Seattle is proud to be a “Sanctuary City,” where lawbreakers can hide unmolested. Trump has promised to withhold funding from such places, which would save untold billions if he can follow through on it. Maybe he needs to get a Federal law that explicitly allows victims of crimes committed by illegal alien in sanctuary cities to sue said city for damages and legal fees, as they are explicitly “partners in crime” as enablers. Make it hurt enough and they will be properly incentivized to reconsider their position.
Category Archives: Freedom
It couldn’t happen here
I was poking around in one of my old directories on my network hard drive and found a file from 1994. Yeah, I’m a bit of a packrat.
It was a Usenet post from talk.politics.guns and talk.politics.misc which I had saved. Yes, I’ve been doing this for a long, long time.
Here is the header with the “bang paths”:
From owl.csrv.uidaho.edu!netnews.nwnet.net!news.clark.edu!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsserver.jvnc.net!synapse.bms.com!sis.bms.com!HAMBIDGE Thu Jul 14 12:25:08 1994
Path: owl.csrv.uidaho.edu!netnews.nwnet.net!news.clark.edu!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsserver.jvnc.net!synapse.bms.com!sis.bms.com!HAMBIDGE
From: hambidge@sis.bms.com
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns,talk.politics.misc
Subject: A Canadian’s Letter to Americans
Date: 8 Jul 1994 13:34:30 GMT
Organization: Bristol-Myers Squibb
Lines: 164
Message-ID: 2vjkl6$hp@synapse.bms.com
Reply-To: hambidge@sis.bms.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: watson.bms.com
Xref: owl.csrv.uidaho.edu talk.politics.guns:79300
talk.politics.misc:79280
It was a rather disturbing post which I suppose is why I had saved it. I decided to look on the Internet and see if I could find it via another source. Maybe it was just something someone made up for the Usenet tinfoil brigade. Nope:
CENSORSHIP: IT COULDN’T HAPPEN IN CANADA – OR COULD IT?
Posted: Saturday, July 9, 1994 8:00 pm
BY SUSAN RIGGS Knight-Ridder Newspapers greensboro.comGovernment can get too powerful before you know it.
An open letter to my American neighbors:
Like you, I woke up today, got dressed and settled down to a steaming brew and the morning newspaper before heading out to work. Unlike you, I read that dozens of my fellow citizens were arrested for carrying copies of The Buffalo News. The newspaper contained information about a trial here that the powers-that-be did not want us to read. It is that simple.It is now 11:15 p.m. Minutes ago, I turned on the Buffalo television station, hoping to see on my TV what could not reach us through the newspapers. I am now looking at a blank screen. We received about 10 seconds of the trial controversy, and suddenly my screen went blank. A message appeared on the screen explaining that because of the contravention of a ban, the station was prohibiting broadcast of the news. Along with the sign was a high-pitched whistle that sounded like the air-raid sirens the Britons used during World War II.
As I sit here alone, I realize that my blood is running cold at the sound of that whistle.
This could never happen here.
Not in Canada.
You must wonder about a country that would deny its own citizens the freedom to read. As a Canadian, I have done a lot of hard thinking about it. I guess the powers
Susan Riggs is a Canadian citizen living in Ontario. She wrote this article for the Detroit Free Press.
have their reasons for the ban. Censorship always has its reasons, but, believe me, when you are on the receiving end of government censorship, no reason amounts to a hill of beans – and that is why I am writing to you.
It is my hope that you will read the Canadian story and, as your famous columnist Ann Landers says, “wake up and smell the coffee’ – while you still have a newspaper to read along with it.
I have always loved the United States of America, and I know that you are now making critical decisions about the role of government in your lives. Many years ago, we in Canada were at a crossroads in our decision making that is similar to the one you are at now. I wish our decisions back then had been very different. Then maybe I wouldn’t be sitting here staring at a blank screen.
Some two decades ago, Canadians were concerned with how government could best help its citizens. We looked around at countries with a comprehensive social welfare system and envied them their cushions of comfort for everything from universal medical care to national day care.
We were a country that held individual freedom in high esteem. Surely, we thought, it was possible to take the best aspects of socialism and weave them into the fabric of a free society. After all, this was democratic Canada and not the Soviet Union.
Over the next 20 years, we developed an extensive social support network at both the federal and provincial levels of government. The government spent money on every conceivable program. We spent and spent. Still, no one was ever really satisfied.
The spending even now continues unabated, and our national deficit today stands at more than $45 billion. (We are now looking to New Zealand for pointers on how to control our deficit.)
When you adopt an extensive government agenda, you soon discover that all the entrenched programs and layers of bureaucracy become impossible to budge. Much of the population works for the government; about 1 of every 4 Canadians now draws a government paycheck.
