Claire's blog

• MOVIES: Lil' Pimp – 2004 animated movie with pimps, William Shatner, and Bernie Mac
  WTF? Why wasn't I notified of this? This is going straight to the top of my queue.
  Average of raters like you: 3.8 stars
  Average of 5,686 ratings: 2.9 stars
  (tags: media video movies cartoons Lil'Pimp pimps WilliamShatner BernieMac)
• CARTOONS: Batman: The Brave and the Bold – premiering 11/14/2008
  Is this why WB's "The Batman" finally died after 5 seasons? Because they were gearing up for another Batman series?

  It seems like they have been doing "TV-Y7 (FV)" (cartoon rating for fantasy violence toons suitable for kids) Batman cartoons non-stop since the 1980s.

  I really don't mind, but the adaptations are definitely declinining in quality and style. Nothing has been as good as FOX's animated Batmans of the early and mid 1990s.

  But they're still always entertaining. We burned through 30 episodes of WB's "The Batman" in about as many days.

  Here's hoping Cartoon Network can do what FOX and WB have done.

  (tags: media video TV shows cartoons Batman Batman:TheBraveAndTheBold CartoonNetwork Wikipedia articles)
• GAMES: Culdcept Saga
  The Xbox360 sequel to the PS2's Culdcept – the most-played game of Clint and Carolyn out of the past 4 years – is reviewed by someone named Phil Rownd who is kind of a joke to me. He says he rates the gameplay 5/5 stars, yet overall gives it a 2/5 star rating due to not liking the spiritual and sexual content. OMG there are variations of the D word! Hahaha. Still, I had never seen screenshots of Culdcept *Saga* before. Wish I could export my PS2 cards to the new game.
  (tags: reviews games videoGames Culdcept Xbox360 CuldceptSaga Guide2Games articles)
• TECHNOLOGY WAR: Australia Mulling a Nationwide Vehicle-Tracking System
  Every car, every desination, logged by the government for 5 years. One of your friends gets in trouble? Maybe the cops will show up to ask you some questions because they hung out at your house 4 years ago.

  Not cool.

  (tags: politics TechnologyWar technology Australia cars vehicles tracking CrimTrac Slashdot news articles ANPR AutomaticNumberPlateRecognition)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link] Any Futurama fan must watch every episode of Futurama. This goes without saying. And of course we watched this movie the instant it became available!

NAYSAYERS: I am soooooo tired of the “adaptation naysayers” (two groups I hate – sequel naysayers and adaptation naysayers). “Wah wah, this played more like an extended episode than a movie.” Well DUH. The movies are 4 episodes cut to widescreen and spliced together. If it plays like an extended episode, that’s because it IS an extended episode. All 4 episodes will play in syndication with the rest of the episodes, but as a 4 parter. It’s like you give people something more (4-parters instead of 1-parters) and they find a way to perceive it as something less. Packaging it as a movie is just a ploy to get more money and exposure. And the adaptation naysayer backlash (as well as the sequel naysayer backlash) is quite predictable.

BAD STUFF: Futurama and Matt Groening can do no wrong. A planet-sized alien takes control of Fry and uses him to lead a world religion that convinces everyone to leave earth for a mind-controlled “Heaven”. What can go wrong?

CONCLUSION: Another great installment from the series we all thought was canceled! And this one makes fun of religion too — even better!!

RECOMMENDATION: Anyone who watched every episode of Futurama, but doesn’t watch this…. Should be tortured by having to watch episodes of Mama’s Family for all of eternity.

MOVIE QUOTE: Professor Farnsworth: “Normally when I send you on a mission of extreme danger I would say ‘good news’, so when I say that this mission is dangerous, you can imagine how dangerous I really think it is.”

FRIENDS’ RATINGS: None, but it got a 7.4 on IMDB with 5400+ votes. Pretty good. Pretty, pretty good.

