02/09: Book 'em, Danno
On a list of erm… questionable actions perpetrated by police types in Minnesota these past few days, it’s hard to pick out just the one for highlighting. But I think I’ve picked out the winner, just now. Me, I’ve gotta go with this one:
So. What to do if uppity folk with video cameras have a nasty tendency of overturning bogus arrests with actual evidence? Try and scare those troublemakers outta town…
So there’s nothing to see here. Or nothing we’re gonna let you see. Ordinary citizens, these people we’ve arrested en masse and detained prior to any obvious crime in order to keep ‘em outta the way when the networks’ more powerful but selective cameras are rolling, they’re just troublemakers. Deserve every bit of trouble we give ‘em, just the way you’re going to be inclined to believe anyway. Or so we say. And seein’ as we scared off all the folk who could have contradicted us, who might have caught us lying our asses off about the circumstances of the arrests, I guess you’ll just have to take our word for it.
Next up, Words from one Glenn Greenwald on the whys are wherefores of showing up with guns sans any crime actually being committed, arresting folk, and then, usually, lettin’ em go after the maximum detention you can get away with sans evidence, since you’ve got squat and always knew you did:
See also, from the same article:
Just so. And y’know, I think I’ve seen about enough of this. I’ve got more than a little respect for cops who do their jobs right. But this just isn’t cops doing their jobs right. This is a severe and dangerous subversion of their office’s original purpose. And one which is, sadly, becoming all too common, of late.
It’s as old a problem, mind you, as it is a common one. Public order and democracy have always been uneasy bedfellows. So it’s always been way too easy to get the folk in charge of keeping that order to play fast and loose with the critical civil rights on which democracies are built.
But easy or not, systemic and common problem or not, you ask me, someone still has to pay for it, when things go this badly awry.
So. The police in these situations love to drag out the technicalities, come up with some justification for throwing people on the ground and pointing guns at ‘em, however thin. Look at the games in the twin cities. Fire code violations and a lame-ass ancient statute probably previously never even applied nor tried against constitutional rights. Most of which probably goes down in flames once it gets to the judge, at least, but hey, who cares. Point is: people were scared, people were kept away, and that’s how the game is played.
So y’know what I want to see? Taste of their own medicine. Seein’ as most of the BS they’ve been pulling is anything but a mere technicality, let’s throw a few dozen of ‘em in jail, from the uniforms just following orders to the muckamucks giving them. Enough of this nice, safe anonymity behind black riot uniforms and visors. Seein’ as you are now engaged in domestic terror, here, you’re getting charged for it.
Oh yeah, baby, let’s have some arrests. And let’s start with the criminals who figure scaring off folk with video cameras is good for democracy. Make ‘em think about it just a little bit harder before they pull crap like this again.
This was a clear effort to intimidate and undermine the work of I-Witness Video—a group that was remarkably successful in exposing police misconduct and outright perjury by police during the 2004 RNC. Out of 1800 arrests made that week, at least 400 were overturned based solely on video evidence which contradicted sworn statements by police officers.
—from I-Witness Video’s blog
So. What to do if uppity folk with video cameras have a nasty tendency of overturning bogus arrests with actual evidence? Try and scare those troublemakers outta town…
So there’s nothing to see here. Or nothing we’re gonna let you see. Ordinary citizens, these people we’ve arrested en masse and detained prior to any obvious crime in order to keep ‘em outta the way when the networks’ more powerful but selective cameras are rolling, they’re just troublemakers. Deserve every bit of trouble we give ‘em, just the way you’re going to be inclined to believe anyway. Or so we say. And seein’ as we scared off all the folk who could have contradicted us, who might have caught us lying our asses off about the circumstances of the arrests, I guess you’ll just have to take our word for it.
Next up, Words from one Glenn Greenwald on the whys are wherefores of showing up with guns sans any crime actually being committed, arresting folk, and then, usually, lettin’ em go after the maximum detention you can get away with sans evidence, since you’ve got squat and always knew you did:
Any rational person planning to protest the GOP Convention would, in light of this Government spying and these police raids, think twice—at least—about whether to do so. That is the point of the raids—to announce to citizens that they best stay in their homes and be good, quiet, meek, compliant people unless they want their homes to be invaded, their property seized, and have rifles pointed at them, too. The fact that this behavior is producing so little outcry only ensures, for obvious reasons, that it will continue in the future. We love our Surveillance State for keeping us safe and maintaining nice, quiet order.
