Category: Politics

Monday Links

April 22, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Starting off with the obligatory Reason links.

I have a trio of stories surrounding the current DEI workscape.

A thinkpiece on the Uri Berliner story. I’m not surprised he was suspended. You can’t publicly shame your employer and not escape consequences.

Speaking of NPR, let’s talk about the current boss’s tweets. She’s certainly not talking.

Google fired 28 employees after they protested their now-former employer on company time and on company premises. When you’ve lost Google…

Kansas has reformed their civil asset forfeiture laws. Let’s keep this ball rolling.

Virtual cashiers? Interesting. It sounds like it’s still in early days. I remember one chain I used to work with piloted a similar project for its drive thru order takers.

Now on to other stories.

From the Hill, even the IMF is worried about the US debt.

BleepingComputer reports that current and former T-Mobile and Verizon employees are being offered $300 to do SIM swaps. Why do all the heavy hacking work when you can find someone to do it for you on the cheap?

The Verge is reporting on new 4TB SD cards. Four terrbytes on an SD card. I was looking at those size drives when I put together my old NAS, and I thought they were expensive.

The Reload has reporting that there are more than 700 million standard capacity magazines floating around. Ward Manor refuses to comment on the extent it contributes to that total.

Sporting Illustrated had a couple articles on the new pistols and new shotguns for 2024. I still want to upgrade from my Mossberg 590 to an autoloader.

On the Florida side, I was pointed to this article about why we may not be seeing as many lovebugs. Lovebugs and mosquitos can both go extinct and I don’t think any Floridian would mourn the loss. H/T McThag.

Monday Links

April 15, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Some of these are a little older, as I haven’t had the links post for the past couple of weeks. So, this is also kind of a browser tab dump.

The Reason segment:

Colorado decided not to join the blue wave in expanding the types of “sensitive places” where concealed carry would be forbidden.

Congress wants to limit credit card swipe fees. When they did that for debit cards, a bunch of companies dumped their rewards programs. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see brand new fees put in place.

Voters push back on sales tax to build stadium. I wish this would happen more. Particularly since the Tampa Bay area is looking at least one new “community-financed” sports arena in the next decade.

Now on to Ground News aggregations:

Several dead in a “mass stabbing” in Australia. While I can’t say a CCW in that instance would have helped the situation (although it has in the US), I wish that the Aussies had that option.

Anti-vaxxers are threatening elimination status of measles. Sweet FSM, it’s like everyone wants to drag us into the before times. I blame both sides for their bullshit on the COVID vaccine now spilling over to much more deadly diseases.

Zimbabwe has a new idea for combating rampant inflation – back their currency with gold. I’m not a gold bug, but I like the idea of taking some of the power away from central banks to artificially inflate the currency by “adding some zeroes.”

Microsoft learned from it’s Internet Explorer fight and is unbundling Teams from Office before getting dragged into litigation. Which is stupid, but unsurprising considering the recent state of activist regulators.

South of me, a house had some orbital debris fall through the roof. I don’t think most folks understand exactly how much space junk there is up in the orbitals that we’re going to need to clean up.

Now on to other stories.

WSJ has a story on the coming legal battles as to who’s responsible for what AI’s say and do. Note: paywalled.

The Verge is reporting that AI gun detectors installed by NYC as a pilot program resulted in an 85% false positive rate. H/t The Brother

War Is Boring analyzes the recent brouhaha over tweet from the Navy showing one of its captain’s requalifying on an M4. Let’s just say the picture was embarrassing enough that the tweet was deleted after everyone roasted it.

Speaking of service arms, TFB reports Taiwan has a new service rifle. Surprise, it’s an AR-pattern weapon.

More gun stuff. The Reload reports on the administration’s new “rules” regarding who needs an FFL. I use scare quotes because of they’re still fucking vague and leave too much open for interpretation by prosecutors and agents. Who, I don’t really trust to interpret.

DeSantis signed a couple of bills that worry me on the civil liberties front. One bans the use of civilian review boards of police in favor of the sheriffs/police departments appointing their own review boards. Um what? I can understand getting pissy about anti-cop activists worming their way onto those boards, but how is letting the cops review do their own reviews a way of holding them accountable? The other penalizes folks who “get too close” to first responders. It looks like it’s aimed at people video recording public servants doing public work.

