Articles by Herschel Smith

The Washington Post:

When Nabanita De scrolled through her Facebook feed recently, she felt afraid. There were so many posts with competing information and accusations about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton that she didn’t know how to begin deciphering the fearmongering from the reality.

The social media site has faced criticism since the presidential election for its role in disseminating fake and misleading stories that are indistinguishable from real news. Because Facebook’s algorithm is designed to determine what its individual users want to see, people often see only that which validates their existing beliefs regardless of whether the information being shared is true.

So when De, an international second-year master’s student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, attended a hackathon at Princeton University this week with a simple prompt to develop a technology project in 36 hours, she suggested to her three teammates that they try to build an algorithm that authenticates what is real and what is fake on Facebook.

And they were able to do it.

De, with Anant Goel, a freshman at Purdue University, and Mark Craft and Qinglin Chen, sophomores at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, built a Chrome browser extension that tags links in Facebook feeds as verified or not verified by taking into account factors such as the source’s credibility and cross-checking the content with other news stories. Where a post appears to be false, the plug-in will provide a summary of more credible information on the topic online.

They’ve called it FiB.

Since the students developed it in only a day and a half (and have classes and schoolwork to worry about), they’ve released it as an “open-source project,” asking anyone with development experience to help them improve it. The plugin is available for download to the public, but the demand was so great that their limited operation couldn’t handle it.

So you’ve learned absolutely nothing from this “article.”  Perhaps it ought to be relegated to the bin of fake news.  Consider for a moment what you’ve witnessed over the last several days.  Reporters are sitting in the bottom of Trump tower watching to see who enters the building and goes up the elevator.  For hours, and hours, and hours.  Perhaps they could liven it up a bit and add spice to this “news” by telling us the favorite colors of the folks riding the elevator.

What you’re witnessing is the result of the death of investigative reporting.  For the “reporters” and news “editors” out there, why don’t you go to Iraq and do some reporting on what the Muslims have done to the Christian church in Mesopotamia?  Oh, I see.  That might involve going to Mosul.  Does that frighten you?  Are you scared?  It should, and you should be.

Or why don’t you travel to Haiti to investigate why a budding anthropologist headed there to study the child kidnapping and pedophilia ring born out of Haiti and its relationship to the Clinton foundation, only to turn up dead under suspicious circumstances?  Is that scary to you?  Bless your heart.

Or why don’t you investigate why a pizzeria in Washington. D.C., owned by James Alefantis, called Comet Ping Pong, and associated with the Podesta brothers, advertised as “family friendly,” has drag shows?  Or why don’t you investigate what Wikileaks shows about the relationship between the Clinton Foundation and its corollary of massive corruption?  Is that scary to you?  Are you afraid you’ll end up like Seth Rich?

Yea, I would be too.  That’s why I carry guns.  But you progressives don’t believe in those things, so there’s that.

Look, for those who haven’t learned this yet, there is no news being reported by the MSM any more.  All investigative journalism is being done by 4Chan and Reddit.  It is a dead art within the MSM.  If you aren’t studying the results of the analysis at Reddit, you don’t know anything about the news.  For the MSM to try to tell us anything about fake news is pathetic.

As for what Wikileaks tells us, they only release raw data.  Others do the analysis.  Wikileaks has been proven accurate and above reproach for a decade.  If you’re going to try to tell us that Wikileaks is not real, you’re calling black white and white black.  You’re embarrassing yourself, and you’re possibly too stupid to know it.

In summary, I can’t say it better than Paul Joseph Watson.

CNBC:

Owners of Remington’s popular Model 700 rifle can now examine for themselves literally millions of pages of internal company documents that have led critics to conclude that the guns are unsafe.

The documents — more than 130,000 files in all — have been assembled in a searchable online database by the advocacy group Public Justice. The organization, which battles against secrecy in the courts, fought successfully last year to make the documents public.

“These documents show the extreme danger of court secrecy,” said Public Justice Chairman Arthur Bryant. “They prove that court secrecy kills. Literally.”

With millions sold since the design first went on the market in the 1940s, Remington claims its Model 700 is the best-selling bolt-action rifle ever made. But lawsuits have alleged that for decades the company covered up a deadly design flaw that allows the guns to fire without the trigger being pulled, resulting in dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries. The company has denied the allegations.

The documents show Remington engineers wrestling with what they called a “very dangerous” situation as early as 1947 — before the guns went on sale. Company officials eventually decided that a design change was not worth the added cost, a conclusion they would reach again and again.

We’ve discussed this at length before.  While shooters are responsible for following all of the rules of safety, firearms manufacturers are responsible for designing and producing firearms that don’t discharge a round when the trigger isn’t being pulled.  It’s called “defense in depth.”

