Everyone loves Facebook, but nobody loves Facebook more than governments and police agencies. It’s made their job so much easier. And, should actual criminals be too hard to catch, a few hours trolling Facebook photos is sure to net dozens of possibilities. Case in point: Certified Firearms Instructor Shawn Moore. New Jersey Police and the Department of Child and Family … [Read more...]
French “Perennial Victims” Seek $50 Million Payday from Twitter
Who “owns” your Twitter posts? The answer might just surprise you. It’s not you. So says a court in New York State. Judge Matthew Sciarrino Jr. ruled that Twitter user Malcom Harris has “no proprietary interests” in his own Twitter posts and ordered the social media giant to hand over all of Harris’ past tweets including those he had deleted. Not only is anything … [Read more...]
Illinois State Senator Ira Silverstein desperately needs a history lesson
Illinois State Senator Ira Silverstein desperately needs a history lesson This intellectual neanderthal believes anonymous commenters on the internet are a threat to Freedom and Liberty, forgetting that the Founding Fathers and framers of the Constitution of the United States of America wrote the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers using pseudonyms to protect … [Read more...]
A Victory for Privacy Rights! Conservatives Kill Bill C-30
[powerpress] Never let it be said that you can’t make a difference. When the Conservatives introduced Bill C-30, titled the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act, Vic Toews said anyone who didn’t agree with the bill was standing “with the child pornographers”. In light of that stand, I suppose it’s reasonable to conclude Vic Toews is now standing “with … [Read more...]
The Journal News’ Caryn A. McBride Hires ARMED bodyguards? Oh, the irony!
On December 27th, 2012 I wrote the article "Hypocritical Anti-Gunners: Be Very Careful What You Wish For" in which I discussed the antics of the anti-gun zealots inhabiting the offices of The Journal News, a newspaper based in Rockland County, New York. In that article I wrote the following: Anti-gun zealots get a lot more than they bargained for after publishing the names … [Read more...]
Hypocritical Anti-Gunners: Be Very Careful What You Wish For
[powerpress] Anti-gun zealots get a lot more than they bargained for after publishing the names and home addresses of New York handgun permit holders. On December 24, 2012, The Journal News got up on it's high horse and published an article titled "The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in in your neighborhood", which … [Read more...]
If you’re a Facebook user who values your personal privacy you’ll want to read this
Facebook, ever the defender of personal privacy, is giving users just a few days to vote down changes to their privacy policy. Failure to garner votes from 30% of Facebook's users means the social media giant will no longer allow users to vote on privacy policy issues. So, if you value your privacy on Facebook and want some small amount of control over what they do with … [Read more...]
When Compliance with the Nanny State is More Important than Education
[powerpress] Andrea Hernandez just wants to get an education. She is, by all accounts I can find, a good student. She’s also a human being who understands we must never allow ourselves to be tracked like pieces of meat in a grocery store. Andrea Hernandez decided that when her high school issued mandatory RFID-enabled high school ID cards, she would not be a … [Read more...]
Your Right to be Free of Unreasonable Search and Seizure does not apply in bars or other private establishments
A 2005 court ruling by the Alberta Court of Appeal makes it clear that bar staff of a privately-owned business cannot be considered “agents of the state” when they detain and search you on private property. The decision in R. v. Dell (2005 ABCA 246) is an interesting read and makes a clear distinction between private individuals employed by a private company and police or … [Read more...]
Road Pricing: A new tax to pay what our gasoline taxes supposedly pay for, with added bonus of spying on us 24×7
Government is innately wasteful. It's a simple enough concept to understand really. When a group of people are not accountable for the money they spend there is no incentive to spend that money wisely. While a simple concept, bureaucrats and politicians routinely show they cannot comprehend it. Take the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) and TransLink. These … [Read more...]
Attn: BC Residents! You Can Still STOP Your Smart Meter Installation
The information below is if you still have your ANALOG meter in place. Information on how to get rid of your already-installed Smart Meter is not yet available, but will be posted at Citizens For Safe Technology as soon as it is. Here is the latest information from Citizens For Safe Technology on dealing with BC Hydro and its Smart Meter program. [hr] Your Guide to … [Read more...]
Privacy: We don’t care about it until the invasion of privacy gets up close and personal
We live in a strange age. We don't care that airport security screeners take what amounts to naked pictures of us with their "porn scanners" before allowing us to board our flight, something that was unimaginable just ten short years ago. We think nothing of posting our most private and intimate thoughts to Twitter or Facebook for the world to see. We happily share … [Read more...]
Privacy: A Relic from the Past by Jane Gaffin
George Orwell was right. Big Brother is watching! So is the menacing Big Sis over at the U.S.’s ubiquitous Homeland Security. That evil government department is in accelerated motion toward total world surveillance that transcends Orwell’s projections as well as that of screenwriters Patrick McGoohan and George Markstein whose unnerving British TV series The Prisoner … [Read more...]
Freedoms: Yours Until They Are Stolen by Jane Gaffin
People don’t give a whit about freedom as long as they naively believe the government is not goring their ox, which, they painfully discover with time, it was their own personal inalienable rights that were stealthily chipped away in silence until those freedoms no longer exist. Frequently, freedom-lovers allude to the famous “First They Came For” passage that refers to … [Read more...]
