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Privacy: Vote with your wallet AND with your feet!

by 1389AD ( 26 Comments › )
Filed under Economy, Free Speech, Technology, Transportation at April 23rd, 2011 - 12:00 pm

I found this link about a serious violation of privacy in the State of Michigan in a worrisome Blogmocracy article about another significant threat to our electronic privacy, namely Apple iPhone secretly records owners’ every move. It followed another article, Exiting Detroit, about the endless and evidently irreversible decline and fall of the city of Detroit. It sure looks as though there are fewer and fewer reasons to visit, do business in, or live in, Michigan, and more and more reasons to avoid the entire state.

Similarly, if Apple shows so little regard for their customers’ privacy, I would suggest buying from a competitor until such time as Apple changes its ways. Vote with your wallet and vote with your feet!

Michigan: Police Search Cell Phones During Traffic Stops

(h/t: Da_Beerfreak)

Cellebrite cellphone snooper system

ACLU seeks information on Michigan program that allows cops to download information from smart phones belonging to stopped motorists.

The Michigan State Police have a high-tech mobile forensics device that can be used to extract information from cell phones belonging to motorists stopped for minor traffic violations. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan last Wednesday demanded that state officials stop stonewalling freedom of information requests for information on the program.

ACLU learned that the police had acquired the cell phone scanning devices and in August 2008 filed an official request for records on the program, including logs of how the devices were used. The state police responded by saying they would provide the information only in return for a payment of $544,680. The ACLU found the charge outrageous.
[…]
A US Department of Justice test of the CelleBrite UFED used by Michigan police found the device could grab all of the photos and video off of an iPhone within one-and-a-half minutes. The device works with 3000 different phone models and can even defeat password protections.

“Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags,” a CelleBrite brochure explains regarding the device’s capabilities. “The Physical Analyzer allows visualization of both existing and deleted locations on Google Earth. In addition, location information from GPS devices and image geotags can be mapped on Google Maps.”

The ACLU is concerned that these powerful capabilities are being quietly used to bypass Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.

“With certain exceptions that do not apply here, a search cannot occur without a warrant in which a judicial officer determines that there is probable cause to believe that the search will yield evidence of criminal activity,” Fancher wrote. “A device that allows immediate, surreptitious intrusion into private data creates enormous risks that troopers will ignore these requirements to the detriment of the constitutional rights of persons whose cell phones are searched.”
[…]
Read it all.

But that’s not all, folks!

Jury to decide if Pastor Terry Jones can protest outside the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan. Last I checked, the First Amendment is not subject to jury disapproval.

Originally published on 1389 Blog.

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Posted in Economy, Free Speech, Technology, Transportation | 26 Comments »

TSA Naked Scan and Crotch Grope: Draw the Line Against Government Intrusion

by 1389AD ( 110 Comments › )
Filed under Christianity, Holocaust, Islam, Judaism, Liberal Fascism, Nazism, Political Correctness, Sharia (Islamic Law), Terrorism, Transportation at November 26th, 2010 - 10:00 am

Modesty, bodily privacy, and human dignity…

The international press and the blogosphere has been full of news items about banning the burqa in various European countries. (Phyllis Chesler offers many strong arguments in favor of banning the burqa.) This is part of the ongoing controversies regarding shari’a law and Muslim demands for the veiling, isolation, and abuse of women under the pretexts of honor, shame, and “modesty.”

Such intrusive demands for us to change our ways to accommodate Muslim gender apartheid have nothing to do with modesty as we know it in a society founded upon Judaeo-Christian principles. In fact, the Muslim idea of “modesty” is the very antithesis of ours.

For Muslims, veiling the female body to the point of anonymity with the chador, the niqab, or the burqa, becomes a denial of human dignity and a denial of the equal value of men and women in the eyes of our Creator.

For us, decent clothing for all people – including men, women, and children – is a basic requirement of human dignity. Rabbi Daniel Lapin recently appeared on the Glenn Beck show, where he said that, according to the Torah, clothing the naked is an even more meritorious deed than feeding the hungry, because clothing is essential to human dignity.

…versus totalitarianism

The news is also filled with controversy about the recent TSA “naked body scan” and “crotch grope” policies for passengers boarding aircraft in US airports.

