Miami Heat owner suing blogger and Google over "unflattering" photo [pixiq]

Small-town cops loading up on free surplus US military gear and weapons [Danger Room]

A major "working-class" subset: The white working-class votes, acts differently [Edsall@NYT]

"Modern America doesn't have much of an intellectual immune system"; Richard Florida at it again [iSteve]

Remember the good old days when being a "gun nut" meant you liked to shoot targets, skeet, collect old guns, or hunt deer?

So does one of the shooting bloggers at Field & Stream. David E. Petzal writing about his disappointing realization at the annual SHOT Show that more and more floor space is being devoted to cop/military/tactical stuff and less and less to traditional American gun culture stuff like target shooting, hunting, skeet and trap shooting, and collecting.

"The most densely crowded venues," says Petzal, "were dedicated to the wonderful worlds of the paramilitary and law enforcement. Apparently there is an insatiable need for the equipment used in shooting, clubbing, and gassing people. There are suits of full body armor the like of which has not been seen since the Battle of Agincourt. There are all-black deathmobiles, equipped with lethal gear of all sorts. I’m told that Cop World constitutes fully one-third of the SHOT Show. How shooting and suppressing the citizenry ties into Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade is more than I can comprehend, but there it is." [emphasis mine]

I've been going to gun and knife shows for a few decades now and I've seen the same transformation there as well. I am not happy with what it says about American culture. A lot of us are totally infatuated by the forces of violence and repression. Somehow I can't imagine 19th century slaves being infatuated with ankle chains, whips, and such. Go figure?

Coming to skies above you soon

Police deployed UAV's. They are unarmed (for now anyway) but they are engineered to have the capability to be armed with a variety of weapons. The drones are to be put into active service soon in the skies above Montgomery county, Texas. (h/t: Slashdot.org/)
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Sign of the times...cont'd. June 9, 2011

The much ballyhooed US Department of Education SWAT team raid on a California man's home earlier this week is both more and less than has been previously reported.

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Ann Althouse discovers the nuances of modern Japanese cultural references - Althouse

I first read about the Thomasson concept in Japanese aesthetics in William Gibson's 1994 novel Virtual Light [p.70-72 in the hardcover edition]

American capitalists to working class men: We don't need you - Wall Street Journal

Portraits of post-humanity - io9

It's come to this: SWAT team raids Toledo foreclosure defense league, 7 arrested-Infoshop News

" 'I'm proud of these kids, I really am. I think they've taken a stand for what they believe in. The middle class is being destroyed. These banks have been bailed out numerous times and they haven't given us any breaks,' said John Kutsch, father of one of the arrested people." Police attack video here.

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Local goon blinds NJ National Guard helicopter pilot with laser pointer in Camden - Philly 57 TV

And made the copter pilot land the aircraft. I don't think it blinded him permanently it just made it hard to fly the aircraft. Who knew grounding a military copter was that easy? I am truly amazed that Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces aren't buying those things by the gross.

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The office cubicle of tomorrow - Geekosystems
Even less space and privacy than there is now.
Sorel Caribou snow boots - Sorel.com/
$110 + s/h. A great value.
PA School Defends Web-Cam Spying As "Security Measure"- BoingBoing
Cameras were activated 40+ times.
Toyota brake safety hearings to be televised. - Detroit News
Grandstanding, excuse making and finger-pointing are sure to ensue. Toyota saved $100 million but the damage to their reputation for quality has been diminished by way more than than they "saved" by all the stonewalling.
Thefts of catalytic converters up as precious metal prices rise. - Michigan Daily
Some rude (but bitterly accurate) comments in reply to a NY Post editorial demanding NY State police be armed with military-grade weaponry. - New York Post
The Majesty of the Law - Megan McCardle @ The Atlantic
"Consider the way we have cracked down on pain medications, impeding the effectiveness of pain control for people in chronic agony out of the fear that somewhere, someone might be getting high. Or the terrifying authority we've handed the IRS, because if anyone gets away with cheating on their taxes, the terrorists will have won, or something."
Pistol-whipping followed by gun fire at Toledo, Ohio Chuck E. Cheese - Toledo On the Move

The US M-1 rifle in action -YouTube