Heavens to Murgatroyd, the sounds, like trumpets calling the demons back to Hell…the stench, like 1000 rotten corpses vomited. – C. Torok
Another good week for links, and as all too often happens far too many of them are various excesses of the police state; one wonders how far this will have to go before the jellyfish who make up the majority of Americans and Europeans will wake up and put a halt to it. Much, much farther, I’d imagine, well into roving death-squad territory. This week’s top contributor was Radley Balko (now ensconced at the Washington Post) with everything down to the first video, which was suggested by my cat. The second video is something quite unusual, an unreleased 1984 movie by Tom Schiller (of Saturday Night Live fame) starring a number of big Hollywood names (including SNL alumni Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd). It comes to us courtesy of Jesse Walker, who describes it as “a dreamlike tale set in a world where the Port Authority has seized dictatorial powers in Manhattan, a benevolent conspiracy of tramps guides people’s destinies from a hidden base beneath New York, and the U.S. government first went to the moon in 1953…it seems to take place in the entire 20th century at once.” Jesse also contributed “comics” and “nose”, and the rest of the links were provided by Kevin Wilson (“bears” and “license”), Mistress Matisse (“proles”), Jack Shafer (“gothic”), RMV (“castration”), Jason Kuznicki (“NSA” and “hysteria”), Nun Ya (“jaywalking”), Scott Greenfield (“Amazon”), Cop Block (“cigarette”), Walter Olson (“subscriber”), and Grace (“murders”).
- Never call the cops for any reason whatsoever, army surplus edition.
- Too old to be headline of the week; too good not to share.
- Heroic Charleston cops crack down on unlicensed talking.
- This thing would be pretty impressive as a golem.
- Beware of the bears.
- Laws are for the proles.
- Truth is stranger than gothic fiction.
- Cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.
- Cop castrates boy for walking while black.
- And people say comic books are unrealistic.
- Everything we know the NSA can do (so far).
- Cops beat up 84-year-old man for jaywalking.
- Homeless Swedish man ordered to pay TV license fee.
- More casualties of “your children are in danger!” hysteria.
- Amazon wants to ship your purchases before you buy them.
- Man drops cigarette; cops reply by repeatedly tasing his son’s genitals.
- “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”
- Cops murder dog, try to murder random pedestrian and threaten to murder witness.
From the Archives
- Cops, cats, cards, Craigslist, confessions, Cohen, carnivores, Cthulhu, cosmos, cannabis, robot restaurants, fungal sex and the vertical pole.
- I’m so deeply frustrated that I’m having twisted fantasies and have grown to hate women; could an escort help me get my head straight?
- Judge says tricking women into sex is OK because James Bond does it.
- Queensland cops use loophole in law to harass and victimize whores.
- Jacob Sullum slams Kristof as a proponent of laws that harm women.
- An English nun helps streetwalkers without trying to “rescue” them.
- Looks like the Philippines is moving toward British-type legalization.
- Washington, D.C. AG admits a prohibitionist law is unconstitutional.
- Susie Bright on how prosecutorial incentives spawn abominations.
- Clara Ward, who went from debutante to princess to courtesan.
- Every religion has a creed; the “trafficking” cult is no exception.
- The transformation of “illegal aliens” into “sex trafficking rings”.
- Public choice theory explains the behavior of all large groups.
- Is it wrong to offer a homeless young woman money for sex?
- Competition pole dancers claim they’re better than strippers.
- Canadian men arrested for the “crime” of talking about sex.
- Prohibitionists claim repressive laws “protect” sex workers.
- Another feel-good law which will help virtually nobody.
- A rather peculiar article about sex workers in Malawi.
- What can a woman do about painful intercourse?
- A catalog of essays and studies about sex work.
- Tall tales about technology and “sex trafficking”.
- Anti-gay lawyer “sex traffics” her own daughter.
- Cheryl Overs: “A Good Year for Red Umbrellas”.
- Melissa Gira Grant: “The War on Sex Workers”.
- Dr. Brooke Magnanti debunks “porn addiction”.
- New hope for men with Peyronie’s syndrome.
- Serial rapist of prostitutes caught in Florida.
- A holier-than-thou rock music radio station.
- Lawyer disbarred for billing a client for sex.
- The Great New England Bestiality Panic.
- How is a moral panic like a rhinoceros?
- The gentrification of Nevada brothels.
- Ed Bagley accepted a plea bargain.
- In which I am inundated by spam.
- Wisconsin cops infiltrate P411.
- Welcome to our world again.
- The legacy of Roe vs. Wade.
- Sex, Lies and Audiotapes.
- Rapist cop of the week.
I’m not sure exactly what will make the people of the USA and Europe angry enough with their treatment by cops to do something about it. But it will likely happen about the same time they get fed up with bankers, and corporate bosses.
Fixing local police is fairly easy – and it happens all the time.
The problem is twofold though. First – in a city as large as New York City – that city government is more akin to a STATE of the union. If New York City were a state – it would rank 12th out of 50 for most populous – pushing Virgina’s 8.1M population into 13th position. Don’t expect much political flexibility for change in a city this large – especially when the people keep electing “Nanny” mayors.
But for smaller towns – police ROUTINELY get calibrated …
http://www.wfxg.com/story/13711597/waveland-mayor-removes-tasers-from-police-department-after-lawsuits
Waveland was becoming the “Taser” capital of the U.S. – and although the mayor SAYS he may give the cops back their tasers – I really don’t think he will because a few lawsuits puts that little town in financial extremis quite quickly.
