A Message From Your Friendly ECHELON/Total Awareness/Boundless Informant Surveillance System

"J.Q., you don't know me but I know you. I am your friendly ECHELON/Total Awareness/Boundless Informant Surveillance System--actually, an automated response feature of the system. You may wonder why you are receiving this email, and you may attribute it to the email you sent an associate stating that the theater play you attended 'bombed.' Since enemies of America use code phrases rather than overt words like 'bombed,' that email was noted but not considered actionable. I'm not authorized to reveal what did attract my attention about your communications." Continue reading

Continue ReadingA Message From Your Friendly ECHELON/Total Awareness/Boundless Informant Surveillance System

Going Postal

"Now we hear that the same USPS that cannot operate without massive financial losses -- even with a monopoly on first class mail delivery -- somehow has the resources to photograph the front and back of each piece of mail processed! They cannot deliver our mail properly, cannot operate at a profit, cannot provide anything resembling customer service beyond the 1950s East Europe model, yet somehow they have unlimited resources to play big brother with all our postal communications." Continue reading

Continue ReadingGoing Postal

19-Year-Old Commits Suicide After Sheriff Posts Bullying Facebook Message

"The Latah County Sheriff's Office in Idaho had posted a photo of 19-year-old Pullman, Wash., resident Andrew Cain alongside a message saying, 'We have decided that Andrew Cain is no longer the Wanted Person of the Week… he is the Wanted Person of the Month of June. Congratulations!.' A few days later, Cain took his own life. Whitman County Coroner Pete Martin said that Cain had suffered from depression 'and a number of problems.' The Latah County Sheriff's Office told HuffPost there were three warrants out for Cain: one for driving without privileges and one for possession of a controlled substance, while unable to say what the third warrant was for." Continue reading

Continue Reading19-Year-Old Commits Suicide After Sheriff Posts Bullying Facebook Message

Women Win Lawsuit After Being Violated During Roadside Search

"State Trooper David Farrell claimed he smelled marijuana in the car and decided to do a search. He called female Trooper Kelly Helleson to do the search. Rather than sticking to a standard pat down search, she put on a pair of latex gloves and used her fingers to search the anuses and vaginas of both women. Helleson even used the same pair of gloves for both women. Helleson’s searches turned up nothing, but the women contacted attorney Scott Palmer and filed a lawsuit. The women won their lawsuit and were awarded $185,000. Helleson was fired and charged with two counts of sexual assault and two counts of official oppression." Continue reading

Continue ReadingWomen Win Lawsuit After Being Violated During Roadside Search

Marijuana’s March Towards Mainstream Confounds Feds

"It took 50 years for American attitudes about marijuana to zigzag from the paranoia of 'Reefer Madness' to the excesses of Woodstock back to the hard line of 'Just Say No.' The next 25 years took the nation from Bill Clinton, who famously 'didn't inhale,' to Barack Obama, who most emphatically did. Now, in just a few short years, public opinion has moved so dramatically toward general acceptance that even those who champion legalization are surprised at how quickly attitudes are changing and states are moving to approve the drug - for medical use and just for fun." Continue reading

Continue ReadingMarijuana’s March Towards Mainstream Confounds Feds

Pot Is Legal, but Some Towns Won’t Partake

"More than two dozen cities and towns have already prohibited marijuana retail stores, according to the Colorado Municipal League, a lobbying group for the state's cities. Others, like Aurora outside of Denver, decided to postpone a decision on whether to allow sales. In Denver, leaders want to allow pot sales, but have said they want to push back the starting date for new businesses other than medical-pot outlets. The opt-out clause included in the Colorado pot law doesn't exist in Washington, which also legalized recreational pot last November. But local officials are using licensing and zoning to keep pot shops at bay." Continue reading

Continue ReadingPot Is Legal, but Some Towns Won’t Partake

Dutch court finds six coffee shop owners guilty of selling cannabis to non-residents

"A Dutch court on Wednesday fined six coffee shop owners and workers for selling cannabis to non-residents, in a victory for Dutch authorities’ fight against drug tourism. Prosecutors had sought up to one-month suspended jail terms for the owners and staff of cannabis cafes in Maastricht for selling pot to foreign non-residents in defiance of a controversial law. The court was relatively lenient as the coffee shops had deliberately flouted the law because they hoped the case would set a legal precedent in their favour, arguing that the residence criterion was unconstitutional." Continue reading

Continue ReadingDutch court finds six coffee shop owners guilty of selling cannabis to non-residents

The Surveillance State: Its Ramifications and Opponents

"Passports and visas have made traveling from one country to another an exercise that demands the approval for the most part of one's home country. It wasn't always this way. The entire passport and visa program, worldwide, has only been generated in the past half-century or so. It corresponds as well to the rise of the global state with instrumentalities such as the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, International Criminal Court, etc. It is fairly surprising that people still insist that the globalist structure does not exist or has not expanded, for it does so on a regular basis and without formal consultations with the people it's affecting." Continue reading

Continue ReadingThe Surveillance State: Its Ramifications and Opponents

The NSA Has All Non-Gun Show Sales in Its Files.

"On June 27, 26 United States Senators sent a letter to James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence. The letter called attention to the fact that domestic spying by the United States government on American citizens includes the collection of information on firearms sales. The letter said the following: 'And the bulk collection authority could potentially supersede bans on maintaining gun owner databases. . . .' How comprehensive has this collection process been? It appears to have been comprehensive to the extreme." Continue reading

Continue ReadingThe NSA Has All Non-Gun Show Sales in Its Files.

Government’s Spirit-Crushing Hatred Of Lemonade

"Traditional civil liberties such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion ultimately rest on an individual's ability to exercise the right of economic ownership over his or her own body. To attack economic rights is to attack civil liberties. And it is not funny when police with guns close down a 4-year-old's lemonade stand. It is damned frightening." Continue reading

Continue ReadingGovernment’s Spirit-Crushing Hatred Of Lemonade