60 Minutes on eyewitness testimony. I’ll have more on this at Reason later today.
Man wrongly charged and imprisoned for 17 months sues for damages. Township claims he can’t sue because he missed the two-year statute of limitations. Lesson learned: If you realize you’ve wrongly arrested and charged someone, keep them in jail until they can no longer sue!
Why lefties kick ass. (Er, left-handed people, I mean.)
British photographers protest anti-terror law that could be used to prevent them from photographing police officers and other public officials.
Just so I have this straight, Milton Friedman is a villain because he had a five-hour meeting with murderous dictator Pinochet, gave a lecture at a Chilean university, and because Pinochet later implemented some of Friedman’s ideas (to the great benefit of the Chilean people, I might add). Meanwhile, lefty activists and politicians can freely meet with murderous dictator Fidel Castro, publicly slobber all over him, fete him even as actual Cubans are risking their lives to flee his regime, and there’s nothing ill to be said about them. Because . . . free health care!
Speaking of the U.K. you gotta’ hand it to them. When it comes to massive invasions of privacy and creepy government surveillance, they don’t mess around.
Justice Scalia gives speech praising the Constitution. But only before ensuring that there would be a ban on recording his speech. He then paused the speech to excoriate a journalist for taking still photos of him. I’m sure the irony was lost on him.
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TheAgitator.com
I’m torn on that CBC story.
On the one hand, those quotes are pretty ridiculous and it really is a shame that leftists like the buddy up to dictators like Castro.
On the other hand, the Cuba embargo is also ridiculous.
I agree on ending the embargo. But heaping public praise on Castro is a mortal sin in my book. No matter how much you may disagree with our policy toward him over the years–and again, I do–the man’s a tyrant who murders, jails, and exiles dissenters. The lefties who make excuses for him have removed themselves from the list of people to be taken seriously.
Well, maybe the members of the CBC will defect. ;)
You know, in regards to creating a level playing field for all participants, I must say this…
There are a lot of people in this country working hard, and actively trying to reach the title of Biggest Douchebag.
But Scalia just won’t let anybody come close. He is like a boxing champ that won’t give anyone else a title fight.
In our new touchy-feely everybody wins world, shouldn’t some of the other contenders get some kind of a douchebag handicap, just so they can compete with this guy? Some kind of a douche-factor multiplier?
Oh, c’mon Radley. Your criticism of Scalia is way off base. After all, there is nothing in the Constitution that explicitly protects the rights of the press to record a speech given by Scalia. It only says “freedom of the press”, not “freedom of the press to record Scalia”. Maybe if it had said the latter, you’d have a point.
God, you’re such a moonbat trying to read in rights into the Constitution that the original framers had never contemplated.
/Scalia logic mode
As a Miamian, let me say that I will suspend my dislike of buddying up to leaders such as Castro if it ends the embargo. Seriously. I lose my libertarian bona fides here, but something about living here has broken my brain in that respect.
@ Andrew # 6
There is a difference between being polite when you visit a foriegn leader – i.e. not criticising him – and praising him. However, if it would get some of the people in his prisons free, I’d gladly pay the price of praising Castro.
On the left handed article:
First comment is from a fencer (which I think is humorous, since there aren’t that many people who are into fencing). Here’s the statistic: ~10% of the population (and, thus, beginning fencers) are lefties, while ~50% of world champion fencers are lefties.
I just thought I’d share.
“It was almost like listening to an old friend,” said Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Il.)…
Fuckin’ Bobby Rush. Another reason I’m ok with being a “downstater.” Once a panther always a panther, right Bobby. Still got a little Maoist in ya, don’t ya. Still think all power comes from the gun. Still hope the lumpenproleteriat will rise and come after folks like me (you know, middle-class honkies) so you can climb up the ladder a bit. That’s what it’s all about, right comrade.
Note to the CBC: Ask a Cuban dissenter how friendly Castro is. Ask a former prisoner of the regime how enlightened Che was when he ran the prison. Ask a Cuban artist how free and open things were after the revolucion. Ask a Cuban homosexual how tolerant Castro and co. are. Oh yeah, and ask a “brother” in Cuba if Cubans of African descent are treated equally. There’s your homework assignment you idiots, now get to it. There’s a lot of ugly history behind that cool beard and fatigues.
CRNewsom, I don’t know the percentages but an inordinate number of world champion amateur boxers are lefties too. The Russians and Cubans always seem to have about half their olympics team made up of southpaws.
So the Brits are archiving all private e-mails. Makes me want to take up hobbies in carrier pigeons and ham radio before that happens here in the U.S. (if it isn’t happening yet without our knowledge). Yes, I know you have to be licensed to operate a ham radio and that operating one doesn’t mean you can’t be tracked, but might as well make it as difficult for Big Brother as possible.
I can remember when shorthand used to be taught in journalism schools. Getting a little too dependant on technology are we?
#8. Speaking as a fencing instructor, this is true. Reason is is that most people are just used to fencing righties, and aren’t experienced enough to change their game when fencing a lefty. Those that are still hold onto the “ooh, scary lefty” attitude from their youth.
