BambisMusings - Musings from a little deer?

The Long Night
Article by Charley Reese at LewRockwell.com

In our time, when people are saying we must sacrifice liberty for security, that scrapping the Constitution is necessary to win the “war” against terrorism, I would suggest that you take your choice of genocides in the past 100 years and remind yourself what happens when people buy into the false proposition that the end justifies the means. People who preach that are always more interested in the means than in any end.

The only safe environment for a human being is under a weak government with very restricted powers. Normal people don’t need much to be happy – food, shelter, dignity and freedom from marauders. They need a rule of law that applies to everyone equally and at all times and in all circumstances. In established societies, legislators should meet rarely – perhaps once every two or three years – because a continuing cascade of new laws will eventually drown freedom.

The Founding Fathers, whether through luck, wisdom or divine guidance, gave us an almost perfect form of government, and we’ve been busy ever since trying to take it apart. Human beings are dangerous predators and cannot be trusted with power over their fellows. Many Americans have forgotten that the power of government comes out of the barrel of a gun. Governments coerce; they don’t persuade.

There are people living among us at this very moment capable of the cruelty so evident in the Holocaust. All they are waiting for is the opportunity. No greater opportunity exists than when a government enlists such people and says whatever you do is now justified for the sake of the “greater good.”

More in the article. Must read.

Last week, I was reading a wonderful article by Bruce Schneier called, The Myth of the ‘Transparent Society’ (at Wired.com). His arguments are very compelling!

Here’s an example Bruce Schneier uses in the article,

An example will make this clearer. You’re stopped by a police officer, who demands to see identification. Divulging your identity will give the officer enormous power over you: He or she can search police databases using the information on your ID; he or she can create a police record attached to your name; he or she can put you on this or that secret terrorist watch list. Asking to see the officer’s ID in return gives you no comparable power over him or her. The power imbalance is too great, and mutual disclosure does not make it OK.

It is for these very same reasons that Trusted Computing and Trusted Internet will not work.

You have no power, they do. You can’t get their power so it will always be lopsided.

And it will always put varying levels of stress on those being monitored, and potentially cause emotional, physical, mental or spiritual damage to those who are under the microscope so to speak - depending upon the

I really think so many today really need to read 1984 by George Orwell. It’s not a pretty sight, but it’s riveting and revolting.

Even Microsoft’s Ballmer had to acknowledge that even on a personal level he has to deal with the stupidity of DRM (which they hope to enforce using Trusted Computing and Trusted Internet) with his own son in the article iPod users are music thieves says Ballmer - Silicon.com:

The Microsoft boss also claimed some domestic familiarity with the issue.

“My 12-year-old at home doesn’t want to hear that he can’t put all the music that he wants in all of the places that he would like it,” he joked.

This after saying,

Billing Microsoft as the good guys and Apple the villains of the piece - at least as far as corporate America, rather than users, is concerned, Ballmer said: “We’ve had DRM in Windows for years. The most common format of music on an iPod is ’stolen’.”

“Part of the reason people steal music is money, but some of it is that the DRM stuff out there has not been that easy to use.

Unbelievable. And all this after they brought Cory Doctorow in years ago to talk about the futility of DRM.

FBI Withdraws Unconstitutional National Security Letter After ACLU and EFF Challenge

Gag Order Lifted on Internet Archive, Allowing Founder to Speak Out for First Time

THE INTERNET ARCHIVE, along with its counsel EFF and the ACLU, successfully challenged a national security letter issued to the Archive’s digital library. The NSL, which had unconstitutionally gagged the Archive for months, was withdrawn, and we are now able to bring this story to the public for the first time. This settlement — and the extensive dialogue about the case — are critical supplements to widespread reports of NSL abuse.

http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/05/06

The report continues:

“The free flow of information is at the heart of every library’s work. That’s why Congress passed a law limiting the FBI’s power to issue NSLs to America’s libraries,” said Brewster Kahle, founder and Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive. “While it’s never easy standing up to the government — particularly when I was barred from discussing it with anyone — I knew I had to challenge something that was clearly wrong. I’m grateful that I am able now to talk about what happened to me, so that other libraries can learn how they can fight back from these overreaching demands.”

