The Indelible Bonobo Experience

Renaissance Monkey: in-depth expertise in Jack-of-all-trading. I mostly comment on news of interest to me and occasionally engage in debates or troll passive-aggressively. Ask or Submit 2 mah authoritah! ;) !

Quote Post
Radio host Terry David Mulligan’s decision to stroll across the B.C. border to Alberta with a case of wine on May 13 was meant to draw attention to an old, and in his mind, outdated law governing alcohol in this country.
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Canada’s weird liquor laws - Canada - CBC News

  • The B.C. radio host’s beef is with Canada’s Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act, a 1928 law that states “no person shall import, send, take or transport, or cause to be imported, sent, taken or transported, into any province from or out of any place within or outside Canada any intoxicating liquor.”
  • The only way you can legally move a bottle of wine from one province to another — or from another country into Canada — is with the permission of the provincial liquor control board. Mulligan contends that this is an inconvenience to consumers and a hindrance to winemakers hoping to expand their customer base.
The War on Drugs is neo-temperance.
Posted in canada prohibition temperance bootlegging liquor law freedom liberty libertarian history
Quote Post
Nothing appears more surprising to those, who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few; and the implicit submission, with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers. When we enquire by what means this wonder is effected, we shall find, that, as Force is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It is therefore, on opinion only that government is founded; and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments, as well as to the most free and most popular.
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David Hume in Pierre Bourdieu, Bourdieu, Threshold Collection Liber, 1997, Points, 2003 p.257, also in the On state. Lectures at the College de France 1989-1992, Reasons for action / Seuil, 2012, p .257-258 (via itsworsethanthat)

Government of Ideas? NO, of OPINION.

(via whakatikatika)

Posted in david hume government plutocracy opinion arbitrary force liberty freedom libertarian | 11 notes
Photo Post
Law enforcement tracking of cellphones, once the province mainly of federal agents, has become a powerful and widely used surveillance tool for local police officials, with hundreds of departments, large and small, often using it aggressively with little or no court oversight. (via nyt, At) Depending on your phone, officers can get GPS data that shows everywhere you’ve been, and they needn’t even tell you they’re doing so. It’s a practice that renders privacy rights almost meaningless. Perversely, cell phone carriers are even profiting from sharing information about their customers. Says the Times, “Cell carriers, staffed with special law enforcement liaison teams, charge police departments from a few hundred dollars for locating a phone to more than $2,200 for a full-scale wiretap of a suspect.” “then there are police departments in places like Gilbert, Arizona, which have purchased their own cell tracking technology.” the decision to use a cell phone effectively surrenders a huge amount of privacy You might think that this helps in catching terrorists - remember that Osama wasn’t using his and even took out the battery when in his compound.

Law enforcement tracking of cellphones, once the province mainly of federal agents, has become a powerful and widely used surveillance tool for local police officials, with hundreds of departments, large and small, often using it aggressively with little or no court oversight. (via nyt, At)

  • Depending on your phone, officers can get GPS data that shows everywhere you’ve been, and they needn’t even tell you they’re doing so. It’s a practice that renders privacy rights almost meaningless.
  • Perversely, cell phone carriers are even profiting from sharing information about their customers. Says the Times, “Cell carriers, staffed with special law enforcement liaison teams, charge police departments from a few hundred dollars for locating a phone to more than $2,200 for a full-scale wiretap of a suspect.”
  • “then there are police departments in places like Gilbert, Arizona, which have purchased their own cell tracking technology.”
  • the decision to use a cell phone effectively surrenders a huge amount of privacy
You might think that this helps in catching terrorists - remember that Osama wasn’t using his and even took out the battery when in his compound.
Posted in aclu privacy usa surveillance big brother leviathan libertarian freedom liberty individual rights state government gps cell phone mobile