the power differential. Subjecting the president’s communications to eventual public review increases liberty because it reduces the government’s power with respect to the people. Subjecting our communications to government review decreases liberty because it reduces our power with respect to the government. The president, as well as other members of government, need some ability to converse ephemerally — just as they’re allowed to have unrecorded meetings and phone calls — but more of their actions need to be subject to public scrutiny. But laws can only go so far. Law or no law, when something is made public it’s too late. And many of us like having complete records of all our e-mail at our fingertips; it’s like our offline brains.


In the end, this is cultural.


The Internet is the greatest generation gap since rock and roll. We’re now witnessing one aspect of that generation gap: the younger generation chats digitally, and the older generation treats those chats as written correspondence. Until our CEOs blog, our Congressmen Twitter, and our world leaders send each other LOLcats – until we have a Presidential election where both candidates have a complete history on social networking sites from before they were teenagers– we aren’t fully an information age society.


When everyone leaves a public digital trail of their personal thoughts since birth, no one will think twice about it being there. Obama might be on the younger side of the generation gap, but the rules he’s operating under were written by the older side. It will take another generation before society’s tolerance for digital ephemera changes.


Bruce Schneier
November 24, 2008
The Future of Ephemeral Conversation
[What I fear will happen is that people, and politicians in particular, will fail to realize is that the society needs to compensate for the power differential and open up government while securing the individual and private organizations. They will think government “needs” to be private and that in order for the government to “protect” us they need to monitor our every word and move.


You can see this mindset in that so many people fear “large corporations” more than governments. They want the government to protect them from the corporations. They want more power for the government so it can further regulate businesses and individuals. They apparently are totally oblivious to the fact that an abusive corporation can be taken down in a few months by a massive boycott. Corporations don’t have the means to force you to buy their goods. On the other hand a government uses guns to take your money, your property, your freedom, and/or your life. Giving governments a monopoly on force and privacy is extremely poor social hygiene.–Joe]

Quote of the day–William Clayton

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The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they’re going to be when you kill them.

William Clayton
[There are more than one William Clayton I found on the net and none are particularly good candidates for this quote. But he is the only one I found this quote attributed to.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Milton Friedman

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History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.


Milton Friedman
[It’s really sad that people are:



  1. Unaware of this
  2. Unwilling to accept this
  3. Or, most likely and saddest of all, don’t want political freedom

For those interested in political freedom I would like to suggest the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, and 13th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution would be good additions to capitalism toward achieving political freedom. Although if the Second is uninfringed then the 13th pretty much should be taken care. Isn’t it ironic that our first president with a skin color strongly correlated with slavery in our country wants to continue the infringements that kept those people in slavery? And furthermore the first infringements upon that right in this country were enacted to keep people of that skin color from obtaining and using firearms? Condi Rice gets it. Barack Obama doesn’t. What makes the difference?–Joe]