Thing of the Week

The KSG, a dual-magazine (6+6), pump-action, bullpup shotgun made by Kel-Tec.  Sweet piece of kit, very compact due to the bullpup design, love the Picatinny rails top and bottom, and the folding battle sights.

U.S. v. Cryptography

This post in Bruce Schneier's blog (which at this time is one of the blogs listed in our blog roll call widget thingy) is very interesting not because of its contents---the post is just links to a news story about a federal judge that ordered a woman to decrypt her hard drive or be found in contempt of court---but because of its comments.  A very interesting discussion ensues on how one would avoid giving up any files while not being put in jail.  Good read.

Is Ron Paul about to Bow Out...

...and support Gingrich?  His performance in today's Florida debate was intriguing at times.  In two opportunities Paul said that if he could hold Gingrich to his debate positions regarding size of government he'd consider supporting him, but he still "had some work to do changing [Gingrich's] mind on foreign policy" (mildly paraphrased here).

Probably not, it would be hard for Paul to support Gingrich with a straight face, if nothing else for his foreign policy.

The Battle of the Internet

Photo courtesy of Gizmodo; Data provided by Aviation Week / Defense Technology International

A quick glance at Gizmodo's 2012 Map of World Conflicts above shows a surprisingly peaceful world, relatively speaking (light purple symbolizes a 'Stable' region).  There are few surprises in the conflicts themselves - revolution and repression in the Middle East, piracy in Somalia, cartel warfare in Mexico and Columbia, high tensions in Syria, Iran and several African nations.  Europe is 'Calm'. China, Russia, Brazil and the United States are 'Stable'.  In fact, the vast majority of Earth's inhabited land seems to be enjoying an unprecedented measure of peace, if not downright stability.  Don't misunderstand me - I'm as eager as the next gentleman to embrace this state of affairs.  But in a depressed and fragile economic climate, one can't help but to be pleasantly surprised that cooler heads have largely prevailed (so far).

And yet what the map does not show is a highly-publicized and actively engaged conflict which directly effects nearly everyone in the industrialized world:  The Battle of the Internet.

In the past week alone, this battle has been waged on dozens of fronts.  With the SOPA and PIPA bills creeping their way through Congress, (and only Ron Paul publicly denouncing it among this year's Republican candidates), a large number of major web sites decided to "Black Out" on Wednesday, January 18 in protest of the ludicrous provisions of these bills, which would effectively have established internet censorship in the United States.

Despite the MPAA's most prolific whining, these online protests seem to have been largely effective.  Wikipedia has reported 162 million page views, and Google managed to collect over 7 million signatures on its anti-SOPA/PIPA petition.  As a result of these efforts, Many lawmakers have retracted their support for SOPA and PIPA, including several key sponsors of the bills.

The FBI responded today with the takedown of file-sharing website Megaupload, seizing assets which total over $50 million, and sending a clear message:  they don't need these bills to combat piracy with a heavy hand.

Shortly after the takedown, the hacker collective Anonymous had its say on the matter with a large-scale retaliatory DDoS attack on the websites of the Department of Justice, the FBI, the White House, the RIAA, the MPAA, and several major record labels.

And that's just since Yesterday. 

Whatever happens in the coming months may very well determine the future of the free and open internet.  One thing is clear:  the above map will need an update, or at least an appendix.

XKCD, I'm looking at you. 

South Carolina CNN Debate

My personal takeaways from the Republican Primary Debate today:

• Newt can't stop talking with authority about anything, even when what he is saying is barely coherent.
• Romney could have handled this whole tax returns issue a lot better than he has, but even having had two days to practice a proper response to that issue he still ended up like a deer caught in the headlights today.
• Best moment of the debate was when the audience booed the bejesus out of John King (the moderator) when he tried to skip Paul's answer to the question of his position on abortion.  Paul had to remind him for the second time in the debate (the first was during the question about Obamacare) that he, as the only medical doctor, probably had a relevant view on the issue at hand.
• Santorum may have done well for himself with his strategy of non-apologetic social conservatism.
• Some of the candidates seem to think that the Federal Government is the answer to everything.  Surprisingly to me, Romney may just not be in that group.
• Ron Paul knew there would be a closing statement.  Couldn't he have prepared one in advance?

