Sleepless in Midland

Junior Jihadists in Philly -- maybe Islamophobia is a realistic attitude afterall

We've been hearing for years that Islam is a religion of peace and that Islamophobia was reactionary and politically incorrect. Yet the ancient Islamic teachings are anything but peaceful toward those who don't accept those teachings.

So here come these children being taught to sing a call to battle the infidels. Shocking video of children in Philadelphia Muslim Society: 'We will chop off their heads' for Allah. Excerpt:

Disturbing footage of Muslim kids saying they would sacrifice themselves and kill for the "army of Allah" surfaced from an Islamic center in Philadelphia.

The Muslim American Society (MAS) Islamic Center in Philadelphia posted the video to its Facebook page celebrating "Ummah Day" in which young children wearing Palestinian scarves sang and read poetry about killing for Allah and the mosque in Jerusalem.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a watchdog group, alerted Fox News to the video.

"These are not isolated incidents; they are happening in major centers of the country – including in Pennsylvania," MEMRI said in a statement.

In the video, translated by MEMRI, kids can be heard singing: "The land of the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey is calling us. Our Palestine must return to us."

It's a chilling reminder of what James Mitchell disclosed about Islam's true believers in his book "Enhanced Interrogation."

He [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed ] said the terror attacks were good, but the practical way to defeat America was through immigration and by outbreeding non- Muslims' He said jihadi-minded brothers would immigrate into the united states, taking advantage of the welfare system to support themselves while they spread their jihadi message. They will wrap themselves in America's rights and laws for protection, ratchet up acceptance of Sharia law, and then, only when they were strong enough, rise up and violently impose sharia from within. He said the brothers would relentlessly continue their attacks and the American people eventually would become so tired, so frightened, and so weary of war that they would just want it to end. "Eventually," KSM said, "America will expose her neck to us for slaughter."

Happy Ramadan.

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1:25 PM 5/5/2019

Google company dogma has a lot in common with Sharia law

In the archives of this blog are a few posts about James Mitchell's book, "Enhanced Interrogation." That book contains a trove of information about Islam, terrorism, Sharia law, and other subjects the detainees opened up to him about.

In one of the chapters he relays a conversation in which one of the captured terrorists explained that Sharia law equals freedom. The rationale was that because the rules are laid out plainly, it freed the people from making decisions.

Compare this with the fiasco at Google in which an employee was hounded out of the company because he didn't subscribe whole heartedly to the politically correct mindset in the company.

I didn't make the connection until Michael Barone's use of the word "dogma" drove it home in his article, Google's 'tolerance' requires repression. To wit:

And Google's tacit endorsement of the quasi-religious dogma that a fair society must produce gender balance and proportionate ethnic representation is at war with both experience and logic.

Defenders of that dogma say that rejecting it would justify gender and ethnic discrimination. But that's exactly wrong. Just follow James Damore's advice: "Treat people as individuals, not just as another member of their group."

The dogma is needed to justify the elaborate apparatus of gender and racial quotas and preferences and the lavish campus and corporate diversity bureaucracies to enforce them and stamp out heresy. As a reliable transmitter of free thought, Google seems headed down the path toward the Spanish Inquisition.

Freedom, in the minds of many of the techies on the West Coast -- as well as many on college campuses these days -- is freedom from associating with anyone who isn't of the correct mindset. Just like Sharia.

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11:23 AM 8/10/2017

Let's take a breath before repealing the Johnson Amendment

The Johnson Amendment, according to Wikipedia, is this:

The Johnson Amendment is a provision in the U.S. tax code that prohibits all 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates. 501(c)(3) organizations are the most common type of nonprofit organization the United States, ranging from charitable foundations to universities and churches. The amendment is named for then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas.

Some are celebrating Donald Trump's proclamation to church groups that he intends to abolish it. For example, see Trump Is Right. Churches Should Be Free To Express Themselves Politically.