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• MUSIC: X-Ray Spex
  Carloyn & I have been listening to their first album a lot these past few weeks. I really really like it. I tend to not like female-vocal bands — they comprise maybe 10% of my collection, tops. But I like this album a good deal.
  (tags: media music punk UK bands X-RaySpex wikipedia articles)

• PICTURES: Vegetables made into faces, people, and animals
  More of a ‘cutsey’ thing, definitely not a laugh-out-loud thing.
  But I am always impressed when people make stuff with food.
  And I want to eat the cauliflower sheep.
  (tags: media pictures food vegetables faces people animals Haluze)
• OVERLY-HARSH PUNISHMENTS: Sex offender held because he doesn’t have a residence
  Yup. The guy has served his sentence, but since he doesn’t have a place arranged to live in — BEFORE leaving jail — they’re not letting him out. Even though he served his sentence.Why are child molesters treated worse than murderers again?? If you murder someone, you don’t get on a list. You get out when your sentence is over. That’s that. But if you left them live, then you can be subject to a scarlet “P” (pedophile) for the rest of your life?

  Why do we value children’s sexual innocence more than human life? Taking both is a crime, but why is one crime followed with such ferver? But if you kill someone — nobody really gives a shit? Is that the message being sent here?

  It seems like they are trying to affect sentences that are not legal. If the judge follows sentencing guidelines which say X years — then that is how long someone should be on jail.

  (tags: politics OverlyHarshPunishments SexOffenders sex pedophiles WontSomebodyPleaseThinkOfTheChildren? Bennington Vermont BenningtonBanner news articles RichardCavagnaro FrederickBragdon JohnWesley DavidJankowski homelessness YourTaxDollarsAtWork justice children)

• ABUSE OF AUTHORITY, OVERLY-HARSH PUNISHMENTS, TASERS: Rant from a firescape in the nude with a fluorescent tube in your hand? The penalty is death.
  New York’s finest… At it again. Nice work, boys.
  (If someone rants nakedly, they should be killed?)
  (tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority policeBrutality OverlyHarshPunishments police brutality tasers mentallyDisabled fluorescentLightTube ImanMorales NewYorkCity Brooklyn NewYork NYPost news articles)
• WAR ON TERROR: Appeals Court Orders Defense Department To Release Detainee Abuse Photos In ACLU Lawsuit
  The government’s been hiding these photos for over 5 years now, and the federal court order proves that this has been unconstitutional. Today is SO FULL OF WIN.
  (tags: politics WarOnTerror war terrorism WarInAfghanistan Afghanistan detainees torture media pictures ACLU lawsuits FreedomOfInformationAct FOIA 2003 2008 AbuGhraib GenevaConventions victories)
• ECONOMIC CRISIS: Ron Paul article: The Creation of the Second Great Depression
  He makes a good point that both parties support this bailout. We have a choice between “yes” and “yes”. Both parties merely feed the interests of big business in different ways. When Obama is elected, don’t expect it to be any different.

  If we’re going to socialize huge losses in the billions, then that’s really the last barrier left in it being inexucable that we don’t have socialized medical care — like every other 1st world nation. If we’re “more communist than China”, as Jim Rogers said … Then maybe we should get some of the benefits of those types of societies!
  Bloody damn likely, though. That would cut into profits!

  (tags: politics economics crisis bailout GreatDepression politicians editorial articles RonPaul JimRogers FannieMae FreddieMac China corporations congress FederalReserveSystem TreasurySecretary financer)
• GAME POLITICS: We Have the Judge’s Report Recommending PERMANENT DISBARMENT for Jack Thompson
  It’s been a long time coming for scumbag lawyer Jack Thompson…. Hopefully his permanent disbarment ends up happening. He deserves it.

  Slashdot discussion: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/25/1822207&from=rss

  (tags: politics games videoGames GeekPolitics JackThompson disbarment recommendations Tunis Florida FloridaBar)
• MILITARY’S NEW ROLE AT HOME: ArmyTimes.com – Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1
  Why is this important? This violates the Posse Comitatus Act.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act
  Passed in 61/6/1878, and written out of law by George W. Bush after 128 years (on 10/17/2006, via HR5122, The John Warner Defense Authorization Act)
  The law prohibited the military from being used as civilian police.

  But of course in Bush’s New World Order (hey, Bush #1 was the one who talked about the New Workd Order in his speeches!) … The military will police the civilians. Wouldn’t want any civil unrest.

  This is actually quite historic. And not good. Martial Law, anyone?

  The military-industrial complex’s power will grow proportionately. I’m sure this helps the likes of Halliburton, etc. Also not good.