I should not need to remind our misguided policymakers that, even in athletic venues such as the gym and the beach, practicing Christians and Jews of both sexes and all ages cover the buttocks and genitalia, and females of all ages cover the chest. This, of course, is the minimum; in other venues, we cover a larger portion of our bodies, dressing in whatever manner is appropriate for the circumstances. We do this to preserve our own dignity as human beings created in the Lord’s own image, and to avoid distracting others with inappropriate temptations.

Despite the recent policies of the TSA, we consider staring at, touching, or groping the private parts of a stranger to be taboo. It is also taboo to peep at, or photograph, a stranger in the nude or even in his or her undergarments. If a private citizen did such things, he or she would end up in prison, and rightly so. Government employees should be under the same rules as the rest of us.

Stripping an unwilling person of his or her clothing, as is commonly done with prisoners, is a deep insult that is intended to shame and dehumanize. The person stripped naked is exposed to ridicule and abuse, and has lost control of his or her fate. Even though I suppose someone will invoke Godwin’s Law, I cannot help but be reminded of the naked prisoners in concentration camp photos from the Third Reich. Yes, there is such a thing as a slippery slope, in which we allow our government to get out of control and to become totalitarian. This is a path that we must never take.

Airline boycott?

Rep. Ron Paul has recently complained of having been repeatedly groped in a “disgusting” manner while flying on official state business, on account of the fact that he has metal in his knees. He rightly points out that this is unconstitutional. He recommends that, whenever we can, we use other means of transportation and not fly on commercial aircraft until this intrusive nude scan/crotch grope policy is discontinued. He also favors a national “opt out” day. Even though readers of this blog, including myself, strongly disagree with Ron Paul on many other things, on this particular point I concur that he is right in saying that the current TSA procedures are an unacceptable governmental intrusion into our personal modesty and dignity and our Constitutional rights.

I recognize that the current scan-and-grope TSA policy is the fault of the Obama Administration and not of the airlines. While that is true, at this point, the only effective way we have of making our anger known to the government is to refuse to participate in their totalitarian activities. Wherever possible, I plan to use other means of transportation that are not yet under this level of government intrusion.

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Posted in Christianity, Holocaust, Islam, Judaism, Liberal Fascism, Nazism, Political Correctness, Sharia (Islamic Law), Terrorism, Transportation | 110 Comments »

Thanking God…and a Call for Action

by 1389AD ( 162 Comments › )
Filed under Anti-Jihad, Balkans, Barack Obama, CAIR, Election 2008, Elections 2010, Free Speech, History, immigration, Islam, Patriotism, Second Amendment, Tea Parties, Transportation at November 25th, 2010 - 8:00 pm
Watch this video on YouTube.

Above is the Allen West video cited by author Mary Grabar.

A Slovenian immigrant blogs about what has made America great, and what we must do now:

Thanking God for What Makes Us Exceptional

Being thankful that “Don’t touch my junk” is today’s version of “Give me liberty or give me death.”

November 25, 2010 By Mary Grabar

This Thanksgiving season I am thankful for small pleasures, like being able to order a Mad Happy Ale at Twain’s in Decatur, Georgia, and listen to jazz, bluegrass, and blues musicians jamming on various days of the week.

I am thankful that we ended Prohibition. I am thankful that free enterprise is working on a small scale at Twain’s, where musicians gather on their own time and play for tips, where waiters work for tips, where the brewers are free to concoct that nectar of the gods, Mad Happy Ale. I am glad that I am able to stop by there on my way home after a hard afternoon of working in that most un-free of American institutions, the university.

I am glad that the government has not yet decided to restrict which musicians can play at Twain’s or how many barrels of Mad Happy Ale Twain’s can brew or how much they can discount it on certain nights. It’s supply and demand, and I know that when I requested Mad Happy Ale last Sunday afternoon and they were out, my vote, along with others, set the master brewer brewing that hoppy ambrosia.

I am thankful that I am not flying this holiday season, and I am thankful that Americans are protesting the government’s unlawful searches. I am thankful that the American spirit still lives. “Don’t touch my junk” is today’s version of “Give me liberty or give me death.” That primitive part of our brains that instinctively reaches for a weapon against the searches of law-abiding Americans has not been bred out of most Americans.