That's probably the right thing to do -- free speech should be available to everyone. The focus now is on Christian churches. However, it's useful to remember that it would to apply to all religious groups.

Jihadists take the long view toward taking over the U.S. The visionaries among them realize that terror attacks by themselves won't do it. But think they will weaken our will, and eventually with enough pressure from all directions, our government will capitulate with the people's consent.

Imagine this scenario. An oil rich middle eastern country donates large amounts of money to Mosques around the U.S. That money gets channeled into political campaigns. Eventually they can get enough Islamic sympathizers in the government to bend the law toward Sharia.

So am I being Islamophobic? Well, if Islamophobic means the fear of being subjected to Sharia law, then yes, I'm Islamophobic.

4:14 PM 2/6/2017

Feminists in a bind -- they have to support Muslim women's right to choose to subjugate themselves

Seems ironic to me. But then, we've all witnessed progressives twisting themselves into pretzels trying to reconcile what they say with what has gone on before.

As Muslim women celebrate their freedom* to wear the hijab, most of us are remembering the abuse women suffer in certain Muslim dominated countries when they don't adhere to Sharia law. Some of those acts against them are so horrific I hate to even think about them.

That may be the attitude of American feminists -- they don't even want to think about it. They celebrate their own freedom by parading with pussycat hats. Did they celebrate world hijab day, too? After all, both events involved a prominent display of head covers.

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*Sharia law is freedom to the ardent jihadist -- the freedom from making decisions.

He made Chuck Schumer cry -- Trump is that mean

That has to be one of the most incongruous images of the day, maybe the year, but the year is still young. Chuck Schumer crying. Now that was a sight to behold. Is there anything Trump can't do?

Meanwhile, with the pundits saying there was a ban on Muslims when the target was prospective terrorists, isn't that a tacit admission that terrorists are predominately Muslim?

Question for Colin Kaepernick and all those other anthem deniers

What regime do you want as your next ruler? China? Russia? Iran?

That's a legitimate question, because with your disrespect for America's symbols of patriotism, you're basically saying that there's a better place you'd like to be. But you don't want to move, you want that place to move here.

With a weakening military, a growing internal discontent, increasing disrespect for American institutions, and a basic disrespect for what America traditionally stood for, there will be another ruler if you prevail.

So what will it be, Colin? Are you OK with the Sharia law thing?

Strange fruit: Hillary's hanging Chad -- actually a hanging Iranian scientist

I wish I could draw cartoons. Picture Hillary Clinton gesturing over her shoulder to a hanging human body. It's the Iranian scientist, Shahram Amiri, referred to in Hillary's purloined emails* who was executed by the Iranians for spying.

She says, "Hey, Al Gore had a hanging Chad problem, too. Chad, Iranian, what difference, at this point, does it make?"

Reference: State Department dodges questions on Clinton emails about executed Iranian scientist.

*Apparently, she didn't actually use his name in the email. That was her effort to throw off any spies who were reading her emails. Clever girl.

That we would have this transgender bathroom dispute proves how opulent and privileged we are here in the US

While aggrieved groups get high and mighty about those among us who aren't ready to open up bathrooms to people of the opposite sex, they should take a look at what's happening in the Middle East. The people who comprise the largest group of recent immigrants into Europe and the U.S. are telling us that they wouldn't especially want to adhere to our tired old ethics.

They prefer their tired old ethics. See these two headlines for samplers. Saudi family therapist releases helpful video on how to beat your wife the Islamic way; and Editor of LGBT magazine hacked to death in Bangladesh.

I've said previously about the bathroom issue that even though this movement to accommodate a tiny minority of attention demanding individuals seems to be pushing the grievance privilege a bit far, the unisex bathroom idea doesn't bother me.

But it all seems so petty when compared with what's happening over there.

Trump's question about Islam is "What the Hell is going on?" Answer is in their holy text.