  (tags: politics military expansion government PosseComitatus GeorgeW.Bush police ArmyTimes 3rdInfantryDivision 1stBrigadeCombatTeam NorthCom DefenseDepartment USA PetersonAirForceBase ColoradoSprings Colorado FortStewart Georgia civilUnrest crowdControl chaos homelandSecurity nonlethal tasers MartialLaw AirForce MarineCorps Army JointTaskForceCivilSupport FortMonroe Virginia)
• CAUSE FOR CONCERN?: “Lego Block” Prison Cells Readied In Utah
  It’s important to listen to the conspiracy-minded from time to time. There are a lot of disturbing occurrences going on, and it’s only been getting worse.
  (tags: politics prisons Utah Infowars PrisonPlanet news article USA HomelandSecurity military PosseComitatus coffins Georgia modularConstruction prisoners)

…when your friends have Flickr-related nightmares FOR you:

“Last night I dreamt you had forgotten like a whole 3 weeks worth of pictures and it screwed up your whole process — you were going to have to go back and erase the last 6 months and redo it. You were so upset!” –Eve C

I pointed out that in many cases I would just need to re-run my upload script, and could probably re-do 6 months of uploading in 2 weeks or so. (And under a week if I had to do it a 3rd time.) And that I’ve never rolled back more than 10 pictures in a situation like that anyway. I just throw stuff into a folder called “ZZZZZZ”, and when I catch up to the present, I bring ZZZZZ back into the mix and work my way forward again.

Anyway, I do indeed use flickr too much. Just uploaded my 10,000th picture there, though I am not quite up to 10,000 public pictures yet. Check out my pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl, or my profile at http://www.flickr.com/people/clintjcl. Friend me biotches. Flickr‘s social network membership is third only to Facebook and MySpace, according to what I’ve read.

Better yet, click here for 6 contiguous photos picked at random from my 10,000+: http://www.krazydad.com/gustavog/FlickRandom.pl?user=ClintJCL
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You go, girl! (more…)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link] We watched all 3 Pirates Of The Caribbean movies 3 nights in a row, which is really how this series should be watched.

BAD STUFF: Again, we found nothing bad whatsoever with this movie. A lot of people inexplicably rated it lower than the previous 2, but it was simply another chapter in the continuing adventures of Jack Sparrow.

CONCLUSION: This was yet another epic fantasy legend movie, and the scenes where they sail over the edge of the world are absolutely amazing. Really, movies #2 and #3 are one story that is too long to contain in a single movie — much like Kill Bill. The continuance of the Davy Jones plot started in Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 finally reaches its conclusion. This movie has an even more surrealist fantasy feel to it than the first two.

RECOMMENDATION: How could anyone watch #1 without watching #2 and #3? Just don’t get your hopes insanely up, which seemed to burn a lot of people. This movie is of equal caliber to the first 2. Again: More of the same, and in this case same is good. I’d love for this series to keep continuing, but I doubt it will.

MOVIE QUOTE: Barbossa: “Better were the days when mastery of seas came not from bargains struck with eldritch creatures… but from the sweat of a man’s brow and the strength of his back alone. You all know this to be true!”

COINCIDENCES: Dead Man, Pirates Of The Caribbean 3 – 2 Johnny Depp movies in a week that had hardened killers who slept with teddy bears! Not to mention 2 Johnny Depp movies with the words “Dead” and “Man” in the title… (because Pirates Of The Carribean 2 has the subtitle of “Dead Man‘s Chest”)

FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Only I gave it 5 stars? WTF? Carolyn, Jordan, Tatiana, Eric M all really liked it. Kipp only liked it. Ian hated it. (Ian?! 5 stars for #1, 3 stars for #2, and 1 star for #3?!?!?!?!!) Scott S forsook the entire series and refused to watch #3. (How could anyone do that after a cliffhanger?!?! Pure masochism?) Gotta say that the 3 movies all seemed to be very similar to each other, and we don’t understand how people rated them so differently other than the fact that they probably didn’t watch all 3 movies 3 nights in a row. Wow. Surprised by this one. The IMDB ratings for the 3 movies were 8, 7.3, 7, so the dropoff in ratings wasn’t as apparent as it was amongst my own friends. Strange indeed.

