DRM + Always on Internet + Prism == Really Bad PR + Backtrack fast!
The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire
Tocqueville would not recognize America today. Indeed, so completely has associational life collapsed, and so enormously has the state grown, that he would be forced to conclude that, at some point between 1833 and 2013, France must have conquered the United States.
Uprising in Brazil
Brazil appears to be the latest nation where the people have grown fed up with their corrupt, elitist, out of touch politicians. Interesting comments, in English, from a Brazilian vlogger.
Update: More videos from Brazil here and here.
It’s about control, not firearms.
Firearms safety would be the most popular class in school . . . again.
Some 2,700 teens aged 16-19 died in car crashes in 2010, the most recent year for which the federal agency’s website has figures, and 282,000 were injured. So, the nation’s schools have rightly implemented programs that teach teens to be safer drivers.
h/t, Instapundit
The Crash Of Socialism
The sorts of people who dig through medical journals to find some ingenious nanny state micro solution from the UK, Japan or South Africa that increased or decreased some petty statistic by some petty percentage don’t think in terms of people. They think in terms of statistics. They see people the way that Intel engineers see computer chips and they’re just trying to engineer them to get the best and most efficient performance out of them.
The modern nanny state is a diseased bastard child of Sociology, Marketing and the efficiency experts who used to roam the halls of GM and IBM back when companies still had company songs. It has an Asperger’s level of understanding of actual people, but is an incredible whiz with statistics.
The rest is here. (h/t Adrian)
Progressive Game Theory
They gamed votes.
They’re gaming functions of the IRS.
They’re gaming the rules governing the EPA.
What’s left? Oh…the Justice system. (Via Ace).
Benito would be proud of the modern-day black-shirts.
“After January, I am going to destroy all you f-king guys”
Ignore him – he’ll be too busy running for President;
A fuming Bloomberg made the threat against Taxi Club Management CEO Gene Freidman at Madison Square Garden’s private 1879 Club during last Thursday’s Knick playoff game, a witness said yesterday.
“It was like Gene had kidnapped his child. He used the f-word twice,” the witness said.
h/t Black Mamba
David Cameron’s Britain
Where the jihadists caper unmolested: Two men arrested over ‘offensive Twitter comments about British soldier’s death’
What’s important, “Getting the story straight.”
“To do so, he may need to do more than to promise to bolster embassy security and to shut down the IRS targeting operation. He may need to forcefully condemn the half-truths and distortions disseminated under his name.
He may need to fire people who can’t get his story straight.”
Are York Regional Police Now the Self-Proclaimed Arbiters of Free Speech?
Well known American blogger Pamela Geller is scheduled to speak in Toronto this month. But if the allegations are true, then some in the York Regional Police force appear to have decided that she should not appear:
Insp. Ricky Veerappan of the force’s diversity, equity and inclusion bureau, confirmed he and officers from the force’s hate crimes unit met with Rabbi Mendel Kaplan of the Chabad Flamingo Synagogue on Tuesday.
Rehtaeh Parsons And The Rest Of The Story
Christie Blatchford commits journalism.
Related*
In North America, we call it ‘Fisker’
‘Solyndra’, and crony capitalism.
“My wife has been crying for three or four days now saying: ‘Why should we pay and not them?'” says Andreas.
It was revealed last week in Greek media that Laiki, the Bank of Cyprus and the Hellenic Bank forgave loans amounting to millions of euros to companies, local authorities and individual politicians.
It’s what happens when politicians and business people spend time together on the golf courses.
H/t: Dick Slater
Oh, Shiny Pony!
Maybe ‘substance’ is the last thing Canadians should be worried about:
Trudeau”s not worried about those who say he lacks substance: “I’m not going to go around reciting PI to the 19th decibel” he says #cdnpoli
— The West Block (@TheWestBlock) April 7, 2013
A proud teacher who won’t back down from the Harper Conservatives, err, the Ontario Liberals.
David Cameron’s Britain
Where the foxes caper unmolested, the government packs your school lunch, and where do you put your junk?
Residents filling in a survey on household waste were stunned that, after being asked about recycling reward schemes, the sizes of bins and whether their property has space to store them, the questionnaire inquired if they were heterosexual, gay or bisexual.
h/t Me No Dhimmi
Pharma Shrugs
Government regulation is stifling America’s vibrant pharmaceutical industry. A recent report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology estimates that it costs an average of $1.2 billion to win FDA approval and bring a new drug to market.
This Woman Wants To Control What You Eat
h/t Mississauga Matt
O, Sweet Saint Of San Andreas
Hear my prayer: “the San Francisco County [plastic bag] ban is associated with a 46 percent increase in deaths from food-borne illnesses.”
h/t Kevin B
What Would We Do Without Privacy Laws?
An electronic storage device containing the personal information of about 5,000 Canadians has gone missing at the federal department responsible for pensions and employment programs…
Honey, I Finished The Civilization
2012: The Year in Bans.
Every Village Needs an Idiot
The Democrat Party in America clearly has more than its fair share of idiots.
Update: The amount of raw material in the DNC Idiot File is endless. Wouldn’t it be nice if one could just dance their way out of oodles of debt & entitlements?!