Here’s a couple of critiques of the media.

The Freepress has an article from a long-time NPR reporter describing the change at NPR from “left-leaning” to “left-activist,” and the resultant loss of trust from the citizenry.

Almost as if to prove the point, NotTheBee has an analysis of a recent WaPo article on a Chicago Police shooting. Sweet FSM, there’s enough police misconduct, you don’t have to push a story claiming a man who opened fire on cops is some kind of martyr.

Monday Links

April 1, 2024 / / 0 Comments

There was some temptation to do a bunch of April Fools links, but in all honesty, I didn’t have the time to set that up. Maybe next year.

Let’s do our Reason segment.

DeSantis signed a bill mandating age verification for social media. There are some things that I think are good ideas, but don’t trust the heavy hand of government to do. Getting kids under the age of fifteen/sixteen off of social media is one of those things.

We keep hearing how long it will take to fix the Francis Scott Key Bridge. One of the reasons is a protectionist law? Cue shocked Pikachu face.

A court decision reaffirms the Second Amendment rights of public housing tenants. Who often are the folks most in need of those rights.

We end Reason’s segment with a trio of articles about squatter’s rights.

Stossel illustrating the problem.

Court cases on if laws surrounding squatter’s rights should be considered takings.

Finally, how big of an epidemic are squatters?

In case you were curious, no, I’m not big on squatter’s rights. If you’re occupying my building or land without a contract in place, I should be able to have you arrested for trespassing.

Now on to other items.

From Ground News, the people pushing a new geologic epoch because of all the damage humanity has done have been denied.

An article on drone swarms and the possible irrelevance of the Air Force. I learned a new term – air littoral space. Drone swarms are definitely going to change the battlefield.

Tam has an article over at Shooting Illustrated on the impact Glock has had on the pistol market. It was certainly the right product at the right time, and it certainly ushered in what I would consider the modern sidearm.

We end on a sad note. The passing of Louis Gossett Jr.

Monday Links

March 25, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This might be a bit longer than normal since I didn’t publish a links post last week. You’ll see some common themes running through the items – namely, medical science keeps advancing and the key rule of economics is always in force – “incentives matter”. So, with that, we’ll begin with the normal Reason links.

Seattle decided gig drivers should be paid more. Rates went up, but drivers ended up getting less.

An analysis of a recent example of taking part of what someone said and blowing it out of proportion. In this case, Justice Brown-Jackson’s question if the First Amendment could hamstring the government. That’s what the internet is blaring, but not the rest of the question on if the hamstringing was against protecting the citizens. Which is a legit question to hammer out.

An article saying it was wrong to imprison the parents because they failed to stop a school shooter. This is one of those edge cases where the defendants were clearly negligent in getting their son help. Kind of like parents who refuse to take their kids to doctors when they’re clearly suffering from an ailment. With the benefit of hindsight, the government is saying that it was a clear outcome of their negligence. The more I look into mental health, I’m not sure we can say that.

Last Reason link is on the economics and politics of Star Trek.

Now on to the Ground News aggregations.

Research on reprogramming immune cells to go after certain cancers is promising.

Surgeons implanted a genetically modified pig kidney. Given the issues surrounding supply of organs, finding other sources is a good step.

The FTC is nosing around Reddit’s plan to license their content for LLM training. Because reasons. Or because it gives them an icky feeling – which seems to be a guiding principle among the leadership of the FTC these days.

DOJ is suing Apple because of their “monopoly on smartphones.” Which is more a case of people prefer iPhones. But again, it makes the feds feel icky.

Joanne’s is restructuring through bankruptcy. Considering this is one of The Wife’s and MIL’s favorite stores, I’m glad it’s not going away.

Let’s go on to other news stories.

An NYT article on automakers sharing data with insurance companies without informing owners.

BBC reporting on the quadriplegic patient who is using Neuralink for playing chess. And for playing Civ 6.

For The Wife, WaPo has an article on how cats aren’t jerks.

