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2013-07-04 --Tech & Moderator Notes

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Posted by 2013-07-04 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11135 views ] Top

#1 Might I suggest this story for 'Land of the Free'.

http://www.kmbc.com/news/kansas-city/leawood-student-turned-away-at-british-customs-checkpoint/-/11664182/20423774/-/4qgbfuz/-/index.html

Posted by Nigel 2013-07-04 04:45|| 2013-07-04 04:45|| Front Page Top

#2 Nigel's URL linked.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-04 04:53|| 2013-07-04 04:53|| Front Page Top

#3 Would stuff like the Gibson guitar raids qualify as well?

Posted by no mo uro 2013-07-04 06:01|| 2013-07-04 06:01|| Front Page Top

#4 Good idea.

May I suggest that this might be a home for posts on international agreements that violate our constitution or what are normally considered sovereign responsibilities? (See UN arms control)

Posted by AlanC 2013-07-04 07:50|| 2013-07-04 07:50|| Front Page Top

#5 Obama trying to get ready to send our young men and women in to protect Morsi and the muslim bunderhood against the millions of Egyption protestors and the Egyption military definitly a police state move by trying that nonsense over there before trying it here.

Secretly surveying every American, buying billions of rounds of hollow points, intimidating Catholic communities, while ignoring the guys who blew up the Boston Marathon in several locations, arming Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists in Syria, refusing to help the Benghazi Seals against the Al Qaeda attack, refusing to acknowledge a War On Terror. Damn straight a Hussein police state is priority one with this regime.

Great call Fred.

Posted by Hupuque Bucket2093 2013-07-04 08:16|| 2013-07-04 08:16|| Front Page Top

#6 The girl was a student at U. VA, and she had just bought a 12-pack of bottled water, cookie dough, and ice cream.

Posted by Eric Jablow 2013-07-04 10:16|| 2013-07-04 10:16|| Front Page Top

#7 "Police state stuff" - wow... Aren't you getting a little carried away?

How can anyone over the age of forty believe that the US today does not offer vastly more protection for individual expression, more personal choice, more personal freedom than it did in the late 20th century? Fer chrissake, we still had sodomy laws on the books in many states.

30 years ago, this website and this community, of strangers living all over the world, was unthinkable. The media was dominated by three national broadcasting companies, and oligopoly newspapers dominated every local media market.

Aren't you getting just a wee bit paranoid, friends?

Posted by Lex 2013-07-04 10:20|| 2013-07-04 10:20|| Front Page Top

#8 US today does not offer vastly more protection for individual expression, more personal choice, more personal freedom than it did in the late 20th century? Fer chrissake, we still had sodomy laws on the books in many states.

Excellent illustrative point Lex. It was indeed for "Christ's sake" we had such prohibitions.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-04 10:34|| 2013-07-04 10:34|| Front Page Top

#9 This is a joke, right? During the week that saw SCOTUS protect the ability of homosexuals in this country to get married, you're talking about a looming _police state_? WTF?

Posted by Lex 2013-07-04 10:37|| 2013-07-04 10:37|| Front Page Top

#10 Lex you are a buffoon.

A police state doesn't care about what you do in your bedroom. It only cares about things that threaten IT. Things like private communications, political speech, self defense and its ability to take anything from anyone at anytime.

The BS about sodomy laws and gay marriage is all part of the bread and circuses SQUIRREL approach. Make it look like the state is oh so benevolent all the while putting in place the means to do whatever it wants to maintain the power, wealth and priveledge of the ruling elite, backed up by the force of arms.

Posted by AlanC 2013-07-04 10:47|| 2013-07-04 10:47|| Front Page Top

#11 Remember the Fourth of July:

Inviting a liberal to celebrate the Fourth of July is like inviting someone with a known bladder control issue to a pool party.

Posted by badanov 2013-07-04 10:53|| http://www.chriscovert.net 2013-07-04 10:53|| Front Page Top

#12 Amour sacré de la Patrie, For the Land of the Free, für das deutsche Vaterland, Sal dit wel wees, God regeer. Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves! Britons never, ever, ever shall be slaves.

Our definitions of "freedom" differ greatly. None of the above mention sodomy as a cause. I would wager few served or died to made it so. Just my humble opinion.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-04 10:55|| 2013-07-04 10:55|| Front Page Top

#13 You guys should get out more. You want to see a state moving away from freedom, go to Putin's Russia. Or Venezuela.

But Rantburgers' freedom to say whatever we bloody well please, and f--- the consequences, hasn't diminished in the slightest. Never has anyone in this country had more freedom to say and do more stuff - good, bad, thoughtful or nutty, whatever - than in the present era. Sex, drugs, free expression, ranting about the wickedness of POTUS, whatever: all far, far less controlled than at any time any of us can remember.

Same for economics. Effective tax rates are vastly lower than they were 30 years ago. Businesses today are far less regulated than they were. Remember fixed brokerage commissions? Gone. Media monopolies, airlines' price-fixing? Gone. The average life of a top corporation is shrinking every year. Competition in sector after sector is more robust. There's never been more consumer choice.

Someone mentioned police brutality. Good lord, have you forgotten Frank Rizzo? Or the 1970s-era brutal and corrupt departments all across this country? There are many more, not fewer, curbs on the cops today than there were in our youth.

Really, guys... what are y'all smoking?

Posted by Lex 2013-07-04 10:58|| 2013-07-04 10:58|| Front Page Top

#14 You guys should get out more.
Lex

Indeed, I should! I've been a disengaged shut-in far too long. [sarc off]

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-04 11:02|| 2013-07-04 11:02|| Front Page Top

#15 Conrad Black.

Posted by Fred 2013-07-04 11:13|| 2013-07-04 11:13|| Front Page Top

#16 Congress can pass all the laws against sodomy they want. It's when they come into your bedroom to ensure compliance that we're in trouble.

Posted by Fred 2013-07-04 11:17|| 2013-07-04 11:17|| Front Page Top

#17 We even read radical conspiracy theory journals for all our news for the so called police state

Posted by badanov 2013-07-04 11:18|| http://www.chriscovert.net 2013-07-04 11:18|| Front Page Top

#18 Lex

There are a few items that qualify for Land of the Free and our erosion of liberties. These items are large and small.

The SWAT team landing on the woman who was buying bottled water, that they mistook for beer.

The 14 year old arrested for wearing an NRA T-shirt

The young boy tossed from school for biting a pop-tart into the shape of a gun

The IRS harassing Tea Party groups over 501(c)4 applications, then lying about it to the House, then having the FBI conduct an 'investigation' in which no one is interviewed

New York trying to ban guns after saying it wouldn't ban guns

Investigation of and threats to AP writer James Rosen

Dismissal of Inspector General Walpin

Gibson guitar factory raid

I could name more if I had another minute.

You get the idea -- or, you would if you were willing to sit back a moment, put your ideology to one side and examine the situation.

There are people in this country who want to 'transform' it, and they're working to do so by hook and crook. That's the point.

Posted by Steve White 2013-07-04 11:18|| 2013-07-04 11:18|| Front Page Top

#19 We should "get out more", except law enforcement is trying to kill us

Posted by badanov 2013-07-04 11:20|| http://www.chriscovert.net 2013-07-04 11:20|| Front Page Top

#20 Oops! I guess I was just being paranoid!

Posted by badanov 2013-07-04 11:22|| http://www.chriscovert.net 2013-07-04 11:22|| Front Page Top

#21 Just curious - no snark intended - do you guys use Facebook or other social networks that sell your data to advertisers for profit? Do you allow cookies? Use Google?

If so, why are you content to allow corporations run by punks in hoodies to gather vastly more, and more intimate, personal info about you - and then SELL that info to data merchants like Acxiom and the credit scoring companies - than any US gov't entity will ever have? How so?

Posted by Lex 2013-07-04 11:24|| 2013-07-04 11:24|| Front Page Top

#22 Being "paranoid" doesn't mean there isn't someone behind you Badanov.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-04 11:24|| 2013-07-04 11:24|| Front Page Top

#23 I go by "Lex" on Facebook. Why do you ask ?

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-04 11:26|| 2013-07-04 11:26|| Front Page Top

#24 If so, why are you content to allow corporations run by punks in hoodies

versus a government run by thugs.

It's no contest, baby!

GO Punks!