I hate teaching teaching lefties though. Never seem to get it correct, because the entire game is different, and I just can’t seem to get the parries correct when teaching a lefty.
Hate fencing lefties in sabre, but I love doing it in epee, because the trick I figured was to just keep my arm outside theirs, and I can pick them off most of the time, because they’re so used to that being their trick and don’t expect it from a righty.
Well,what can we expect from “King Anthony?” I mean,look what he did to the Second Amendment,absolutley nothing! Everyone was shouting what a “victory” his opinion was for the 2ND last year. Nothing but a joke…
CIII
Regarding Castro vs Pinochet
The Left is even more absurd on this than your post indicates. They venerate Castro, who has credibly been accused of 25,000 murders, and who instituted a revolution on his own and still (at least nominally) holds power. Pinochet, on the other hand, is only accused of killing half that number, or even less, in the process of fighting a Civil War against an executive (and faction) who had grossly overstepped the limits of his office, and at the request of his country’s legislative body. And whatever he may have done for his own benefit while in charge, he also restored the country’s economy and in the end stepped down voluntarily.
The key is that the Left absolutely cannot allow the behavior of their pet monsters (such as Castro, Mao, and Pol Pot) to be held up to anything like objective standards of civilized behavior. If they did, too much of their make-believe world would come crashing down around their ears. So they must demonize anti-Communist bastards like Pinochet and Franco while defending creeps who make them look like boy scouts.
Forget about Scalia’s jurisprudence, which is controversial. I think we can all agree that Scalia is a prick.
[...] Thanks: The Agitator [...]
Hai guys
I’ll just leave this here.
http://www.mattbors.com/strips/508.gif
The Brits should make it a point to create as much non-sensical email as they can. As long as they don’t send it to me.
Cuba is far left-leftie Utopia. Communism works just fine if the right people are in charge, right? Never mind the destitution and squalor. They get to see a Doctor (maybe a Dr., well, some guy with a stethescope, anyway) for free! Every 5 years or so.
I played enough baseball in my youth to know that I would rather not face a southpaw pitcher.
Regarding the e-mail archiving,
1) People will hopeful learn to encrypt more e-mails. And never e-mail evidence of criminal activity encrypted if the statute of limitations is longer than the time it would take to brute-force decrypt your message (including an estimate of improvements in such decryption with advances in technology).
2) Everyone should attach, to every single e-mail, several copies of mp3s, oggs, flvs, textual lyrics, jpeg stills, etc of Rick Asten’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”.
Two nits to pick re the left handed story:
1. southpaws throw a right hook, not a left hook (unless they’re wild haymaker throwers, like right-handed Mayorga). It’s the right jab, straight left and right hook that are unfamiliar to conventional stance fighters.
2. while De La Hoya is left handed, he fights in the conventional stance. That gives him a stronger jab and left hook, since he’s leading with his strong hand. That comes at the expense of his straight right, which isn’t as strong. It’s a trade off that has been successfull for him, but isn’t going to work for most lefties.
I’m a southpaw and call it whatever you want, but my now-ex and the bimbo I caught him with nekkid can vouch that I can throw a left AND right hook with finesse and precision!
Besides, I am Tarheel and we were BORN to fight!
Go HEELS!
Oops…should have read “I AM a Tarheel…”
By the way…if God ain’t a Tarheel, then why is the sky CAROLINA BLUE?
@19, MacGregory:
You should’ve learned to switch hit.
MacGregory,
I could always hit the fire out of lefties. I could see the ball much better coming across the pitcher’s body.
Sooooo…members of Congress can visit Cuba but us lower class folk face a $100K fine and imprisonment if we do?
Got it. Just making a note for when the shit hits the fan.
[...] Speech, Dictatorships and Irony Jump to Comments Radley Balko does the best job calling people out: Just so I have this straight, Milton Friedman is a villain [...]
A bit late on this comment, but maybe everyone in the UK could start adding Gordon Brown’s email address, or even the addresses of MPs, as CC on every email they send.
@ Wayne #11: Heres the thing about that. There are very few people who operate HAM radios and if you, for whatever reason, became the target of an investigation it would be relatively easy to tailor surveillance to your documented and unusual communication choice. Internet traffic, on the other hand, is ubiquitous and will be a nightmare to search through.
Think about it this way. Say you’re being chased by the police and you have two options. The first option is to run into a neighborhood you’re familiar with, but that has few people, and hope you can hide out somewhere they won’t think to look. The second option is to run into a crowded, but CC-TV monitored, fair with half a million other people.
On the internet you can create artificial traffic to waste time, you can use proxies you bounce your traffic into other jurisdictions, you can easily create clean e-mail addresses, you can take advantage of encryption, you can use public hot-spots and unsecured (or poorly secured) wifi. All the while any investigator will have to find some way to slog through the mess you’ve made and differentiate you from all the other uses with similar activity profiles.
I’ve got 14 strong wifi signals from my couch. Three of those are complete unsecured, seven of those have the default router name (meaning one of them likely has a default password). With ten minutes of effort and a program any child can use you can brute force most WEP keys. Monitoring the internet is ridiculous, a violation of privacy, and unacceptable. Its also essentially worthless.