The Drive’s article on Toronto police telling its citizens to make it easy on car thieves to prevent more violence.

CNN Business article on the demise of the 6% commission rule.

Now for a couple of light items.

Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office decided to have some fun when a prankster put a “For Sale” sign on one of its cruisers. Personally, I thought they handled it well – by acknowledging the humor and asking politely for people not to replicate.

For The Brother, an article on Clutch becoming the Phish of hard rock.

Contradictory Thoughts on Current Wars

March 14, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This is going to be a bit ranty as I’m trying to work out conflicting thoughts in my head as to how to approach the wars currently between Russia and Ukraine as well as Israel and Hamas. My initial instinct is to support the aggrieved party. Who suffered the injury that instigated the war? Yet, as with anything involving humans, it’s never that simple.

Russia/Ukraine: The genesis of this post was a comment made by Andrew Heaton on the most recent “We’re Not Wrong” podcast. I think he was referring to someone else’s comment, but it was essentially do we view this war as a version of WWI or WWII? Is this a horrific border dispute between two nations or is it a defense against a rapacious nation that will not stop? My normal senses tend me to believe the latter. What bothers me is some of the arguments of some who support continued aid to Ukraine. Particular when they tell me this is a cheap way to degrade Russia. Bitch, you’re talking about using Ukranian lives as fucking pawns in some global triangulation against Russia? That is some ruthless realpolitik bullshit there. It’s easy to see why the populists are decrying those arguments.

Israel/Hamas: Hamas’s attack was a terror attack It was not aimed at military or government targets. They went after civilians. Of course I would expect Israel to respond. I’m appalled at how quickly so many people went to supporting Hamas. I could understand sympathizing with Gazan civilians who are now in a warzone, but Hamas? Seriously? Yet, here’s what bothers me about the Israel supporters. They keep repeating this line – “The greatest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.” Is it true? Probably, but there’s something insincere about conflating 6 million deaths with less than 2,000. After years of dealing with politicos, activists, and zealots who lie and twist the truth, I’m bothered when people I want to support do the same. It makes me wonder why they need to do so.

Monday Links

March 11, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Reason links first:

Reason’s coverage of the Supreme Court dismissing Colorado removing Trump from the Republican Primary. It would have helped the case if Colorado had something like a conviction or an impeachment to hang their hat on. It would also help if we hadn’t enshrined private corporation – which is what the Republican and Democrat parties are – elections as part of our political process.

Argentina’s radical president has shuttered the state media outlet for being a propaganda outlet.

New York is sending in the National Guard to patrol NYC subways. I have a real problem with bringing in soldiers to perform a police function outside of martial law or a natural disaster.

Alabama passes legislation to protect IVF after their Supreme Court ruling. You know, if Congress would follow this example, we would have a better functioning federal system. But, why would Congress do their job when they can foist their responsibilities on the executive and judicial branches and prance around like peacocks.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is now requiring climate disclosures. This is an agency that needs to be reigned in. I think a lot of the SEC’s bullshit has been flying under the radar due to the FTC’s louder bullshit.

Georgia gave luxury car maker Rivian a bunch of incentives to build a factory – which the company now has put pause on. Cue shocked Pikachu face.

Now for some Ground News aggregations:

Heather Guitirrez Reed, the armorer on the movie “Rust”, guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

Administration is going after credit card late fees. Funny. When Biden was the senator from Deleware, he wasn’t this vociferous about “junk fees”. Again, if this is important, why is it coming from the executive instead of Congress? Lastly, cue unexpected consequences in three, two, one…

The national debt is rising at an increasing rate. Rising interest rates aren’t helping, but again, a dysfunctional Congress is not helping.

Washington State Court dismisses challenge to state law allowing suits against gun makers. Lawfare and PLCAA invocation incoming.

Now on to other news stories:

Heroes who tackled gunman at Chiefs Superbowl rally are honored. Gentlemen, you have my utmost respect for your courage.

Five SAS troops are under arrest for murder in the shooting of suspected suicide bomber. On the face, this sounds very bullshit. The prosecutor better have some strong facts on their side.

New Jersey AG is invoking the state’s microstamping law after saying the tech was viable. Sure, let’s do something completely worthless to make gun owners’ lives more difficult. Must be a day ending in “Y”.