Take a look at the incredible cache of documents there.  It’s staggering.  As I’ve said before to firearms manufacturers, when you find problems you’d better admit them and get out in front of the problem, recall it, announce it, and fix it.

Engineers, don’t ever sacrifice your ethical integrity at the behest of corporate lawyers.  You say, “But this pertains to my career and this is a very difficult decision to make, and it could affect my ability to support my family.”  Yes it does, and yes it may.

That’s why it’s call ethics.  It isn’t ethics when it’s easy.  Been there, done that.  I know what it’s like.

CNN:

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the House Select Committee on Intelligence Thursday he had submitted his letter of resignation on Wednesday night.

Well then, let me pay my very own respects.  Good riddance, you disgusting worm.  You almost certainly knew all about this, and you did and said nothing.  And you almost certainly knew all about this, and you did and said absolutely nothing.

I hope you sit in your retirement and ponder working for an evil monster like Obama, and I hope you ponder your own moral failings for a very long time.

Eugene Volokh:

Veteran suffering from PTSD calls suicide hotline, admits to gun ownership, but repeatedly explains he doesn’t have a weapon at the ready. His interlocutor calls D.C. police anyway, who send in SWAT. He surrenders. Police search his home, see nothing concerning in plain view. Hours later, they re-enter, rip the place apart — and (allegedly) leave the stove on and the front door unlocked for two weeks while he’s in jail. D.C. Circuit: The second search violated the Fourth Amendment.

Well, what the hell else did you expect to happen?  The cops were involved.

Guns.com:

Police say an Iowa man had stabbed two people repeatedly last month before a man pulled a gun and ordered the attacker to get on the ground.

Adam Scott Jacobsen, 28, stabbed Jeffrey Miller 24 times and Denice Bennett eight times at an apartment complex before Daniel Williams drew his firearm, according to police. “He pulled the gun and ordered him to lie on the ground,” said Cedar Falls Police Chief Jeff Olson. He said Jacobsen stayed on the ground until police got there, and that Williams holstered his gun before police arrived.

[ … ]

Authorities say the man with the gun, Daniel Williams, had a permit to carry. Police wouldn’t say whether they believed Jacobsen would have continued stabbing people without Williams’s intervention.

That last paragraph is only there in the article because some idiot reporter wanted to know if use of a gun was really, truly, absolutely, really, really necessary, or if perhaps Williams could have de-escalated the situation without even unholstering the gun.  You know that’s what happened.  Or some idiot reporter wants to know if perchance the situation would have ended peacefully if a gun had never been present.

In other news, a grandmother in Georgia stopped a home invasion with a gun.

Two men and a woman have been arrested after grandmother with a gun thwarted an attempted burglary at her home in Coweta County, Ga., according to deputies.

“I don’t know why they selected that house, but they picked the wrong one,” Colonel James Yarbrough from the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office said.

According to a report, Elaine Stiehl, 78, was getting ready to take a nap when she heard a noise coming from inside her home on Mount Carmel Road around 3 p.m. Friday. Stiehl loaded her gun, opened her bedroom door and saw two men standing in her hallway, the report said.

Officials said the men were in the process of stealing furs and tools from the home, but after seeing Stiehl’s gun, the men reportedly ran out of the residence and fled in a car.

“Neighbors were able to give us a description of the vehicle we pulled it over and took the subjects into custody,” Yarbrough said.

Impossible, ridiculous, absurd and preposterous.  We all know that a gun is no protection from crime, and that if anyone other than a LEO uses one, it takes on a life of its own and spins wildly, shooting innocent people at random.

How could this happen?

Guns.com:

With the possible removal of silencers/suppressors from National Firearms Act control, a number of legal questions around the devices emerge.

The current mechanism for change, H.R.3799 — the Hearing Protection Act — is stuck in the U.S. House but would likely see a stronger reboot in the next Congress in 2017. If a new bill gains enough momentum to make it through Capitol Hill and onto the waiting desk of President Trump, it would leave a few things undecided if signed into law with its current language.

Today, some 42 states have legalized suppressor ownership for civilians, several within just the past few years. As the HPA simply removes the items from the purview of the NFA, the states that ban them now can continue to ban them into the future. On the other hand, states that currently allow ownership could move to restrict it should the items no longer be shackled with requirements for tax stamps, registration and extensive waiting periods caused by paperwork.

“It’s no different than the states that prohibit the sale of machine guns or even certain Title I firearms,” Adam Kraut, an attorney specializing in Second Amendment rights with the Firearms Industry Consulting Group, told Guns.com.

