Maybe he doesn't want himself or loved ones to end up like Michael Hastings.

Strat

{Darth Vader voice}

"We will crush this 'rebel alliance' and destroy all who oppose the Empire!"

{/Darth Vader voice}

Strat

Quite a while back I posted a comment suggesting a smartphone application that allows people to take a snapshot of a government official/bureaucrat/judge/LEO/agent as well as officials/employees of NSA/NRO/CIA/etc private contractors and upload it and location/time and other relevant data to a website in a non-5-eyes nation where facial recognition and data-mining software could analyze it and make that information and analysis publicly available. Track all their travel, associations, purchases, everything possible.

Strat

The fact that it's illegal for a private person to accept payment for a car ride principally to protect politically-connected businesses practicing an outdated/obsolete business model is both corrupt and illogical. It's protectionist crony-capitalism. Rather than logically correcting such a corrupt system, they doubled down on it. Just because a government declares something "illegal" does not mean it is morally and/or ethically wrong, or a detriment to society and/or the economy.

Strat

All quite true at this time.

The one thing a 3D printed gun can do that a normal gun cannot: Not yet exist when authorities come to confiscate guns, and then exist once the authorities have departed.

That, more than anything else, is what makes 3D printed guns unique and the ability to produce them attractive, especially to those who live under a government bent on disarming the population.

Strat

Not really so true anymore, currently it's the price per copy.

http://3dprint.com/21109/3d-pr...

But as 3D metal printing technology advances (and it won't be long, as it was only a handful of months ago that all there was out there was the Liberator plastic single-shot and now there's metal 1911-style semi-auto pistols being produced.), expect the cost/time required to drop dramatically and for quality to keep pace.

"Superior"? Probably not for a little while yet, but at the same time it will not be long at the rate 3D printing tech advances these days. "Legitimate application"? Depends a lot on what you would consider a "legitimate application", but I get your point and in many cases you would be correct. This will soon not be true as 3D printing technology advances & matures, however.

Strat

Why would you want to print anything else? Assault rifles and handguns.

Why not print something you can use?

Why can't he use them? Does he not have any high ranking federal government officials within reasonable traveling distances? :)

Strat

Well, it's not like black youth are inundated with the glorification of "thug life" and "gangsta" culture, or that blacks that *do* do well are often labeled by their peers as "actin' like dey white"...

I'm black and I don't know a single person that talks like that. Not among my family, friends, or acquaintances. I do encounter this stereotype quite frequently on television, music and on the internet though.

I'm not saying there aren't people who think like that. But that it's not as common way of think as rap videos and off-hand comments would lead you to believe.

E.g. How many of these people you overheard were actually being serious? And not making fun of the stereotype?

I live a short distance outside Detroit. Come take a drive with me some afternoon and I'll introduce you to countless examples. I'm a professional blues guitarist and regularly live, work, and eat with black people and have for decades, and have dated a number of black women over the years as well, many with children. It's a result of the culmination of decades of cultural and social messages blacks receive their entire lives from government entitlement programs, affirmative action laws & policies, schools/colleges, music/media/mainstream news, and their peers.

Strat

Well, it's not like black youth are inundated with the glorification of "thug life" and "gangsta" culture, or that blacks that *do* do well are often labeled by their peers as "actin' like dey white", "uncle Toms", "house niggas" (all things I've heard blacks say personally, as well), and any that profess anti-entitlement-society, pro-family views are excoriated by both their peers and "news" media.

I frankly greatly admire minorities in the US that have the courage and determination to run that gauntlet instead of cave to the pressure to "stay on the plantation" and instead go on to use their intelligence, talents, skills, and strong work ethic to do well and become an asset to their communities and to society.

Strat

Heavens forbid that the best candidates are picked! Oh the horror!

And of course if there's a vastly smaller pool of minority and women applicants, that's the employer's fault as well! Maybe we could force them to pay to educate then train minority/women parolees and force them to hire them! That will assure private data stays private! /s*

Strat

*I find it rather tragic that Western culture and society has devolved so far into reactionary mob-rule that a 'sarc' tag is necessary. We used to have these things called Rule of Law and individual liberty coupled with individual responsibility. No more, apparently.

Oh please! Really? Of course the US wants him after the huge mess and dog-and-pony show in Congress regarding Assage/Wikileaks, and the repeated attempts by the US to destroy Wikileaks however they can.

Do you have any evidence that I'm wrong? Assange has wasted years of his life for nothing if the US was *not* intent on grabbing him (or having him grabbed by allies to cover involvement). Of course the US will not say anything about wanting him, until they're able to get him back to US territory somehow.

You do not alert a fleeing/hiding subject to your plans to abduct him, particularly when it's highly dubious that said subject is even legally prosecutable, given US law/jurisdiction outside national borders, foreign citizenship, and how/where the actions in question occurred. Of course they'll keep their cards close to their chest.

The US wants Assange, there is no doubt. They just want it all taken care of quietly, as they'd basically be prosecuting him for the same thing the NYT did when it published the Pentagon Papers, and the NYT *is* in US territory and are/were mostly comprised of US citizens. It's just that these days, Rule of Law in the US only exists in textbooks.

Strat

But they are both wanted by the US for essentially the same thing.

They 'pantsed' the US intelligence services in public and exposed their criminal actions to the world and most importantly to the US population.

Like any organized crime cartel, they feel they must do their best to make these individuals pay a heavy price in order to keep their own people too scared to rat them out on their criminal activities.

Strat

My wife says that the only thing that only kind of fastrak [bayareafastrak.org] that she is in favor of is the one that gets her over the bridge more promptly.

Thanks, I'll be here all night.

Thanks for the warning. :)

Sounded more like a threat! :)

Strat

Right, they set the branches up to oppose and balance each other, so as to limit and slow the exercise of government power.

Here is where you go off the rails. Depending on the virtue of politicians is...unwise. The corrupt always rise to power. That is why you only give politicians and bureaucrats only just enough power to accomplish only those things that cannot be accomplished otherwise while maintaining a free and open society under Rule of Law.

Government is a necessary evil. It is force and so must be strictly limited. Again, I would refer to a computer network as an analogy. A mainframe/dumb terminal system (strong central government) is much easier to suborn than a distributed network (roughly co-equal States with a relatively domestically weak central government) which by it's nature limits the damage possible and can detect and take steps to protect the other networked machines and correct any damage caused.

If that's incoherent, I would posit it is a confusion of the willful variety by the reader, not the writer

Strat.