Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
When it comes to the Second Amendment and guns, it seems that President Obama can’t make anyone happy. Ever since Obama announced his candidacy for the Presidency, the NRA has screamed that Obama will be taking away the guns. This scare tactic continued when Obama defeated John McCain for the Presidency. Just what has Barack Obama done to make the NRA and gun owners frightened for their guns? The simple answer to this question is nothing. The head of the National Rifle Association, Mr. Wayne LaPierre actually admitted recently that Obama has done nothing to attack gun owner’s rights to bear arms, but claims Obama’s inaction against guns is actually a conspiracy to take away guns!! ‘ “[The Obama campaign] will say gun owners — they’ll say they left them alone,” LaPierre told an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Friday. “In public, he’ll remind us that he’s put off calls from his party to renew the Clinton [assault weapons] ban, he hasn’t pushed for new gun control laws… The president will offer the Second Amendment lip service and hit the campaign trail saying he’s actually been good for the Second Amendment.” “But it’s a big fat stinking lie!” the NRA leader exclaimed. “It’s all part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and destroy the Second Amendment in our country.” ‘ Raw Story
Now, before anyone thinks I am making this stuff up, the linked site includes a video clip wherein Mr. LaPierre verbalizes this alleged reverse conspiracy. Mr. LaPierre makes a point of throwing in the necessary names of alleged liberal co-conspirators to rev up his base. ‘ “Sotomayor, Kagan, Fast & Furious, the United Nations, executive orders. Those are the facts we face today… President Obama and his cohorts, yeah, they’re going to deny their conspiracy to fool gun owners. Some in the liberal media, they are already probably blogging about it. But we don’t care because the lying, conniving Obama crowd can kiss our Constitution!” ‘
The lying, conniving Obama crowd as Mr. LaPierre labels them has not done anything to harm the Second Amendment rights that the NRA claims to be at risk. I was interested in the last few words of LaPierre’s quotation above. The phrase “kiss our Constitution” appears to lay claim that the NRA and its followers own the Constitution and its protections. I could have sworn that my law school Constitutional professors taught me that the Constitution protects all citizens, but maybe I heard them wrong. But, I digress.
As the Raw Story article suggests, President Obama has actually taken heat from his own supporters over his alleged conspiracy to not take away the guns. NPR Does Mr. LaPierre provide any evidence of this bizarre claim? None that I could find. Maybe you will have better luck than me in finding evidence of presidential actions to hide President Obama’s intentions and/or actions of stealing legal guns from their owners.
I have to admit that if you read the comments section of the NPR article that details how the Left is disappointed with Obama’s inaction on gun control, you will read almost nothing except gun owners claiming that Obama’s words of inaction are actually code words that the End is Near and the Sky is Falling for gun owners! Just what will it take gun owners to ask Mr. LaPierre for evidence of his wild claims? I, for one would love to hear his answer to that question. I understand that candidate and President Obama may have stayed away from the 2nd Amendment issues for political reasons, but where is the evidence of this alleged conspiracy? I would think Fox News would be sending Bill O’Reilly’s reporters all over the country to uncover such a heinous conspiracy.
If Mr. Obama has not written any executive orders or supported additional legislative steps to control or take away guns since he has become President, just what is the basis for these wild claims? I realize that the NRA has a financial interest in getting gun owners scared into buying more guns, but are there other, underlying reasons why the gun owners are frightened so easily, when the facts do not support the NRA’s claims?
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger
Additional sources: Gun Owners of America; NRA-ILA; Pajamas Media;
What I’m saying is that you leave a trail of evidence everywhere you go in both meatspace and cyberspace, that the trail can be connected given resources and time, and your idea that you’re truly anonymous on the Internet is simply delusional. Personally, I’m waiting for you to get the idea you can fly or leap tall buildings in a single bound in addition to being invisible. Also, concerning your apparent obsession with spicy adult diapers, the next time you visit your therapist you might want to mention your pica is acting up again.
@Pete,
“you should remember that while at these locations you are most likely under video surveillance.”
I’m sitting at a starbucks, back to the wall, computer screen facing the wall, there are 5 other people there using computers, some with their backs to the wall, some with their computer screen in open view.
It’s 12pm.
After visiting random websites for a random amount of time, while others are coming and going and using the net in the Starbucks, I type in my note threatening Gene H’s collection of adult diapers. After that, I drink my espresso, visit a few more sites and leave.
