Gun Confiscation in The Big Easy
"I'm getting a little tired of politicians trying to prove how 'moderate' and 'centrist' they are by taking more of my money and freedom. Where's this center -- somewhere between Lenin and Stalin?" -- Ann Coulter
# Alex Berenson and Timothy Williams a The New York Times - New Orleans Begins Confiscating Firearms as Water Recedes - hard to force people out who don't want to leave if they can defend themselves, eh? Fascists! High Road discussion here. ABC News video here (7.2 megs) [clairefiles]
Waters were receding across this flood-beaten city today as police officers began confiscating weapons, including legally registered firearms, from civilians in preparation for a mass forced evacuation of the residents still living here.
No civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns or other firearms, said P. Edwin Compass III, the superintendent of police. "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," he said.
But that order apparently does not apply to the hundreds of security guards whom businesses and some wealthy individuals have hired to protect their property. The guards, who are civilians working for private security firms like Blackwater, are openly carrying M-16's and other assault rifles. Mr. Compass said he was aware of the private guards, but that the police had no plans to make them give up their weapons.
# Skytrooper at The Claire Files Forum - Re: A Libertarian Justice System: My Vision - James L. Waller tells the tale of his framing and imprisonment at the hands of the Bat Fuckers and South Dakota pigs. [clairefiles]
# The Dunedan at The Claire Files Forum - Reclaiming Robin Hood; A Short Essay - I've always considered Robin Hood to be a thief. If The Dunedan's take on him is correct, he was truly a libertarian hero. Far out! [clairefiles]
# Gregg Keizer at Information Week - FEMA Aid Site Blocks Access To Firefox, Macs, Linux Users - it's true. I tried it with Firefox. I had to click through a few links and enter one of those hard-to-read-text codes. Then it told me I needed Internet Explorer 6 with JavaScript enabled. They have since added a warning to the Apply for Assistance page saying that they're working on supporting other browsers and listing a phone number to call if you don't have IE 6. [clairefiles]
# Annalee Newitz at AlterNet - Connect the Dots - some laser printer manufacturers, in particular Xerox, print yellow dots on each page identifying the printer and, possibly, the date and time of the print. This can be used to tie the paper to the printer's purchaser, if it was bought with a credit card (or registered). [claire]
# Electronic Frontier Foundation - Is Your Printer Spying On You? - more details about the essay above. They have some test sheets that they'd like people to print on color laser printers and send to them. Scroll up on that page for a list of printers that do and do not print yellow dots and some samples of the dots. [eff]