People learn to depend on government, and all governments, even those whose leaders warn against this dependency, learn to love the power that flows from it.
As for the threat to individual liberty, newspaper censorship is, frankly, the tip of the iceberg. Government intervenes in our lives constantly, and individual liberties are abrogated in new and ever more imaginative ways each day.
Recently, while on vacation, I rented a car in Seattle and tried to drive into British Columbia. My car was confiscated at the border. When I asked for an explanation, I was told that I had not paid taxes on it – a rental car. Had I been an American, there would have been no problem, but, as a Canadian, I had to pay $200 more for a Canadian rental car in order to continue my trip.
Canadians who dare to get a haircut or a car tune-up across the border are being photographed and prosecuted upon their return to Canada. Why? Because they have secured these services without having to incur the 7 percent goods and services tax slapped onto our ever-burgeoning provincial taxes. Even insurance plans are now taxed.
A black market has sprung up, mainly in liquor and cigarettes, which carry the heaviest taxes. Don’t think that the taxes will end there, though.
Once it takes hold, monopolization by government soon spreads to nearly every aspect of your life; in the Toronto area alone, we have six separate municipal governments and one super-municipal government (the “mother’ of all local governments) called Metro, which exists to oversee the others.
You will find that after a time, your state and federal governments – even those of a different political stripe – will join forces to make their task of tax collection easier.
Our entire education system, up to university level, is governed by a centralized bureaucracy called the Ministry of Education, which dictates what can and cannot be taught in the schools and how it is to be taught. Universities are mainly government-funded.
I realize that the issue of government-run programs is particularly important to you now because of the state of your health-care system. I sympathize with you completely. I cannot imagine a world where one could be left bankrupt because of illness. I also think that you are on the right track with your solutions. If anyone can devise a workable system for medical care, it is you.
I suggest that you look upon it as you do your police protection: a guard in place for the physical and mental well-being of your citizens. The real danger in socialized medicine is the attitude of entitlement it engenders.
The stories you have heard about us are largely true. It is not uncommon to pick up a newspaper and read about “The Frightening Wait for Cancer Therapy’ here in Ontario, and the situation is no better in the other provinces. There is a shortage of the most advanced diagnostic technology. Thousands of the health cards that ensure access to medical care have have been issued erroneously.
We do wait two hours for an appointment booked weeks in advance. Despite our world-class doctors, many patients can’t get treatment in time because of overcrowding. When you are faced with a life-and-death medical situation, you don’t mind paying whatever it costs. Under the government-dominated medical system, however, you can’t even buy your way in – unless, of course, you go to the United States.
The sound of the air-raid siren on my TV has stopped, at least for now. As the politicians love to say, this is my “defining moment.’
Writing is my great love, the part of me that can never be censored. This letter was difficult to write, and no one up here knows that I have written it. All these issues are not just personal; they are professional, too.
I am employed in administration at a prominent Ontario university that has historically enjoyed a high degree of autonomy. Last summer, my president wrote a letter to the staff explaining that the government had expressed an intention to take a more active role in the management of university affairs. He described this as an enormous threat to our autonomy as a free-thinking institution, and in the end the government retreated – for now.
As I sit here tonight, it is simply beyond my comprehension that such a well-intentioned and beloved country as my own could go so far astray so quickly. And it is all the more remarkable that it has taken place without grand conspiracies or intricate plots.
Indeed, most Canadians are as offended by the images of totalitarian government as you are. We shared your joy at the fall of the Berlin Wall and the crumbling of the Soviet bloc; we value freedom. And yet we have fallen into a trap where we are not free.
As with that other well-known road, we traveled this one with the best of intentions.
To those who would dismiss me as an alarmist, I issue this invitation: Read our newspapers, watch our news broadcasts (what is left of them) and see for yourselves. Prove me wrong. I wish you could.
When you make critical decisions about the role of government in your life, please think about me, about this letter and about Canada.
Really think about what it could mean when you hear about a government initiative that sounds too good to be true. Thank God for a free press, even when you find yourself criticizing the media for broadcasting stories that you would rather not hear about. The recent publication ban is not the first one. There are others, and their numbers are growing.
Listen and learn, America. Cup your ear to the wind and hear the blood-chilling wail of the siren whistle as it drifts down across your border.
If just one of you reads this letter and pauses, even for a moment, to think about what unchecked government can do, then it has been worth the writing.
I have faith in you, America. Your road is tough and not perfect. Nothing is. Your road will keep leading you to freedom – the freedom to read and think and be exactly who and what you are – if you only let it. Treasure that freedom, love it and resolve never, ever to let it go.
