Friday, December 2, 2005

Gold is up to over $500/ounce now! comment () trackback ()  2:58:50 PM     Couldn't They Just Pretend to Arrest Them?. Last week two 10-year-old girls at Old Kings Elementary School in Flagler County, Florida, were arrested for pretending that parsley... [Hit and Run] School officials learned of the alleged bag of marijuana and called the girls into a conference with their parents. The girls admitted they did not have marijuana and said that the bag of parsley, which they brought to school in their book bags, was a prank, the report said. The girls were charged under a state law that makes it a crime to claim that a substance is a drug -- whether or not the item is intended for sale or distribution, according to Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Debra Johnson. They were taken to the Flagler County Inmate Facility and later released to their parents. If Americans still had any conception of (let alone appreciation for) freedom, the parents of the students at that school would be pretending they didn't kill all those responsible for this outrage and feed them to the alligators. comment () trackback ()  2:54:32 PM     # Centers for Disease Control -.... # Centers for Disease Control - Control of Communicable Disease Proposed 42 CFR Parts 70 and 71 - This is the proposed rule-making that was discussed in the Washington Post article to which I linked on on Wednesday. I scanned most of it. Most of the PDFs are outlines of the proposed rules. The text of the rules themselves is in Section VII, Solicitation of Comments (PDF). Section IV, Summary of Proposed Changes to 42 CFR Part 70 (PDF), summarizes the interstate travel portion of the regulations. Part 71 is about foreign travel. The regulations require carriers (anybody who transports people across state or national borders) to report death or illness during travel. They must also "solicit", before travel, personal contact information (name, address, phone, email, flight and return flight, traveling companions, emergency contact, passport number), keep it for 60 days, and give it to the CDC if they ask. "However, passengers who decline to provide contact information will not be prohibited from traveling." You can bet that at least some airlines will make this information mandatory in order to travel. In order to legally travel with a communicable disease, you must obtain a permit from the CDC. The regulations authorize checkpoints at airports to look for sick people. If you refuse to cooperate, they can detain you, for up the three days. And no warrants are necessary for any of this. Just one CDC official's opinion, on the scene, is necessary. If they order you to be quarantined, you can appeal, but their response to the appeal is final. No courts involved. Habeus corpus be damned. Bottom line, if a CDC official accosts you at the airport, be nice to it and be its slave, or squash it like a bug. You have no rights. You have no legal recourse. [End the War on Freedom] So the government intends to use the avian flu hysteria (which it created) to introduce another aspect of the Soviet Union into our lives--the idea that it's okay for the government to restrict travel to those who have its permission. comment () trackback ()  11:17:44 AM     China torture 'still widespread'. A UN special envoy says torture remains widespread in China but appears to be declining in urban areas. [BBC News] If torture is declining in China that puts it ahead of the US. comment () trackback ()  1:04:42 AM

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