'The libertarian critique provides an essential check on the surveillance state. But liberty cannot survive unless a free society can be defended...'

A very thoughtful piece, from Cathy Young, at RCP, "No Simple Answers on Security and Freedom":

We need federal legislation that provides strong penalties for any misuse of data obtained through national security programs. We also need more public accountability and public debate on these issues—which is why NSA leaker Edward Snowden, whatever his motives and morals, has performed a valuable service.

The libertarian critique provides an essential check on the surveillance state. But liberty cannot survive unless a free society can be defended. And, if libertarians downplay the threat posed by our enemies, they undercut their credibility in opposing the threat posed by the intrusive state.

The key there on Snowden is "whatever his motives and morals," because obviously those attributes are deeply in doubt.

Via Instapundit.

'I’ve had dogs run out at me on bikes before and you sort of get a feel for the distance the speed you’re going, but it was pretty tight...'

A dude up in Canada, Tim Bartlett, gets chased by a wolf while riding his motorcycle, and takes photos.

At the Washington Post, "Banff motorcyclist pursued by ‘massive’ grey wolf along stretch of B.C. highway, takes pictures" (via Althouse).

No Shouting: Navy to End Official Communications Using All Capital Letters

You gotta love this.

The Navy's getting hip to the era of social media and will end (although not 100 percent) official communications that use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS exclusively.

At the Wall Street Journal, "NOW HEAR THIS: NAVY ABANDONS ALL CAPS: Official Communications, Long Written Large, Can Use Mixed Case; No Shouting":

MESSAGES SENT WITHIN THE U.S. NAVY NO LONGER HAVE TO BE WRITTEN OUT IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.

Since the 19th century, all official Navy communications have been written that way, a legacy of primitive technology combined with the service's love of tradition.

But in the modern age, young sailors more accustomed to texting on their phones consider TYPING IN ALL CAPS akin to shouting. Typographers, meanwhile, have long maintained that all-caps text is hard on the eyes.

So the Navy, amid a modernization of its communications system, decided it would make its official messages more readable—and potentially less rude.

In an April order delivered in all capital letters, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command announced sailors were "AUTHORIZED TO USE STANDARD, MIXED-CASE CHARACTERS IN THE BODY OF NAVY ORGANIZATIONAL MESSAGES."

It noted, however, that sailors shouldn't go crazy. Standard mixed-case sentences were only appropriate for the body of the text.

"RECOMMEND CONTINUE TO USE UPPER CASE IN LINES BEFORE REMARKS," the order said.

Because of legacy systems that use the old all-caps Teletype language, the Navy could only make the shift after adopting a new messaging system it is moving to this year. The system has the added benefit of using fewer computer servers and costing $15 million less a year to operate.

The Navy was not unconcerned about the tender feelings of young sailors.

"If an ancillary benefit is that sailors reading message traffic no longer feel they're being screamed at…that is a good thing too," said a Navy official. The official insisted the move was not an example of the service going soft.

Vice Adm. Herbert F. Leary wrote in June 1942 to Adm. Chester Nimitz after the latter's victory at the Battle of Midway: "ALL HANDS HERE WATCH GRAND SHOW NEAR MIDWAY AND SEND ADMIRING BEST WISHES AND CONGRATULATIONS X KEEP EM SINKING." It might not have looked as jubilant if Adm. Leary had written instead, "keep em sinking."

The Navy acknowledges not everyone is happy with the change. "Some of the fleets were stuck in their ways and really wanted to keep the all-caps," said James McCarty, the Naval messaging program manager at Fleet Cyber command. "But it was inevitable. It had to happen."

Some senior officers believe once the ALL CAPS disappear, any number of strange characters might enter Navy orders, such as @, % or even—gasp—emoticons.

Mr. McCarty says he doesn't think emoticons will appear in official Navy communications. "Someone could put a smiley face or a heart in there. It may very well happen," he said. "But it would be the last thing that person ever does."

More at the link.

Americans Want #Snowden Criminally Prosecuted

At USA Today, "Snowden should be prosecuted for NSA leaks":

In a USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll, most Americans say the NSA leaker should be prosecuted, but two-thirds don't like the idea the U.S. government is collecting their own communication records.

WASHINGTON — A majority of Americans say the person responsible for leaking top-secret documents about U.S. surveillance of phone and Internet records should be criminally prosecuted, a new USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll finds, even as views are closely divided about the wisdom of the programs themselves.