WILHELM SCREAM: There were two :)

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• GUN CONTROL: Twisted Outcome: Restricting firearms since 1997 has helped make England more crime-ridden than the U.S.
  Yup. Except for murder and rape, Britain has overtaken the U.S. for all major crimes.
  Your chances of being mugged in London are now six times greater than in New York.
  53 percent of English burglaries occur while occupants are at home, compared with 13 percent in the U.S.
  e. In a United Nations study of crime in 18 developed nations published in July, England and Wales led the Western world's crime league, with nearly 55 crimes per 100 people.
  The cop stories are pretty bad too: IN 1994, a homeowner detained 2 burglars with a toy gun. The cops arrested the homeowner. Now they want to make imitation guns illegal as well.
  (tags: politics guns GunControl UK crime statistics violence violentCrime burglaries murder rape articles)
• POLITICS: Political Viewpoints Linked To Fear – why am I unsurprised?
  "Researchers writing in Science report that the political orientation of test subjects who have strong views is linked to how easy they are to startle. They found that subjects who were more fearful were more likely to have right wing views, such as being in favor of capital punishment and higher defense budgets. The researchers suggest that this psychological difference is why it is so difficult to change people's minds in political arguments."

  That might also explain why conservatives are more into gun ownership. (Which certainly doesn't hurt them in trying to get their way.)

  (tags: politics psychology research studies personality conservatives capitalPunishment deathPenalty fear Slashdot news articles)
• RELIGION: Catholocism officially bans saying God's name
  Just when you think religion can't get more messed up …. Catholics will now be forced to censor their own hymns such that they do not say the sacred name of God.

  Cause, y'know… That's only for priests.

  Silly people making up made-up rules about fairies in the sky.

  (tags: politics religion censorship Christians Christianity Catholics Catholocism censorshp words hymns Vatican Yahweh God)
• 911: Israel media beginning to blame 911 on *Iran*
  First off — Al Queda, Bin Laden, and 911 had NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING to do with Iraq. Even the U.S. Govt has eventually admitted this. 911 is from SAUDI ARABIA (definitely) and AFGHANISTAN (most likely). (Unless it's the U.S. government — also quite possible.)

  At one point, 50% of the public believed there was a link. This was how the government controlled sentiment such that the War In Iraq could happen.

  Now they're trying to pull the same shit in Israel — telling the poeple that Iran had a role in 911 to garner support for warring/nuking Iran.

  The situation is not going to be pretty.

  (tags: politics 911 media manipulation AlQueda BinLaden Iran WarInIran Israel bullshit ToviaSingerShow KennethTimmerman Newsmax IsraelNationalNews news articles)
• COMEDY: Sarah Palin and the Rape Kits – "sounds like some kind of punk band"
  A very funny video, that brings up major points about Sarah Palin and paying for rape kits. "Maybe McCain wants to start a rape-based economy?"
  "Alaska. Come for the fish. Stay for the rape."
  (tags: politics elections election2008 politicians SarahPalin JohnMcCain rape rapeKits finance victims 236 videos comedycentral)
• CENSORSHIP: Sarkozy's comic friend says sorry for 9/11 comments
  Pfft. If you try to oppress conspiracy theories, you give them a lot more credence.
  Look up the "Streisand Effect" for a basic lesson.
  (tags: politics censorship 911 comedians France stand-upComic Independent UK news articles Jean-MarieBigard NicolasSarkozy USA Pentagon)
• CELL PHONES: Keeping in pocket reduces quality of sperm, according to new research
  "On average, there was an 85 percent increase in the amount of free radicals for all the subjects in the study. Free radicals have been linked to a variety of diseases in humans including cancer," said Agarwal.

  However, the study does have major limitations, he acknowledged, such as the small sample size. It also was conducted in a lab and so cannot account for the protection a human body might offer, such as layers of skin, bone and tissue.

  In a previous study, Agarwal and his team found that men who used their cell phones more than four hours a day had significantly lower sperm quality than those who used their cell phones for less time. Those findings were based on self-reported data from 361 subjects.

  Now if it's affecting sperm — it's not a stretch to say it's affecting other parts of your body as well. This type of research is hard to get funded because it's anti-profit.