The NSL was served on the Archive — a digital library recognized by the state of California — and its attorneys in November of 2007. The letter asked for personal information about one of the Archive’s users, including the individual’s name, address, and any electronic communication transactional records pertaining to the user. Kahle, who is also a member of EFF’s Board of Directors, decided to fight the NSL because it exceeded the FBI’s limited authority to issue such demands to libraries.

The Archive responded to the letter by handing over only publicly available documents and simultaneously filing a lawsuit challenging the letter. This lawsuit is the first known challenge to an NSL served on a library since Congress amended the national security letter provision in 2006 to limit the FBI’s power to demand records from libraries.

The NSL included a gag order, prohibiting Kahle from discussing the letter and the legal issues it presented with the rest of the Archive’s Board of Directors or anyone else except his attorneys, who were also gagged. The gag also prevented the ACLU and EFF from discussing the NSL with members of Congress, even though an ACLU lawyer who represents the Archive recently testified at a congressional hearing about the FBI’s misuse of NSLs.

“This is a great victory for the Archive and also the Constitution,” said Melissa Goodman, staff attorney with the ACLU. “It appears that every time a national security letter recipient has challenged an NSL in court and forced the government to justify it, the government has ultimately withdrawn its demand for records. In the absence of much needed judicial oversight – and with recipients silenced and the public in the dark – there is nothing to stop the FBI from abusing its NSL power.”

“A miscarriage of justice was prevented here because the Archive decided to fight the unlawful demand for information and unconstitutional gag,” said EFF Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. “The big question is, how many other improper NSLs have been issued by the FBI and never challenged?”

Much more in the report! Must read.

Thought for the Day: May 3, 2008

Rub ba dub dub,
three carts in a tub,
and who do you think they be;

Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow,
all making their way through the trees…

Yep…made it up … all by myself and of course you could blame it on my Rhino virus that has moved to my chest.

Either way, Plant a tree!

The High Tide

About The High Tide

The High Tide is not just about Presidential candidate Ron Paul, but about the idea of returning America back to it’s founding principles of freedom and liberty.

Yes!! It surely is!

We were very fortunate this time in our little town. Not too far away the areas of Suffolk and Colonial Heights, and Driver, VA were hit pretty hard when three tornadoes touched down in Virginia. Apparently there was also a water spout by Portsmouth that crossed a bridge too that I read about last night.

Storm front brings severe weather to NC - WAVY10 - the news channel we generally watch for local free to air antenna weather reports

Associated Press - April 28, 2008 9:25 PM ET
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A severe weather system swept across North Carolina today and sparked tornado warnings and watches, but caused little damage.

The same system later injured hundreds when it spun out tornados in Virginia from Suffolk to Colonial Heights.

North Carolina officials said several mobile homes in Gaston County near Kings Mountain were damaged.

As the storm system spread, the weather service put up and took down tornado warnings in counties generally along the North Carolina-Virginia border.

VAEmergency.com:

RICHMOND, Va. — Governor Timothy M. Kaine today declared a state of emergency in the Commonwealth of Virginia, directing state agencies to take all necessary actions to aid in the response to widespread damage from this afternoon’s severe weather.

A declaration of emergency allows the Governor to immediately deploy state personnel, equipment and other emergency response resources, and to coordinate state and local response to the event.

Strong winds and possible tornadoes caused damage in multiple localities. The cities of Colonial Heights and Suffolk were two areas that were severely affected.

Agencies assisting include the Virginia departments of Emergency Management, Marine Resources and Transportation and the Virginia State Police. Other agencies are on standby if needed.

Bloomberg said,

April 29 (Bloomberg) — Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine declared a state of emergency yesterday after tornadoes injured about 200 people and caused damage in the cities of Colonial Heights and Suffolk.

Volunteer agencies including the American Red Cross set up shelters and police closed several roads during the storms. Sentara Obici Hospital in Suffolk was damaged by the tornadoes and is still receiving patients, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management said on its Web site.

Some images of some of the areas at MSNBC’s Photos area here.

Two hardest hit areas reported on so far:

Suffolk: Twister injures about 100 people, damages Sentara Obici Hospital, leaves town of Driver in shambles - Rich.com

Colonial Heights: Businesses near Southpark sustain damage - Rich.com

History of area tornadoes (in Virginia) - WAVY10:

The following information is from VAEmergency.com, which has tracked tornadoes throughout Virginia.