The poll, taken Wednesday through Sunday, shows a nation riven by cross-currents about the unauthorized disclosures by Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency, of sweeping surveillance programs that can collect information about millions of Americans and foreigners.

By 54%-38%, those surveyed say he should be prosecuted. Most Americans say the programs have helped prevent terrorist attacks, by 53%-41%, a point pressed by top administration officials including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

There is an almost even split on the most fundamental question. By 48%-47%, Americans divide over whether they approve or disapprove of the programs as part of the effort to fight terrorism. By another narrow margin, 49%-44%, they say the release of classified information serves rather than harms the public interest.

The mix of views, some of them conflicting, underscores the complications of public opinion on the issue. Previous polls have shown divergent results when asked about the programs. That may help explain why both President Obama and Snowden publicly were making their arguments for and against the programs in interviews published and aired Monday.

"The more people learn about this, it could affect their final judgment on whether the government was right or wrong to do what it's been doing," says Michael Dimmock, director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. "What I think you're seeing in a lot of the surveys is that the public isn't particularly happy about this program, particularly in the realm of civil liberties and privacy, but a lot of people are willing to give the government a certain amount of leeway in fighting against. terrorism."

Well, he's a traitor.

I'll have more ...

The New American Enemies List

From Victor Davis Hanson, at Pajamas Media:

The vast majority of the annual shooting homicides are committed by inner-city and minority youths below the age of 30. Handguns are involved in 80% of all murders. Rifles and shotguns account for less than 10% of homicides.

No matter; the National Rifle Association is now blamed for generic gun violence, especially the mass shootings at schools, even though usually no one knows of any proposed gun law — barring outright confiscation of previously purchased firearms, bullets, and clips — that would have prevented the shooters at Sandy Hook and Columbine. Gun merchants are blamed by the president while in Mexico for selling lethal semi-automatic weapons to drug cartels. But so far, the only identifiable purveyor of illegal weaponry is the president’s own attorney general, whose subordinates in the Fast and Furious operation sold hundreds of guns illegally to Mexican drug lords.

Suggestions to encourage greater incarceration of the mentally unstable, to jawbone Hollywood about its profitable (and gratuitous) gun violence, to regulate extremely violent — and extremely well-selling — video games usually fall on deaf liberal ears. In short, the stereotyped camouflaged, weekend gun enthusiast is not the problem that leads to Columbine, or the nearly 532 murders last year in Chicago. But because we can’t or won’t address the causes of the latter, we go after the former. He is not the unhinged sort that shoots a Gabby Giffords or innocents in an Aurora, Colorado, theater; but somehow is the supposed red-neck yokel that a journalist like ABC’s Brian Ross assumes does.

If the Department of Homeland Security, as is rumored, really did wish to stockpile hundreds of millions of rounds of ammunition, then why did it begin such repository buying right in the middle of a hysterical national debate about limiting access to various rifles and semi-automatic weapons? Was it not to create a climate of fear and panic buying that has emptied America’s shelves of the most popular types of ammunition? If the homicide rate in Philadelphia and Chicago is any indication, murderers still have plenty of access to bullets. Those who want to target practice or shoot a varmint on their property do not.

The CIA and FBI knew of the suspicious activity of the Boston bombers, of Major Hasan, and of Anwar al-Awlaki. And they did nothing to preempt their violence. The FBI is said to be carefully avoiding monitoring mosques, although all of the above terrorists were known by many fellow Muslim worshipers to be either disturbed or extremist or both. In contrast, the NSA monitors, we are told, nearly everyone’s communications rather than focusing on Middle Eastern male Muslims, even though Middle Eastern male Muslims have been involved in the vast majority of post-9/11 terrorist plots. The NSA is the electronic version of the TSA, which feels it is noble and liberal to stop an octogenarian in a wheel chair for special frisking as proper compensation for every focused look at a West Bank resident or Pakistani visitor on his way into the United States.

The words “Tea Party” and “patriot” in a non-profit’s name would more likely earn a negative appraisal from the IRS than would “Islam” or “Muslim.” One wonders how Lois Lerner’s IRS division would treat a hypothetical “Sarah Palin Foundation” versus “The Dr. Zawahiri Charity.”

Continue reading.

Bwahaha!! Poor Widdle Wepsac3 Whines Hilariously: 'I'm the Victim! It's Me, I'm the Victim!'