Posted by badanov 2013-07-04 11:26|| http://www.chriscovert.net 2013-07-04 11:26|| Front Page Top

#25 But Rantburgers' freedom to say whatever we bloody well please, and f--- the consequences, hasn't diminished in the slightest. Never has anyone in this country had more freedom to say and do more stuff - good, bad, thoughtful or nutty, whatever - than in the present era. Sex, drugs, free expression, ranting about the wickedness of POTUS, whatever: all far, far less controlled than at any time any of us can remember.

Except if you hold conservative viewpoints. Not all change is a wonderful, shout-about, freeing moment. Some change is destructive, freedom-destroying, stultifyingly stupid, and culture destroying.

Posted by JohnQC 2013-07-04 11:29|| 2013-07-04 11:29|| Front Page Top

#26 Say hi to the NSA Lex. And they thank you for being a parrot drone.

Posted by DarthVader 2013-07-04 11:33|| 2013-07-04 11:33|| Front Page Top

#27 John: Except if you hold conservative viewpoints. Not all change is a wonderful, shout-about, freeing moment. Some change is destructive, freedom-destroying, stultifyingly stupid, and culture destroying.

And what do you intend to do about the latter? Suppress it with the power of ... the state? Are you a Texas GOP state legislator?

Posted by Lex 2013-07-04 11:36|| 2013-07-04 11:36|| Front Page Top

#28 Thanks for the reminder, Lex.

Hey Fred -- add Facebook to the list!

Posted by Steve White 2013-07-04 11:37|| 2013-07-04 11:37|| Front Page Top

#29 And what do you intend to do about the latter? Suppress it with the power of ... the state?

That's what you would do.

Some advice Lex. Stop accusing us of being paranoid, and then changing the subject by playing to your projected views of us.

You'll have a better debate

Posted by badanov 2013-07-04 12:11|| http://www.chriscovert.net 2013-07-04 12:11|| Front Page Top

#30 For the LotF section, here's a bizarre, and terrifying, 3rd amendment case in Henderson, Nevada.

Re: the new troll. May I ask, why are y'all engaging this ankle-biting biaytch? You can't reason someone out of a position they were never reasoned into in the first place. Just my $0.02.

Posted by RandomJD 2013-07-04 12:19|| 2013-07-04 12:19|| Front Page Top

#31 #23. Heh, B! Troll-bashing can be fun

Posted by Frank G 2013-07-04 12:22|| 2013-07-04 12:22|| Front Page Top

#32 Quit complaining everyone. You don't know how good you've got it! Or Lex will project his views on you to shut you down

Posted by Frank G 2013-07-04 12:23|| 2013-07-04 12:23|| Front Page Top

#33 And what do you intend to do about the latter? Suppress it with the power of ... the state?

Absolutely not. I would suggest less rather than more government intrusion into the lives of citizens would result in more freedom. I would also suggest that adding layers upon layers of security does not lead to more freedom for the citizen.

Posted by JohnQC 2013-07-04 12:25|| 2013-07-04 12:25|| Front Page Top

#34 Actually Government getting involved in marriage is an example of a police state in my book.

Also an example of the problems caused by too much government leading to people arranging their lives around taxation and inheritance!

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2013-07-04 12:27|| 2013-07-04 12:27|| Front Page Top

#35 Businesses today are far less regulated than they were.

Oh.

My.

God.

We now have proof that this Lex organism does not own an authentic (non rent-seeking) business or possibly owned one and it failed.

I've owned a business for over a quarter century now and there has NEVER been a time like the last four years with anything like the regulatory cost and time burden we have now. The Clinton years even were better.

Toss out a few isolated industries where the burden is slightly less as examples but ignore the other 95% of us who own businesses and are being crushed under a draconian hyperregulatory environment, and your credibility sinks even further, boy. You might win on the high school debate team with that sort of crap but reality has other notions.

Posted by no mo uro 2013-07-04 12:35|| 2013-07-04 12:35|| Front Page Top

#36 Its about time! Thanks Fred and MODS. We must be vigilant about our right, or we will watch them go away. There is so much going on out there, both here and abroad that's getting missed. This will be Troll smashing fun!!!