Donald Trump is famous for, among other things, advocating a ban on entry of Muslims into the U.S. While not necessarily a bad idea in itself, Trump has no follow through. As for the duration of the ban, it's until "We figure out what the hell is going on!"

It's not hard to figure that out. Dan Calic has a pretty good explanation in On the Path of Submission to Islam. Mr. Calic starts with this:

Islam has brought a war against the civilized world. While the majority of the world’s 1.65 billion Muslims are peaceful and are not terrorists, the concern is with the fundamentalists, who are the terrorists. Estimates vary, but if for example 90% of Muslims are peaceful. This means 165 million are fundamentalists. That’s more than the population of France, UK and Canada combined!

He goes on to describe "The Project," a paper taken from a Swiss villa owned by an individual active in the Muslim Brotherhood. The Project spelled out Islamic goals, including these gems from the religion of peace:

Networking and coordinating among like-minded Islamist organizations
Avoiding open alliances with known terrorist organizations and individuals to maintain the appearance of moderation
Infiltrating and taking over existing Muslim organizations and redirecting their goals in line with Muslim Brotherhood goals
Using deception to mask the intended goals of Islamist actions, as long as it doesn’t interfere with Sharia law
Establishing financial networks…to fund the conversion of the West
Conducting surveillance, obtaining data….
Monitoring Western media to warn Muslims of plots fomented against them
Build networks of schools, hospitals and charitable organizations…dedicated to Islamist ideals….
Using Western institutions until they can be converted into service of Islam
Involving ideologically committed Muslims in democratically elected institutions on all levels in the West
Supporting jihad movements across the Muslim world
Inciting hatred by Muslims against Jews and rejecting any discussion of conciliation and coexistence with them
Develop a comprehensive 100 year plan to advance Islamist ideology throughout the world

A 100 year plan would start slowly and gain momentum along the way. It's gaining momentum, in case anyone hasn't noticed.

Lefties admire Europe so much they ignore the lack of legal formalities Americans expect for themselves

Eli Lake makes an interesting comparison in The Trump-Cruz Police State Exists. It's Called France. Here's an excerpt:

Imagine if Ted Cruz or Donald Trump proposed a policy to monitor thousands of Muslim citizens even if they had no specific ties to terrorist groups. Then, for good measure, they called for a new law to allow the police to search the homes of suspected terrorists without a warrant and to place terror suspects under house arrest without a court order.

Sounds like a nightmare. One can imagine the indignation. Pundits and politicians of good conscience would intone against the politics of fear. Some on the right would respond that political correctness should not be a barrier to counterterrorism.

But what I have just described is not a Republican sound bite. Rather, it is the current counterterrorism posture of France. Since the attacks in Paris last November, the socialist government of President Francois Hollande has placed his country under a state of emergency. France's national guard has been deployed to protect sensitive religious sites and other "soft targets." The country of Voltaire, Diderot and Camus is in 2016 the police state that critics warn Cruz or Trump would bring about if given the chance.

Yeah. Sounds like a police state all right. Here in the U.S. it would be supported by supporters of whomever is president and opposed by his/her opponents. People seem willing to give up liberties for the ones they love. Happens at all levels, from family to top government.

As much as I hate admitting Obama might be right, ignoring terrorists attacks wouldn't be such a bad idea, but only if the msm would do it, too

President Obama is taking a lot of heat for attending a ball game in Cuba and dancing with a hot South American babe following the terrorists attack in Brussels. Well, he doesn't take Islamic terrorism seriously enough, that's a certainty. So his critics are right on that one.

However, specific attacks are a different matter. The terrorists and their prospective recruits consider terrorist atrocities major victories if they get a lot of publicity. That's the recruiting tool, not Guantanamo or Donald Trump's bombastic proclamations.

The videos on TV of the infidels running for their lives and the televised claims that Islamophobia is worse than terrorism probably do more to recruit adherents than any number of stories of the conditions at Guantanamo.