OMG, this is the best.

Racist harassment troll Walter James Casper (the whiny little bitch) is now claiming he's the victim of harassment. Yeah, that oughta work. The lulz. They hurt. You can't make this stuff up. STOP. ROTFLMFAO!

I must be a really bad harasser, because Widdle Wepsac3, who now keeps a wee widdle clock counter at his harassment blog, completely missed me allegedly harassing him on Twitter. I gotta up my game, BHAHAHAHA!!

Wait! Wait!

He writes at his stupid troll rights blog, "43 days without a single obsessive attack from Dishonest Don..."

BWAHAHAHA!! Time to get back to school, loser. Math is hard! OMG that's hilarious. Such a dork.

Maybe subtract about ten days off of that, dork loser dirtbag. Folks know what you're all about: a sick harassment troll who needs some help:

@AmPowerBlog Oh, that twerp again. He started attacking me back during the Kimberlin stuff, IIRC.
— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) June 5, 2013

Yeah, that twerp again. I replied:

.@rsmccain Figures. He's a troll rights harasser of the first order!
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 5, 2013

ICYMI, the background's here, "Disgusting Troll Rights Harassment Blogger Continues Lying About Years-Long Campaign of Intimidation."

Widdle Whiny Wepsac3 wrote a widdle whiny post saying that old "Dishonest Don" is a bad, bad man. Meany old Donald is stalking Widdle Weppy! BWHAHAHA!

Not.

Everyone in their right mind knows that racist Walter James Casper III is one of the worst Internet trolls of all time. As Zilla wrote in 2011:

I almost feel sorry for that guy. Oh and if he's reading this, he should know that he may not comment at my blog unless he registers as a known troll & pays the toll.

Ha! Widdle Walter Weppy, the "known troll." That's perfect!

He stalks people all around online, attacks and torments them, AND THEN keeps a record of every single comment he makes --- because he knows he'll be banned like the ultimate asshole! It's true, it's true! He's got a comment blog called the "Immoderate Monk," which is a repository of all of Widdle Weppy Walter's deleted comments. Or it used to be, until he couldn't keep up with getting banned wherever he went on the Internet! OMG! BWAHAHAHA!!

Stop it! I'm busting a side here.

And he's the victim?!!

No, sorry. He's not. He's a projecting pathological liar who's the ringleader of a group of leftists trolls who tried to get me fired back in 2009. If this were Maryland he'd be criminally liable for stalking and harassment under that state's laws, just like his brother-from-another mother Bill Schmalfeldt.

And did I mention Widdle Whiny Walter Weppy is a buttfreak loser who even stalked Tania Gail all the way to her YouTube page? She told me that she warned Weppy she was gonna kick his ass. He's scared of her. Poor Weppy! The whiny little bitch! OMG I'm rolling on this! Tania's gonna kick his ass!

Anyway, I gotta stop laughing.

Robert Stacy McCain has more, and boy it hits really close to home for the racist troll rights harasser Walter James Casper III.

See, "Has Bill Schmalfeldt Forgotten?":

Persistently ignoring the wrongs he has committed, he makes accusations of wrongdoing against others as justifying further sadistic harassment of his chosen enemies.

Yes, because he's a victim!

BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

BNP Leader Nick Griffin is One Sick Bastard

Pretty astonishing, really.

At the Mirror UK, "Nigella Lawson 'attacked': BNP leader Nick Griffin tweets sick joke about shocking pictures."

If I had the opportunity to squeeze Nigella Lawson, her throat wouldn't be my first choice.
— Nick Griffin MEP (@nickgriffinmep) June 17, 2013

More at GQ (UK), "Nick Griffin is a horrendous human being."

It's just beyond politics for me. I'm disgusted by idiot piggish men.

RELATED: At the Guardian UK, "Nigella Lawson pictures: if it's a 'playful tiff', what does a serious one look like?"

PREVIOUSLY: "Nigella Lawson Attacked by Husband Charles Saatchi at Scott's Restaurant in Mayfair."

Mirror Pond Pale Ale

I'm impressed.

My mom brought some Mirror Pond Pale Ale for #FathersDay. Tasty. #Beer. pic.twitter.com/OEvTKlGepZ
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 17, 2013

'In light of NSA leaks, the government has compromised its moral capital...'