Quote of the day—John Robb
Social media amplifies every incident, spreading the anger it evokes like contagion across the country. Just watch. This suggests that the next open source protest we are likely to see will form to force Donald Trump from the Presidency before the next election — a Tahrir square moment in cities all across the US. A massively and diverse open source protest that has one simple goal: the immediate removal of Donald Trump from office.
Unfortunately, an open source insurgency that forces a sitting President from office without the benefit of an election could result in the same outcome as Egypt (or worse Syria).
John Robb
November 11, 2016
Trump’s Insurgency creates our Tahrir Square Moment
[I think I need to read his book: Brave New War: The Next Stage of Terrorism and the End of Globalization.—Joe]
Musical interlude
Crank it up.
Quote of the day—Sean O’Reilly
The Collaborative Firearms Education Initiative involves two steps. First, a push to get the CDC funding to actively catalog and study gun related violence much as it does motor vehicle fatalities and a push to increase the educational requirements for firearm purchases with the NRA being the main organization for implementation and provision of this education.
We need reliable, unbiased information and understanding of it. Without a complete understanding of the problem we are left only with speculation and theories.
Secondly, instead of looking to limit accessibility to firearms in efforts against the NRA and other political groups, increasing the level of education necessary to purchase firearms in conjunction with the NRA.
To drive a vehicle on streets, hunt on public land , or carry a concealed weapon, every individual is required to attend formal and regulated training and be licenced.
Sean O’Reilly
October 12, 2016
A third way on gun control allows both sides to win
[Most of the vehement opposition to gun ownership comes in the aftermath of a mass shooting atrocity. Nearly all of those have a strong mental illness component. The major source of gun deaths are due to gangs and the illegal drug trade. While I can see some policy changes making a significant difference there I can’t see how requiring training could help. And training and licensing for hunting and concealed weapons is already the norm for nearly all states.
And if he thinks these restrictions are acceptable for the specific enumerated right of gun ownership I don’t think he envisioned the slippery slope of applying similar restrictions on religion, speech, freedom of association, and abortion.
I suspect O’Reilly doesn’t really understand the current situation and hasn’t thought through what he does know.—Joe]
Epic Rant – Why Trump Won
Sobriety check
I figure this is the appropriate time to bring it up (yes; I’ve been waiting for months now), what with some of the exuberance out there in response to DT’s election win.
Shall we start a betting pool regarding the exact date on which he blows up and shows anger and hate for conservatives who’re trying to hold him to it?
McCain and Schwarzenegger both did it, as have others. They run on a patriotic message because they know they need our votes, but they resent having to “lower” themselves to such a level, and that resentment will out itself. If I were a betting man I’d say sometime before the end of January. Maybe even before inauguration, but I figure he can control himself until after.
I would of course love to be proven wrong on this (feel free to jump on my case in four years, please), but it is nonetheless a good idea to have some guarded optimism, or hopeful skepticism, at this stage and save the heady exuberance for after the end of his first term when it turns out he actually didn’t ass-rape us after all.
Go for it
Eric Levitz in New York magazine writes Why the Decimated Democrats May Turn Left:
Without the immense power (and glamour) that comes with the White House, Democrats no longer have any distraction from their fundamental weakness at all other levels of government.
Since President Obama took office, more than 900 Democratic state legislators have been ousted. In January 2009, the party occupied 29 governor’s mansions. Today, it lays claim to 15. The GOP — the party that was supposed to be headed for a great crack-up — holds 33.
In 24 states, Republicans control the Executive branch and both legislative houses. Of course, they now enjoy the same trifecta in Washington, D.C.
But Democrats have lost more than power. They’ve also lost their faith in demographic destiny.
…
The upcoming DNC leadership election is expected to be cast as a struggle for control of the party’s future. For now, the party’s Sanders-Warren wing appears best positioned to win that civil war.
Sure thing Eric. Socialism is the future. Go for it.
Quote of the day—Sebastian
Most of us don’t want power to rule others: we want to be left alone. But in order to be left alone, you have to seek enough power to make them leave you alone. That, I think, is our great Catch 22.
Sebastian
November 7, 2016
Busybodying May Be The Most Powerful Force in the Universe
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
PC creates Trump supporters
Interesting Reason article by Robby Soave “Trump Won Because Leftist Political Correctness Inspired a Terrifying Backlash”
I have tried to call attention to this issue for years. I have warned that political correctness actually is a problem on college campuses, where the far-left has gained institutional power and used it to punish people for saying or thinking the wrong thing. And ever since Donald Trump became a serious threat to win the GOP presidential primaries, I have warned that a lot of people, both on campus and off it, were furious about political-correctness-run-amok—so furious that they would give power to any man who stood in opposition to it.
