Heritage!

Comments Off
Filed under: Politics is Personal

As Tera put it,

“It’s the end of the financial world as we know it, and I feel fine”

I don’t know why everyone is all upset about their portfolios…my Trapper Keeper is in remarkably good shape after all these years.

Comments Off
Filed under: Afternoon Dance Party, Profiles in Governance

Ron Paul is sitting somewhere in D.C. yelling “I TOLD YOU SO!“:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Mint is temporarily halting sales of its popular American Buffalo 24-karat gold coins because it can’t keep up with soaring demand as investors seek the safety of gold amid economic turbulence.

Mint spokesman Michael White said Friday that the sales were being suspended because demand for the coins, which were first introduced in 2006, has exceeded supply and the Mint’s inventory of the coins has been depleted.

…

“People are scared. Gold has become a safe haven,” said Michael Maroney, a vice president of sales at gold dealer Monex Precious Metals in Newport Beach, Calif.

Maroney said that demand for the one-ounce American Eagle coins was “through the roof.” He said Monex still had American Buffalos available Friday because the company had recently stocked up on them.

With the financial crisis gripping markets in recent weeks, investors have rushed to safe havens such as gold and Treasury securities. Demand for three-month Treasury bills last week pushed their yields down sharply to levels not seen in decades.

Fiat currency is all well and good until investors lose faith…

Comments Off
Filed under: The Dismal Science, Consumerism Rulez

In yet another of what seems to be a series of mistakes by the McCain/Palin team, McCain stiffs Late Show host David Letterman for an interview with…Katie Couric?

We here at F&S are proudly backing “none of the above” in this campaign, but it would seem only an imbecile would cancel a (usually entertaining and sympathetic) slot with a highly-rated, very popular, and–as the video demonstrated–potentially hypercritical television star for an interview with an unpopular news anchor ON THE SAME NETWORK; with a bullshit excuse, no less!

Even if McCain were to appear on Dave’s show on Monday, which he may try to do, Letterman will be unrelenting in making him pay for such a blatant intra-network “diss.” This is a colossal blunder by the McCain PR team. Someone should–and knowing McCain’s temper, probably will–get fired for this.

1 Comment »
Filed under: Mock the Vote

Comments Off
Filed under: Afternoon Dance Party

Are you always in a cheerful mood when you get on a plane? Half the time I get on one I’m hungover, so it probably won’t affect me all that much, but get a load of this:

Baggage searches are SOOOOOO early-21st century. Homeland Security is now testing the next generation of security screening — a body scanner that can read your mind.

Most preventive screening looks for explosives or metals that pose a threat. But a new system called MALINTENT turns the old school approach on its head. This Orwellian-sounding machine detects the person — not the device — set to wreak havoc and terror.

MALINTENT, the brainchild of the cutting-edge Human Factors division in Homeland Security’s directorate for Science and Technology, searches your body for non-verbal cues that predict whether you mean harm to your fellow passengers.

Orwellian indeed. But there are certain tell-tale signs of intent that it will pick up:

It has a series of sensors and imagers that read your body temperature, heart rate and respiration for unconscious tells invisible to the naked eye — signals terrorists and criminals may display in advance of an attack.

So a pissed-off sick person with a fever, hypertension and a fear of flying could very well be wrestled to the ground and arrested because MALINTENT picked up on the non-verbal cues his body was emitting.

DHS, of course, disagrees:

This whole security array — the scanners and screeners who make up the mobile lab — is called “Future Attribute Screening Technology” — or FAST — because it is designed to get passengers through security in two to four minutes, and often faster.

If you’re rushed or stressed, you may send out signals of anxiety, but FAST isn’t fooled. It’s already good enough to tell the difference between a harried traveler and a terrorist. Even if you sweat heavily by nature, FAST won’t mistake you for a baddie.

Forgetting for a moment that a professional security expert and part-time journo used the term “baddie” to describe a terrorist, the idea that any technology–let alone mind-reading technology–is perfect from the start only passes the laugh test because one is too preoccupied fighting off the tears from crying.