S&W released the newest version of their budget AR. Why am I putting this in? Because when I bought my first AR, it was the S&W M&P-15 Sport budget rifle. It was a great starter rifle, and I don’t expect this new one to be any less of a good deal. Plus, I love how the arms industry has advanced that a budget AR is now what an intermediate one was when I bought mine.

In sad news, Warner Brothers is shuttering Rooster Teeth. Hell, quotes from “Red vs Blue” still crop up in my everyday banter. And I’ve restarted watching “RWBY” when The Wife and I go to the gym. I really hope someone picks up the IP and continues the good work.

Monday Links

March 4, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Let’s start out with Reason links.

The Supreme Court listened to arguments about the ATF suddenly deciding that bump stock were bad. It’s been a long standing issue with the ATF that not only do they get to decide that things they said were okay previously are now felonies.

Apple shuttering its car project. It figured out that its rivals were eating its lunch in regards to AI.

To no one’s surprise, California is playing silly buggers with people’s Second Amendment rights based on nullified convictions.

Now on to other tech stories.

Elon sues OpenAI.

Microsoft is putting Copilot into Excel and Outlook. I’ve been using Copilot for a few things here lately. This could be interesting.

The New Yorker has a look at what could happen if there was a major solar storm.

Here’s a story on the increasing number of gun owners among the queer community. I’m including this because Erin Pallette of Operation Blazing Sword is quoted. And it’s good to remember that new gun owners do not look like you expect. Please be welcoming.

Now on to the local front.

First, New College in Sarasota has been sanctioned by a professors group. The New College situation has been an exercise in becoming what you hate. Both the illeberalism going against the left instead of the right. Plus throw in what looked like some good old fashioned corruption, and it’s “a pox on both your houses” kind of thing.

Speaking of the Florida university system, University of Florida is getting rid of its DEI Office.

One of Tampa’s most famous eateries, Alessi’s, is moving to a new location.

For our final item, one of the life-size Gundam exhibits is shutting down. The Wife and I keep hoping to get to Japan at some point, and seeing one of those big Gundams is high on my list.

Monday Links

February 26, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Surprisingly, just one Reason link this week.

New York’s child protective agents bully parents to allow warrantless services.

I have a bunch from Ground News.

The administration is considering delaying the conversion to EV’s. While I think electrics will overtake internal combustion engines, prematurely forcing the issue will not help their adoption.

A privately-owned robot landed on the moon. Well, that’s an interesting wrinkle in the space race.

Alabama’s AG comments on their recent Supreme Court ruling on IVF. Great, you’ll use your prosecutorial discretion. How about getting the legislature to fix a bad law?

On a similar vein, the US Supreme Court’s approval rating falls to 40 percent. If there’s one thing that’s been coming out of recent decisions is that if Congress was doing its job instead of being a parade of wannabe talk show stars, then maybe the executive and judicial branches wouldn’t have to fight it out in the courts.

On to other news.

From Bloomberg, the US and 11 other countries did yeoman work to take down one of the biggest ransomware hacker groups. I am supremely unmotivated to feel any concern for the discomfort of the cyberbandits.

There’s been a brouhaha among the WorldCon community who run the “prestigious” Hugo awards. Seems they catered the Chinese government to censor or keep out works that could be critical of the regime. Cue Shocked Pikachu face.

Delta is offering “eclipse” flights so passengers can watch the total eclipse in April. Although I am highly interested, I have other trips that require that cash.

The Telegraph has an article on Finland opening 300 new shooting ranges to bolster defense. I mean, what could happen by getting a bunch of Finns interested in marksmanship?

Finally, an article from Active Response Training on “The Bag of Doom.” Interesting idea.

Monday Links

February 19, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This is going to be a combination of current stuff and backlog from when I wasn’t posting the links. So, buckle up.

We’ll start with Reason, of course.

Cop hears acorn hit his car and empties his service weapon into his cruiser. Which was occupied. The deputy has resigned, but based on the available information, he should be charged. Why? Because I don’t doubt that if I made that kind of mistake, I’d be up for attempted manslaughter, assault with a deadly weapon, and whatever else the prosecutor felt like throwing at me.