  (tags: science medical studies research hardware phones cellphones sperm men Cleveland Ohio CNN news articles CleavelandClinic)
• ELECTION 2008: TECHNOLOGY WAR: How the GOP Wired Ohio's 2004 Vote Count for Bush to Win
  A Republican computer data security expert tells how cyber-partisans could have stolen the 2004 election. And again: Search for the "Clint Curtis testimony to Ohio Supreme Court" video to find other disturbing occurrences.

  The article is 3 pages. It details what many of us technies have known for 8 years now — electronic voting machines are NOT secure. Voting is designed to be anonymous. Secure systems are based on knowing the identity fo the user. The two do not go together. Paper ballots are a necesity. Sometimes, old fashioned solutions work better than new solutions.

  Remember: The Diebold CEO literally said he "promised to deliver George W. Bush the electoral votes needed to win". If you're running the company of voting machines, shouldn't you promise to deliver the electoral votes according to how people voted? Then Diebold had to go and change their name for this election, because so many people are on to them.

  (tags: politics elections Election2008 VotingFraud VoterFraud VotingMachines TechnologyWar Republicans GeorgeW.Bush corporations Diebold PremierElectionSolutions Ohio 2004 Election2004 democracy securitycameras)
• FINANCE: Get free money now! Well, if you had a line of credit anytime in the past 20 years. Class Action Lawsuit against TransUnion.
  If you ever had a line of credit (which I have) during the dates outlined in the site — you can sign up for some potential free money. I have received checks of about $10 about 50% of the time I sign up for things like this, so it's definitely worth the effort.
  If the conditions apply for you.
  (tags: finance corporations TransUnion lawsuits money freeMoney class registration classRegistration lineOfCredit credit)
• COMICS: 8 comic books that have been recalled, past to present
  Batgirl dropped the F-bomb? Wolvernie called Sabretooth a kike? And I thought Superman was a dick!
  (tags: lists comics recalled banned Marvel DC Batman Batgirl profanity nudity racialSlurs kike Wolverine Sabretooth babies AmyGrant JFK JohnF.Kennedy BobHarras ChicagoTribute articles)

Fuck Metallica. (more…)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link] It was nice that we got to watch all 3 Pirates Of The Caribbean movies during successive evenings. Procrastination with movies really pays off. You can understand a franchise much better if you have all the previous movies in your immediate memory.

BAD STUFF: Again, nothing bad. Some sequels are much worse than others (The Crow 2, Starship Troopers 2), while other sequeles simply advance new stories of equal quality and meet a bunch of naysaying from people who are only impressed with the initial novelty of the first installment in any series (The Matrix 2, Harry Potter 2, Saw 2).

CONCLUSION: This was a great sequel. Going into the Davy Jones legend was really cool, as it finally inspired us to check out the Davey Jones’ Locker wikipedia page and learn about the original legend. This movie had an even richer set of characters than the first, and included such legends as The Kraken. It also advanced the story of Jack Sparrow in general (of course).

RECOMMENDATION: It would be stupid to watch Pirates Of The Caribbean #1 without watching #2. And #3. It’s more of the same, and the same is good. We watched all 3 movies 3 nights in a row, and there was not really a discernable difference between them. Of course, not everyone agrees..

MOVIE QUOTE: Jack Sparrow: I want my jar of dirt!

COINCIDENCES: The Crow & Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 – We watched 2 movies within 8 days that have crows eating somebody’s eyes out.

FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Jordan, Tatiana, and Scott S loved it (5 stars). Carolyn and Christian D really liked it (4 stars). Benj, Ian, Chris H/Lisa, Eric M, and Rebekah only liked it (3 stars).
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Fred and Chuck

Once upon a time there was a guy named Fred. One night Fred was having trouble sleeping, and went to the kitchen for a snack. Before turning on the light, he happened to glance out the window, and see some movement in his neighbor’s garage. As he watched, Chuck, another of his neighbors–not the owner of that house– walked out carrying some garden tools. Fred glanced at the clock, which said 2:15 a.m. Fred grabbed his camcorder, which happened to have night vision, and kept watching and filming as Chuck crept from one house to another, sneaking into any open garages, and carrying off various items. (more…)

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see Sarah Palin pictures (more…)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link] When I first saw this at the Arlington Cinema Drafthouse … I had a bit too much wine, nachos, and cigarettes. I ended up remembering nothing about the movie even as the credits rolled. All I remembered is that I knew I liked it, and should re-watch it. Finally, years later, I did.

