Chicago takes a page from Bloomberg…
Comments »U.N. Calls on Obama to Publish Findings on Bush-Era Torture
“A United Nations human rights official wants the Obama administration to release a government report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret rendition program conducted during the George W. Bush era.
Ben Emmerson, UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, noted that under President Barack Obama, the government has withheld important information on what he said were illegal acts committed by CIA agents.
“Many of the facts remain classified, and no public official has so far been brought to justice in the United States,” Emmerson said in a report to the UN Human Rights Council. Speaking to that panel, he called the CIA torture program an “international conspiracy of crime.” …”
Comments »Strong Island Man Given Summons for Laughing to Loud in His Own Home
“There’s no pursuit of happiness for this Long Island man — local cops busted him for laughing too loudly in his own home.
Robert Schiavelli, 42, was recently slapped with two “absurd” summonses because his next-door neighbor complained that he could hear his hearty guffaws from across the driveway.
“I didn’t know it was a crime to laugh out a window,” said Schiavelli, who is considered disabled because he has frequent seizures and suffers from neurological impairments.
Schiavelli was chortling because he says his neighbor often taunts him due to his disability — and his best defense is to laugh him off….”
Comments »City of Nelson GA Looks to Make Gun Ownership Mandatory
“NELSON, Ga. — Every homeowner in a local town could soon have to own a gun or break the law. It’s a controversial new plan for the city of Nelson.
Leaders told Channel 2’s John Bachman the reason they need the law is because the city straddles Cherokee county to the south and Pickens County to the north.
That, they said, can lead to slower response times.
One police officer patrols Nelson, Georgia for eight hours during the day. That leaves 16 hours overnight when the city is basically unguarded.
“When he’s not here we rely on county sheriffs–however it takes a while for them to get here,” said Nelson City Councilman Duane Cronic.
That’s why Cronic proposed the ordinance.
“Every head of household will own and maintain a firearm,” he said.
Bill McNiff lives in Nelson, carries a pistol and supports the law….”
DHS Drones Track Your Cell Phone While Identifying if Your Packing Heat
“Recently uncovered government documents reveal that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) unmanned Predator B drone fleet has been customize designed to identify civilians carrying guns and track cell phone signals.
“I am very concerned that this technology will be used against law-abiding American firearms owners,” said founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation Alan Gottlieb. “This could violate Fourth Amendment rights as well as Second Amendment rights.”
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) obtained a partially redacted copy of Homeland Security’s drone requirements through a Freedom of Information Act request; CNET uncovered an unredacted copy.
Homeland Security design requirements specify that its Predator B drones “shall be capable of identifying a standing human being at night as likely armed or not” and must be equipped with “interception” systems capable of reading cell phone signals…..”
Comments »Riches to Rags, a la $AAPL
FORTUNE — In the late 1990s, an ad agency creative director I’ll call Joe Smith to protect his privacy bought several hundred shares of Apple (AAPL) at $60 apiece. Last fall, at age 42, he found himself out of work and increasingly dependent on the value of those shares to make ends meet.
Following the lead of a 33-year-old investment advisor named Andy Zaky who had written that Apple was going to $750 by January and to $1,000 within a year, Smith converted most of his Apple common stock — more than he should have — into high-risk Apple call options. When those options expired in the third week of January with Apple trading below $500, they were worth exactly zero. Smith had lost roughly $400,000 and all his Apple shares.
A lot of people lost a lot of money when Apple went into the extended downward slide that just entered its sixth month. And there were plenty of other experts saying all along that the stock was undervalued and ready to bounce. But Smith’s story — and the story of hundreds of other investors who were following Andy Zaky’s so-called Apple model portfolio last fall — hold a special poignancy for me. Not only did these people get some spectacularly bad advice, but they got it from someone whom I helped make famous.
I’d been writing about Zaky since the fall of 2008. I’d covered his earnings predictions, his buy and sell calls, his critiques of competing fund managers. I’d eaten dinner with him, toured him around my Brooklyn neighborhood, introduced him to my wife.
So I feel a personal and professional obligation to find out what went wrong.
DHS Adds to Suspicion by Buying 2700 Light Armored Tanks Outfitted for U.S. Streets
“This is getting a little creepy.
According to one estimate, since last year the Department of Homeland Security has stockpiled more than 1.6 billion bullets, mainly .40 caliber and 9mm.
DHS also purchased 2,700 Mine Resistant Armor Protected Vehicles (MRAP).
Modern Survival Blog reported:
Comments »The Department of Homeland Security (through the U.S. Army Forces Command) recently retrofitted 2,717 of these ‘Mine Resistant Protected’ vehicles for service on the streets of the United States.
Although I’ve seen and read several online blurbs about this vehicle of late, I decided to dig slightly deeper and discover more about the vehicle itself….”
Shaking Things Up With Beppe Grillo: “Who the Fuck Do We Owe This Money Too?”
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dEemZ2pVyo 450 300]
Link for iPhone users: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dEemZ2pVyo
Comments »Washington Rep. Says to Tax Bicyclists for Exhaling CO2
“Taxing the air we breathe may be coming to Washington state. Yes, the insane taxing of every behavior is rising to a whole new level with the proposed “bike tax” in Washington.