But ultimately, it's our friends in the media who are doing the dirty work. See ISIS Is Using the Media Against Itself:

The technique is not new. Indeed, modern-day terrorists have long embraced “propaganda of the deed,” a tactic that, in the words of the Australian Army information-operations specialist Jason Logue, involves ”planning and executing operations designed purely for their propaganda appeal.” However, ISIS understands the media like no other organization before it. It knows that, while territory and resources are crucial to the overall success of its aggressive insurgency in Syria and Iraq, the media is the arena within which the war of ideas is waged, where the group’s relevance—and, ultimately, its ideational longevity—can best be preserved and perhaps enhanced, even as it experiences territorial losses.

The title is a little bit misleading. ISIS isn't using the media against itself, ISIS and the media are using each other for their own benefit.

Finally, as if to prove the terrorists have won, we see this headline: Talent agency boss who 'confronted a Muslim woman in London and asked her to explain Brussels' is ARRESTED for 'inciting racial hatred'.

Media shocked at Trump's statement that Islam hates us, ignores the truth in the statement

Donald Trump seems to have media outlets trained, in a perverse way, to react negatively to practically everything he says. Recently it was the Trump remark that Islam hates us. In the context with which he said it it made sense. But the msm is Pavlov's dog when it comes to Trumpisms -- he's bad. Really bad.

Anyway, Arabic historian Raymond Ibrahim has penned an article titled You Better Believe 'Islam Hates Us' in which he cites scripture and verse supporting the premise that yes, Islam really does hate us. Or more to the point, people who believe in the Koran must either hate us or violate their sacred text.

The White Man's Burden

Rudyard Kipling's poem reads today as if it is sarcasm, directed at conquerors, chiding them for the idea that they are better than those they've taken over and assigning them the duty of improving their manner of civilized behavior.

It wasn't sarcasm then, and it certainly has some application now as savage immigrants invade civilized nations and attempt to downgrade behavior to a level that shocks sophisticated Westerners.

I'm speaking of the rape culture that Arab and African immigrants want to import to Western Europe. See Migrant rape fears spread across Europe: Women told not to go out at night alone after assaults carried out in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria and Switzerland amid warnings gangs are co-ordinating attacks.

They seem to be implying that a woman going out alone deserves what she gets. The government is off the hook. The people simply need to adapt to their new visitors instead of the other way around. There needs to be some adapting, all right.

Meanwhile:

Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child
Take up the White Man’s burden
In patience to abide
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;

From The White Man’s Burden.

Hillary seems to totally misunderstand what motivates the ISIS fighters

This morning there was a clip from last night's Democrat presidential candidates' debate on one of the news shows. It showed Hillary Clinton claiming that video of Donald Trump's smash talking Muslim immigrants was used for ISIS recruiting videos.

Hillary Clinton's base knowledge and judgment were brought into question after her remarks about computers when the email scandal broke. Her proclamation about Trump and ISIS is just one more piece of evidence suggesting that maybe she isn't as bright as her fans would like to portray her.

The motivator of ISIS wannabes is the vision of victory over the hated west, specifically, news about brutal murders of innocent people at the hands of a militant Islamist. This is what recruits terrorists, not anything Donald Trump or any other Republican said. That's obvious to anyone who gave it any thought.

Terrorism as hobby -- how weird is that?

This has got to be one of the most remarkable statements to come out of the reporting about the San Bernardino massacre. It appeared at Dailymail.co.uk in San Bernardino terrorist's childhood friend built pipe bombs with him and was heard talking about ‘sleeper cells’ ready to attack the U.S.. Here's a direct quote from the article:

He told the FBI that he and Farook experimented with building the devices and portrayed them at hobbyists.

Not only did they circulate in a community that did not see something, say something. Apparently, bomb building was an acceptable hobby.

No wonder Clock Boy felt so comfortable taking a look-a-like bomb to school. His problem was that he was in Texas, not California.