BAD STUFF: I really didn’t find anything bad about this movie at all. It was a great epic fantasy movie, and it had its own legend. And how often do such movies deal with pirates? After Lord Of The Rings, and several childhood-fantasy movies such as Pan’s Labyrinth … It was nice to have something pirate-based.

CONCLUSION: Loved it. 5 stars. This is how fantasy movies should be done.

RECOMMENDATION: See it. Unless you have some inexplicable hate of fantasy and/or pirates and/or Johnny Depp.

FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Carolyn, Jordan, Christian D, Kipp, Eric M, Becky S, Wayne H, Scott S all loved it. Metinee and 55+-year-old ex-co-worker Jacqueline only really liked it. No ratings below 4 stars in the 11 people I know who have rated it.
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Carolyn likes to play peek-a-boo with the cats in a similar fashion. (more…)

• RELIGION VS. CHILDREN: Outrage as Islamic leader defends child brides, based on the example of Mohammad marrying his wife Aicha at age 9 (she was his fiance for 3 years first)
  At least the Catholic church PRETENDED this wasn't okay…

  ha, ha ha, ha ha ha.

  (tags: politics religion children Islam Muslims marriage Mohammad pedophilia fatwa Morocco MohamedBenSheikhAbderrahmanAlMaghraoui)
• ELECTION 2008: Sciencedebate 2008
  McCain and Obama's answers to the ScienceDebate2008 questions can be found posted side-by-side here.
  (tags: politics elections Election2008 politicians JohnMcCain BarackObama debates answers side-by-side science ScienceDebate2008)
• RELIGION: Yet another Christian icon turns out to be gay
  And look at the comments they are receiving? I find gay people trying to integrate into Christianity kind of laughable, because who wants to be part of a club that says you're going to hell? Take a stand against it and start your own religious offshot.

  Either way, this news is bound to annoy lots of Christians — and that makes me laugh.

  (tags: religion sex sexualFreedom homosexuality Christian musicians RayBoltz celebrities ChristianMusic funny)
• COPYRIGHT California demands site stop posting laws online. Citizens are expected to apy $1556 or simply not know what the law is.
  And the ugly spectre of intellectual "property" raises its head again… How are citizens supposed to follow the law if they can't even find out what it is? This is some good activism, and California is looking like a conservative state in their actions, which are laughable and unconstitutional. The government is supposed to be by the people and for the people — and that includes the law.

  Right now, if you want to know the law? You can buy a digital copy for $1556 or a print coyp for $2315. Really fair, huh?

  Oregon's pulling the same shit too. We are slowly transofrming from a democracy of laws by and for the people, to a situation where you must mindlessly follow the orders of any officer or authority figure — without knowing whether they are legal orders are not. This is also exactly what the fascists want.

  (tags: politics copyright IntellectualProperty AbuseOfAuthority California lawsuits legal law code penalCode Oregon CarlMalamud)
• TECHNOLOGY WAR: Indian Woman Convicted of Murder By Un-reviewed Brain Scan
  The device used against her has not been peer-reviewed.
  In America, I would consider this a huge violation of the Fifth Amendment – the right to not testify against oneself.
  At what point can the government arrest YOU, run a black box scanner on you, and declare that the magic box says you're guilty? At what point is this a gross violation of due process and proper justice?
  (tags: politics TechnologyWar rights selfIncrimination 5thAmndment FifthAmendment scans brains brainScans India ChampadiRamanMunkundan science privacy hardware slashdot news articles)
• POLICE STATE: "Your papers, please." Homeland Security Sets up Suspicionless Checkpoints as far as 100 miles away from U.S. borders – video included
  Now the border patrol is sayign they can set up checkpoints up to 100 miles from the border. Nevermind that the Supreme Court has ruled that various checkpoints are illegal — and so they deploy new checkpoints with new purposes not already ruled against.

  Watch the video. The guy refuses to cooperate and is eventually let go. It's really funny when police say you are not being detained, but don't let you go.

  Anyway, the checkpoint officer was totally pwned. Guy answered none of his questions and went on his merry way.

  Nice to see people standing up to baseless police invasion of our rights to use the roads our taxes already paid for.