From Glenn Reynolds, at USA Today, "Government compromises our trust":

It looked bad last week, but it looks much, much worse now. The federal government has been spying and lying. The only comfort is that, apparently, it's been largely incompetent at both: Nobody believes the lies, and the spying wasn't even able to catch the Tsarnaev brothers.

Not long ago, the Director of National Intelligence assured us that the federal government does not "wittingly" spy on Americans. That has turned out to be a lie. As Fred Kaplan writes in Slate, "We as a nation are being asked to let the National Security Agency continue doing the intrusive things it's been doing on the premise that congressional oversight will rein in abuses. But it's hard to have meaningful oversight when an official in charge of the program lies so blatantly in one of the rare open hearings on the subject. " And the spying turns out to go even further than we thought we knew last week.

Over the weekend, the Associated Press reported that the spying goes well beyond the Prism program reported by whistleblower Edward Snowden. As AP notes, "while Prism has attracted the recent attention, the program actually is a relatively small part of a much more expansive and intrusive eavesdropping effort. . . . documents show it is one of the major sources for what ends up in the president's daily briefing." From the descriptions available, it appears that the NSA basically just copies everything going over the Internet, and can look at it either in real time or later.

Meanwhile, according to a report from CNET, the National Security Administration has admitted, despite earlier denials, that it's listening to American phone calls without warrants...

Continue reading (via Memeorandum).

Brazil Protests

Via Instapundit, "CHANGE: Protests build in Brazil as discontent spreads."

Yes, Publishing #NSA Secrets Is a Crime

From Marc Thiessen, at the Washington Post:

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) sparked a firestorm last week with his suggestion that Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian reporter who exposed the National Security Agency’s terrorist surveillance activities, ought to be arrested before he can publish more U.S. secrets.

Greenwald responded that King wanted to prosecute him for “the crime of doing journalism.” Wrong. Greenwald’s crime is violating 18 USC § 798, which makes it a criminal act to publish classified information revealing government cryptography or communications intelligence.

The law is absolutely clear. It states: “Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign government to the detriment of the United States any classified information— (1) concerning the nature, preparation, or use of any code, cipher, or cryptographic system of the United States or any foreign government; or (2) concerning the design, construction, use, maintenance, or repair of any device, apparatus, or appliance used or prepared or planned for use by the United States or any foreign government for cryptographic or communication intelligence purposes; or (3) concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States or any foreign government; or (4) obtained by the processes of communication intelligence from the communications of any foreign government, knowing the same to have been obtained by such processes— Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.”

Note that emphasis, which I added: The law specifically states that publishing, not just divulging, such information is a federal crime. Greenwald clearly violated this law (as did The Post, for that matter, when it published classified details of the NSA’s PRISM program).

As a matter of prosecutorial discretion, the Justice Department may choose not to charge The Post or Greenwald for these criminal acts. But it is neither outrageous nor incorrect for Peter King to state that they are criminal acts. Nor is it unreasonable for a federal lawmaker to argue that federal law should be enforced.

Continue reading.

I'm sure Greenwald's getting a good laugh out of this, but still, the law's the law. Maybe he should come back to the U.S. and take his chances?

'He messed with the wrong witch...'

This story's something else, at London's Daily Mail, "Texas mother-of-six Dorothy Baker punches carjacker in the face and then RUNS HIM OVER."

Phenomenal New Kelly Brook Sunbathing Pics From Cancun

I saw the cover of today's Sun on Twitter last night:

TODAY'S front page of THE SUN pic.twitter.com/8a9rVab4iW

— The Sun Newspaper (@TheSunNewspaper) June 17, 2013

But boy, I wasn't quite ready for this, man. See, "Kelly Mex waves."

London's Daily Mail did a whole lot of pixelating, "There's nothing she won't do for an all over tan! Kelly Brook goes topless as she soaks up the sun in Mexico."

And Egotastic!, well, not so much, "Kelly Brook Bikini Pictures! Full Frontal Cancun Heaping Goodness!"

Why Johnathon Carrington Fears Georgetown University

This beautiful young man was valedictorian at his D.C. high school, Dunbar High, and he's afraid that as well as he's done, he could struggle when he starts at the university in the fall.

I read this story earlier on my iPhone. It's not just kids like this. I'm sure just about any decent kid who's done well in school is going to have some issues, but I can't help thinking about my students in Long Beach, many of whom have no clue what it takes to really excel at the university level.