According to lawmakers who proposed the bike tax, it would help raise $1 million over the next decade to be used for road maintenance. The new $25 tax will be applied on every bike sold for over $500 in the state.
One Washington lawmaker is making twisted argument in support of the new fee. Rep. Ed Orcutt wrote in an email to a bike shop that the CO2 that bicyclists exhale while riding is just one of the reasons he supports the bike tax.
“Since CO2 is deemed a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, bicyclists are actually polluting when they ride,” Orcutt wrote. Therefore, they should pay taxes to help the environment as well as the roads.
Here is his full email …..”
Comments »FLASH: The Dismantling of the Chinese Market–sector by sector
Colorado May Outlaw a Standard Shotgun
ACTA Makes a Come Back
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOzM3nfPnfc 450 300]
Link for iPhone users: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOzM3nfPnfc
Comments »Can You Make Change ?
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSDp0ibSYzg 450 300]
Link for iPhone users: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSDp0ibSYzg
Comments »South Dakota Approves Guns in the Classroom
“Lawmakers in South Dakota have passed a bill that would allow school districts to arm staff and teachers with guns to make their schools “safer”.
State Senators on Wednesday voted 21-14 to pass the measure, despite large-scale opposition from school administrators and personnel, who are largely opposed to bringing weapons into their schools.
Supporters of the bill claim that arming teachers could prevent tragedies like the Dec. 14 massacre in Newtown, Conn. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Craig Tieszen, R-Rapid City, said that he would leave the decision to arm teachers up to individual school districts, but that he strongly recommends it.
When Craig advocated for the measure earlier this year, he said that having gun-free schools would simply make them more vulnerable and invite potential mass murderers.
“The possibility of an armed presence in any of our schools is a deterrent,” Craig told Fox News, claiming that no shooter would attack a school whose teachers are armed.
Supporters of the bill also argue that teachers would only become armed after partaking in a “School Sentinel program” that would provide them with firearms training by law enforcement officers. No teachers would be forced to take part in the program and could choose to remain unarmed.
But opponents, including many teachers themselves, remain uncomfortable about the prospect of having dangerous firearms in schools. Rep. Troy Heinert, D-Mission, said teachers should not be employed to act as law enforcement officers and that arming them would make him uncomfortable about sending his child to kindergarten.
“Doesn’t this blur the line between a teacher and a law enforcement officer?” he told Fox News. “Do we want to tell our children the only way to be safe is to carry a gun?”
The South Dakota Education Association claims that guns should only be provided to trained professionals and that no training program could properly instruct a teacher how to respond to a situation like the massacre in Newtown, Conn…..”
Comments »Documentary: Global Governance, The Quiet War Against American Independence
Cheers on your weekend!
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpR2giCcMds 450 300]Link for iPhone users: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpR2giCcMds
[youtube://http://www.youtube:.com/watch?v=1cPG1t52GgI 450 300] Comments »
Some Apps to Help You Defeat Hackers
“(MoneyWatch) It’s a dangerous world out there for computer users, with hackers constantly on the prowl for ways to steal passwords, penetrate networks or read people’s emails. Even your private voice communications may not be secure since cell phone service and Skype use only relatively lightweight encryption to keep away prying ears.
There are highly secure solutions available, of course. CellCrypt, for example, is a commercially available, military-grade encryption system that runs on smartphones like iPhone and Android. But not just anyone can take advantage of it — there’s no consumer licensing available, for example.
Still, there are many other tools you can use instead. Here is a roundup of the most intriguing security solutions available to consumers and small business today. Use each of these tools, and you will have a highly secure shield around all of your communication and data…..”
Comments »Horse Meat! It’s What’s for Dinner, U.S. to Allow Horse Slaughtering Plant Since 2007
“The United States Department of Agriculture is likely to approve a horse slaughtering plant in New Mexico in the next two months, which would allow equine meat suitable for human consumption to be produced in the United States for the first time since 2007.
The plant, in Roswell, N.M., is owned by Valley Meat Company, which sued the U.S.D.A. and its Food Safety and Inspection Service last fall over the lack of inspection services for horses going to slaughter. Horse meat cannot be processed for human consumption in the United States without inspection by the U.S.D.A., so horses destined for that purpose have been shipped to places like Mexico and Canada for slaughter.
Justin DeJong, a spokesman for the agriculture department, said that “several” companies had asked the agency to re-establish inspection of horses for slaughter. “These companies must still complete necessary technical requirements and the F.S.I.S. must complete its inspector training,” he wrote in an e-mail referring to the food inspection service….”
Comments »Justin Beiber is Now Dressing Like a Clown/Idiot/Retard
A Great Hoax or Seriously Curious: UFO Travels Through Tunnel
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQL1foGW4zM 450 300]
Link for iPhone users: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQL1foGW4zM
Comments »Men at Work: The Brits Join the SEC in Porn Surfing
“A Freedom of Information request shows a smattering of sex sites were favored by members of Parliament and their staff from May 2011 to July 2012. Gay cruising sites were viewed more than 3,500 times. Earlier this month, a report found that a hook-up site for married people was clicked on more than 52,000 times during a seven-month period….”
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeG-hNXXy6I 450 300] Comments »
