Illegal Democracy

How things like this can be legal, I will never know, but I believe it is practiced everywhere.

Calling a vote for a new law when nobody is around to vote gets the law passed. This should be criminal. It is nothing short of an abuse of democracy, and the people who use it should be ashamed. Better still, they should be imprisoned.

Call the cops on your neighbor, get a cookie

Try as I might, I can't keep myself from posting delicious nuggets from Bruce Schneier's blog. If your not reading it every day you should be ashamed of yourselves.
This current one is about the war on the unexpected. How citizens are encouraged to report everything that they see that doesn't seem right to them.
In this day and age, that basically means everything.
You really need to read this article. It is very insightful, and it gives further proof that society as we know it is going to hell. The terrorists have won. Shit, they don't even need to kill another person ever. We are already terrorized by our petty fear. Terrorists don't need to blow up planes to shut down airports. Just call in an anonymous tip, and you'll terrorize the travellers and authorities for hours or even days.
This has got to stop!
People, refuse to be terrorized! Refuse to believe that everything outside your own kitchen is out to hurt you. The world isn't as bad a place as people make it out to be.
Sure, people are assholes, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are out to destroy civilization as we know it.
A bright example of this fear mongering (that was also linked from Bruce's article) is this campaign that you're supposed to call the cops whenever you see a parent holding a child's hand. Does holding your child's hand automatically mean that you're sexually abusing it? I'm going to go for "no" on that question, but if the societal tendencies today are to be believed, the answer to that question is "yes".
I used to think that people's stupidity was what would bring about the downfall of society, but I was wrong. It's people's unfounded fear that will ultimately cause the world to collapse.

Maybe if people weren't so dumb, they wouldn't believe in all this crap that the media machine churns out.

Now the UK is also off-limits for me.

For the longest time (basically since the introduction of the PATRIOT act) the US has been off-limits for me. Not because I've committed any crime punishable under it, but rather because it gives law enforcement the legal right to do whatever the fuck the want to people without having to prove anything.
Now, after a long line of similar atrocities, the UK is also on my no-fly list. Almost once a week I read about new legal development in the UK (usually on Slashdot and on Bruce Schneier's Blog) that gives the police similar freedoms there. You'd think that people in an EU country would be more resilient to big brother-ness like this, but apparently law makers don't listen to the people anymore (when have they ever, right...).
One could argue that the big grey mass of people would like to give up liberty to gain security, which doesn't actually work, but the reality is that the big grey mass of people probably don't vote anyway, should something like this actually be voted on via referendum.
The US and UK are now right up there with North Korea and China on the list of countries that don't give a flying fuck about the liberties of their citizens, and will do anything to bring about a police state much in the same way that Germany worked back in the day (can someone say Gestapo?). Bush seems intent on finding a final solution to the liberty problem, but other than the problem statement, there are a lot of similarities between him and some other guys in history I can think of.

Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature

I just read this wonderful piece on psychologytoday.com about "Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature". It confirmed some thoughts that I had had previously, and gave me some new insights as well. I can't imagine anyone who would not benefit from reading this article. Women, in particular, should read this. It is actually more an insight for them than it is for men.

The descriptions says

Why most suicide bombers are Muslim, beautiful people have more daughters, humans are naturally polygamous, sexual harassment isn't sexist, and blonds are more attractive.

The article can be found here.

Thoughtcrime

It appears that EU is Moving to Ban Online Hate Speech.
When will people stop trying to regulate what other people think and say? I dislike racists and whatnot just as much as the next guy, but that doesn't give me the right to limit how they can express themselves.Also, people who are "targets" of these sort of things needs to relax a little bit.
Seriously. Being called all those things can be bad, but there's got to be a limit. Soon we'll turn into some society where people sure each other as much as in the US, and the government sends people to Siberian prison camps like in the USSR, at the same time.
I, for one, do not want to live in such a society. Shape the fuck up people, it's not as serious as you think!

Stop trying to regulate my brain!

FBI

I guess the FBI thinks they are above the law, and they're not afraid of telling people about it either. Apparently, pesky things like subpoenas shouldn't have to bother anyone, just do what we say instead. We'll (not) deal with the legal stuff.
Seriously, how much longer will this continue? There's a reason why people in the US are allowed to own guns, and that's to overthrow an oppressive government. You're living under one of the most oppressive regimes in the world people, it's time you unlocked your gun cabinets and did something about it! One day the people of this world are going to wake up, and it'll be 1984 times a million. George Orwell might have been off on the date when he wrote the book, but not by much. I wouldn't be surprised if some sort of thought crime was made illegal within the next 20-30 years. Maybe even sooner. This is fucking nuts. This shit makes cold war Russia seem like Disney land.
The only thing separating the US from North Korea is the fact that most us citizens have running water, and there's not an import restriction on iPods.

Passing Laws

The US pass laws that are disgusting violations of our civil liberties, the UK does the same, but on a smaller scale.
France, not to be outdone by the other supporters of the Iraq war, passes insane laws.
"But Why?" you ask.
"Because we are French!" or "Because we can!", you take your pick, they'd probably be equally applicable.
Leave it to the french to take the circus-insane in to politics...