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 This is an interesting story.  The authoritarians amongst you will probably be happy that the police , kindly, gave him a chance  and only arrested him for the second offense of being in public while using a service paid for by the tax dollars of community.  Turns out he’s a serial (port killer?)  user of free service wherever it can be located in AK which  this blog reports the behavior  (really all they needed to do was block his Mac address or rotate passes for their genuine customers calling the cops seems overkill.  

Permanent Link to AK getting a bad rep on Boing Boing

But, “in this particular case you know he’s feeding off something that we know the city of Palmer pays for and there are requirements to use it,”

This is the part of the story  that bugs me the idea that you can steal from yourself. The city  has no money  other than that which it uses it’s armed tax collectors ( da cops) to collect.. 

Well I received a call from Nextel re my  letter submitted to them through a consumer complaint site  and the myriad mails to and fro their tech support.   I explained once more where my problem lay , that my trying a new handset out to see if the problem was resolved was not a year commitment. After restating my case they are taking the phone back, canceling both lines, no fee.

I’m happy. Once they get back on their feet and start to provide a better choice of phones for Sprint/Nextel  ( Cell on sprint, walkie talkie on Nextel)  there’s a chance I’ll come back( though only on an annual contract )   when they do.  It’s a shame that so many hours had to be wasted to get to this stage but I am glad I finally found someone to talk to  ( 2 people actually)  that at least  tried to get me a solution to stay with them, I tried it, didn’t  feel like it was a fair trade that I would have to extend my contract because it wasn’t working.    

Not over yet.  Phone has to go back, final bill received and a note saying I am free and clear:)  Still there is hope.

‘Pelvis thrusts’ catapult Chippendales into jail | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle

LUBBOCK, Texas — A troupe of Chippendales dancers
won’t face criminal charges for a West Texas
performance featuring “pelvic thrusts” that prompted
police to shut down the show and jail the dancers.

Let’s get back in our timewarp again It’s just a step to the right, then another step, a goose step etc….

Gadget Theft: Recover Stolen iPods, USB Flash Drives, Digital Cameras and other Devices

This looks like a rather nice service which Apple should already be offering re their Ipod (Cynical me says they benefit from new sales when the old ones are stolen so turning off a stolen pod from purchasing would seem to be contrary to their interests .. now let me rant.. We have their CEO saying DRM is bad yet the company is quite happy to knowingly profit from stolen goods. Consistency doesn’t work when you Think! different)

Digital Cams, USB memory sticks and other devices rarely have such a close relationship to their makers as the iPod does so it’s frustrating to see that stealing $300 of ipod has less protection than the music on it when trying to dump it to another account.

I’m going to give this service a shot . I’d like to know how they plan on making money though:)

Usually not a question you’ll hear. Ok I’m totally out of my league here. I never went to a US school , met a lot of you that have though:) Outside of professional settings the level of outright proud ignorance astounds me, I’m not claiming to be less ignorant, just not as proud.

The ‘Value’ of Public Schooling by Jacob G. Hornberger

That is the real value of military boot camp – it very quickly eliminates all notions of individuality within the human being and makes him feel that conformity and obedience are the only acceptable states of mind.

In principle, the public-schooling system is no different, although government officials have a much longer period of time – 12 years – in which to accomplish the same task – produce mindsets of conformity and obedience.

I’m rather in favour of Dobhie avoiding many of the lessons they want to teach, eat,drink and piss to a clock , sounds lovely. Yet the tiniest nagging doubt re producing a child ill suited to a sheep pen is worrying me. Not a lot but still it’s a one shot deal.

Chandler police snagged 115 motorists who were caught without seat belts last week during a safety enforcement detail geared to remind people to “click it or ticket.”

Local hoods shake down tribute money from their neighborhood would be a better title. It seems odd in a state where an arguably stupid, and I will argue that it is, law means you can ride a motorcycle without a helmet, yet people in a steel cage with airbags can’t get away without the magical talisman that is the safety belt. These people are not robbing, stealing or in anyway fucking your lives up yet a good use of our money is spent sending our tax collectors out to levy a little community charge, oh yeah it’s for the children too.

Stresses again, this is not keeping the peace it’s enforcement, the constant lesson that we’re professionals, we don’t need belts but you do bullshit that really takes the piss out of the word “privilege” and rubs the employer’s noses in it. Studies in the UK when the law was brought in showed that yes it saves drivers lives, on the whole. Kills more pedestrians but fuck’em if they can’t take a joke:) In short it’s cheaper to pick up a body than bodies and cars.. you have to admire them for thinking of the poor taxpayer before driving over the self righteous safety pricks in the suv of your choice.