Later that day across the planet, Gene feels threatened and call up his dad who runs the combined NSA/FBI/CIA joint task force. He explains carefully to them that I have just threatened to cross the streams so they pull up WordPress’ logs with their backdoor, and find the IP address I used which they are quickly able to determine belongs to a Starbucks in Denver.
They then enter AT&T’s networks because they have the backdoor, and use the administrative password to check out its router logs, and sure enough, they find an http request to the jonathan turley blog. So they know I was there and they know my internal IP address, and from Wordress’ log they know what browser I was using and that I was running Windows.
So from there they know where I was and what time I was there.
From there they hack into Starbuck’s security cameras and looking into the lobby they see 5-20 people, 5 of whom are using laptops. 3 others iphones and one a mac.
They zoom in and 2 of the laptop users are on facebook the entire time, and the other three, including me, they can’t tell what we’re doing because our screens do not face the camera.
However, by examining arm movements, they can tell that I and I alone press enter at precisely the time that the message threatening to destroy Gene’s diapers has been entered.
It’s ME! And they have a photograph.
They now switch to the security cameras in the parking lot and they follow me to my panel van. Now they enhance enhance enhance pan left, zoom back, track right enhance, and that’s it! THEY GOT MY LICENSE PLATE.
Shortly after that they capture me just as I was crossing the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge with 2 tons of chili pepper crammed in the back of my van about to release it into an adult diaper laundering facility!!!
And so Pete, what you and Gene are saying is that I am not anonymous on the Internet because we live in a police state in the real world and there are cameras everywhere that the guys down at CTU can hack into.
Okay, yes, given that cameras are everywhere in the real world, we are never anonymous on the internet.
Now coming back from planet Pete, can you specifically tell me how my post will be tracked to me in real life?
Bouise
@Otteray Scribe:
anon, do you know that for a fact? If so, how do you know unless you have been mining for data yourself?
Visit the links I posted above. It is explained the bug report ticket I posted.
What happens is the code for this page or any wordpress page takes the email address you type into the email field and creates an MD5 hash of it.
An MD5 hash is a long string that is almost (but not quite) unique specific to your email address.
So for instance if your email address that you type in, expecting it to NOT be published is otteray_scribe@gmail.com, the MD5 hash of it is:
73a1531a49c3f638b7a502ec70d5e896
That will be unique. Visit ANY gravatar page anywhere in known space that you have posted on and you will find that (almost) unique string 73a1531a49c3f638b7a502ec70d5e896 right next to your post.
@OS, if in your browser, you view the source to this page, you will find the string “3419571b4b0e49e2b526d4d45caa67f8”. That’s an Md5 hash of your email address. And right near that string it will have your username Otteray Scribe
Go to this link http://md5-hash-online.waraxe.us/ and enter the email address you use here. The result will be “3419571b4b0e49e2b526d4d45caa67f8”
Now go to any other gravatar enabled blog and add a comment. Use the same email address. If you want, use a different username.
Then look at that source to the page, and it too will have the string 3419571b4b0e49e2b526d4d45caa67f8
That’s the web bug tracking effect of Gravatar.
It has nothing to do with being logged into Gravatar. But it lets people track you through your email address contrary to what people expect when they see the words “Not published”
Blouise,
That’s it – I’m getting out of here before I end up cleaning out someone’s attic or basement…
Take care (don’t worry, I’ll be back from time to time… ;-)).
anon
1, September 30, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Simple way to be anonymous on the Internet
1. Goto starbucks.
2. Attach to their wifi
3. Make your post
Repeat 1-3, rinse, cycling on Starbucks, Burger King, Culvers, McDonalds, Barnes & Noble, Mall food zoos, airports, libraries….
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you should remember that while at these locations you are most likely under video surveillance.
Woosty, … my apologies for continuing typos
“anon, do you know that for a fact? If so, how do you know unless you have been mining for data yourself?”
Yes, it’s true, Gene wears adult diapers for fun.
anon,
Because they can see….Watch out for the bow tie….
