Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

Eric Peter’s Autos – by Eric

California has become – ironically – the most anti-car state in the country. Fifty years ago, the Beach Boys sang about the The Little Old Lady From Pasadena.

Today, the state government wants to restrict how often you’re allowed to change your car’s oil.

And also, who’s allowed to do it.    Continue reading “No Oil Change For You!”

AlterNet – by Jill Richardson

Imagine painstakingly making up your way up the cables of Yosemite National Park’s famous Half Dome peak — only to see swooshes and slogans encouraging you to “Just Do It.”

“Welcome to Half Dome,” a gleaming banner greets you, “sponsored by Nike.”   Continue reading “Are We Really Going to Let Corporations Buy Naming Rights to Our National Parks?”

Ars Technica – by Beth Mole

If you ask the Internet what’s wrong with you when you’re not feeling well, it’s bound to break the news that you’ve probably got cancer or perhaps some rare, terminal disease. It doesn’t matter that you just have a mundane, generic symptom. You likely only have a few months left and you should start getting your affairs in order. Sincere condolences, poor Internet user.

With the Web brimming with such bum medical advice—alarming patients and irking doctors worldwide—Google is now rolling out new search tools to try to strip away the medical malarkey or at least shove it down deep in search results.   Continue reading “Googling medical symptoms may no longer convince you that you’re dying”

Free Thought Project – by William N. Grigg

Philadelphia, PA — As chief of Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Narcotics Investigation, Jonathan Duecker had just been handed control of the Philadelphia Gun Violence Task Force, which he wanted to turn into a sleek paramilitary unit. Duecker, an ex-DEA agent, wanted door-busters and ass-kickers, and his ambitions were impeded by a group of older officers who were still inhibited by scruples regarding due process and the Bill of Rights.   Continue reading “Top Cop Takes Over State Task Force, Removes the Good Cops to Create His Own Mafia”

Courthouse News – by Tim Ryan

WASHINGTON (CN) – New gun-control legislation unveiled Tuesday by a bipartisan Senate group echoes proposals to close the so-called “terror loophole” rejected just a day earlier.

Demands for gun control have reached a fever pitch in the week since a gay nightclub in Orlando became the site of the deadliest shooting in the country.   Continue reading “New Guns Bill Has Support Across the Aisle”

Courthouse News – by Adam Klasfeld

MANHATTAN (CN) — Newly free from a Supreme Court challenge, New York’s attorney general deployed the state’s tough gun laws for the first time against three federally licensed dealers accused of selling more than 100 assault weapons.

New York’s case against the owner and employees of Jackson Guns and Ammo in Henrietta, N.Y. marks the first prosecution under the Safe Act, which the state passed shortly after the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
“The SAFE Act stops criminals and the dangerously mentally ill from buying a gun by requiring universal background checks on gun purchases, increases penalties for people who use illegal guns, mandates life in prison without parole for anyone who murders a first responder, and imposes the toughest assault weapons ban in the country,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo says on a government website for the law. “For hunters, sportsmen, and law abiding gun owners, this new law preserves and protects your right to buy, sell, keep or use your guns.”   Continue reading “First Weapons Bust Under Tough N.Y. Gun Law”

Free Thought Project – by Justin Gardner

It’s the stuff of libertarian dreams. The IRS admits that it wrongfully took money from innocent citizens, and it gives the money back.

This is actually happening to victims of a little-known form of civil asset forfeiture carried out by the IRS on the premise of “structuring” violations. In case you didn’t know, depositing or withdrawing just under $10,000 from your bank account multiple times is viewed as suspicious and possibly criminal activity.   Continue reading “IRS Just Admitted it Stole Millions From Innocent People — Here’s the Catch — They’re Giving it Back”

Huffington Post – by Jessica Schulberg

WASHINGTON — Two psychologists who helped the CIA develop and execute its now-defunct “enhanced interrogation” program partially admitted for the first time to roles in what is broadly acknowledged to have been torture.

In a 30-page court filing posted Tuesday evening, psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen responded to nearly 200 allegations and legal justifications put forth by the American Civil Liberties Union in a complaint filed in October. The psychologists broadly denied allegations that “they committed torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, non-consensual human experimentation and/or war crimes” — but admitted to a series of actions that can only be described as such.
Continue reading “CIA Psychologists Admit Role In ‘Enhanced Interrogation’ Program In Court Filing”

Reuters

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell set up a vote late on Monday to expand the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s authority to use a secretive surveillance order without a warrant to include email metadata and some browsing history information.