  (tags: politics police BorderPatrol HomelandSecurity ICE checkpoints media videos reality OlympicPeninsula jurisdiction video rights)
• MUSIC: Voltaire – photos of Voltaire and Amanda Palmer recording 'Stuck With You' from Ooky Spooky…
  And a big complaint Voltaire made about MySpace. MySpace took down his own song for being copyrighted, despite it being his own song.
  (tags: music Voltaire AmandaPalmer media pictures MySpace copyright)

It was decent. The binoculars REALLY helped, since we were in the very last row. Chong’s hot older wife opened. We left late (6:45PM and they start seating at 6:30PM for a 7:00PM show). I spoon fed Carolyn her dinner as she drove, since we were in mid-meal when we realized we had to get the hell out of here–and fast! We didn’t miss anything and even managed to snag a drink at the bar.

And it sucks that they made Chong serve 9 months in jail! Remember, kids: Our country imprisons at the highest rate of any country on the planet. By some strict interpretations, that might mean it’s the least free country. Anyway — their description of the bust was pretty funny. “Do you have any drugs in the house?” “Uhh, I’m Tommy Chong, what do you think?”

Other than that, they didn’t really do anything new — just slightly modernized variations of their standard acts and songs. Cheech has no mustache. Their humor is most certainly not edgy — or even in the top tier of funniness. However, they are cultural icons — and must be worshipped as such.

Anyway, it was good to go. (more…)

• TECHNOLOGY WAR: China Wants UN To Help Trace Sources On Internet
  Yup. Pretty soon the United Nations will help oppressive regimes (including our own) find out who their critics are, silence them, censor them, and arrest them. The U.S. is participating too.

  You can't have freedom of speech without anonymity. That's just how it works. The governments of the world (who have collectively killed over 70 million people in the last 100 years) need to get over themselves.

  (tags: politics TechnologyWar censorship surveillance anonymity UnitedNations UN China USA Q6/17 FreedomOfSpeech speech internet slashdot news articles chillingeffects)
• TECHNOLOGY WAR: Judge Rules Defense Can Get DUI Machine Source Code – VICTORY
  Another rare technology war victory — the right to examine the source code to a machine that gives you a DUI. It's completely fair, and we can't have "magic black boxes" that simply judge us based on internal evidence and methods that nobody can question. That's just not fair.

  And in case you think it's not fair — CMI, the company which makes these, has racked up $1,200,000 in contempt of court fines due to refusing COURT ORDERS to turn in the code.

  If corporations are given the rights of people, how do you punish one that refuses a court order? If you ask me, CMI should be taken by force and not allowed to operate their business until they acquiesce to existing court orders. This is typical American corporatrism — where capitalism is squashed by corporations taking advantage of their status.

  Glad to see some sense here.

  (tags: politics TechnologyWar victories DUI breathylyzers rulings Arizona Slashdot news articles corporations CMI PimaCounty Minnesota Florida Louisiana Massachusetts Tennessee newjerseybureauofchildren'sservices)

• GAMES: Illuminati: New World Order – I’ve had this game for FIVE YEARS and haven’t played it. NEED PEOPLE TO PLAY IT WITH ME.
  (I got the SubGenius expansion pack too!)
  (tags: games cards strategy INWO Illuminati NewWorldOrder SubGenius clintjcl)
• CORPORATIONS: Apple forfeits eBooks credibility by banning a book – a Comic Book! WTF?
  Censorship from Apple. I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding, right? Haha. Consolidating everything you buy from a market into one store is a bad idea. Many apple people only buy stuff through apple, including only getting music from iTunes. They simply don’t get things that aren’t available through Apple. Looks like Apple is becoming the Wal-Mart of online content.
  (tags: poilitics corporations Apple censorship media comicBooks Murderdrome blog articles)
• TECHNOLOGY WAR: VICTORY: DOJ Needs Warrant To Track Your Cell’s GPS History
  It’s very rare that any court affirm a right associated with technology that is analagous to the same thing without the technology involved. Very rare indeed. This is a rare Technology War Victory, and a victory for Civil Rights as well.

  The EFF (Electronic Freedom Foundation) seems to be the sole champion for such causes. Do not underestimate them.

  (tags: politics TechnologyWar victories rights CivilRights privacy surveillance hardware phones cellPhones tracking Constitutionalrights FourthAmendment 4thAmendment EEF courts rulings Slashdot news article warrants)