Through a (Google) Glass, Darkly? Let me throw out two predictions so obvious that I shouldn’t even have to commit them to print:
1) Within days, if not hours, of Google Glass‘s release to the general public, hackers will “jailbreak” the hardware, allowing it to run any “Glassware” users desire and can create or find online; and
2) An independent developer community will emerge to create those applications , whether Google wants them to or not.
As a matter of fact, I’ll double down... (more)
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'The Question Libertarians Just Can't Answer'For some reason, the finger-waggers at Salon think they’ve got us stumped with this one: “If your approach is so great, why hasn’t any country in the world ever tried it?”
So this is the unanswerable question? What’s supposed to be so hard about it? Ninety percent of what libertarians write about answers it at least implicitly.
Let’s reword the question slightly... (more)
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Maryland v. King and the Total Loss of Our Bodily Integrity As I document in my new book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, our freedoms – especially the Fourth Amendment – are being choked out by a prevailing view among government bureaucrats that they have the right to search, seize, strip, scan, spy on, probe, pat down, taser, and arrest any individual at any time and for the slightes... (more)
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State Power and How It Might Be Undermined State power is the most dangerous force in modern life. State rulers, seeking their own aggrandizement and enrichment, employ this power systematically to plunder and abuse their subjects. Of course, they cannot act in this way without the assistance of many others, among whom some assist willingly, some in return for adequate compensation, and many only under duress.
To maintain their grip on power... (more)
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The FBI: An American ChekaNearly twenty years ago, then-FBI Director Louis Freeh – still basking in his agency’s residual glory from the Mt. Carmel Massacre of April 1993 – visited Moscow to sign a joint cooperation accord with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). After touring the Lubyanka Square headquarters of the Russian secret police, Freeh observed that “Our nations... (more)
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Government Creates a New Criminal ClassWoo-hoo! It is a wonderful thing when the good guys win one for a change. Well, it wasn't a total win, but it gives hope.
In a case brought by the Wisconsin state government — with full cooperation from the federal government — a jury refused to convict Amish farmer Vernon Hershberger on all counts for distributing milk, cheese, and meat without a license. He did he end up with one conviction, for which he faces a year in jail, but that's nothing compared with what might have ha... (more)
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Slavery or Freedom Have you ever thought about the morality or legitimacy of politicians forbidding you to have a vegetable garden in your own front yard, or buying or selling raw milk, or merely having a lemonade stand without a local bureaucrat’s permission?
You see, when the armed bureaucrat is arresting the peaceful raw milk seller, the harmless vegetable gardener or the little lemonade proprietor, those arrestees are not the criminals here.
Those otherwise pe... (more)
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Generation WhyI probably loathe the American compulsory education system more than anyone I've ever met. I despise it on deeply personal level, on an ethical level, and from an efficacy standpoint. I despise the people involved; the administrators, the so-called teachers, the teeming hordes of kids who don't want to and shouldn't be there wasting everyone's time and money.
But like everything else, every now and then there a silver lining or a bright star that breaks through the darkness and de... (more)
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Learning from MistakesThe old idiom "you can lead a horse to water, but not make him drink" has proven itself true in the course of human learning. Or rather, it would be more accurate to label it man's inability to learn from mistakes. You can hold a mirror up to grotesque instances of hypocrisy, but most men will remain mules – stubborn in their prejudice and beliefs. The ability to heed lessons from blunders is, often times, a skill unable to be mastered by the mass populace. A child might learn to not touch a sea... (more)
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Government and Collapsed BridgesThe recent collapse of a small commuter bridge in Washington has brought back memories of Minnesota. Back in August of 2007, the I-35W Mississippi bridge connecting the Downtown East and Marcy-Holmes neighborhoods plummeted to the river below like a Chinese-made sofa. Thirteen individuals lost their lives while 145 escaped with injury. The suddenness of the debacle was met with the blunt response system of the state. That is, politicians in Minnesota and elsewhere went before the public to decry... (more)
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IRS on the Hot Seat“I have not done anything wrong,” Lois Lerner, head of the IRS’ nonprofit division, told a congressional hearing. “I have not broken any laws.” Then she invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to be second-guessed by the Congress that is supposed to be watching over all agencies of government.
Seeing the IRS grilled like this is something many people have waited for their entire lives. It’s lovely and a sign of the times (government has never been this unpopular). But contrary to Ms... (more)
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Psychiatry and Its Free Market ChampionThis week is a big one in the psychiatry world. The American Psychiatric Association released the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). What is now a massive 1,000-page tome doesn’t come out very often, but when it does, as Johns Hopkins distinguished professor Paul McHugh writes, the book “shape[s] what psychiatrists say and do with their patients.”
Back in the old days, say, in 1952, when the DSM-1 was a spiral-bound pamphlet, people... (more)
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Bill Nye, Global Warming Opportunist GuyTelevision personality Bill Nye, a former Boeing engineer and standup comedian, may call himself “The Science Guy,” but his May 20 appearance on Piers Morgan’s CNN program dealt with speculation, rather than science.