Classically Liberal: The high cost of gun control.

Jim over at the Classically Liberal blog is taking on my pet cause of beating up the UK re their society being ordered for the convenience of the criminal classes ( not just the elected ones)

Recently there were several murders in London as the result of gun violence. And the BBC’s web site ran some information on gun crimes in England and Wales. And the truth is that gun violence has escalated dramatically. Look at this chart that they ran today.

You can see how dramatically gun crime escalated in England in recent years. Yet, I distinctly remember that not that long they imposed what amounted to a total ban on private possession of firearms. I did a check at the London Telegraph and found that one columnist wrote a column in 2003 about what he called “the Government’s ‘total ban’ five years ago”. That would be 1998.

Ah yes  I recall both bans , the laughable compensation offered for many rare guns and the prediction that this would solve nothing since in the two cases  Hungerford and Dunblane both criminals were  found, at their respective inquiries ,to have been known to police and that laws in existence should have removed their firearms from them. Nothing new there, Mr State says you don’t need to protect yourself, we’ve got your back , yet it seems like they brought about the two worst civillian  “massacres” in the UK by failing to  follow their own “duty”  to protect the public.  Still  they have no guns, they have more gun crime it’s almost like the bumper stickers in Arizona are right:D

Presidential Repression by Thomas DiLorenzo

I’m sure that Lincoln only tops these polls as there’s never been a Ford Reagan or a Dodge Jefferson ie I think people think that best = those they can recall.  I’m not a fan of the cult of Abe and I find myself in the odd position of not being a slavery fan yet having to defend myself against it because I have the temerity to question Lincolns commitment to ending human bondage as well as how great an American one can be while jailing political opponents and waging war on a population that had fought to retain the right to remain sovereign in their land.

Isn’t there something sick about the fact that it is Lincoln the heavy-handed tyrant (and mass murderer of his own people) that appeals so much to the Frank Gaffneys, Rush Limbaughs, and Newt Gingriches of the world? Whenever almost any politician or pundit proposes the abolition of more of our personal liberties, or embarking on another unnecessary war that will kill thousands without protecting America (but make more enemies around the world while enriching politically-connected defense contractors), he invariably invokes The Legend of Father Abraham as his “justification.”

These people are about as nauseating as Tsar Bush saying Washington would be proud of the current state of affairs

“It is our true policy to steer clear of entangling alliances with any portion of the foreign world.”

 


“The constitution vests the power of declaring war in
Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be
undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and
authorized such a measure.
”

 

mrdeity

God that’s funny.

RichardDawkins.net – The Official Richard Dawkins Website

Sam Harris debates a theist , with all due respect of course;), in this long exchange which has some amusing moments.

I am, of course, unconvinced by your response. But this can hardly disappoint you, as it was not intended to convince me. You simply wrote to inform me that you have never doubted God’s existence, cannot account for how you came to believe in Him, and are well aware that these facts will not (and should not) persuade me of the legitimacy of your religious beliefs. I now feel like a tennis player, in mid-serve, who notices that his opponent is no longer holding a racket.

Advantage Sam Harris:

Blair pledges action on gun crime as toll rises | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

A review of gun laws to establish increased sentences for young offenders, with penalties for being gang members, was promised by Tony Blair yesterday amid fears that London’s gunmen are increasingly exporting drugs and firearms violence to other parts of the country.

Let’s see. The guns are already illegal, the drugs are already illegal so ..

Let’s make a law making it “illegal’er” because if there’s one thing that criminals respect it’s words on paper.

Samuelson: The Stubborn Welfare State – Newsweek Robert Samuelson – MSNBC.com
It might help if Americans called welfare programs—current benefits for select populations, paid for by current taxes—by their proper name, rather than by the soothing (and misleading) labels of “entitlements” and “social insurance.”

Damn when you were all told to “kill a commie for Mommy” you should have been checking on top of her bed for the person that put us in the red, both in thought and economy. Ok I get it you all want a welfare state, silly me I thought all this crap about hating those outside the GOP was based on some kind of principle:D

FCC report: TV violence should be regulated – CNN.com
—

Television networks are free to sprinkle their programs with shootings, slashings, torture and other gore because the government has no regulatory authority over violent programming.

But a draft report being circulated at the Federal Communications Commission says Congress can change that, without violating the First Amendment.

Firstly , the programming itself isn’t violent, it may depict acts of violent, but it’s not.

Oh really, I wonder how big a grin on their faces they had saying that. The “shall make no law part” is moot. Or does one bypass a law by just having regulations which yo