But then, under the cover of Christmas, the Senate inexplicably dropped the whole section of the bill devoted to ECPA reform, and just voted on the VPPA bill, weakening our video privacy, while refusing to improve our email privacy.
They were hoping no one would notice they used a disingenuous negotiation process to help weaken arguably America’s strongest privacy law at the behest of a company and leave ordinary Americans with less privacy.
via Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Playboy reports on bath salts, face-eating and hysteria.
Bath salts started to pop up in the United States three years ago. They were considered either a starter drug for teenagers or a replacement drug for users who couldn’t get ecstasy or crystal meth. The fact that the drug was legal was its biggest selling point—and it didn’t show up on standard drug tests.
Until police union chief Aguilar blamed the Rudy Eugene incident on bath salts, few members of the Miami Police Department had heard of the drug.
via Playboy.
Esquire’s Charles Pierce strikes again, calling taxpayers a “dumb rampaging beast.” Does he call them that because they willingly pay into a system that spends more and more on policies they often disagree with? Nope. It’s because they have the audacity, in what’s often called a democracy, to demand a lower tax burden.
via Reason.com.
Here’s how it works: In June of last year, Rep. Peter Roksam (R-IL) introduced legislation authorizing a commemorative coin honoring the Lions Club, a service organization based in Oak Brook, IL – part of Roksam’s district.
The legislation dictates that proceeds from the coin sales be used to pay for the cost of producing the coins, but adds: “all surcharges received by the Secretary from the sale of coins issued under this Act shall be promptly paid by the Secretary to the Lions Clubs International Foundation for the purposes.”
via Heritage.org.
the fiscal cliff deal may have spared most Americans from an income tax hike, but the majority of us are taking a big hit in terms of increased Social Security payroll taxes. That’s because temporary relief from some of the burden of that tax expired at the end of 2012, and the feds are quietly anticipating increased revenue as the bulk of American workers glance at their pay stubs and notice an extra bite missing. That can be a big deal because, as the Tax Policy Center tells us, as of 2007, two-thirds of taxpayers paid more in payroll taxes than in income taxes.
via Reason.com.
Rapid DNA Analyzers—machines with the ability to process DNA in 90 minutes or less—are an operational reality and are being marketed to the federal government and state and local law enforcement agencies around the country. These machines, each about the size of a laser printer, are designed to be used in the field by non-scientists, and—if you believe the hype from manufacturers like IntegenX and NetBio—will soon “revolutionize the use of DNA by making it a routine identification and investigational tool.”
via Electronic Frontier Foundation.
