Tag: Evil Bastards

Crushing The Peasants

Behind Enemy Lines

Here we go again:

Despite having many of their demands met when French President Emmanuel Macron caved to the increasing public pressure, the yellow vest squads are still out in the streets calling for his resignation. It seems that the French government has had enough of this unrest and is preparing new legislation aimed at tossing the unhappy peasants into the dungeon if they don’t go home and shut up.

Governments never seem to learn:  the harsher the punishments you heap on people you’re oppressing, the more violence will be inflicted on you in response, eventually.  You heard it here, first:  if the gendarmes start shooting, I wouldn’t be surprised if a whole bunch of WWII-era weapons are unearthed (sometimes literally), to make an appearance at a forthcoming demonstration, or when somebody faces one of these new punishments.

Vivez les giles jaunes!!  

Opting Out

Bad News, Technology

According to this report, our household appliances are about to become snitches on just about every aspect of our lives:

One day, finding an oven that just cooks food may be as tough as buying a TV that merely lets you click between channels.
Internet-connected “smarts” are creeping into cars, refrigerators, thermostats, toys and just about everything else in your home. CES 2019, the gadget show opening Tuesday in Las Vegas, will showcase many of these products, including an oven that coordinates your recipes and a toilet that flushes with a voice command.
With every additional smart device in your home, companies are able to gather more details about your daily life. Some of that can be used to help advertisers target you — more precisely than they could with just the smartphone you carry.

And the news just gets better and better:

Despite the fact that there’s plenty of information available showing how these devices collect data about every aspect of your life and the manufacturers both use and sell that data on the open market, the majority of people seem to either not care or are willing to accept this “new reality” as part of living in the modern world.

Once again [sigh], it appears that I’m in a minority.

No doubt, there will appear at your local drugstores condoms which measure the number of thrusts, such data sent back to the manufacturers of K-Y “Duration” gel, said antidote for premature ejaculation to arrive at your bedside by special delivery within two strokes of initial insertion.  And that’s a benevolent  outcome for such intrusiveness.

Never mind that.  Here’s a situation already in being:

T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T are selling access to their customers’ location data, and that data is ending up in the hands of bounty hunters and others not authorized to possess it, letting them track most phones in the country.

I don’t often agree with church leaders about, well, anything much.  But I’m in absolute agreement with this man.

Allow me to offer a suggestion for a brand-new industry.  When a new generation of “smart” phones arrived on the market and appeared to be “locked” to a specific carrier, within days we saw phones being unlocked by street vendors, sometimes right outside  the stores selling the damn things.

I’m calling on all privacy-minded geeks of the world to unite, and to design apps or hacks or whatever to bypass the Big Brother mechanisms of these new infernal fink machines so that people (like me) who aren’t interested in letting Global MegaCorp Inc. snoop into the most intimate areas of our lives may avail themselves of their inventions.

I will be at the head of the fucking line to buy them.  I promise.

Balls, Great Big Brass Ones

Gummint, The Gun Thing

Someone just became a criminal.

My only hope is if I’m ever faced with a situation like the one he finds himself in, that I will have the courage he does.

Quote Of The Day:

“I respect the police, greatly.  The cops I know hate the idea of enforcing this intolerance.  I ask them when they come to arrest me and confiscate my guns, they give me enough warning, so my kids aren’t around when they do it.”

And it would appear that he’s not alone.

Let’s see what the Boulder government does.  A pox on them.

Good Advice

Freaks & Loonies, Terrorism

I remember the brouhaha when Insty suggested that motorists, when faced with rioters blocking roads, simply “Run. Them. Down.”

And what should We The People do, when violent rioters and activists start threatening our food supply?

Farms, abattoirs and factories have been subjected to vandalism, and owners and staff sent death threats during an alarming increase in incidents.
But a minority of vegan campaigners want the UK to become a meat-free society and are going to extreme lengths to achieve their goal.
The National Pig Association and the British Poultry Council are among the organisations being advised by specialist police.
Leading food writer William Sitwell recently described the vitriol he faced after making a flippant comment about vegans.
“There were threats to rape my wife, tie her up and cut off her genitals,” he told this newspaper.
According to an investigation by Channel 4 Dispatches, Jewish workers were branded Nazis when members of vegan group SAVE began protesting outside kosher Kedassia abattoir in East London two years ago.
Some broke in and daubed the walls of the abattoir with anti-Semitic slogans, according to the programme, and one protester yelled: ‘It’s a holocaust. You Nazis!’
SAVE admitted on Facebook it was responsible for daubing Holocaust images, initially suggesting the use of the term was justified, but it later apologised.

Big of them.  Over Here, I’m trying to think what I’d do if I was faced with this situation at Kroger:

I’m thinking polite requests to let me through at first.  Then trying to force my through.  (This bunch of skinny malnourished twerps would not be able to offer much resistance, methinks.)

However, if they were to turn violent, or even threaten violence?  Maybe I’m over-imagining things, mind you, because I don’t see this nonsense getting much traction in the United States, and certainly not in Texas except (maybe) in Austin, where I’m willing to bet that the vegan infestation is six times that of anywhere else in the state.  And I don’t shop for food in Austin, ever.  (Hell, I hardly even visit  the place except when I’m visiting Longtime Friend Trevor.)

It strikes me that these fucking headcases are quick to threaten violence to get their own way.  Perhaps they need a quick lesson or two in real violence, just to keep them in their place in the social pecking order.

I’m not thinking of going to the guns, of course:  this situation doesn’t even come close to that course of action.  However, I do think I need to invest in a can or two of decent pepper spray.  Anyone have recommendations as to brands and / or strengths?

Alternative Ending

Freaks & Loonies

SOTI*:

…and the devastating comment underneath:

“Too bad it wasn’t torpedoed and sunk at sea with all hands instead.”

*Seen On The Internet or  Somewhere On The Internet, mostly used by people (like me) who either forgot where they saw it or couldn’t be arsed to look it up.

Addendum

Politics

A little while ago, two Socialist senators (Mazie Hirono and Kamala Harris) described the Knights of Columbus as an “extremist organization” which would be funny except that the Communist cows really meant it.  In response, one of the Grand Poobahs of the K.C. responded with a lovely letter which described their past good works and future activities.

I was particularly struck by this passage:

“We wish to formally invite you all to join us for any social or charitable event.  In fact, this February we are doing the Polar Plunge to raise funds for DC Special Olympics.  You and anyone you know are more than welcome to join us either jumping in the cold water or sponsoring our team.”

…which prompted me to write a letter to Hizzoner (I’m not Catholic, I don’t know the correct appellations) Patrick O’Boyle which included this request:

Please let me know if both or either of the senators have accepted your kind offer to participate in the Polar Plunge, as I would like to get there early and attach a teeny piece of concrete to those participants’ ankles prior to their immersion.

Hey, the Catholic Church used to dunk witches, didn’t they?  As all my Readers know, I’m a great one for old traditions.  And tell me these two foul creatures don’t look like they qualify…

  

In fact, I have it on good authority that Hirono once turned someone into a newt.  (Which would explain quite a lot, actually…)