Posted by 49 Pan 2013-07-04 12:43|| 2013-07-04 12:43|| Front Page Top

#37 Yes, thanks Fred and Mods. Dog sitting in Ga. Raining buckets with no end in sight, 4 inches last 24 hrs.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-04 12:51|| 2013-07-04 12:51|| Front Page Top

#38 Businesses today are far less regulated than they were.

That alone should get you sent to the kid's table.

Posted by SteveS 2013-07-04 13:04|| 2013-07-04 13:04|| Front Page Top

#39 "Businesses today are far less regulated than they were"

What are you smoking, and can people on this planet get it?

Posted by Barbara 2013-07-04 13:18|| 2013-07-04 13:18|| Front Page Top

#40 An example of what you can derive from 'just' metadata.

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-you-can-learn-from-phone-metadata-2013-7

Make sure you click on the graphic so it plays.

Add to that the fact that the postal service takes an image of both sides of every letter and uses that information.

http://hotair.com/headlines.
/archives/2013/07/03/oh-by-the-way-the-feds-are-collecting-information-from-your-regular-paper-mail-too/

A saw both of these at AoSHQ, just to give credit where it is due.

Posted by WhiskeyMike173 2013-07-04 13:33|| 2013-07-04 13:33|| Front Page Top

#41 we used to have an infrequent commenter nymed Lex, who was usually coherent, and dealing with the same reality. ll I can surmise is: 1) different Lex, or 2) head injury

Posted by Frank G 2013-07-04 13:44|| 2013-07-04 13:44|| Front Page Top

#42 That's what I was thinking, Frank.

Unless our Lex drank a MASSIVE overdose of Kool-Aid.™

Posted by Barbara 2013-07-04 14:25|| 2013-07-04 14:25|| Front Page Top

#43 my youngest son posted this today:
On today, Independence Day, please reflect on how we lack the individual freedom to purchase and explode fireworks in all 50 states. Then mail me some Black Cats.>

Posted by 3dc 2013-07-04 15:52|| 2013-07-04 15:52|| Front Page Top

#44 ^^^^^^That. Moar firecrackers for freedom!

Posted by Shipman 2013-07-04 16:02|| 2013-07-04 16:02|| Front Page Top

#45
If so, why are you content to allow corporations run by punks in hoodies to gather vastly more, and more intimate, personal info about you - and then SELL that info to data merchants like Acxiom and the credit scoring companies - than any US gov't entity will ever have? How so?

Given that governments and not the private sector have committed nearly all of the horrible atrocities of the past hundred or so years, Lex - over 100 million dead in the leftist world (USSR, Maoist China, and their various counterparts) and another fifteen million or so due to big-government right of center groups like the Nazis - why do you have so much trust in government and see the private sector as being inherently evil to the point where you want to regulate it to death and make it subservient to the state (instead of the opposite, which is what the founders envisioned)?

Posted by no mo uro 2013-07-04 16:14|| 2013-07-04 16:14|| Front Page Top

#46 no mo uro, I'm sorry but I have to object to you're portrayal of the Nazis as "right of center".

The Nazis were a flavor of socialism as is fascism, read your Mussolini. They were only "right" of center if you consider Mao to be the center.

This is a semantic turd that has bothered me for more than 40 yrs.

Other than that, I agree with you. Lex has apparently had his image of bad guys formed by watching too many James Bond movies.

Posted by AlanC 2013-07-04 16:22|| 2013-07-04 16:22|| Front Page Top

#47 Ok, so it's black helicopter time. Anyone seen anything more on the Mike Hastings car crash ?

In spite of the source, an story.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-04 16:33|| 2013-07-04 16:33|| Front Page Top

#48 ....an interesting story.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-07-04 17:05|| 2013-07-04 17:05|| Front Page Top

#49 Ok, so it's black helicopter time. Anyone seen anything more on the Mike Hastings car crash ?
Nope, but I think it is safe to say 'He's(still) dead, Jim.'

Posted by USN, Ret. 2013-07-04 18:53|| 2013-07-04 18:53|| Front Page Top

#50 If so, why are you content to allow corporations run by punks in hoodies to gather vastly more, and more intimate, personal info about you

Yeah, shopping at Trayvon Mart. Whats the frequency Lexinth, in the plural.