[…]

Alexis de Tocqueville warned about this soft despotism. I am thankful that capitalists set up a foundation to pay my salary so that I can teach Tocqueville, because the university where I teach would surely frown upon my placement of Democracy in America on my syllabus. I am thankful that after showing Ronald Reagan’s 1964 speech, I could show newly elected Congressman Allen West’s video to my class. He is the Patrick Henry of our day.

I am thankful for the Tea Party, that group of Americans not cowed by the long arm of the government, that group that is clinging to their guns and religion, and that helped elect Allen West. There is still much for them to learn, but I am thankful that so many ordinary Americans have volunteered their hours and dollars to preserving freedom. I am thankful that voters were alarmed and awakened this election.

I am thankful that 70 percent of Oklahoma voters voted to prevent sharia law from taking hold. I shudder at what CAIR is thinking of doing next, like taking away my Mad Happy Ale and music because it offends Muslim sensibilities.

Come to think of it, it’s good to go to a place like Twain’s and never see anyone wearing a hijab. It’s a good place to begin a revolution.

[…]

When I see a photo of Janet Napolitano I see Josef Broz Tito. Big Sis ordered her agents to be on the lookout for those like me, who place “Don’t Tread on Me” bumper stickers on their cars.

Many immigrants from Eastern European countries could not understand how Americans could have elected Obama. Well, our historical memory was wiped clean by the educationists, so that we could not see the threat in our midst.

…There is still something in the American character that shudders at the picture of a long line of docile people being herded into a transportation conveyance, while indifferent, ill-educated government employees ogle, prod, and poke their bodies. They understand what such government invasion means psychologically and spiritually, how it demoralizes a brave and free people. We may be boarding 747s instead of cattle cars, but the American spirit rebels. We know there are better ways, like arming ourselves.

There has been a “long train of abuses” over these last two years. There are still some like Congressman-elect Allen West who see these and say, “Pick up your bayonets” and “CHARGE!”

Isn’t it amazing that someone whose forebears were slaves could strike such a chord among free Americans and inspire them to elect him as their representative? It could happen in no other country. We still speak out and speak honestly. We still sit tall in the saddle. We still have our six-guns at our sides. We will not be prodded and herded along. This is American exceptionalism, what makes us different.

I thank God for that.

Read it all.

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Posted in Anti-Jihad, Balkans, Barack Obama, CAIR, Election 2008, Elections 2010, Free Speech, History, immigration, Islam, Patriotism, Second Amendment, Tea Parties, Transportation | 162 Comments »

Be Careful What You Put In Emails

by snork ( 121 Comments › )
Filed under Academia, Free Speech, Political Correctness at May 1st, 2010 - 1:00 pm

Here’s a story of a third-year law student at Harvard that should be a warning to us all: what you put in an email to someone who you think is a friend can come back to bite. Especially when you’re “friend” is a race nark.

Every time you put something into an email, please remember that someone you send it to may hit Forward. If your email makes the case for a biological reason for racial disparities in intelligence, someone might hit Forward and send it to Black Law Student Associations across the nation.

In context, the remarks weren’t an assertion that Blacks were genetically inferior, just pointing out that science hasn’t ruled that possibility out:

I absolutely do not rule out the possibility that African Americans are, on average, genetically predisposed to be less intelligent. I could also obviously be convinced that by controlling for the right variables, we would see that they are, in fact, as intelligent as white people under the same circumstances. The fact is, some things are genetic. African Americans tend to have darker skin. Irish people are more likely to have red hair. (Now on to the more controversial:) Women tend to perform less well in math due at least in part to prenatal levels of testosterone, which also account for variations in mathematics performance within genders.

[snip]

In conclusion, I think it is bad science to disagree with a conclusion in your heart, and then try (unsuccessfully, so far at least) to find data that will confirm what you want to be true. Everyone wants someone to take 100 white infants and 100 African American ones and raise them in Disney utopia and prove once and for all that we are all equal on every dimension, or at least the really important ones like intelligence. I am merely not 100% convinced that this is the case.

Please don’t pull a Larry Summers on me…

If you recall, Larry Summers is the Obama economic advisor who was fired as president of Harvard for basically saying the exact thing about women and math and science. The difference was that Summers was an University official, and he made the remarks publicly. This was a student sending a private email to someone she shouldn’t have trusted.

Needless to say, the student was forced to apologize, and probably lost a job that was lined up over this. This is the USSA. Learn it.

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Posted in Academia, Free Speech, Political Correctness | 121 Comments »

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