Congressman Paul Does the Honorable Thing

Should Individuals Receive Organ Transplants Based on Qualification?

What about children?  Maybe the more important question should be, who should be in charge of deciding who gets an organ?

On one hand, there seems to be some pretty specific rules for organ allocation. as defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  These are elaborate rules having to do mostly with organ affinity—e.g., blood-type compatibility—and are very clear and unambiguous.

On the other hand, the following sentences preface the aforementioned rules:

The final decision to accept a particular organ will remain the prerogative of the transplant surgeon and/or physician responsible for the care of the candidate. This allows physicians and surgeons to exercise their medical judgment regarding the suitability of the organ being offered for a specific candidate; to be faithful to their personal and programmatic philosophy about such controversial matters as the importance of cold ischemia time and anatomic anomalies; and to give their best assessment of the prospective recipient's medical condition at the moment. — First paragraph of policy 3.5 of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

In other words, from the pool of compatible recipients, it's the doctors get to decide who gets the organ.

It stands to reason that some lives might be more worth saving than others; for example, a patient with terminal cancer should not receive a kidney that could have gone to someone with better expectations.  But it doesn't seem kosher to me that a "group of experts" gets to decide who gets these organs.  The rules should be clearly written and followed whenever possible.  They should include valid corner cases that could affect the outcome, such as likelihood of survival due to other causes (such as preexisting conditions).  But doctors should not be allowed to use their own personal judgement to decide who gets an organ, unless absolutely unavoidable.

On the topic at hand, the case of Amelia Rivera, to use mental retardation as cause to deny a patient an organ smacks of eugenics or worse.  Hopefully that was never the issue here.

DHS to Monitor Media for 'Subversive Speech'

According to documents made public by a FOIA request by EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center), the Department of Homeland Security's planned Media Monitoring Program will scour forums, blogs, message boards, and other online media looking for "media reports that reflect adversely on the U.S. Government, DHS" in an attempt to "capture public reaction to major government proposals."  The Department would keep these records for a period of five years, making them available to "federal, state, local, and foreign government and private sector partners."

EPIC's report here.

That seems like a nice complement to the NDAA 2012, by which the President is granted the power to indefinitely detain anyone that might be perceived to be associated with "terrorist" activities (so, pretty much  anyone on the no-fly list?).  Personally, I think attacks on the U.S. Constitution such as these should be perceived as terrorist acts.

Well, Well, Lookee Here

Oh my, if it's not a new blog trying to cause any sort of impact on one incredibly overcrowded medium...

Politics, individual liberties, electronic privacy, guns, alcoholic beverages.  My associates and I have decided that there is an unacceptable dearth of websites out there that cover all of these interests simultaneously, and here we are with our answer to that problem.

Honestly, we didn't even look.  We wanted to have our own venue, even if there are others with similar content and with a similar slant (and I'm sure there are many).  We are here to advocate our unrepentantly individualistic views on things that are of great interest to us, relying on the concept of long tail demand made possible by the popularization of the internet to fuel our hope of eventually having an audience.  We're keeping our day-jobs until we Make It Big on the internet.

We live in the mid-Atlantic region of the US.  As such, and in following with the "practical interests" on the title of this blog, at times our writing may be a bit biased toward the issues pertaining to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, etc.  But we also intend to write about issues that will (or should) be relevant to anyone, anywhere.  Internet privacy, for one.  Alcohol, for another.  Guns, if you're lucky enough to live in some part of the free world (sorry, New Jerseyans).  It would be hard not to write about national politics, especially in 2012.

So thank you for reading, and please share our site with your friends.