I have watched this play out on campus after campus. I have watched dissident student groups invite Milo Yiannopoulos to speak—not because they particularly agree with his views, but because he denounces censorship and undermines political correctness. I have watched students cheer his theatrics, his insulting behavior, and his narcissism solely because the enforcers of campus goodthink are outraged by it. It’s not about his ideas, or policies. It’s not even about him. It’s about vengeance for social oppression.
The whole article, and some of the comments, are well worth a read. It’s not long. Speaking as a victim of PC weaponized speech codes, I agree. I wasn’t a trump supporter in May.
I am now.
Intellectual Yet Idiot
From ZeroHedge comes this Nassim Taleb quote.
“The IYI pathologizes others for doing things he doesn’t understand without ever realizing it is his understanding that may be limited. He thinks people should act according to their best interests and he knows their interests, particularly if they are “red necks” or English non-crisp-vowel class who voted for Brexit. When Plebeians do something that makes sense to them, but not to him, the IYI uses the term “uneducated”. What we generally call participation in the political process, he calls by two distinct designations: “democracy” when it fits the IYI, and “populism” when the plebeians dare voting in a way that contradicts his preferences. While rich people believe in one tax dollar one vote, more humanistic ones in one man one vote, Monsanto in one lobbyist one vote, the IYI believes in one Ivy League degree one-vote, with some equivalence for foreign elite schools, and PhDs as these are needed in the club.”
Yep. Pretty much. Those on the left celebrate diversity, as long as it means different flavors of leftism. They celebrate tolerance, as long as it’s the right tolerating the left. They celebrate inclusion, as long as it means including the left. They can gloat and say “I won!”, but the right is asked to “play nice” when they win. The left calls for free speech, as long as it is left-wing speech. The left calls for “safe spaces” for themselves, but also demand access to anyplace someone on the right wishes to be left alone in peace. The left calls their opponents bigoted, deplorable, hate-filled, narrow-minded, etc., but that’s just projection; they are blinded by their own bigotry, hate, and narrow-minded view of things.
But frankly, I don’t expect there to be a lot of self-reflection by those on the left; I expect tantrums, tears, and terrorism. They think “the public” is wrong; they will miss the warning the deplorable masses are sending them that it’s the elites that are going the wrong way.
Quote of the day—Scott Adams
On election day, should Trump win as I predict, I ask for Trump supporters to stay cool when the predictable riots erupt. And keep in mind that if you vote for Trump, you own it. If you aren’t helping him get it right after he wins, you haven’t done enough. Trump is a group-participation president by design. He is directly asking for voters’ help in “draining the swamp.” In the short run, the best way to help Trump is by avoiding trouble on election day and by reassuring Clinton voters that you have always been on their side as Americans. Then act that way.
The fight ends Tuesday. After that, let’s try to be useful. No matter what happens.
Scott Adams
November 6, 2016
I Don’t Want a Government Job
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
The one up-side to a Trump win
I had not thought of this.
I would have thought that they’d have learned from other actors who’d promised to leave us if so-and-so won in previous elections, and then never made good on it. Credibility is apparently not highly regarded among entertainers.
A mass exodus of entertainers would not break my heart. I estimate that the number who actually leave the U.S. and change citizenship over this will be approximately zero, however. Instead of “Let My People Go!” I’m thinking “Leave me alone already. Go, and quit yer damned yappin'”.
To think of the number of hours of my life (to say nothing of the dollars) that have been wasted watching stupid movies, stupid TV, and listening to stupid music…
I wonder if I could find a court somewhere, to take my case of liability for loss-of-productivity against the entertainment industry. Such would be stupid of course, but less so than some of the blather that comes out of the mouths of entertainers.
Trump is certainly no prize, and may turn out to be a disaster. That’ll be hung on our shoulders as American patriots I suppose, though were not the ones who supported the New York Progressive.
Election day
Weird, weird election cycle. The stories are worthy of a Matthew Bracken or Dan Brown novel. I’ve got pages of links about voting “irregularities,” and a lot of them include electronic voting machines changing the presidential vote on a “straight R party ticket” to Clinton. None of them involve an irregularity going the other way. Not one. Hmmm.
Lots of shenanigans. Honest voting is only possible if both major parties actually want it enough to do what is necessary for it. Neither side apparently does, though for different reasons. Policy preferences make no difference if there are not honest elections to hold the elected accountable. A nation with no border and no common culture or ideas will never have honest elections, because at least one side will always try to take power by corrupting the election process at some point when power is within the margin of fraud. Here’s a few links to peruse (not all of them, just the fraction I decided to grab from time to time): Continue reading
Quote of the day—Michael Krieger
I want to take a quick moment to discuss his most meaningful insight, which is the idea that “political systems scale poorly.” This is hugely important, because as the current status quo system collapses, many of us in the Western world will be presented with an incredible opportunity to do things completely different.
