Kennon’s Space

One of the managers in my office told me that today’s Dilbert reminded him of me…He said something about me being a highly technical asshole…it’s a good thing I am so damn good looking…

Excerpt from an email from Campaign for Liberty President John Tate:

“Campaign for Liberty’s very own Steve Bierfeldt has become an unexpected Internet sensation — and the latest target of over-reaching federal government agents.

You see, Steve was detained by Airport Police and TSA officials shortly after the Campaign for Liberty regional conference in St. Louis.

The officials rudely berated and harassed Steve for 30 minutes in a secluded room at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.   Fortunately, Steve was able to record nearly all of the interrogation with his cell phone.

Steve’s alleged “crime”?  Carrying $4,700 in checks and cash from Campaign for Liberty, along with various other materials from our conference.

The local and Federal agents harassed Steve.  They were belligerent, cursing and using insulting language.  They threatened to turn Steve over to the DEA and the FBI, all the while refusing to inform him of his legal rights or explain how cash and checks threatened airplane or airport security.

Throughout the interrogation, Steve remained polite but resolute and declined to answer the invasive questions without an adequate explanation from these federal and local agents as to why they needed to be answered.  Without telling Steve what law he was accused of breaking, they continued their harassment.

Although they grew increasingly frustrated that he remained committed to exercising his rights, intervention from another officer eventually led the police to reluctantly release Steve.

Last Wednesday, Steve appeared on Judge Napolitano’s Freedom Watch to discuss the flagrant violation of his rights and to promote the importance of each of us defending our civil liberties.”

Here is a link to the Washington Times write up.

Here is the coverage on Fox News.

I rolled up to a drive-thru Wells Fargo ATM this morning to get some cash on the way to the office and was greeted with some corrupt or missing .DLL’s. Hey buddy! Yer GINA ain’t loading…at least it didn’t default back to the MSGINA or something stupid like that. I suppose I could have hit OK on the dialog box and made the ATM reboot if I hadn’t been in a hurry to get some coffee but unless the camera system on the ATM is running Windows too it probably got some good pictures of my mug so I left well enough alone.

Looks like it’s time to reinstall the OS. Over the last couple years I have actually come to appreciate Microsoft servers at work. Being primarily a Linux admin I am basically the Maytag repairman around here as I very rarely ever touch my servers except on patch days. So in this economic climate I have learned to appreciate the job security Microsoft brings to my data center, and I am sure whoever gets sent out to this ATM will be glad it isn’t Linux based either…

A great article by the WSJ detailing yet another instance in which we see that the Federal Government is evil regardless of who is at the helm. I sure hope those enemy of my enemy Puppet Theater fans who voted for Obama instead of real change are feeling pretty stupid right about now. So much for any hope of them repealing the “Patriot” Act.

“There is no news. There is only the truth of the signal. What I see. And, there’s the puppet theater the Parliament jesters foisted on the somnambulant public.” – Mr. Universe, Serenity.

Wow bet someone at the Globe is going to get fired for printing this piece. Speaking out publicly against the church of Gore tends to land you in big trouble. The author of this article hits the nail on the head when he points out:

“But considering how much attention would have been lavished on a comparable run of hot weather or on a warming trend that was plainly accelerating, shouldn’t the recent cold phenomena and the absence of any global warming during the past 10 years be getting a little more notice? Isn’t it possible that the most apocalyptic voices of global-warming alarmism might not be the only ones worth listening to?”

*GASP*

Waiting for the winds of change
To sweep the clouds away
Waiting for the rainbows end
To cast its gold your way
Countless ways
You pass the days

Waiting for someone to call
And turn your world around
Looking for an answer to
The question you have found
Looking for
An open door

You dont get something for nothing
You dont get freedom for free
You wont get wise
With the sleep still in your eyes
No matter what your dreams might be

What you own is your own kingdom
What you do is your own glory
What you love is your own power
What you live is your own story
In your head is the answer
Let it guide you along
Let your heart be the anchor
And the beat of your own song.
-Neil Peart

If the greatest song in history had been in the soundtrack of a Commodore64 game this is what it would have sounded like…The first time I heard this I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or kill myself. To the disappointment of many of you I ultimately choose the former. It’s a little like a terrible car wreck…horrific yet for some reason I can’t stop watching it…

With some 14,400 candidates competing for just 440 seats around the country, there were fears that violence might erupt when the results were announced, given the large number of losers, all with access to guns.