—-”The two women exchanged the kind of glance women use when no knife is handy.”** Blouise, how nice to see you this morning dear, you’re up early.” (lotta)
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And now you have just scared every male on this blog out of his ever-lovin’ mind! Hell, let’s skip the cleaning part and just eat cake! (Blouise)
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this is sooooo sexycool….. I was thinking I wasn’t going to learn anything new today… (Wootsy)
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This comment will also have an affect on every man reading the blog – it just wont scare them… (Slarti)
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fear is overated and under-efficient …. (Wootsy)
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Woosty remains feline, Now I’m scared again… (Slarti)
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The women give each other a knowing smile … 🙂
Thirdly, if you go to ANY blog, you will find it leaky as a sieve. And just what is your interest in keeping malignant sockpuppets and zombies from being investigated and revealed using publicly available knowledge, provided one knows how to do the investigation.
Somebody’s ox is being gored here, and it ain’t mine.
anon, do you know that for a fact? If so, how do you know unless you have been mining for data yourself?
“Driving and walking past how many public and private time stamped security cameras on the way?”
You’re such a troll.
How do the inspectors know which car or person on their cameras made the post about rubbing chili pepper into your adult diapers?
@OS,
THE BUG AND PRIVACY LEAK have NOTHING to do with signing up for a gravatar account.
I have stated this repeatedly.
The leak affects EVERYONE that visits here, even if they have never used Gravatar at all.
P.S.: Gravitars are not a “bug” as claimed repeatedly in the thread above. Gravitars are a service. You sign up for it, hopefully after reading the terms of service and privacy notice. You are warned and have no reason to claim it is a privacy leak “bug.” It’s not.
Re: Locard’s principle:
A few years ago I became aware of a case that illustrated how that worked perfectly. The local police crime scene investigators were summoned to a location where a crime had taken place. They gathered their evidence, and uncovered 27 clues, but no real leads to the perpetrator.
In the course of the investigation, it was discovered a Federal crime had taken place. The FBI was summoned and their own crime scene investigators went over the site. They found 155 clues, leading to the arrest of the perpetrator.
Once again, I refer our dear readers to watch an episode of the TV reality show, “Mantracker.” It is like watching an instruction manual on how easy it is if you know what you are looking for.
To the worthless POS anon Quixotic,
You are a lying moron who does nothing but willfully misinterpret my words.
“I take my year old laptop runing windows 7 and that adapter and drive to a starbucks 20 miles away — I confess I live in the 5th largest city in the united states a land locked desert hellhole of 4 million sprawled over 250 square miles.”
Driving and walking past how many public and private time stamped security cameras on the way?
Your powers of invisibility are only in your mind.
If you want to be invisible to society? Don’t use phones or Internet and live in a cave in the woods never venturing forth for supplies, living on spring water, cave lichens and bugs. Your lack of understanding of Locard’s principle is truly an amazing thing.
Registering for a WordPress blog like this one, and registering a Gravitar is two entirely different operations with different risk levels. Anyone old enough to be allowed out of the house without adult supervision should know that.
The information box on WordPress blogs tells you that your email information is kept private. That is a true statement of fact.
If you click on the avatar box and the Gravitar site pops up, it also explains the privacy limits of using their proprietary product. You do NOT have to have a Gravitar to blog here. If you choose to use the Gravitar service, the terms of service and privacy statements explain exactly what that means.
Now, all who do not understand that need to go back inside and tell Mommy and Daddy that you have been out in the big wide world, found it to be too scary and want them to protect you.
@Kevin Kesseler, Ph.D.,
I don’t believe I’ve ever said you violated anyone’s civil liberties. If I am wrong, certainly you, a Scientist, can point that out to me.
I said your undisclosed web scraping and exploitation of a privacy leak violated the trust of the community, and were possibly against WordPress’ Terms of Service and potentially illegal (depending on the prosecutor.)
I pointed out how the WordPress / Gravatar bug is serious and allows the use of an email address which was promised not to be published to be published in an encoded manner that allows disparate emails all around the web to be identified as to author.
I pointed out how *that* means the Gravatar bug is serious and can be used to break anonymity,
And that regardless, you would almost never have been given permission by Professor Turley to do this, had you asked him ahead of time.
In return at various times, you have denied the privacy leak is a privacy leak. You have justified your acts as okay because they were technically feasible. You have claimed your building of your database was an act providing value to the community which we should all thank you for. And you have said your little privacy raid was nothing compared to the big kids and therefore okay as well.
Oh, and I also in a fake email address implied I had anonymous carnal relations your mother. That part was true. You told me should was dead, and I admit, I still don’t understand what difference that made.