A think piece on why the US government shouldn’t be giving additional funds to Ukraine and Israel. I need to write a longer post on these. Because I have conflicting feelings on both of these situations.

Moving on to a couple of Ground News aggregations.

Justice Department issues damning report on Uvalde Police response to shooting. “No urgency.” The police had no urgency to engage the murderer. But if I give up my guns, I can just depend on the cops. When we have so many examples of them not.

Hardly any plastics are recycled. Plastic recycling is one of those bullshit “feel good” things that governments and NGOs push, but are boondoggles for the “recycling” industry. You know how I know? Because the manufacturing industry wasn’t pushing for recycling like they did with aluminum or glass.

Now on to other stuff.

Ars Technica has a story about private-equity owned hospitals having worse outcomes.

From War Is Boring, an article on lawmakers proposing a bill to ban civilian militias. Of course, it would impact firearms instruction. And it goes against voluntary association.

From Bloomberg, Amazon backing out of its purchase of iRobot. Because regulators. Which is annoying, because part of the reason we upgraded to iRobot was Amazon’s purchase would make it easier to get parts on subscription.

From Brian Niemier, an article on why Brandon Sanderson has issues with Audible. Which mirrors things I’ve heard on writing podcasts. Which annoys me because I listen to more books than read books.

From FEE, an analysis showing guns are used more times in self defense than people die in car accidents. Self-defense uses are more common than people know.

From a local station, Tampa had a loose kangaroo.

Here’s a New Yorker profile on the Advisory Opinions podcast and its host Sarah Isgur. I listen to this podcast to get the legal nuance skipped over by most talking heads.

Shooting Illustrated says Pennsylvania State Police will now field Walther PDPs. I certainly didn’t expect that.

And now for our lighter items.

The Drive has an article on a company converting old trucks to diesel-electrics. I find this concept intriguing.

Anime Herald has an article on Carl Macek’s impact on anime.

CBR has a listicle of the most “iconic” mecha.

Angry Staff Officer uses the Harry Potter world to demonstrate the principles of raiding. I lover ASO when he uses fiction to demonstrate good and bad examples relating to real-world military actions.

Monday Links – Backlog of Reason

February 12, 2024 / / 0 Comments

It’s been a while since I posted a Monday Links post. So, I’ve got a bunch of Reason links from the beginning of the year that I’m just going to post here.

The former NIH director remarked that ignoring the collateral damage of COVID policies was “really unfortunate.” The politics of COVID is making having a reckoning on the efficacy of government actions near impossible. And will make things worse.

Protectionism ruined U.S. Steel. Cue shocked Pikachu face. Protectionism protects inefficiencies and high prices.

Three economic myths that need to die. There are many more, but these would be a good start.

The modern miracle of cheap aluminum foil.

Is ESG over? Sweet FSM, I hope so.

Wisconsin is trying to make the cottage food industry unprofitable.

A couple of Florida stories that show the danger of single party rule – regardless of which political party rules the roost. Florida legislation would ban civilian police oversight boards. I could see reforming the boards to make sure they don’t get out of control, but do you really want a place like Broward not to have any oversight. Also, DeSantis wants to ban lab-grown meat. WTF? If customers want lab-grown meat, let them have buy lab-grown meat. It’s just as bad to ban the product than forcing it on everyone.

Ring will no longer hand over your camera footage without a warrant. I find it somewhat odd that they announced this about a month before they announced a hefty price increase on their cloud storage services. (link to The Verge)

The ACLU is suing the Ronald McDonald House for not housing folks with assault convictions. Let’s see. We have a charity that is housing the families of children undergoing medical treatment. It’s already a stressful environment. I can see not wanting people with a history of violence in that environment. And I’ll still give money to the Ronald McDonald House Charities. They do good work.

The Oklahoma governor is calling for reforms to civil asset forfeiture. Here’s a reform. Ban the fucking practice. It’s legalized theft.

Hawaii’s high court says there is no individual right to keep and bear arms under the state constitution. Continuing a long string of anti-gun states screaming their defiance of the US Supreme Court.