Standard Mischief

A few dozen Iranians threw shoes at posters of U.S. President George W. Bush in Tehran Friday morning, and the story makes CNN news.

I’ve never been very gung-ho for the war, and I know our dismal record of nation building, (but we seem to be pretty good at setting up USA-friendly dictatorships that oppose Communist dictatorships, so that’s something), but it kinda pissed me off when the original, live shoe throwing incident was covered in the lefty blogs I read.

Everyone of those blogs that chose to cover this as a slam against Bush, while missing Captain Obvious. The fact that this guy wasn’t instantly dragged outside and shot or hastily scheduled for a hanging at dawn is a sign of the huge steps forward this country has taken since Saddam’s reign. While a few dozen people who happened to wander by the protest and decided to join in is a pretty poor showing, at least the seed is there. Perhaps it will grow into something.

Regardless of your feelings for Bush, I have to say our President handled the incident with aplomb, letting the Iraq government take the reporter into custody and washing his hands of the whole thing.

(8:26 pm: Minor rewording of the last paragraph. I can’t believe that made it into print.)

VCDL has the best coverage, and it’s a good feeling, knowing that if the state you are in respects your right to carry, then that inalienable right will be extended to you even when you are in a National Park. The FUD-mongers lost this round, and the Bush administration finally (finally) tossed a bone to their RKBA supporters. [1]

So why does it seem like a cheap trick? A raw deal? I don’t know, maybe I just like to complain.

Somehow this park carry thing reminds me of the waining days of the Clinton administration. After two terms of office and having a bunch of friendlies in Congress for at least part of that time, Bill decides to make his very first gesture towards getting a voting representative in Congress for DC. He removes the proper US government tags from the Presidential limo and slaps on a pair of “taxation without representation” District of Columbia plates. That would either force the new administration drive around with the tags in place or toss the MSM a cheap shot on a silver platter. I’d probably guess that if the election had gone Gore’s way no one would have floated the idea past the Oval Office.

So how long is the President-Elect going to let this policy stand before breaking in that new executive order pen? And how will the lapdog media cover the event?

[1] The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act was a tasty bit of gristle, and very welcome, but it did not directly restore lost rights to individual citizens.

Two people have been arrested for, let’s see… Oh wait, they caught the evil purveyors of SIM cards. Two men have been arrested in connection with the Mumbai attacks, but it seems that the link was providing cellular telephone subscriber cards to the shooters.

This page says you can buy prepaid SIM cards at the airport, but you must supply two photos and show your passport. Here’s another page that confirms the same story. It seems India needs to know exactly who says what and at what time and what location over the cellular network and has very strict government regulation and registration. That didn’t stop the gunmen, however.

In with the search results were a few interesting links for Ebay India:

eBay India: USB Sim Card Reader Writer Copier GSM/CDMA MOBILE .WOW …

USB MOBILE SIM CARD READER & WRITTER | GSM SIM DEVICE

SIM CARD BACKUP DEVICE

I expect a crackdown on Ebay India any day now. I wonder what kind if black market exists over there for these kinds of services? How tough is it for ordinary folk to get the communication tools that they need?

SIM card clones new challenge for Assam cops –The Times of India

Police had no idea that one SIM card could be used simultaneously from two handsets before the detention of Nazir Ahmed for interrogation…..

When privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy. [1]

Update: Do-it-yourself terrorist toolkit from Adafruit Industries! [2]

[1] An old EFF slogan

[2] I actually have a self-sourced copy of this kit that has been sitting here next to my PC for months waiting for some spare time for assembly. When integrated circuits are outlawed, I suppose only resistors will have Heathkits.

So, let’s create several different varieties of regular expressions with only minor differences between them.  That way you create hours of fun trying to debug the nuances of syntax.