See also, from the same article:
Beyond that, there is a widespread sense that the targets of these raids deserve what they get, even if nothing they’ve done is remotely illegal. We love to proclaim how much we cherish our “freedoms” in the abstract, but we despise those who actually exercise them. The Constitution, right in the very First Amendment, protects free speech and free assembly precisely because those liberties are central to a healthy republic—but we’ve decided that anyone who would actually express truly dissident views or do anything other than sit meekly and quietly in their homes are dirty trouble-makers up to no good, and it’s therefore probably for the best if our Government keeps them in check, spies on them, even gets a little rough with them.
Just so. And y’know, I think I’ve seen about enough of this. I’ve got more than a little respect for cops who do their jobs right. But this just isn’t cops doing their jobs right. This is a severe and dangerous subversion of their office’s original purpose. And one which is, sadly, becoming all too common, of late.
It’s as old a problem, mind you, as it is a common one. Public order and democracy have always been uneasy bedfellows. So it’s always been way too easy to get the folk in charge of keeping that order to play fast and loose with the critical civil rights on which democracies are built.
But easy or not, systemic and common problem or not, you ask me, someone still has to pay for it, when things go this badly awry.
So. The police in these situations love to drag out the technicalities, come up with some justification for throwing people on the ground and pointing guns at ‘em, however thin. Look at the games in the twin cities. Fire code violations and a lame-ass ancient statute probably previously never even applied nor tried against constitutional rights. Most of which probably goes down in flames once it gets to the judge, at least, but hey, who cares. Point is: people were scared, people were kept away, and that’s how the game is played.
So y’know what I want to see? Taste of their own medicine. Seein’ as most of the BS they’ve been pulling is anything but a mere technicality, let’s throw a few dozen of ‘em in jail, from the uniforms just following orders to the muckamucks giving them. Enough of this nice, safe anonymity behind black riot uniforms and visors. Seein’ as you are now engaged in domestic terror, here, you’re getting charged for it.
Oh yeah, baby, let’s have some arrests. And let’s start with the criminals who figure scaring off folk with video cameras is good for democracy. Make ‘em think about it just a little bit harder before they pull crap like this again.
So what you’re saying is Fafblog has been back since April and no one told me?
Dammit. No one tells me anything.
Dammit. No one tells me anything.
28/08: What the kids are calling it
User Friendly on MS’ browser’s new ‘porn mode’…
I am amused by this, if only for reasons of personal history. I’ve been in crypto and networking and by extension secure networking for some time now. Around a decade back, I was working for one of the earlier firms to build secure VPN gear—now a new pretty common technology for remote access. But in the days of yore, we used to wonder: what are people really gonna use this stuff for? What are they using it for? We know militaries like the stuff… But how many of our customers might, say, be drug dealers? Or, y’know, even somethin’ scarier… like maybe venture capitalists*?
At any rate, I once proposed—not really seriously—that mebbe we could use for our PR campaign the catchphrase ‘We deliver your data in plain, brown wrappers’… And I think mebbe the marketing people were thinking about it. Briefly, anyway…
But only briefly. So, seein’ as it didn’t fly there anyway, I’m hereby offering it free of charge to Microsoft.
Honestly, tho’, I wonder how well this is gonna work for the boys from Redmond. Their brand doesn’t exactly have a great reputation, last I checked, for security. Me I’m waiting for this (inevitably renamed) ‘porn mode’ of theirs to turn out through some comically catastrophic bug actually to be ‘broadcast your browser history randomly on the front page of Google News mode’…
Okay. Probably uncalled for. But, again, pretty much required, under the circumstances.
(*Cruel but obligatory joke, if you’ve ever worked in such a relatively speculative business. Really, I love those guys. Honest.)
I am amused by this, if only for reasons of personal history. I’ve been in crypto and networking and by extension secure networking for some time now. Around a decade back, I was working for one of the earlier firms to build secure VPN gear—now a new pretty common technology for remote access. But in the days of yore, we used to wonder: what are people really gonna use this stuff for? What are they using it for? We know militaries like the stuff… But how many of our customers might, say, be drug dealers? Or, y’know, even somethin’ scarier… like maybe venture capitalists*?