In Bay St. Louis – right next door to Waveland – if a cop uses his taser he has to stand in front of the city council and explain it – and the victim gets to tell their side also.
That is why many of us say … “Smaller government is better government.” It’s MUCH easier to reform than a big, leviathan government that lives off itself.
This is not to say that SOME cops in small towns go off the reservation and commit heinous acts – and, Lord knows – they get published nationwide when it happens – but in many towns those are just isolated incidents. The police in NYC aren’t connected to the police in Lafayette, Louisiana. We are not talking about a nationwide cartel here controlled by a few – each of these police agencies function in a finite jurisdiction and are subject to the will of the voters.
Of course – if the voters in those places don’t pay attention to local politics – then they get what they deserve.
Also – FYI …
I just returned from the middle east and was listening to the radio on my way to work this morning.
This is new …
It’s a new “pocket drone” available for under $500. The inventor was on the Walden & Johnson radio show this morning. He claims this thing has a three mile range (3 miles out and 3 miles back). It can be operated using an IPad or Android tablet and, when out of range – it can fly autonimously based on a pre-planned GPS flight route than you can program with the help of Google maps …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrstX15YGeE
This might sound off-topic – but it’s not so much because this drone can be used to monitor police activity … from the air. End of discussion about videotaping cops – this thing will do it – fly back to the owner and the cops will never be the wiser. The developer says when it’s 100 feet in the air – you can’t hear it.
I’m getting one.
Stand by for a plethora of attempts by the state to control these things in the hands of civilians. There is a dark side to them of course. Can you imagine if Lee Harvey Oswald had had one capable of carrying a weapon?
It’s coming.
Shoot, I’m sorry, I hadn’t finished my thought and mistakenly hit post. How do I delete that comment?
Like that. 🙂
Thank you Maggie. 🙂
I live near Harvey. I’m not surprised to hear it. It’s a bit like the Wild Wild West in that town and on the occasion I have to take the train into Chicago, I usually have to go through Harvey but I try to avoid it as much as possible. Harvey is filled with gangs and corrupt police. The bus station there has quite a few bullet holes. The Metra train system has its own police, one of whom was killed on patrol in 2009 (I think).
Okay, I finally finished my thought that I originally wanted to post. This is probably going to sound disjointed, but I’ve found if I take too much time to respond the conversation usually leaves me behind. Here goes, and I hope I do not upset you, Maggie, or anyone else:
I’m just speculating, but I think one of the reasons nothing has happened yet is because these events take place with different police departments in different places with different demographics, if not different economic circumstances. They might be taking pages from the same playbook, but the NYPD is not the LAPD is not the Podunk Sheriff’s office. It’s not yet considered “national” like the NSA or Obamacare is.
It would probably take an actual, provable link of all these various police departments across this non-homogenous country are coordinating with each other, probably on the orders of the federal government, to take these actions. Otherwise, all we have are sporadic “isolated” incidents that people can write off as the work of “bad apples” and the like. Even then, it would probably require several different regional movements, because would you expect people in New York, for example, to listen to people from Alabama or California about how they should fix their police force?
And even once the tipping point in a given area is reached, going off the premise that the political system is useless and beyond redeemable, what precisely do you expect these “jellyfish” to do? Grab their hunting rifles and revolvers and go up against individuals trained in the use of heavy military-grade hardware? That probably sounds like a straw man, but that’s the impression I get when I see commenters elsewhere (not here, I hasten to add) sound off about “taking as many with me as I can” when (or if) they martyr themselves.
I prefer to take a long-term, strategic view. It’s going to take organization with a leader on the order of a Washington to mobilize something that would check these excesses without a bloody civil conflict that would simply justify the beliefs of those who consider the public to be “the enemy” and cause them to redouble their efforts at control. It might even take some subterfuge as well to get police forces to relinquish their SWAT gear and make themselves accountable, without them realizing they’re doing it. Hey, if it works one way, why couldn’t it work in reverse? And to be mobilized, people will have to reach a point where they have very little left to lose as was seen in places like Tunisia and Egypt. Are any of us here there yet? I’ll admit I’m not. Does that make me a jellyfish?
Finally, it seems to me there are people already fed up with bankers and corporate bosses. They called themselves the “Occupy” movement and they turned out to be completely ineffectual except as an attention-grabber on the nightly news.
A new voice of reason at reason.com:
http://reason.com/archives/2014/01/26/the-mythical-invasion-of-the-super-bowl
Congratulations Maggie! Glad to see the new year starting out well for you.
re army surplus – “No one told Honeycutt the iodine is a regulated chemical though Townley said investigators knew that fact.”
It is impossible, impossible for a citizen to comply with the laws and regulations when it’s a full time career to know them, when even people whose full-time careers are knowing the law have to specialize in segments of it.
That’s precisely the idea. It’s the simplest way to ensure that everyone is a criminal and therefore subject to the whims of the State.
I went through a couple pages of the comments on the gummi bears last week, but I had to stop. Laughing was starting to hurt, and it was making me feel inadequate in my own polemical writing. 🙂
I’m glad to report that this site has joined the opposition to the (neo)feminist oppression (oooops, “protection”) of whores with a surprisingly coherent article.
http://www.returnofkings.com/27814/the-feminist-war-against-prostitution-is-fueled-by-lies-and-distortions
They have been pissing off (neo)feminists for weeks now with their other articles so I daresay they’re doing quite a good job in addition to their usual self-improvement-for-men topics. When you start receiving death and castration threats over saying that ear-length hair and Skrillex are not sexually attractive, you know you’re doing something right!
Btw, that cat video was really nice!