Obama is so absorbed with environmentalism he's afraid to act against ISIS

In what sounds like a complaint that fighters were hamstrung by political correctness, William Morell says Obama held back against ISIS because of environmental concerns. See Former CIA Deputy Director: Obama Didn’t Attack ISIS Oil Because Of The Environment. Excerpt:

Morell explained, “Prior to Paris, there seemed to be a judgment that … look, we don’t want to destroy these oil tankers because that’s infrastructure that’s going to be necessary to support the people when ISIS isn’t there anymore, and it’s going to create environmental damage. And we didn’t go after oil wells — actually hitting oil wells that ISIS controls because we didn’t want to do environmental damage and we didn’t want to destroy that infrastructure, right.”

“So now we’re hitting oil in trucks,” Morell then suggested. “And maybe you get to the point where you say we also have to hit oil wells. So those are the kind of tough decisions you have to make.”

It's always something, whether fear of harm to civilians or harm to the environment. There will always be an excuse for inaction. As an uber-environmentalist, Obama should know this: War: Surprisingly good for the environment.

 

Clock Boy Ahmed had a history of pranks

The Dallas Morning News tells the story in Before Ahmed’s fame: fantastic inventions and a fight with authority. Here are a few passages:

If you want to know Ahmed Mohamed — not the hoax bomb suspect or the vindicated celebrity, but the motormouth kid with a schoolbag full of inventions and a head full of questions — ask a teacher.

Ask at Sam Houston Middle School, where the boy from Sudan mastered electronics and English, once built a remote control to prank the classroom projector and bragged of reciting his First Amendment rights in the principal’s office.

It’s also the school where Ahmed racked up weeks of suspensions, became convinced an administrator had it in for him and — before he left for the high school where he turned famous — prompted Irving ISD to review claims of anti-Muslim bullying.

Seems there was also a lefty teacher at Sam Houston who had significant influence on him.

In any event, the sympathy Ahmed Mohamed got from his clock-in-a-box stunt just shows how politically correct President Obama and many others in the country have become on the whole "Islamophobia" thing.

Also in the news: Clock boy lawyers up.

You didn't build that, Ahmed

The incident in Irving with the young Muslim and the clock-in-a-box is looking more and more like one of those contrived confrontations designed to provoke a confrontation over which the grievance industry can show some very public outrage.

Right on cure, CAIR is complaining about the official reaction, and Obama is complementing the youth's innovation. Then there was the kid's attitude toward to law enforcement officers. Breitbart.com nails it in If It Walks Like an Influence Operation….

But let's look at that clock. On Wednesday a blogger named Anthony posted this: Reverse Engineering Ahmed Mohamed’s Clock… and Ourselves. (Link via Ed Driscoll.)

Peruse Anthony's previous posts and it's pretty clear that he knows a thing or two about science. And he contends that Ahmed's clock was not really homemade but was a simple, old, electric clock -- like one available on E-bay -- which Ahmed removed from its plastic case and reinstalled in a new housing. Sounds highly credible.

He's no Steve Jobs. But that doesn't matter to Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg.

As we import more and more refugees our best hope is that they don't turn on us

The problem many conservatives have with the current immigration program is that new entrants don't plan to assimilate, and in many cases they're encouraged not to.

Now we learn that Obama Seeks Admission for 10,000 More Syrian Refugees. From what we've seen of Obama, it probably won't stop there.

It would be nice to think they'll assimilate and become good Americans. But that's probably a wild dream as that hasn't worked out all that well lately. See Ian Tuttle's Before Welcoming Thousands of Syrian Refugees, We Should Consider What Somali Immigrants Have Brought the U.S. Never mind the burden those individuals have put on government assistance programs, they tax the shelters, food banks, and local charities as well. And there's this:

But, as the Somali experiment makes clear, it is not just the short-term consequences that are worrisome. Notably, the terror threat from the Somali-American community comes not from refugees, but from their children — American-born Somalis who have never been to Africa. Setting aside the near-certainty that at least some Syrian refugees will be connected to the Islamic State, refugee resettlement is sure to incubate national-security threats that will not manifest themselves for 20 years. ...