Posted by swksvolFF 2013-07-04 19:16|| 2013-07-04 19:16|| Front Page Top

#51 hey, any of you in the lex group do anything today, volunteer time, feed the poor, celebrate the liberty to express yourself? Get your coffee on time, or your tea and whine? Its quite obvious to me that you are nym by committee. Talk it over with your freaihnds?

Posted by swksvolFF 2013-07-04 19:44|| 2013-07-04 19:44|| Front Page Top

#52 Re regulation, you either slept through the last half century or else you're wilfully ignorant. Let's take it industry by industry:

Banking: far more regulation pre-1990s: Glass Steagall, to name the most obvious example, plus much greater enforcement. After the circus of scandals in mortgage banking over the last ten years, you'd have to be an industry shill to argue that this rotten sector needed LESS, not much more, regulation. Consider that the state which most tightly regulated its lenders in the wake of the S&L debacle is the one whose real estate market has been the healthiest and least volatile. That would be Texas, if you care to know. The least regulated mortgage markets gave us boom and bust, Countrywide and other corrupt slimeballs. Again, TX is the most regulated in this area, CA one of the least . As usual, you've got it backwards.

Airlines: again, the industry was deregulated. Fares adjusted for inflation are lower than they were 40 years ago.

Media/Internet: there was no competition to speak of for many media companies 40 years ago. The Internet is wide open, with hardly any regulation at all.

I could go on, but it's not even worth arguing with someone who doesn't know what Glass Steagall refers to, or who thinks our banking sector needs less, not more, regulation after all the criminal stunts that those clowns pulled on us when they were cratering the world's economy during the Bush admin.

Posted by Lex 2013-07-04 19:59|| 2013-07-04 19:59|| Front Page Top

#53 Right, so the bitter enemy of communism who blamed the Reichstag fire on the Communists and allied himself closely with German industrialists and all the pillars of the right-wing Prussian hierarchy was a leftist. Suuuuure.

You guys need to adjust the tinfoil. Starting to constrict the blood flow to your brains.

Posted by Lex 2013-07-04 20:24|| 2013-07-04 20:24|| Front Page Top

#54 Pretty neat trick. Arguing both for and against regulation.

Posted by badanov 2013-07-04 20:32|| http://www.chriscovert.net 2013-07-04 20:32|| Front Page Top

#55 Lex,

The only moron here with tinfoil on their head is you. Nobody believes your regime provided talking points or falls for attempts to constant move the goal posts when you start losing the debate. There's really no point in even reading your posts because well, if we want to read inane drivel we can go to the CNN or MSNBC websites. My suggestion is that you find the rock you slithered out of and use it to club yourself into having an IQ

Posted by Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division 2013-07-04 20:46|| 2013-07-04 20:46|| Front Page Top

#56 The Internet is wide open, with hardly any regulation at all.

Taxation on internet-based commerce to come soon, though.

Posted by Pappy 2013-07-04 21:41|| 2013-07-04 21:41|| Front Page Top

#57 Our Legal System was designed to protect US from Federal Government control any way possible. That Constitution is not about regulating US, but those with the biggest guns.

Many, many feel this slipping away.
Furthermore, the CINC almost has it to the point where he could* (Could)flip one switch and PWN it all.
You do not hurriedly consolidate such power so quickly unless you plan to use it.

Take off your Fedora, and put on tin foil hat. It is Our duty to watch the watchers and maybe have something in semblance of a non tyrannical state.

Posted by newc 2013-07-04 22:15|| 2013-07-04 22:15|| Front Page Top

#58 BTW - U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement

Posted by newc 2013-07-04 22:20|| 2013-07-04 22:20|| Front Page Top

23:36 JosephMendiola
22:20 newc
22:15 newc
22:01 Pappy
21:53 Pappy
21:52 Pappy
21:44 Pappy
21:43 tipover
21:41 Pappy
21:14 Redneck Jim
20:46 Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division
20:38 badanov
20:35 Lex
20:32 badanov
20:24 Lex
20:18 Pappy
19:59 Lex
19:44 swksvolFF
19:16 swksvolFF
19:14 Barbara
19:11 USN, Ret.
19:11 Alaska Paul
19:10 Barbara
19:08 Alaska Paul