by Bob Barr | Feb 18, 2019 | Uncategorized |
5G Gets the ‘Slow Walk’ at Commerce Once again, a vital Trumpian goal is slowed down internally — much to China’s advantage.The American SpectatorBureaucracy is the death of any achievement. — Albert EinsteinAccording to the many websites by which the federal government describes its myriad agencies, offices, and departments, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) “manages federal spectrum use, makes grants to develop and deploy broadband internet, conducts telecommunications research, and advises the president on telecommunications and information policy issues.” Important responsibilities, to be sure.It appears, however, that NTIA’s parent agency, the U.S. Department of Commerce, is deliberately slowing down NTIA’s ability to carry out one of its primary responsibilities — issuing approval for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to begin implementing 5G technology. This “slow walk” has potential to harm not only America’s competitiveness in advancing wireless technology, but our national security as well.NTIA has for months failed to signal officially to the FCC that the latter may lawfully move forward with regulations by which the government and businesses can start to implement 5G technology. Responsibility for this bottleneck may reside in the office of the Commerce Department’s Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Policy, Earl Comstock who, according to an analysis by Politico published last May 11, is a fierce opponent of the decision by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai last year to roll back the Obama-era net neutrality rule. If so, Comstock is placing the United States at a serious commercial and national security disadvantage vis-à-vis China; which is rapidly moving ahead to ensure it and not the U.S. becomes the world leader in this next generation...
by Bob Barr | Feb 13, 2019 | Uncategorized |
The Daily Caller.comThey [the makers of the Constitution] conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone — the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.” — Justice Louis Brandeis, 1928The era of “Prohibition,” which lasted from 1922 until 1930, primarily is remembered for the rise of bootleggers and notorious gangsters who grew immensely wealthy from the practice of distributing alcoholic products to millions of booze-thirsty Americans. Al Capone and “Dutch Schultz” are among the more notorious of these criminals; and numerous books have been written about their exploits, along with dozens of movies extolling their escapades and those of the lawmen who eventually reined them in.Few, if any students of that period of American history, however, will recognize the name of Roy Olmstead. Yet it was this man — the general manager of a lucrative Seattle, Washington bootlegging operation — whose name lives on in legal history even today, nearly a century after he was convicted of violating the National Prohibition Act in 1928. Roy Olmstead’s name has survived in legal lore, because it was the United States Supreme Court opinion affirming his conviction that gave birth to modern electronic surveillance law.In an unusual twist of legal fate, however, it was a dissenting opinion in Olmstead’s case, written by renowned Associate Justice Louis Brandeis, that often is cited by legal scholars and others even today, in support of an individual’s right to privacy as against the powers of surreptitious electronic surveillance.Communications technology has advanced phenomenally from the basic telephone by which, through a physical “wiretap,” federal agents were able to learn details of Olmstead’s...
by Bob Barr | Feb 6, 2019 | Uncategorized |
Townhall.comYou could say Satanism has undergone a “rebranding” since the 1980s and 90s, when devil-worshipping occultists were supposedly to blame for a series of disturbing crimes – both real and imagined. Since then, in large part due to the founding of “The Satanic Temple” seven years ago in Salem, Massachusetts, Satanism has entered the mainstream of contemporary culture. The clever marketers of this movement have traded notions of goat sacrifices and Black Magic for feel-good sophistry about equality, social justice, and personal freedom. In fact, in a bizarre non sequitur The Satanic Temple claims its mission is not to worship the Devil. Instead, its self-proclaimed mission is merely “to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people.” If this rings somewhat contradictory, remember the Apostle Paul’s warning in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, that “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” The Temple’s strategy appears to be bearing fruit. Its enticing — almost reasonable – repackaging of Satanism has made it a seductive “philosophy” in today’s tumultuous society. If a Sundance Film Festival feature documentary on modern Satanists is any indication, Satanism 2.0 is on the rise, and even without the literal devil worship,this cleverly marketed ideology provides the perfect cover for the actual Satan to entrench himself deep within our society.All this should come as no surprise. America (indeed, much of the western world) today is fertile soil for such snake oil sales pitches. The modern church is constantly mocked and demonized in the media, with regular attendance down across the board (a situation not helped by the continuing and highly publicized revelations about pedophilia within the Catholic Church). The nuclear, two-parent family has become more...