Tuttle concludes:

We know much more now about the threats we face, and we have the Somali community as an example of the consequences of a generous refugee policy in an age that eschews assimilation. It would be entirely humane to rescue those suffering from Syria’s mayhem. It would be inhumane, though, to gravely threaten American security in the process.

It has already started. See The Twin Cities have an ISIS problem.

Images like the dead kid on the beach tug at the heartstrings. It takes courage to resist being led on a leash by a need to be liked.

How many ways does Obama's Iran deal fall short -- Israel counts them

When one side to a negotiation wants a deal as badly as President Obama does then the other side will take him to the cleaners. Having watched Obama over the past several years, the public is distrustful of almost everything he says. The main stream media may eventually snap out of the hypnotic spell he has on them, but until them, the best authority on the Iranian peace deal is the Israelis.

And herewith are six gaps in the deal retold in Expert: Still ‘Very Serious Gaps’ Between U.S., Iran:

1. Sanctions: Ya’ari said the US has made clear that economic sanctions will be lifted in phases, whereas the Iranian fact sheet provides for the immediate lifting of all sanctions as soon as a final agreement is signed, which is set for June 30. (In fact, the US parameters state that sanctions will be suspended only after Iran has fulfilled all its obligations: “US and EU nuclear-related sanctions will be suspended after the IAEA has verified that Iran has taken all of its key nuclear-related steps.” By contrast, the Iranian fact sheet states: “all of the sanctions will be immediately removed after reaching a comprehensive agreement.”)

2. Enrichment: The American parameters provide for restrictions on enrichment for 15 years, while the Iranian fact sheet speaks of 10 years.

3. Development of advanced centrifuges at Fordo: The US says the framework rules out such development, said Ya’ari, while the Iranians say they are free to continue this work.

4. Inspections: The US says that Iran has agreed to surprise inspections, while the Iranians say that such consent is only temporary, Ya’ari said.

5. Stockpile of already enriched uranium: Contrary to the US account, Iran is making clear that its stockpile of already enriched uranium — “enough for seven bombs” if sufficiently enriched, Ya’ari said — will not be shipped out of the country, although it may be converted.

6. PMD: The issue of the Possible Military Dimensions of the Iranian program, central to the effort to thwart Iran, has not been resolved, Ya’ari said.

As to inspection, Saddam Hussein demonstrated that a regime can put them off indefinitely unless there's an American president willing to take action. Such an action seems unlikely against Iran regardless of who is elected president in 2016, especially if Obama and his minions in the media are harping from the sidelines.

There's nothing wrong with ridiculing delusional girls who want to join ISIS

Ridicule is the progressives' favorite weapon against people with whom they disagree. And some have made a pretty good career out of it -- see Jon Stewart.

But that shouldn't mean other Americans can't enjoy mocking those insane young girls who think it's a smart career move to go join ISIS.

Along comes Saturday Night Live with a delightful skit mocking a sweet young thing off to join ISIS. But wouldn't you know? The PC crowd objects. The PC enforcers are due for a good dose of mocking, too.

Meanwhile, we learn that the shy, sensitive lad who grew up to be Jihadi John was a victim of school yard bullying. Maybe SNL should do a skit about his sexual inadequacy.

Sharia law court in Dallas

One of the major complaints many have with the current immigration model is that there is little or no assimilation. In fact, there are groups who actually discourage assimilation of new arrivals. And there are those who couldn't even remotely be called new arrivals who seem to reject the main stream culture in favor of some system they prevails in repressive regimes. The melting pot we learned of in school doesn't really exist any more.

This brings us to Sharia law. Maybe there is culture with a more repressive set of mores, but if there is, it's hard to find. So it's disheartening to learn that in Dallas, Texas, there's a tribunal set up to enforce Sharia law. But it's voluntary, they say. Only someone who is committed enough to his/her family, friends, community, or religion to abide by the tribunal's ruling will be subjected to it.

