Breakfast of champions

Dewberry cobbler … what do the pore folks have for breakfast?

Back again

I've been busy for the last week on a little gig, pick up some cigar money. I come back to the world and find nothing but more horrors. For instance, a sorry bill that just slid through. Excerpt:

Previously, CISPA allowed the government to use information for "cybersecurity" or "national security" purposes. Those purposes have not been limited or removed. Instead, three more valid uses have been added: investigation and prosecution of cybersecurity crime, protection of individuals, and protection of children. Cybersecurity crime is defined as any crime involving network disruption or hacking, plus any violation of the CFAA. Basically this means CISPA can no longer be called a cybersecurity bill at all. The government would be able to search information it collects under CISPA for the purposes of investigating American citizens with complete immunity from all privacy protections as long as they can claim someone committed a "cybersecurity crime". Basically it says the 4th Amendment does not apply online, at all. Moreover, the government could do whatever it wants with the data as long as it can claim that someone was in danger of bodily harm, or that children were somehow threatened—again, notwithstanding absolutely any other law that would normally limit the government's power.

Go and read the whole thing here and gag. The 4th Amendment to the Constitution has been effectively negated by the bogus War on Terror. And a story on the TSA vermin:

The grandmother of a 4-year-old girl who became hysterical during a security screening at a Kansas airport said Wednesday that the child was forced to undergo a pat-down after hugging her, with security agents yelling and calling the crying girl an uncooperative suspect.

Read all of that one here. Some happy day, those who have worked for the TSA will be spat upon in the streets. They are as slimy a lot as we've had in this country for a long time. Makes you hate to fly. The world's unhappiest sight is a moron with a badge and a clipboard. And, as long as I'm on this tear:

The perfect googoo headline

I get a couple of lefty newsfeeds. They often have stuff on certain financial happenings that are less likely to show up in the big press. I read them wearing the same skeptical spectacles I wear for everything I read, right or left [or, in an old adage of the trade, 'If your mother says she loves you, check it out']. A headline on one story today tickled me unreasonably:
Transgender, Gender-Nonconforming People Among First, Most Affected by War on Terror's Biometrics Craze
Now that's the occasion for alarm in Austin and sheer panic in San Francisco. There's a joke about a make-believe NY Times headline:
World to end Wednesday, women, minorities to suffer most
NB: That's a joke, but it rings true to the Times' grotesquely slanted reporting.
In the middle of all the Titanic centennial hooha, I recall a joke at the Vicad [or maybe it was a real Advocate headline]:
Titanic sinks; no Victorians hurt
Was amused by the big front-page story in the Vicad this morning, a hard-hitting, scrappy, courageous exposé on a honkytonk's dress code. I mean really, people. It'll probably win an award.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds

I've passed springs on the high plains of eastern New Mexico, where the relentless wind can disturb the psyche, going on for days and days and days at a time, the howling a background to every other sound. The last few days here in **Adrift haven't been that bad but bad enough to get on the ole nerves.
It's not just us. To see how the rest of the nation fares, take a peek at http://hint.fm/wind/ and see what's blowing in the wind all across the country.

Ennui

So, a friend complains, legitimately, that I've not said a word here for too long. So, a word [or more precisely, a vid]:

For anyone who's ever been annoyed [did you know that annoy and ennui are etymologically related way upstream?] by a snotty cat.

Asian Aggies

A bit of fascinating grassroots engineering that makes small but real improvement in quality of life for poor Asians [Filipinos, I take it].