But those fears have also proven unfounded, so far.

I thought the above quote from this article regarding the recent democratic elections in Iraq to be quite amusing. The author points out that over 14000 people in Iraq ran for around 400 or so government seats. So their assumption was that when the results of the election were announced there would be violence because of the citizen’s ready access to firearms. By their own admission they were wrong.

Then I started thinking of another news piece I read today regarding the murder of dozens of unarmed protesters in Madagascar. I bet some people living in Madagascar wish they were living in Iraq…kind of weird.

On a side note…I was, and still am opposed to the invasion of Iraq based on a number of reasons. Primarily because no link between Iraq and 9/11 or WMD were ever found so the whole thing was sold to us on completely false pretense. That set a very dangerous precedence for America regarding pre-emptive, unprovoked  invasion of another sovereign nation. But now that we have really stuck our foot in it, I sincerely believe that as long as democracy holds, Iraqis will be much better for it 10 years from now than they would have been otherwise. The ends doesn’t justify the means in this situation. But in my opinion if 10 years from now the Iraqi people live in a moderately progressive democracy it will come damn close.

You’ve gotta wonder sometimes….especially when even trusted and respected news sources like the WSJ print articles like this without any kind of rebuttal on some obviously ridiculous, almost parody-like silly comments. Let me give you a brief synopsis. According to some ultra-right wing Russian nationalist the US will dissolve into several disparate states at some point in the next 2-3 years…Take a look at the map at the bottom of the article to full appreciate the stupidity of this former KGB analyst’s theory, and his obvious complete lack of understanding of the geo-political climate here inside the US.

First off I think the esteemed Professor Panerin completely lacks even a basic understanding of the American culture. This is a culture that is strongest when there is massive internal disagreement. The whole concept of American freedoms is based on the concept of diversity. This is an idea you never fully understand until you are immersed into it. And it is a concept that will guarantee the cultural dominance of America for many centuries to come. Governments of Russia, China, Japan, and other homogeneous cultures do not have the ability to adapt, grow, shrink, and otherwise change on short order like that of America. Case in point, after a 12 year politically conservative dynasty who drilled “Just Say No” into our subconscious we elected a man who admitted to smoking pot to the White House. After 8 years of moderate left wing political rule under the Clinton administration we elected a fundamentalist right wing Christian to the White House. Even after he was given the opportunity to show us his true right wing, hawk colors in the first 4 years of his administration we sent George W back for another 4 years. This last November we pulled a complete 180 degree turn and sent a man to Washington who bears a name in the style of the culture we have been politically and media trained to hate, Barak Hussien Obama. No where else in the world could this happen. Even our closest sister nations like Canada and the UK the opposing parties are very much just different shades of socialism.

Think of the diverse political and culture beliefs internal to the US as those of a functioning household. Siblings, all the states and communities within those states struggle and strain against one another to sit at the table with all the others. Many times there are fights between these siblings and ideals collide dramatically. But it only takes the mere shadow of an outside threat to unify the house against the external threat. Like the big brother who teases and tortures his little sister every day will instantly drop all regard for his own personal safety to defend her against a neighborhood bully so did the men and women of every state within the US rush to military recruiting depots in the year after 9/11 to go to Afghanistan.

If you know me, or have read any of my previous posts you will know that I am no fan of the federal government. But things are a long way from all out civil war, and if China, or the EU or Mexico, or Russia has any designs on absorbing, annexing or otherwise influencing how the US will look in the next decade they have another thing coming. The whole problem inside the US today is the feeling of outside control…outside our own communities the last thing that will happen is for the people of Alaska or Texas, or Oregon to replace Washington D.C. with Russia, Mexico or China. And to allude that anything like this could ever be possible demonstrates that Professor Panerin’s credentials on the U.S. are fictional. With analyst and intel like this is no wonder the Soviets are dead.