[The government’s arguments are] the most bizarre I have heard in 40-plus years of being a lawyer. – Bruce Feder
Shame, Shame (#1163)
Thinking with the wrong head creates its own problems without politicians’ help:
Multiple sites which promise to use [computer algorithms] to ‘nudify’ any photos uploaded are actually designed to infect users with powerful credential stealing malware…cybersecurity…researchers…believe the sites are run by Fin7, a notorious Russian cybercrime group…services for producing [computer]-generated n[udes]…are becoming enticing enough [to cheapskates and slimeballs] that hackers feel it is worth the time and effort to build fake versions they can then use to hack people…404 Media also found that one of the Fin7-run sites was included one of the web’s biggest porn site aggregators, potentially putting…any[one foolish enough to use]…the site at risk…
Pyrrhic Victory (#1172)
All cops will have these within a few years:
A pair of students at Harvard have built what big tech companies refused to release [to the] public…due to the overwhelming risks and danger involved: smart glasses with facial recognition technology that automatically looks up someone’s face and identifies them. The…customized glasses also pull other information about their subject from around the web, including their home address, phone number, and family members. The…pair are not releasing their code…but the experiment, tested in some cases on unsuspecting people in the real world…still shows the razor thin line between a world in which people can move around with relative anonymity, to one where your identity and personal information can be pulled up in an instant by [armed] strangers [with the power to destroy lives]…
Permanent Record (#1402)
Tenure is another individual protection the Establishment is working to eliminate:
The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents unanimously voted to revoke the tenure of University of Wisconsin-La Crosse’s former Chancellor Joe Gow [because]…he…and…[his wife made] porn…Gow will lose his faculty salary of $91,915 and over $310,000 in unused sick leave…Gow told reporters…he plans to file a lawsuit on First Amendment grounds…[because]…the…decision goes against [explicit] promises to uphold free speech…
The Vultures Descend (#1435)
Politicians really do believe “election” grants them license to practice medicine:
Two common abortion pills are…[now] classified as “controlled substances” in Louisiana, due to a first-of-its-kind law that medical professionals warn will endanger the lives of women by restricting medication used to treat postpartum hemorrhage and other conditions. Louisiana, which already bans abortion, passed a law reclassifying mifepristone and misoprostol as schedule IV drugs – a designation typically reserved for drugs that carry a risk of…dependence. People caught with the drugs without a valid prescription could face up to five years in prison, although pregnant women who procure it for their own use are exempted from punishment under the law…
Panopticon (#1449)
Privacy as we once knew it will soon be a thing of the past:
…[computerized] cameras mounted on cars and trucks…initially designed to capture license plates…are now photographing political lawn signs outside private homes, individuals wearing T-shirts with text, and vehicles displaying pro-abortion bumper stickers—all while recording the precise locations of these observations…a tool originally intended for traffic enforcement has evolved into a system capable of monitoring speech…the systems of DRN Data…owned by Motorola…can be used by private investigators, repossession agents, and insurance companies; a related Motorola business, called Vigilant, gives cops access to the same LPR data…those with access…can search for common phrases or names, such as those of politicians, and be served with photographs where the search term is present, even if it is not displayed on license plates…
Dangerous Speech (#1467)
The government is working to ensure these men die in their filthy cages:
…attorneys for former Village Voice Media executive vice president Scott Spear, one of the #Backpage3 defendants, filed an emergency motion with federal Judge Diane Humetewa…[because] Spear, who turns 74 in November, is being denied [his prescribed] medications by his jailers, and as a result is suffering a mental health crisis…Spear…[is] refusing legal visits from his attorneys and sounding confused, paranoid and out of touch with reality during phone conversations with friends and family…in…an [emergency] hearing…[prison operator] CoreCivic…admitted…den[ying] Spear his medications…argu[ing] that [yelling “Stop faking!” at] Spear [was good enough] and…[belching out the magic rights-denying word “]security[“]…CoreCivic’s [own records]…describe…delusional episodes on Spear’s part, including one in which Spear believed that his fellow prisoners were actors…
To Molest and Rape (#1477) 
Some rapist cops are indiscriminate in their choice of victim:
A [Colorado cop] was arrested…on suspicion of incest…The [crime was discovered] after…Daniel Huff…[also] sexually assaulted an adult [woman]…Huff [has been rewarded with a paid vacation, as is typical for rapist cops]…
Apparently, Huff soon chose to kill himself rather than suffer the consequences of his crimes.
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Absolutely no one, regardless of how fancy his title, how many degrees he has, or how many votes he receives in a popularity contest, can be trusted with power over others, yet somehow nearly everyone pretends otherwise when the contest winner is the one they voted for. Furthermore, absolutely no law which criminalizes adult consensual behavior of any kind can have even the slightest moral weight, regardless of its pedigree, justification, or popularity, and it is not only the right but the duty of free people to disobey such evil laws. And I don’t mean “civil disobedience” in which a protester volunteers to be brutalized, abducted, and saddled with a lifelong criminal record by a malevolent state, nor do I mean “protesting” by shouting slogans until the thuggish enforcers of such a state gas them, beat them, shoot them in the face, or allow facial recognition software to identify them so their lives can be destroyed later at the state’s leisure. Rather, the approach I recommend is the one which at last brought down the Iron Curtain, the one Vaclav Havel called “living in truth“:
