Vicious Circle 110

Tonight at 1800 PDT, 2000 CDT I will be on Vicious Circle.  This weeks topic is Men in kilts: The advantages and hazards of the pants free lifestyle.

So if your around feel free to listen as Breda, Alan, Weer’d, Jay, The Nerds, and myself discuss that and many other topics.

*For those who’ve been keeping track, I was also on a couple weeks ago as well.

**A side note, VC is very not safe for work.  More specifically you don’t probably want to be blaring it out of your speakers.  Headphones though you should probably be fine.  It’s just audio, no video, the day this becomes a video podcast is probably the day viewership moves to 0.

Today’s Geekery

I don’t know why, but I just couldn’t stop laughing.

It reminds me of the F1 engine video

I personally prefer this imperial march.

It’s a freaking tesla coil, what’s not to love?  Then again I am partial to high voltage.

H/T Sebastian on the Floppy Drives

SSCC #111: Nampa PD

Here we have a golden example of an incident that qualifies for the State Sponsored Criminal Count

The lawsuit was filed by NPD investigator Leonard Claunts, Lt. Joe Huff and Sgt. Curtis Shankel, who all worked in the department’s Internal Affairs division and say they reported various wrongdoing and policy violations by officers and supervisors to top police administrators to no avail. Frustrated by the lack of response, they ultimately conveyed their concerns to the mayor, City Council and human resources director, according to the lawsuit.

The fourth plaintiff is Leonard Claunts’ wife, Ginger, who reportedly emailed Human Resources Director Ed Simmerman last November, alleging various issues of public safety and misuse of public funds. About the same time, Shankel sent an anonymous letter to Mayor Dale and the City Council about the same general issues, according to the complaint.

Now when you read that you see that police officers are filing a law suit against their own department.  Why would they do a thing like that?  Because the whole system, city included, is so corrupt that they are harassing the officers attempting to blow the whistle.

The lawsuit claims Augsburger threatened to sue two of the officers for slander, reassigned Lt. Huff and took various retaliatory actions against all three, ranging from a negative performance review to downgrading their police vehicles and office space. One month ago, according to the lawsuit, all three officers were served with “personnel notices” from Augsburger and told that the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office would conduct an internal affairs investigation against them.

These men were attempting to do the right thing, which was their job, and have been stonewalled, harassed, and intimidated into stopping.  The mayor was actively ignoring the situation and was ensuring that the responsible parties were protected.

State Sponsored Criminal Count: 111 Too many to count or name

Because if you’re stealing money and IA catches wind, bribe the mayor and chief.  They’ll cover your ass.

WSU Student Rights and Little London

So the level of brainwashing that has been inflicted upon our youth has been quite apparent over the past few weeks of reading the Washington State University news paper.  The first article is an effort to bring a little bit of Brittan right here to the heartland of America.

The Pullman Police Department will install security cameras in high
crime public areas in College Hill as a part of a two-year grant the
police department received from the United States Department of Justice.

The royal kicker though is what the editorial board admits in a following opinion piece.

The Daily Evergreen Editorial Board would like to urge students to
accept and support the installation of security cameras in Adam’s Mall.
The cameras will probably do little to deter crime as drunken brawlers
are unlikely to consider the fact that a camera is watching them.

(Emphasis mine.) They readily admit that the cameras will not deter crime.  The school continues to prohibit the ability for students to lawfully carry on campus and the paper is more than supportive against allowing lawful carry.  Yet they are more than willing to argue that students throw away their privacy for semblance of security.  It is a public place after all so really how much privacy should you have.  Well the editorial board obviously doesn’t care considering the following piece I saw in yesterdays paper.

Barring campus police from patrolling the most densely populated living areas on campus is a huge mistake.


Residence halls are not private residences. They are not houses
or apartments – they are more akin to hotels. They are places students
stay for a few short months, then leave for vacation, then come back to
again, then leave, return, leave for the summer and usually never return
afterward.

About 5 years ago while I was a student there was a court case involving unnecessary access by police to the residence halls.  The judge ruled that the police were not allowed access to the dorms except in an emergency.  The reasoning is that dorms were a residence much like an apartment building.  Evidently the editorial board is acting like their brethren the Brady Campaign in ignoring the reasoning behind the case.  The editors would prefer to ignore this much like CSGV disregards Heller and McDonald.

Further the comparison they use to a hotel fails their litmus test, not to mention their other excuses as well.  The police are not allowed to meander around the halls of a hotel without cause or warrant.  Their statements smack of a belief that the police exist to operate as an RA for the school.

RAs have complete access to each individual’s room within a
residence hall. They are the ones now expected to enforce the law within
the dorms. The only problem is, RAs are students like the rest of us.
They are subject to enjoying the same vices they are supposed to be on
the lookout for.


Police officers have years of training and experience when it comes to upholding the law. RAs do not.

The job of the RA is not to enforce the law, but to ensure the dorm rules are followed and mediate disputes.  If the law is broken it is the job of the police to investigate after the fact.  It is not the job of the police to prevent crime, that is the job of the populace at large.  In other words, fellow residents should be acting in a manner to aid in preventing crime.  The police have no duty to protect and it is the responsibility of the citizen to protect themselves and their property.

The Daily Evergreen Editorial Board is doing no good by attempting to destroy the rights of their fellow students.  Many fought long and hard to secure their right from the police unlawfully entering their place of residence.  While living in the dorms, many leave their doors open not out of want or an open door policy, but because it is so damn hot they need the air flow.  An officer walking up and down the hall would now be able to see into the room by incidental viewing.  He could also achieve this as they occupant gains entrance into their room and close the door behind them.  With so many laws and rules on the books now, why are you attempting to surrender one of your defenses from their abuse? 

While many college campuses swing a bit to the left, this over reliance on the state and belief that the police are the solution to all their problems is very disconcerting.  Doubly so when you consider the fact that they have not bothered to look into the context of why the push was made to throw officers out of the dorms.  The universities own rules as well as the expectation of privacy created the reasons the police were illegal within the dorms.  The Daily Evergreen Editorial board should examine its view on personal liberty and freedom and explain why they believe that college students should surrender it because they are attending school.  Because some students are criminals doesn’t make them all criminals and the law exists to protect the innocent, not catch the criminal.  That is not a bug, it’s a feature.

Speaking of Over Criminalization

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for the law abiding to seek simple over the counter treatment for the common cold.

The state will soon keep tabs on everyone who buys over-the-counter cold medicine.


Consumers’ personal information will be stored in an electronic database that will also send real-time alerts to police.

Without question this violates the Jews in the Attic test and it does absolutely nothing to catch those cooking meth. 

Cooking meth has been a crime.  In an effort to stop the crime they created a new crime, purchasing too much, or having too much in your household.  The intent of the purchase though no longer matters.  Have a house full of sick kids, too bad you’re going to jail after your door is kicked in by the SWAT team.  The worst part is, if your jury has no clue about Jury Nullification your ass is going to prison.  Obviously you broke the law as written because you bought or had too much in your household.  Without nullification they would disregard for the fact though that you were using it lawfully and for it’s intended purpose.  If you think that type of charge is impossible, think again.

The icing on the cake though was at the end of the article:

The American Civil Liberties Union said it does not plan to challenge the move based on privacy concerns.

As usual, the ACLU ignores any attack on civil liberties that doesn’t fit their political agenda.  Anyone who puts Union in their name couldn’t possibly understand the idea of personal liberty.  Sometimes law enforcement shouldn’t be made easier, especially when law abiding citizens get caught in the crossfire.  When that happens, it should become so damn difficult the cops want to do something else instead.

h/t Ry.

TSA Agent Provides Phony Marriage

This one is another giant bag of unpossible given the high caliber screening processes in place for the hiring process of their employees.  Well here in the real world we know better than to trust statements like that.

A Transportation Security Administration agent was arrested this week on
federal charges for her role in an alleged phony marriage scheme that
sought to secure U.S. citizenship for her purported spouse, a Lebanon
native.


The federal criminal complaint does not detail Taha’s alleged motive for
taking part in the sham February 2002 marriage (or whether she was paid
in return for the marriage vows). Taha, charged with conspiracy and
making false statements, has worked as a TSA agent at the Detroit
airport since late-2002.

So in other words she was helping bring people into the country by marrying them.  She dated other agents while supposedly being married, and even fathered a child with said TSA agents.

This is completely unsurprising, but never the less how did it escape their crack team of investigators?

Because your job as a federal agent is to break the law, just ask the ATF or DEA.

Quote of the Day – SayUncle (09/28/2011)

Ok, Sparky, look here. I’ll ignore the whole subverting the nature of the republic aspect of your stupid statement and address the reality:
Congress is pretty much why the country is in the economic shitter. Letting them run loose and even more unaccountable is like trusting the pyromaniac 8 year-old up the street to watch your collection of gas cans
and fireworks.

But it was progressives…SayUncle

[Unc nailed this issue right on the head with that analogy.  My instincts yesterday did one that was similar.  Because why would you want to leave a cocaine addicted hooker watching your stash of Bolivian Marching Powder while you went out of a smoke?

The progressives are claiming that this was a joke, I find it anything but.  Why else would you make a statement like that, that logically makes absolutely no sense?  The kids are currently throwing a tantrum in a candy store trying to break open and steal more candy.  Who in their right mind thinks that is a good time to hand them a bat and then walk away leaving them unsupervised and without recourse for discipline?

I seriously hope the people of North Carolina throw that want to be dictator to the freaking curb.  We live in a Republic, not a democracy, not a dictatorship.  We elect people to represent us, if you can’t understand that, you shouldn’t be a representative. Then again most representatives currently only represent the people who voted for them ignoring the rights of the smallest minority, the individual.  -B]

SSCC #105-110, Detroit PD

A former suburban Detroit police chief, his wife and five police officers have been charged with stealing drug-forfeiture money and using it to buy marijuana, booze, prostitutes and a tanning salon, The Detroit Free Press reports.

Basically the chief and his officers used material confiscated from others to fund their own personal lives.  It didn’t belong to the state, it belonged to them because they were the one’s who took it.  Besides if we doctor the sheets here and there no one would ever find out right?

Seriously forfeiture laws do nothing but provide extra leeway for the corruption of government.  A friend brings drugs over to your house without you knowing and sells to someone else?  Congrats the feds can now confiscate your house.  It’s one thing to require illegal material to be forfeited, legal property is something completely different.  While it might make since to recover stolen property or funds, again the state isn’t maintaining ownership there after.

State Sponsored Criminal Count: 110

  • Former Chief Michael St. Andre
  • Det. Sgt. Richard Balzer
  • Det. Richard Landry
  • Det. Donald Hopkins
  • Det. Jeremy Channells
  • Det. Larry Droege

Because the reason the law is here is to make criminals of the law abiding so that the state and it’s employees can benefit of the work of others