"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ~ H.L. Mencken
Civil Disobedience
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"U.S. technology companies are in danger of losing more business to foreign competitors if the National Security Agency’s power to spy on customers isn’t curbed, researchers with the New America Foundation said in a report today. The report, by the foundation’s Open Technology Institute, called for prohibiting the NSA from collecting data in bulk, while letting companies report more details about what information they give the government. Senate legislation introduced...
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"The ongoing saga of the constitutionality and enforceability of Washington, DC’s handgun ban added yet another new chapter today, as the federal judge who ruled it unconstitutional issued a stay. The police chief also told officers to renew enforcing it."
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"If passed the Corker bill will declare Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine “major non-NATO allies” and move NATO troops and equipment into the former Soviet republics of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. It will put an ABM system on the fast track in Eastern Europe and step up military and intelligence assistance to Ukrainian forces fighting against separatists in Donbass and elsewhere in Eastern Ukraine."
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"‘I did it for your own good’ is not what you want to hear when the dating site you use sets you up on a bad date. On purpose. ‘Everybody does it’ is similarly disconcerting. But that’s exactly what OkCupid is saying about experiments involving its users. The free dating and social networking website announced, “We experiment on human beings!” in a blog post on Monday. “OkCupid doesn’t really know what it’s doing. Neither does any...
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"Imperial Washington is truly running amuck in its insensible confrontation with Vladimir Putin. The pending round of new sanctions is a counter-productive joke. Apparently, more of Vlad’s posse will be put on double probation, thereby reducing demand for Harry Macklowe’s swell new $60 million apartment units on Park Avenue. Likewise, American exporters of high tech oilfield equipment will be shot in the foot with an embargo; and debt-saturated Russian state companies will be denied the...
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"We see an eerie resemblance to an earlier exercise in U.S. “public diplomacy” from which valuable lessons can be learned by those more interested in the truth than in exploiting tragic incidents for propaganda advantage. We refer to the behavior of the Reagan administration in the immediate aftermath of the shoot-down of Korean Airlines Flight 007 over Siberia on August 30, 1983. We sketch out below a short summary of that tragic affair, since we suspect you have not been adequately briefed on...
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Original article
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"We see an eerie resemblance to an earlier exercise in U.S. “public diplomacy” from which valuable lessons can be learned by those more interested in the truth than in exploiting tragic incidents for propaganda advantage. We refer to the behavior of the Reagan administration in the immediate aftermath of the shoot-down of Korean Airlines Flight 007 over Siberia on August 30, 1983. We sketch out below a short summary of that tragic affair, since we suspect you have not been adequately briefed on...
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Original article
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"We see an eerie resemblance to an earlier exercise in U.S. “public diplomacy” from which valuable lessons can be learned by those more interested in the truth than in exploiting tragic incidents for propaganda advantage. We refer to the behavior of the Reagan administration in the immediate aftermath of the shoot-down of Korean Airlines Flight 007 over Siberia on August 30, 1983. We sketch out below a short summary of that tragic affair, since we suspect you have not been adequately briefed on...
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"Now that the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby, the Satanists point out, it strengthens their own quest to opt out of laws related to women’s health care that go against their religious liberty. “Because of the respect the Court has given to religious beliefs, and the fact that our our beliefs are based on best available knowledge, we expect that our belief in the illegitimacy of state mandated ‘informational’ material is enough to exempt us, and those who hold our beliefs, from...
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Just in case the scenery in your corner of the world isn't colorful enough...
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"“Has anybody seen ‘Contagion’? That’s the answer! Go out and use genetic engineering to create a better virus… 25 percent of the population is supposed to go in Contagion.” While this comment was made prior to the current Ebola outbreak fears, it is unsettling given the fact that Dr. Arntzen was already working a biotech vaccine for Ebola."
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"Those in the U.S. who are enthralled by relentless reports of the most demonic acts attributed to President Vladimir Putin and the rebel Eastern Ukrainian federalists a in the NYT (New York Times), NPR, ETC. would do well to look at the track record of the “reporters” dishing out this stuff. What they will find is a trail of deception that is piled with corpses of hundreds of thousands of innocents."
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"According to the UN, civilians account for more than 70% of those killed; children make up a third of the total civilian death count. The 29-day military operation has damaged 142 schools, including 89 schools controlled by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)."
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"Why are we seeing such an uptick in Americans being arrested for such absurd “violations” as letting their kids play at a park unsupervised, collecting rainwater and snow runoff on their own property, growing vegetables in their yard, and holding Bible studies in their living room? Mind you, we’re not talking tickets or fines or even warnings being issued to these so-called “lawbreakers.” We’re talking felony charges, handcuffs, police cars, mug shots, pat downs, jail cells and criminal...
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"Alexander retired from the agency last year, and his name will be forever linked to Snowden’s vast data theft. When news of his million-dollar plus consulting fee leaked, Alexander was blasted my members of Congress, one of whom blamed him for profiteering by trading secrets for cash. More directly, Florida Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson accused Alexander Wednesday of disclosing “classified information to bank trade groups for monthly fees of up to $1,000,000.”"
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