statism

Texas Supreme Court bars sentimental value suits from dog owners

"The Texas Supreme Court ruled on Friday that bereaved dog owners cannot file lawsuits calling for their pets’ sentimental value. The Dallas Morning News reported on Friday that, per the ruling, dog owners can only be legally compensated for the market cost of their pets. 'Under Texas common law, the human-animal bond, while undeniable, is uncompensable,' Justice Don R. Willett wrote in the court’s unanimous decision, which reversed a ruling by the state 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth." Continue reading →

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Cops with Drones: Alameda Co., CA Weighs Technology vs. Privacy

"For a long time, drones - unmanned aircraft - were used only by the military. Now local law enforcement wants them for police work such as surveillance and search-and-rescue missions. That in turn has sparked a fierce debate over the balance between cutting-edge law enforcement technology and the privacy rights of citizens." Continue reading →

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Obama: US Tyranny Impossible Because ‘Government Is Us’

"The government is most assuredly not us – at least not all of us – which is why our system of government is designed to protect the rights of minorities while still allowing majorities to legislate without violating those rights. Obama’s defense to charges of incipient tyranny is that tyranny can never happen here. Which, of course, makes it more likely that tyranny will happen here. The second odd angle is Obama’s insistence that the Constitution constrains him. The natural inference seems to be that if it were not for the Constitution, Obama would indeed pursue a federal gun seizure." Continue reading →

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‘Carrying the Future’ in Afghanistan

"The rest of the world does resist. It does not want our propagandistic textbooks, it does not want our drones, it does not want our support of radical Islamists, it does not want our soldiers, and it does not want our diplomats or NGOs engaging in all manner of manipulation of domestic affairs overseas. Sadly, until young Americans like this foreign service officer start to question the mythologies spouted by politicians and duly amplified by the corporate media about the indispensability of the US 'carrying the future,' there will be many more unnecessary deaths -- on all sides." Continue reading →

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The UN Declares War on Katanga — Again

"With the backing of both the U.S. and the Soviet Union, UN military forces were deployed to Katanga, where they carried out bloody punitive actions that killed scores of innocent people and prompted a widespread international outcry. A British inquiry documented acts of rape, plunder, and terrorism committed by multinational Blue Helmet forces. Echoes of the UN’s war to suppress Katanga five decades ago were heard last week when the UN Security Council passed a Chapter Seven resolution – the world body’s equivalent of a declaration of war – authorizing the deployment of a multinational military brigade to disarm and “neutralize” rebel groups in Congo." Continue reading →

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“State Control”: What the UN Firearms Treaty is All About

"For more than fifty years, the United Nations, with the enthusiastic support of the U.S. government, has pursued a vision of 'general and complete disarmament' in which the world body, or its successor, would claim a monopoly on the 'legitimate' use of force. Within that global monopoly, each national government would have an exclusive territorial franchise. It was in pursuit of that formula that UN 'peacekeepers' were deployed in Rwanda in 1993. Despite that country’s history of bloody ethnic conflict, Rwandans were assured that they had nothing to fear from a UN-approved government that claimed a monopoly on weaponry." Continue reading →

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Yes, Gun Control is Racist

"In testimony offered as part of a class-action federal lawsuit, state senator Eric Adams, a former NYPD officer, testified that during a July 2010 meeting, Commissioner Kelly 'Stated that he targeted and focused on that group because he wanted to instill fear in them that every time that they left their homes they could be stopped by police.' When Adams pointed out that this is against the law, Kelly reportedly replied 'How else are we going to get rid of guns?' Over the past ten years, more than 5 million people have been subjected to warrantless street detention and searches, roughly 90 percent of them young Black or Latino men." Continue reading →

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Army’s $900 Million in Warehouses Full of Useless Vehicle Parts

"The Pentagon got caught by the Defense Department’s Inspector General’s office. Again. This time it was for a military vehicle called the Stryker. It has $900 million in spare parts in just one warehouse. It keeps thousands of these vehicles in warehouses around the nation. It has so many Strykers that it lost track of them. The gear is outdated. Example: $57 million in outdated infrared equipment. The Inspector General’s Office submitted a report. No one in the media read it until a small-town newspaper in Tacoma, Washington ran a story over the weekend." Continue reading →

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Climate Change: Key mission for the US Navy

"Not only is the Navy concerned about climate change, they are attempting to do something about it. Both the Navy and the Air Force have established goals to use a 50/50 blend of biofuel and petroleum-based fuel for planes and ships. Navy plans call for establishment of a 'Green Strike Group' task force by 2016, fueled by the biofuel blend, and for alternative fuels to power half of all energy consumption by 2020. In 2011, the Navy and the Departments of Energy and Agriculture publically committed to invest $510 million to create an 'advanced biofuel industry' based on algae." Continue reading →

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