At the Washington Post, "Graduates from low-performing D.C. schools face tough college road" (via Memeorandum):

Johnathon Carrington grew up on the sixth floor of a low-income D.C. apartment complex, a building most recently in the news for a drive-by shooting that injured 13.

His parents told him early on that education could be his escape, and Carrington took them at their word. He graduated Friday as the valedictorian of his neighborhood school, Dunbar High, and against all odds is headed to Georgetown University.

But Carrington, 17, is nervous, and so are his parents. What if Dunbar — where truancy is chronic and fewer than one-third of students are proficient in reading — didn’t prepare him for the rigors of college? What if he isn’t ready?

“I don’t think I’m going to fail everything,” Carrington said. “But I think I’m going to be a bit behind.”

It’s a valid concern. Past valedictorians of low-performing District high schools say their own transitions to college were eye-opening and at times ego-shattering, filled with revelations that — despite taking their public schools’ most difficult classes and acing them — they were not equipped to excel at the nation’s top colleges.

When these students arrived on campuses filled with students from high-flying suburban public schools and posh privates, they found a world vastly different from the one they knew in their urban high schools.

For Sache Collier, it meant writing her first research paper. For Darryl Robinson, it meant realizing that professors expected original ideas, not just regurgitated facts. For Angelica Wardell, who grew up going to school almost exclusively with African American students, it meant taking classes with whites and Asians.

And for many top D.C. graduates, it meant discarding the idea that school is easy...

Continue reading.

This last semester I had a woman email me after final grades were posted trying to argue that she deserved an "A-" for the class. She hadn't done well at all, but just being there counted for something, it turns out (and my paper assignment is a gimme, so she mistakenly thought that her grade on that was representative and should put her over the top). I'm not sure exactly where students get that mentality, although I know there's a lot of social promotion and grade inflation. It's sad too, since I've dumbed down my examinations after years of saying to myself that I wouldn't. And this young lady still couldn't pass my exams. But hey, she deserved an "A-" because she simply said she'd learned a lot. Wow. I gotta get out of this business soon.

Sharyl Attkisson Discusses Computer Privacy Breach on 'CBS This Morning'

The background is here, "Forensic Analysis Confirms Sharyl Attkisson Computer Hacked."

Added: At I'm 41, "Sharyl Attkisson on O’Reilly: I Know Who Hacked Into My Computers – (June 17, 2013)."

Catching Up on the Guardian's #Snowden Reporting

There's a lot of news today, and good bet none of it's hurting the Guardian's bottom line.

From the main edition this morning, "GCHQ intercepted foreign politicians' communications at G20 summits."

Also, "Edward Snowden says US government has destroyed his chance of a fair trial," and "Edward Snowden Q&A: Dick Cheney traitor charge is 'the highest honor'."

I'll have more...

Belfast Teenager Hannah Nelson Upstages President Obama at G-8 Summit

Good for her.

At Metro UK, "G8: Schoolgirl Hannah Nelson steals show before Barack Obama speech."

Megyn Kelly, Michelle Malkin Slam Idiot CBS News Anchor Scott Pelley

At Liberty Unyielding, "CBS News’s Scott Pelley ludicrously asserts Fox News has 200K to 300K viewers."

Also at Deadline, "‘CBS Evening News’ Anchor Scott Pelley On Making Mistakes And Why Cable News Doesn’t Matter As Much As We Think."

And here's Megyn and Michelle, which I saw live this morning:

Everybody's Laughing at Miss Utah Marissa Powell

And the Other McCain has it.

See, "If We ‘Create Education Better,’ People Might Learn the Wage Gap Is a Myth."

Actually, I was pulling for the eventual winner Miss Connecticut. And Politico has that, "Miss USA Erin Brady talks SCOTUS ruling to take crown."

And LAT snarks on it, "Miss Utah flub steals spotlight from Miss USA winner Erin Brady."

Bonus bikinis for you here:

Nicole Neal for Front Magazine

Via Twitter:

I think I have should have shares in @OceanBeachIbiza the amount of times I'm been there this year 😂 pic.twitter.com/aAMi4x4M4i

— Nicole Neal (@MissNicoleNeal) June 13, 2013

And at Front, "IT’S A BIRD! IT’S A PLANE! IT’S FRONT 182!"

Also at Egotastic!, "Nicole Neal Supergirl Pictures Continue to Fly In."