Breitbart.com has the story. See Islamic Tribunal Confirmed in Texas; Attorney Claims ‘It’s Voluntary'.

Breitbart Texas asked what happens when there is a conflict between Sharia law and Texas law. El-badawi said most of the time, the laws are in agreement. When pushed further he admitted that, “we follow Sharia law.” However, he explained, “If the parties are not satisfied with the tribunal’s decision, they do not have to accept it and they can take the matter to Texas civil courts.” He did not say what the social ramifications of rejecting the “judge’s” decision would be.

"Social ramifications." Yeah, in a closed society those can be rather harsh.

Those snooping cell phones - they're such busy bodies

Google and Apple know where you've been and how long you were there if you carry a phone with one of their operating systems. This is according to Psst! Your phone is snooping on you. What you need to know and how to stop it – video. (Via article of the same title at theguardian.com.)

Most users don't care, otherwise they'd opt out or use different phones. IPhone has a privacy feature which enables the user to refuse to give information to app providers. Unfortunately for Android users, those features are hard wired into the phone's operating system.

How long before NSA gets access to it? Oh wait. They already do.

There's a way to hide your data with a special phone pouch. How does it work? From Detraktor.com:

This is accomplished by having a conductive material encapsulate the device, card or passport. The conductive material acts as a Faraday Cage which shields all RF signals from going into or out of the device or card.

I assume there's a wire mesh inside the pouch. Meanwhile, I'll be making my own tin-foil-hat.

Editor's note: You know they haven't made tin foil in years, don't you? -- Robo-ed | Dammit, I smell a conspiracy! Sleepless.

Companies that have a choice are are willing to move their data outside U.S because of NSA snooping

Common sense told us this would happen. So it really can't be called an "unforeseen consequence."

Canada-based cloud hosting provider Peer 1 Hosting surveyed 300 UK and Canadian companies and found that 25% of those businesses are now moving their data outside the U.S. because of NSA security concerns. Meanwhile, a whopping 77% of decision-makers at these companies say they would sacrifice data performance and speed in favor of a more secure connection.

See Thanks, NSA: 25% of UK and Canadian businesses are moving data outside the US, says report at Pando.com. Via .

But how about those of us who live here? A VPN service might provide an encrypted pipeline through which to surf the web. But any service subject to U.S. jurisdiction would likely have to submit all their users' internet traffic to federal agencies under a blanket order. There's a chance that lawmakers might try to protect us with some statute prohibiting the practice without a warrant. But it's worthwhile to remember that little old laws didn't stop J. Edgar Hoover.

Updated 4/26/2017: John Mason emails to point to a new article comparing VPNs at thebestvpn.com.  Thanks John.

Toilet paper shortage bites socialism in the ass -- Venezuela

A toilet paper shortage caused a run in Caracas last May. And the central planning committee can't quite get its arms around on the problem. See BusinessInsider.com and BBC.co.uk which contained this:

In a tweet on Thursday, Venezuela's Vice President, Jorge Arreaza, said authorities would "not permit hoarding of essential commodities, or any faults in the production and distribution process."

So citizens can't stockpile essentials. What a wonderful system socialism is. And then there's that prohibition of "faults in the production and distribution process." You know zee penalty for failure. The government solution was to take over the factory.

This may be a preview of what could happen with the U.S. health care industry when shortages develop after Obamacare is implemented.

Via Kids Prefer Cheese which provides this delightful observation: We think sometimes about the face of socialism, but it turns out the problem is cleaning the other end.

Kid who chewed Pop Tart into shape of gun suspended

Sent home for two days. Reason.com tells us the story: Pop-Tart Pistol?: 7-Year-Old Gets Suspended for Gun-Shaped Pastry.

This is how we know the terrorists have won.

Exclusively for Sleepless readers, an artist's rendering of the dangerous pastry shown with a high capacity magazine.