Michael Krieger
November 6, 2016
Here’s What Happened When a Hillary Supporting MIT Professor Decided to Analyze Her Emails…
[Communism works well enough for a family unit and maybe even a small tribe. Democracy works for somewhat larger groups. Republics work for even larger groups. Republics with strong minority rights work for still larger groups. But it should be obvious by now that we haven’t recently field tested a particularly good political system for large populations with diverse cultures and large geographical areas. Krieger suggests something that showed considerable promise in earlier tests and should be reevaluated.
If it’s not obvious to you then a civil war may be in our future and you will be enlightened.—Joe]
Jews in the attic example
Via email Bob Reynolds points out:
Here’s one for the “Jews in the attic” category: http://komonews.com/news/local/king-county-using-grocery-store-data-to-target-pet-owners
From the article:
“This is not King County going and grabbing this data, you know, big brother watching what you buy at the grocery store,” said Satterfield.
Instead, the county said they pay the company who pays stores such as Safeway and QFC for access to customer data contained in every one of those reward card swipes.
Satterfield seems to think that paying someone to do it for you means you are “not doing it”.
From my Jews in the Attic Test web page we have an example which predicts the result Bob points out:
Elimination or severe restriction of anonymous financial transactions. The purchase of food and other supplies for your “Jews in the attic” would show up in the records as being excessive compared to what your needs were.
In the pot, or from the pot
Human psychology is an odd thing. A person can justify and rationalize all sorts of evil for all sorts of reasons. Collective action allows people to absolve themselves of guilt by saying “well, everyone was doing it!” (think social drinking, or conspiring to cheat on a test), or “I was ordered to do it” (think crew-served weapons like machine guns or cannons in war-time). Napleon used a lot of cannon batteries because he knew that people would not want to “let their buddies down”, and that being part of a team effort allowed each man to tell himself “I didn’t kill all those men, I just loaded powder charges,” (or carried cannon balls, or pulled a lanyard, or managed the limber, or whatever). Continue reading
Quote of the day—Despiser Despised
Democrats lost America’s first Civil War because they enslaved Black people. Democrats are going to lose America’s second Civil War because they attempted to enslave everyone else…
Not every Democrat was a KuKluxKlan member, but every KuKluxKlan member was a democrat.
When peaceful recourse is denied, violent redress becomes justified, it becomes manifold.
Despiser Despised
November 11, 2016
Comment to Democratic Pollster Celinda Lake Tells Union Workers To Lie To Voters
[Talk of a civil war may not be farfetched.
Trust of U.S. political leaders is at an all time low:
In the last few days a “little elf” told me that in the last few years the number paramilitary organizations in the U.S. have grown from a dozen or so to over a thousand.—Joe]
Update: I found another article that seems to be more authoritative with some apparently firm numbers on the number of armed groups:
Bill Fulton, an expert on the American militia movement and informant for the FBI, has far more than 170 groups on his list of “armed, violent organizations that might take a shot at the Federal Government”. That’s out of an estimated 1,360 “radical militias and anti-government groups” in the United States in 2012 (note that there were just 149 four years before)
Those who need to know already know what the following means. If it’s not crystal clear to you then don’t worry about it. It’s not for you. It’s more fun and games for the NSA:
Quote of the day—Sean
I can’t help but imagine the drunken sobbing in the writer’s room for House of Cards. Nothing they could imagine would be as dark and twisty as the current state of politics. HoC has gone from a dark mirror of contemporary politics to a sunny, optimistic take on the subject.
Sean
October 31, 2016
Comment to Quote of the day—Jaime
[At first I thought Sean was exaggerating for dramatic effect. But as I I thought about it more I realized he is probably correct.—Joe]
Well… Isn’t that interesting.
More than a handful of people that read this blog are programmers. Anyone know the best way to get this into the hands of people that can actually do something about it?
Considering Washington State is an entirely vote-by-mail bubble-form and counted by machine state, the possibility of rigging by this method is more than a little plausible.
For what it’s worth, I found it from a Drudge link to Infowars, so it’s not like nobody else will hear about it, but…..
Banana Republic, anyone?
Update: Looks like YouTube’s view-count is getting messed with, just like the vote-count 🙁
After more than two hours with a DrudgeReport link, it’s only at 909 views, and 276 likes. Not bloody likely.