At any rate, I once proposed—not really seriously—that mebbe we could use for our PR campaign the catchphrase ‘We deliver your data in plain, brown wrappers’… And I think mebbe the marketing people were thinking about it. Briefly, anyway…
But only briefly. So, seein’ as it didn’t fly there anyway, I’m hereby offering it free of charge to Microsoft.
Honestly, tho’, I wonder how well this is gonna work for the boys from Redmond. Their brand doesn’t exactly have a great reputation, last I checked, for security. Me I’m waiting for this (inevitably renamed) ‘porn mode’ of theirs to turn out through some comically catastrophic bug actually to be ‘broadcast your browser history randomly on the front page of Google News mode’…
Okay. Probably uncalled for. But, again, pretty much required, under the circumstances.
(*Cruel but obligatory joke, if you’ve ever worked in such a relatively speculative business. Really, I love those guys. Honest.)
27/08: Frakkin' toasters
27/08: Father, son
…and he slimed me.
27/08: I'm ordering a case of these
26/08: Coming around again
My daughter is back on the violin again, after a several months hiatus. Life had become crazy, and I’d given her a break from her lessons, after it started looking like she was just under too much pressure. She’s seven. There’s really no call for a seven-year-old to feel so stressed about anything that she breaks down and cries… And when it’s happening at group class, it’s a bit of a problem… There’s this and the stress over practice. She’d been making it hard, putting up some rather serious resistance, which was a new thing. And this wasn’t too good for me, either. I was getting tired. There are only so many hours in the day, and only so many Joules in my body available for such efforts.
But she’s a funny kid, as previously mentioned in this space. She’s always been a bit… touchy, about things. Seems to me, she cares an awful lot about certain things. Like getting them right. Like that C# on the A string… if it doesn’t sound like it’s Perlman playing it, she’s not happy with herself. Suspected maybe this was part of what the stress was. New group class, more kids to compare herself too, even when you tell her not to, all of them older, more experienced. For someone who’s hearing every flaw in every note and caring an awful lot, I can see how that might have been a bit much.
I still don’t know quite where that’s coming from, that drive for the perfect C#, that stress when it’s anything less. I’m pretty sure neither I nor my wife nor her teachers were putting her under that pressure. But she knows the difference between pretty and not pretty, and it’s awfully hard to convince her: you don’t need to cry when it’s less than pretty, it’s okay, just do it again. It doesn’t have to sound perfect the first time. It’s never going to sound perfect the first time. Just keep at it, and it gets that way… (Or close enough, you’re happy enough, and it’s only you noticing anyway; because everyone else thinks it’s perfect, and this will have to do. And most things are like that, actually.)
I’m working on this. Moving practices to the morning again, since I guess she’s more a morning person. Not so fun for me, as I’m really not. But you do what you have to, I guess. There’s always caffeine.
It’s nice that she’s even back at it. I’m slightly surprised by this. When I told her she could have a break, it was more than that: it was actually: you don’t have to do this, if you don’t want to. You’re doing great, but you get upset a lot, and practises are getting hard; listen, let’s give it a break, let’s see if you still want to do this in a few months…
And those few months later, I ask her. Offering her another instrument, if she wants, or no instrument, if she doesn’t. What do you really want to do, here, kid?
I want to play violin, she says.
Seriously? I ask. Really? Remember, there’s practise. There’s lessons. There’s group. You got upset a lot. That stuff. Are you sure you want to do this?
Yes, she says. I do.
And bless her heart, it seems she really does, after a bit more making awfully sure on the part of her now rather wary father. Seven, and yes, she still wants to do this. Tell her this is a committment, this is lessons, this is practice, and yes, she’s still in. She’s seen a few friends give it up, and I’m telling her she can get out now, if she wants to, and she’s not having any of that…
The other great part: she picks it back up, and an awful lot of it’s still right there. She’s hardly touched the thing over the summer, and it’s coming back anyway: left hand fingers remembering the songs, right holding the bow as well as she always did. Still gets upset, when it’s not perfect, but we’re working on that. And I guess maybe there are worse things.
The last nice thing: picking up the cello again. Hadn’t touched it much myself, over that period. I’d been swamped, there was some chaos at work after some reorg/relocation stuff affected most of the folk I’d been working with; figured it was time for a break for me, too. And sure, things were a little hairy for me, too, for a practice or two… fingers forgetting things, having to be coaxed back into line.
But it’s like calling up an old friend, finding you’ve still got lots in common. What’s a few months? Life is long, and we still know each other.