Nationally, the US. averages over 800 tornadoes per year. Tornadoes can strike anywhere in the US. during any month and any time of day. Virginia has seen as few as one tornado in a year (1982) to as many as 29 tornadoes (1993). Tornadoes have occurred during every month and every hour of the day. It can happen here. It could happen to you. Be prepared by knowing what to do when a tornado threatens.

Quite the history of tornadoes for an area that doesn’t ‘generally’ get hit often by them….and many were rated F2.

So how much of our National Guard personnel and resources are still overseas? How many can do what they were trained to do here in the USA? And how many National Guard personnel have lost their lives in the ‘War on Terror” so far.

I was recently reading an Eat Our Brains blog archive that told the story about JP “The Bopper” Richardson’s son, after hearing conspiracy stories all his life about his Dad’s death, had his Dad’s body exhumed to lay to rest, in his own and maybe others’ eyes, on how and/or when his Dad died on that fateful day that took the lives of three great music artists:

Helloo, Baaaybee - March 15th, 2007 by Bradley Denton

Today, April 27, 2008, as I was reading through the Bradley Denton’s story from March 15, 2007 where Bradley encapsulated the tragic accident that Don McLean called, “The Day The Music Died.”:

In the early morning hours of February 3, 1959, a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft crashed in a farm field near Mason City, Iowa, killing rock’n’roll musicians Buddy Holly (age 22), Ritchie Valens (age 17), and J.P. “the Big Bopper” Richardson (age 28). Also killed was the twenty-one-year-old pilot, Roger Peterson.

I was nearly four years old at the time. I wouldn’t realize the great loss to the art of music and the world in general for a few more years. And a tragic loss it truly was.

Life is such a strange collection of intersecting lines…

So after the February 2 show in Clear Lake, Iowa, Buddy Holly decided that he would at least give himself and two backing musicians — guitarist Tommy Allsup and bassist Waylon Jennings — a chance to wash their clothes before the next night’s gig in Moorhead, Minnesota. To that end, he hired Dwyer’s Flying Service in Mason City to fly the trio to Fargo, North Dakota (which was the closest airport to Moorhead).

But Tommy Allsup lost his seat to Ritchie Valens on a coin toss, and Waylon Jennings gave his spot to the ailing Big Bopper.

The Bonanza took off in the middle of the night with snow falling, and a few minutes later, it hit the frozen ground in a shallow dive at about 170 miles per hour. All on board died.

Anyway, at the bottom of the story, were links to songs by these music greats (videos on YouTube.com):

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Buddy Holly, “That’ll Be the Day” and “Oh Boy!”

Ritchie Valens, “Ooh My Head” and the 1958 recording session for “La Bamba”

The Big Bopper, “Chantilly Lace”*

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*Clearly, J.P. Richardson didn’t have the deep-to-the-bone impact on subsequent artists that Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens had. Nevertheless, I would argue that “Chantilly Lace,” for all its novelty-tune cheese, is an open and joyous acknowlegement of healthy lust that was both subversive and revolutionary for mainstream pop music of its time. For that alone, every sex-crazed musician since owes the Big Bopper a debt of gratitude.

Well, I went looking for those videos:

“That’ll Be the Day”

This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by SOFA Entertainment

But you can find a video of what appears to be the vinyl of Buddy Holly and The Crickets doing That’ll Be the Day here.

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“Oh Boy!”

This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.

Here’s a tribute video of Buddy Holly’s version on youtube today.

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“Ooh My Head”

This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.

Here’s Ritchie Valens Ooh My Head Full Version 1959 on youtube today.

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the 1958 recording session for “La Bamba”

It’s still there as of today! Kewl!

Here’s one of the full recorded versions by Ritchie Valens.

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“Chantilly Lace”

This video has been removed by the user.

Here’s Chantilly Lace-The Big Bopper-1958 on youtube today.

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Note, just like the ones in the article. If you find these missing in action by the time you read this article. Just do a search on youtube.com, or Google, or Google Video for the song name and artist’s name and roll the dice, errr, click Search.

You might even find the Meaning of American Pie or the UPDATED Meaning of American Pie video on youtube…or not…depending on how lucky you are in your timing, I guess.