There is lots of news about these revelations: NSA taps in to user data of Facebook, Google and others, secret files reveal [1] and NSA Is Seizing Millions of Verizon Phone Records [2] and Clapper denied NSA surveillance before Senate panel in March testimony [3]. As I’ve mentioned before: Never consider anything you say on the phone or anything that you do on the Internet is “private.”
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Reader Joe K. suggested this new e-book: Locusts on the Horizon [4]
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G.G. flagged this news headline: Secession Plan Floated By Some Northern Colorado Leaders [6]. And Steve D. sent this related story with some more details: Weld County commissioners propose formation of new state, North Colorado [7].
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“Major Henry West” (one of my associates on The FALFiles forums [8]) wrote me to mention a great deal on Swiss 7.5mm GP-11 Ammo at AIM Surplus [8]. They are offering it for not much more than .50 cents a round. (In today’s market, where 7.62mm NATO ball is still nearly $1 per round, that is a relative bargain.) A Swiss K-31 Schmidt-Rubin straight pull rifle can be fired quite quickly and accurately, and now for the first time in my memory, they can be shot less expensively than a .308. That sounds like a great James Dakin-style “Plan B” rifle, to me! (James Dakin wisely recommends budget military surplus rifles for folks who are on a tight budget.)
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15 Wonderful Hilltop Towns and Villages [9]
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After the beheading of a British soldier by a pair of Muslim fanatics–who were caught literally red handed–David Codrea reports that many Britons now want their guns back [10]. They are a little late, since most of their handguns got turned into manhole covers. (Including some that we sent them early in WWII [11], when England faced invasion.) What a shame. But it isn’t too late for them to import some 21st century gun technology. For example, envision a Ruger LC 9mm [12] or a S&W .380 Bodyguard [13] in just 20% of English ladies’ purses and gentlemen’s jacket pockets. Those would do quite well in deterring terrorist slaughter on their streets. And they are lot easier to carry around than armed Bobbies [14] or manhole covers.
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Reader S.F. mentioned that a pilot program of matching dogs with vets was specifically vetoed by the U.S. Veteran’s Administration (VA), which made it categorical that dogs would only be provided for a small and traditional list of needs, such a guide dogs for the blind. So of course others did it. An old story with a great new ending: Hounds and Heroes [15].