So it’s good to back.
But she’s a funny kid, as previously mentioned in this space. She’s always been a bit… touchy, about things. Seems to me, she cares an awful lot about certain things. Like getting them right. Like that C# on the A string… if it doesn’t sound like it’s Perlman playing it, she’s not happy with herself. Suspected maybe this was part of what the stress was. New group class, more kids to compare herself too, even when you tell her not to, all of them older, more experienced. For someone who’s hearing every flaw in every note and caring an awful lot, I can see how that might have been a bit much.
I still don’t know quite where that’s coming from, that drive for the perfect C#, that stress when it’s anything less. I’m pretty sure neither I nor my wife nor her teachers were putting her under that pressure. But she knows the difference between pretty and not pretty, and it’s awfully hard to convince her: you don’t need to cry when it’s less than pretty, it’s okay, just do it again. It doesn’t have to sound perfect the first time. It’s never going to sound perfect the first time. Just keep at it, and it gets that way… (Or close enough, you’re happy enough, and it’s only you noticing anyway; because everyone else thinks it’s perfect, and this will have to do. And most things are like that, actually.)
I’m working on this. Moving practices to the morning again, since I guess she’s more a morning person. Not so fun for me, as I’m really not. But you do what you have to, I guess. There’s always caffeine.
It’s nice that she’s even back at it. I’m slightly surprised by this. When I told her she could have a break, it was more than that: it was actually: you don’t have to do this, if you don’t want to. You’re doing great, but you get upset a lot, and practises are getting hard; listen, let’s give it a break, let’s see if you still want to do this in a few months…
And those few months later, I ask her. Offering her another instrument, if she wants, or no instrument, if she doesn’t. What do you really want to do, here, kid?
I want to play violin, she says.
Seriously? I ask. Really? Remember, there’s practise. There’s lessons. There’s group. You got upset a lot. That stuff. Are you sure you want to do this?
Yes, she says. I do.
And bless her heart, it seems she really does, after a bit more making awfully sure on the part of her now rather wary father. Seven, and yes, she still wants to do this. Tell her this is a committment, this is lessons, this is practice, and yes, she’s still in. She’s seen a few friends give it up, and I’m telling her she can get out now, if she wants to, and she’s not having any of that…
The other great part: she picks it back up, and an awful lot of it’s still right there. She’s hardly touched the thing over the summer, and it’s coming back anyway: left hand fingers remembering the songs, right holding the bow as well as she always did. Still gets upset, when it’s not perfect, but we’re working on that. And I guess maybe there are worse things.
The last nice thing: picking up the cello again. Hadn’t touched it much myself, over that period. I’d been swamped, there was some chaos at work after some reorg/relocation stuff affected most of the folk I’d been working with; figured it was time for a break for me, too. And sure, things were a little hairy for me, too, for a practice or two… fingers forgetting things, having to be coaxed back into line.
But it’s like calling up an old friend, finding you’ve still got lots in common. What’s a few months? Life is long, and we still know each other.
So it’s good to back.
… okay, I know, probably all of you have already seen this… But dammit, if you haven’t, that’s a bad thing.
(Via my long-lost sister… or long-not-seen… who has just now finally met my son. What can I say… it’s a big country.)
24/08: Also, Ratzi can suck it
I really liked Ms. Ophelia Benson’s title here. It amused me. Good stuff, that, like most of hers…
What amused me more, tho’, was popping open the comments link to say so, and discovering someone had already bleated some complaint in that space about the very same thing.
As I said there: there’s no accountin’ fer taste.
Anyway, I’m not gonna comment on the issue itself beyond that, here, however…
I mean, this would require discussing what a certain ugly bunch of god-besotted bastards have most lately tried to do to this world. And let’s face it… that’s kinda obscene. And this here’s a PG blog, doncha know.
What amused me more, tho’, was popping open the comments link to say so, and discovering someone had already bleated some complaint in that space about the very same thing.
As I said there: there’s no accountin’ fer taste.
Anyway, I’m not gonna comment on the issue itself beyond that, here, however…
I mean, this would require discussing what a certain ugly bunch of god-besotted bastards have most lately tried to do to this world. And let’s face it… that’s kinda obscene. And this here’s a PG blog, doncha know.
22/08: My apologies
I am truly, deeply sorry to report that this made me laugh.