Got an iPhone or iPad? Great! Big Brother loves you and is tracking your every move…
An interesting story crossed my desk this morning and kicked my spidey senses into overdrive. Why? Big Brother (aka the FBI) was caught spying on us regular folk yet again. FBI Agent Christopher Stangl (semi-famous for an FBI recruiting video he made a few years back) had his laptop hacked by one or both of the hactivist groups Anonymous and Antisec. Is it just me or is … [Read more...]
BC’s RCMP Despise Your Right to Privacy
Most people believe they have a right to personal privacy and that the government doesn’t need to know their whereabouts every moment of every day. Most people would be wrong. Take, for example, the BC RCMP’s plan for using license plate recording scanners to build a database of the movements of citizens who have done absolutely nothing wrong just because you might do … [Read more...]
Vic Toews: Politicians, like diapers, should be changed often, and for the same reason
While claiming it’s perfectly reasonable for the government to spy on its citizens, the shoe is clearly on the other foot in a lovely social media twist that makes a point to Canada’s Minister of Public Safety, Vic Toews. Toews is very cranky over how his personal life and details of his divorce, infidelity and lack of child support is being displayed very publicly on a … [Read more...]
Illogical Paranoia: The Root Cause of Lost Freedoms
"The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to prevailing superstition or taboo." -- H. L. Mencken, American journalist The first principle of people-control is not to let them know they're being controlled. That is the reason governments propagandize “crime-reduction” as a favorite motive when sneakily … [Read more...]
Big Brother Has Come Too Far in 10 Years
The hallway stank of boiled cabbage and old rag mats, both government-issued. At one end of the hallway, a coloured poster, too large for indoor display, had been tacked to the wall. It depicted simply an enormous face, more than a metre wide: the face of a man about 45, with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features. Winston made for the stairs. It was no … [Read more...]
Blastogram: Statistics Canada is Revenue Canada’s Watchdog
I am blessed to live in a quiet sanctum and neighbourhood that are agreeable to going about my writing and research undisturbed. One afternoon I nearly jumped out of my clothes when that serenity was suddenly shattered by an enormous pounding reminiscent of a doorbusting riot squad. I always expected when the Nazi SS came for me it would be a 5 o’clock morning surprise, not … [Read more...]
The Hunt for Sonia Varaschin’s Murderer casts a wide net
Sonia Varaschin was a beautiful woman, cut down in the prime of her life by an unknown killer. Unkown at least for now. Sonia was reported missing on September 1st, 2010, and her body was found five days later in a rural area about 12 kms southeast of Orangeville, Ontario. She was attacked in her home, and then driven in her own car to a remote location where her body … [Read more...]
Blastogram: Be Aware and Beware Google
I’ve come to hate all things Google. And, though I am ashamed to admit that I was into the Google-sponsored YouTube site, I am guilty of pawing around for the May 23 release of Freedom Watch and saw the message: “patriotsnetwork.com YOUTUBE TOOK AWAY MY ABILITY TO UPLOAD FULL LENGTH VIDEOS WITHOUT NOTICE. YOU CAN WATCH IT AT PATRIOTS NETWORK ON THE FRONT PAGE.” I was … [Read more...]
Freedom of Speech vs Right to Privacy
Recently the folks at Westboro Baptist Church have been back in the news with their high-profile, if tacky protests at military funerals around the nation. The story spread like wildfire through the blogosphere about how the lunatics from Westboro Baptist Church were prevented from protesting at the funeral of USMC Staff Sgt. Jason Rogers, killed in action in Afghanistan on … [Read more...]
Another Illegal RCMP Search tossed out of court
Dwayne Carron was being pretty dumb. He was caught speeding. And not just “speeding”… but speeding 65 kms over the posted speed limit. That’s just begging for trouble, and trouble is exactly what Mr. Carron got. He was pulled over by Constable Allan Douglas Roberts, who proceeded to illegally search Mr. Carron’s vehicle, first by reaching into the glove box searching for … [Read more...]
Governments Want Total People Control
“Unbelievable” was my first reaction when I started reading about the Polk Parkway tollbooth in the Tampa area that doesn’t like cash. As I read on, I realized this was more than a government snafu; it was another blatant display of people-control where the taxpayers are both the victims and financiers of the same criminal enterprise. Am I surprised to hear that a … [Read more...]
Toll Booths say “Give us your Personal Information… or else”
The Florida Department of Transportation doesn’t like US Currency. Or at least it doesn’t like anyone using it to pay highway tolls. I‘ve got to hand it to Joel Chandler, the man who decided to videotape his encounters with the toll-booth clerks after being illegally detained for the “crime” of paying his toll with a $100 bill. He single-handedly exposed a corrupt … [Read more...]
Hey, Everybody!
Today is Director di Armani's birthday. … [Read more...]
Terrorism Law Is A War On Internet
(“War on Internet” is from Jane Gaffin’s archives, published in the Whitehorse Star, February 25, 2002, and is posted here in conjunction with the current “Big Brother is Eyeing Complete Take-Over of the Internet”.) In keeping with the Red Book election campaign promises, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and his Industry Canada minister of the day, Brian Tobin, had promised … [Read more...]
TSA Airport Abuse and Humiliation Protest Grows
I loved reading that WorldNetDaily has got over a half a million letters of protest on the way to Washington. Kudos to Joseph Farah and his team for making that happen. WASHINGTON – More than a half-million individual letters of protest of the new system of institutionalized airport abuse and humiliation are on their way to members of Congress, Barack Obama and Homeland … [Read more...]