You may have heard, "the truth is stranger than fiction," and indeed, often that seems the case. While that strange truth is usually just entertaining and innocuous, there are times when it is exactly the opposite... stupefying and malicious.
Here are a few instances which you may not have been aware. Not so surprisingly, many involve government and elected officials at various levels.
The entries here do not quote their referenced sources, except for maybe a one or two line teaser that might pique your interest, and, of course a link, along with maybe short comment. Hope you enjoy.
Texas PC Repair Now Requires PI License bring idiocy to new heights! Hey, I would be glad to replace that bummed out hard drive, but I can’t... I don’t have a private investigator liscense Yep, Texas is strange in lotsa ways, and plenty of states are trying to match them in the race to stuuuupppid.
Cracking Physical Identity Theft gives new meaning to protecting your PIN. Seems it is not necessary after all, as banks will just give information away anyway! "A researcher performing social engineering exploits on behalf of several U.S. banks and other firms in the past year has "stolen" thousands of identities with a 100 percent success rate." Real ID, anyone?
America wakes up to the surveillance society , just another example of your DoJ/FBI at work. Guess this goes along with the new DoJ guidance to the FBI that allows racial profiling and ‘preliminary investigation’ of individuals based on data mining and behavioral analysis, even absent any crime or probable cause.
Celebrity Passport Records Popular is just one more example. Yep, you absolutely can trust your government, particularly the Executive (and its employees) to do the right thing... as in, respect your privacy. Just as we are about to ‘trust’ the Executive to never, ever abuse the rights of the citizenry by, oh, blanket communications intercepts with little (virtually no) judicial oversight or requirements for specificity in warrants? Oh well.
Commentary: How dare they rip the Fourth Amendment? about that pesky (and repulsive) bill on FISA now before the Senate. I reckon this says it about as well as can be said. Hope you all read it, and think about what this 4th of July really celebrates, commemorates... as it seems we are about to give a part of all that away:(
If there is any interest, I hope to expand on this in the future, perhaps not regularly. But the fact is, there is much that passes beneath the radar which is important, which has far-reaching implications... which deserves far more attention than it gets.
But on this 4th of July, cheers to you all. May you have a safe holiday, enjoy the blessings of liberty that have been bestowed on us all, and genuinely reflect, renewing your faith in both that historical Declaration, but also the Constitution which grew out of it.