According to the article, this device was rigorously tested on…wait for it…144 “average Joes” in D.C. to test for errors.  I think that is a great representative sample, given that (according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association) there are 700 million passengers on 60 million flights per year in the United States.

But the coup de grâce on my intelligence and sensibilities came at the end of the piece:

And because FAST is a mobile screening laboratory, it could be set up at entrances to stadiums, malls and in airports, making it ever more difficult for terrorists to live and work among us.

Burns noted his team’s goal is to “restore a sense of freedom.” Once MALINTENT is rolled out in airports, it could give us a future where we can once again wander onto planes with super-sized cosmetics and all the bottles of water we can carry — and most importantly without that sense of foreboding that has haunted Americans since Sept. 11. (emphasis added for sickening effect)

Yes, because being harassed for my mood is worth getting that 32oz bottle of Dasani on a flight.

Free at last! Free at last! THANK GODALMIGHTY! We are free at last!

Hat tip: Ben Friedman

Comments Off
Filed under: Profiles in Governance, The Homeland, Daily Rant

Cuz nothing says ‘get up and dance’ like a cross-dressing gay heroin addict.

Comments Off
Filed under: Afternoon Dance Party

*Disclaimer: Terabyte’s religious views do not necessarily represent those of FreedomandSh… ah, screw it.

The Church of England has finally acknowledged the slow decline of its own cultural influence earlier this week, by issuing an apology to Charles Darwin.

The apology, which has been written by the Rev Dr Malcolm Brown, the Church’s director of mission and public affairs, says that Christians, in their response to Darwin’s theory of natural selection, repeated the mistakes they made in doubting Galileo’s astronomy in the 17th century.

“The statement will read: Charles Darwin: 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still. We try to practise the old virtues of ‘faith seeking understanding’ and hope that makes some amends.”

This latest development in the endless war between science and religion, while significant, isn’t entirely surprising. True, it was previously unimaginable that a large, organized group of Jeebus-lovers would ever admit to Darwin that “You were right. We were wrong. Buds?” However, with a substantial nonreligious population segment, England ranks among the most secular countries in the world. It’s the birthplace of both prominent writer Christopher Hitchens, and Richard “Darwin’s Pitbull” Dawkins, two of the most renowned critics of religious belief. If any organized faith were going to be the first to take this plunge, it was damn-near certain to be those Anglicans.

Nonetheless, as a supporter of the 3 S’s (dammit, NOT shit, shower, and shave – although those are important, too – I mean science, skepticism, and secularism), I’m happy to hear that the other side is finally beginning to make some (symbolic) concessions.

Now, if only the Pope would come down off his “No Condoms For AIDS-Ravaged Africa” high horse, Catholicism could earn a few more respect points.

2 Comments »
Filed under: Freedom Meets Darwin, Jesus is Magic

Enjoy the weekend.

1 Comment »
Filed under: Afternoon Dance Party

Election news of the day: Sarah Palin action figures are now for sale.

The three dolls, which cost from $27.95-$29.95, feature Palin as an executive in a dark suit; as an action hero a la Lara Croft, in a trench coat, mini skirt and what looks like a gun strapped to her leg; and as a faux-Britney Spears school girl in a low-cut blouse, peekaboo red bra and a plaid mini skirt.

Is it just me, or has this election gone from merely “tiresome” to “downright absurd?” We were originally deciding between a young black guy from Harvard, and an old “straight-talking” white dude. In the last few weeks, however, the circus that is campaign politics has completely enchanted the country, to the point that we’re now voting between a resplendent rock star and an centerfold-worthy MILF.

Of course, many of us have thrown in the towel for 2008, recognizing that, as libertarians, no matter who wins, we lose. The only choices left for us are to either vote for Bob Barr, or spend election day at the bar (as I’ve been advocating since 2007). Bottoms up!

Still, I’ve got to admit that Sarah Palin in a peekabo red bra and schoolgirl costume would be a sight to see.

4 Comments »
Filed under: Consumerism Rulez, Pop! Goes the Culture, Mock the Vote