Referring to the devastating tornado in Oklahoma, Nye said that 10 of the past 12 years have been “the warmest years recorded” ... (more)
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Martial Law vs. Market Law: Reflections on BostonThere are two kinds of people in the world: those who respect coercive authority and consider it legitimate, and those who do not. The former group is likewise split into two factions: a relatively small group that, for whatever reason, essentially worships power, and a much larger one whose members merely tolerate authoritarianism, either as a matter of expedience or habit. In the wake of the recent bombing at the Boston Marathon and subsequent military-style manhunt, it seems clear that the gr... (more)
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Ron Paul: The IRS's Job Is To Violate Our Liberties “What do you expect when you target the President?” This is what an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent allegedly said to the head of a conservative organization that was being audited after calling for the impeachment of then-President Clinton. Recent revelations that IRS agents gave “special scrutiny” to organizations opposed to the current administration’s policies suggest that many in the IRS still believe harassing the President’s opponents is part of their job.
... (more)
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Government Is the ProblemBarack Obama recently told the graduating class of the Ohio State University,
"Unfortunately, you've grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's at the root of all our problems... They'll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Becau ... (more)
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The Terror Cartel Strikes in IdahoDuring a May 15 visit to Stockholm, Secretary of State John Kerry warned Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad that if he doesn’t begin preparations to abdicate his office, “the opposition will be receiving additional support … and unfortunately the violence will not end.”
Under the rhetorical conventions governing the cynical profession called... (more)
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Think Progress? Ha!Think Progress, the hilariously named "progressive" front group for the Democratic Party, recently penned one of the most hysterical pieces I've seen. That's really saying something in our age.
The basic theory of the piece is that the Federal Reserve's out of control printing is massive, nearly unprecedented, (both correct) and working to help the economy (wildly, childishly incorrec... (more)
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It's Time for Private DefenseThe Cleveland Police Department took plenty of criticism when three girls that had been missing for a decade escaped captivity mere miles from their homes. Ariel Castro secretly held the girls hostage for years doing unspeakable things to them. In November 2001, a neighbor called the police when he heard screaming at the Castro home, but officers left when no one opened the front door.
Other neighbors say they called upon seeing women in the property’s attic window, but police say... (more)
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Round the Clock Surveillance: Is This the Price of Living in a 'Free, Safe' Society?“If you’re not a terrorist, if you’re not a threat, prove it. This is the price you pay to live in free society right now. It’s just the way it is.”—Sergeant Ed Mullins of the New York Police Department
Immediately following the devastating 9/11 attacks, which destroyed the illusion of invulnerability which had defined American society since the end of the Cold War, many Americans willingly ceded their rights and liberties to government officials who promised them that the feelin... (more)
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U.S. Government vs. DEFCAD: You Can't Fix StupidThere’s nothing quite so funny as the sight of the authoritarian functionaries of a dying order trying to suppress a revolution they don’t understand — and failing miserably.
The State Department’s attempt to censor 3-D printable gun files from DEFCAD is the latest — and one of the most gut-bustingly hilarious — attempts by the Lords of Scarcity to wrap their minds around the revolution of Abundance that threatens their power. Less ... (more)
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The Government's Us? Not Last Time I CheckedIn a speech last month about proposed gun control legislation, President Obama decried opponents’ attempts to encourage “suspicion about government." "The government's us," he responded. "These officials are elected by you. They are constrained as I am constrained, by a system that our founders put in place."
But if government were “us,” why would we have ever needed a Bill of Rights or defense attorneys?
In order for the government to be “us,” and for its elected o... (more)
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The State Is A Religious InstitutionReligion: a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.
Faith: firm belief in something for which there is no proof.
On the website Debate.org, the question of whether government is necessary or not was put up for debate. One of the responses that was given in favor government being a... (more)
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The Draft Is And Always Will Be SlaveryObama says some Americans are paranoid, fretting about an imagined tyranny lurking behind the corner. Progressives cheer as he mocks his lowly subjects. Yet some among them embrace one of the most despotic state powers imaginable: the draft.
The draft is military slavery. It cannot be justified on any basis. Ever. It is wrong in and of itself, just like aggressive war. It is true that the Vietnam war did... (more)
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Cleveland Police Say They'll "Review" Handling Of Ramsey 911 Call After Public CriticismI forgot it's also standard operating procedure for dispatchers to stay on the line with victims.
Yahoo's The Lookout reports:
Cleveland officials are investigating the handling of a call from kidnapping victim Amanda Berry to 911 on Monday.
Berry and two other women had been held captive in a Cleveland home for nearly a deca ... (more)
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Listen To The Way This Rude Dispatcher Handled Charles Ramsey's 911 Call...The problem with government granted monopolies is the quality of service they provide reflects the fact they don't have to compete for dollars in the marketplace. They get money regardless of the quality of the "service" they provide.
Here's a good example of this principle in effect, listen to the way this 911 dispatcher treats Charles Ramsey, the now famous man who tipped off police to three teens who were held hostage for a decade.
... (more)
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Stop Granting Special Privileges to the Police The horrific Boston bombings already have led to irrational calls for more security cameras and more police officers, with some Democrats absurdly using this tragedy as a reason to stop the slight sequester-mandated cuts in federal spending growth.
Never mind that police spending primarily is a local matter. The bigger questions that Americans have rarely asked, especially following the 9/11 attacks: Do we really want the government to hire new armies of police offic... (more)
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