The move, made via an amendment to a criminal justice appropriations bill, is an effort by Senate Republicans to respond to last week’s mass shooting in an Orlando nightclub after a series of measures to restrict guns offered by both parties failed on Monday.   Continue reading “Invoking Orlando, Senate Republicans set up vote to expand FBI spying”

The Newspaper

Smith County, Texas Judge Joel Patrick Baker was arrested Friday for arranging a deal with American Traffic Solutions (ATS) to install speed cameras during a meeting held in violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton secured the indictment on Thursday.

Without the knowledge of county commissioners, Judge Baker on August 12, 2014 signed a ten-year contract with ATS that included an “exclusivity” clause prohibiting the county from doing business with any firm that competes with ATS. The group Grassroots America last year filed the open meetings complaint that landed Baker in hot water.   Continue reading “Texas Judge Arrested Over Illegal Speed Camera Contract”

Raw Story – by Alexandra Rosenmann

Look no further if you were wondering how messed up America’s anti-terror program is.

In the wake of the Orlando massacre, even some of the biggest objectors to gun control are opening the door to restrictions.

“I will be meeting with the NRA, who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no-fly list, to buy guns,” Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday, surprising both the left and right.   Continue reading “What the hell were these 10 people doing on the terrorist watch list?”

Ammoland – by Justin Stakes

Sacramento, CA -(AmmoLand.com)- In response to renewed calls for a ban on firearms by persons on the federal government’s secret “no-fly” and “terror watch-lists,” Firearms Policy Coalition President Brandon Combs released the following statement:

No person that participates in terrorism should be allowed to acquire or possess firearms. And no one that is provably planning to commit a crime or heinous act like the tragedy in Orlando, Florida should be free to walk our streets. Terrorists and violent criminals should be arrested, tried, convicted, and imprisoned — or immediately deported, if they are in the United States by permission.   Continue reading “No Fly List Does Not Equal No Rights List”

Raw Story – by Tom Boggioni

Anticipating massive demonstrations in the streets during the Republican National Convention in mid-July, Cleveland police authorities are using emergency funds to stock up on the latest in crowd control equipment — armoring themselves as if they are going to war.

According to the Washington Post, Cleveland officials are using a $50 million “security grant” to beef up security around the convention, but are not tipping their hand on everything that they have purchased which is alarming some civil liberties groups concerned about the rights of protesters.   Continue reading “LRAD’s, steel batons and armored personnel carriers: Cleveland cops stocking up before GOP convention”

Free Thought Project – by John Vibes

Arlington, TX – It has long been understood that police have quotas for arrests and traffic stops, and that officers are encouraged to make as many stops as possible. However, police departments, and especially police unions have vehemently denied this fact for decades.

Over the years, various departments across the country have been exposed as having quota programs, showing a widespread and systematic policy where officers are encouraged to make as many arrests as possible.   Continue reading “This Department’s Quota Was So Demanding, Cops Had to Fake Citations Just to Keep Up With It”

Breitbart – by AWR Hawkins

Responding to the terror attack at Pulse Orlando by pushing more gun control is a not-so-subtle way of treating law-abiding Americans like terrorists.

After all, pushing gun control for well over a hundred million gun owners because of the terrorist actions of one gun owner is nothing short of punishing all for the actions of one. And insult is added to injury by the fact that the alleged Orlando attacker — Omar Mateen — passed all the left’s gun controls to commit his heinous act. So it is not just that he allegedly committed terrorist acts but that he did so by cooperating with every law the left instituted as part of their way of keeping us safe.   Continue reading “We’re All Terrorists Now: How Gun Control Treats Law-Abiding Citizens”

The Guardian – by Rupert Neate

Getting locked up is unlikely to be good for your health but it’s “terrific, terrific” business for the booming private industry supplying doctors and nurses to jails and prisons. Many of those suppliers descended on Austin, Texas, last month to tout their services directly to jail administrators at the 35th annual American Jail Association conference.

As trade fairs go, this one is a little macabre. Companies line up to market everything from jumpsuits and meal trays to masks to stop prisoners from spitting, straitjackets and other full-body restraints. Once the national anthem had been observed and the AJA’s chaplain had led a prayer for jailers across the country, those gathered at Austin’s convention centre could get down to business: making money.   Continue reading “Welcome to Jail Inc: how private companies make money off US prisons”