While on the outset this fact would seem to hurt the legislation, it largely removes much of the steam from anti-gun lawmakers hailing from states that currently ban suppressors such as California and Illinois …

Oh, I would never underestimate the ability of collectivists to control everything.  Visit Guns.com and read the rest of the article, which is an interesting analysis of other questions, such as what happens to the current registry of suppressors if the law were to pass?

This is all well and good, and I hope we see progress on this front.  I mainly hope that not because of the hearing protection such devices provide (since one can currently wear hearing protection when shooting), but mainly because wearing such devices inhibits proper man-machine interface.  For example, do you find it rather difficult to get a good cheek weld on your rifle if you’re wearing muffs?  Or another way of asking it is this.  Do you find that you are modifying the way you would do things naturally because you are wearing muffs?

Again, this is all well and good.  But what about my SBR?  I want to see SBRs removed from the NFA list.  Are you listening?  I want SBRs removed from the NFA list.  You didn’t hear it that time either?  Okay.  I WANT SBRs REMOVED FROM THE NFA LIST!!!!!

Take a long look at this picture.

Reason.com:

A group of Detroit police officers executing a narcotics search warrant knocked on Nikita Smith’s door on January 14, 2016. The only fact that both Smith and the officers agree on after that point is that, a short while later, Smith’s three dogs were all shot dead.

What really happened in the moments between could be a costly question for the city of Detroit. In a federal civil rights lawsuit filed in May, Smith says the Detroit police executed her three pit bulls, Debo, Mama, and Smoke, without provocation. Essentially, they acted as a “dog death squad.”

According the lawsuit, Smith tried to tell the officers she was putting her dogs away, and placed two in the basement and one in the bathroom. As the officers burst into the house, Debo slipped back upstairs. The officers shot it as it sat down by Smith. Next, they charged into the basement and shot Mama, who was pregnant and backed into a corner. Finally, they moved onto the bathroom, where Smoke was closed in.

One of the officers cracked the door open, peeked inside, and closed it again. “Should we do that one, too?” the officer asked, according to the lawsuit, before two of them fired through the closed door, killing Smoke.

In the police version of the story, told through reports filed after the raid, the officers received no response when they announced their presence and forced entry into the house. Inside, they encountered a “vicious grey pit bull” that charged at them. It was shot eight times. In the basement, they encountered another “vicious white pit bull” that charged toward them. It was shot five times. According to police reports, the third dog charged out of the bathroom toward the officers and was shot.

However, extremely graphic photos entered into evidence in the case show bullet holes riddling the outside of the door and the dog dead inside the bathroom.

In other news, a concealed handgun carrier recently assisted a cop in the process of being beaten.

ESTERO, Fla. — A passerby shot and killed a person who was fighting with a Lee County Sheriff’s Office deputy on Interstate 75 Monday morning.

Deputy First Class Dean Bardes, a 12-year-veteran, was working a crash at mile marker 126 when the suspect came upon him, causing Bardes to pursue him at high speeds, according to multiple sources.

Bardes and the suspect exited their vehicles at the Corkscrew Road exit and a fight started, sources said. The suspect was armed, Bardes told his supervisors, according to sources.

The passerby, who had a Concealed Weapons License, exited his vehicle and told the suspect he’d shoot him if he didn’t stop beating the deputy, sources said.

After noncompliance from the suspect, the passerby shot the suspect three times, sources said. The suspect later died.

First of all, to appeal to the sense of personal affection of CLEOs for their officers, one has to wonder how long the good people of America will continue this sort of assistance when LEOs are brutalizing citizens in the manner shown above.  This is something you really want to think about if you’re a CLEO.  At some point, the good people of America will begin to think of you as enemies, and if that happens you’re doomed.

But back to the issue of LEOs who have a predilection for the kind of brutality you saw above.  If a LEO joins the force wanting to participate on a SWAT team, that means he wants to perpetrate acts of violence against American citizens.  You may summarily conclude that he is pathological and you should refrain from hiring him.

As a CLEO, if you want to have such a force at hand in order to perpetrate acts of violence against American citizens, you are pathological and should resign your post immediately.  You and your officers are a danger and immediate threat to life and liberty.

Even a cursory reading of Exodus 23:5 and Deuteronomy 22:4-7 teaches us that the good man has regard for the life of his beast.  And not only that, he has regard for the life of other beasts.  That’s why hunters focus so much attention on taking ethical shots in order to prevent the needless infliction of pain.

If the good man has regard for the life of his beast, the wicked man does not.  A fortiori, if he must have regard for beasts in order to be good, he must have that much more regard for the life of humans.  Any man who doesn’t meet this requirement is unfit for constabulary work.

Prior:

Buffalo Police Department, The Dog Butchers, Strike Again

$262K Settlement For Owner Of Dog Killed By Police

Psychopathic Police Chief Kills Caged Dog For Sport

Grieving Texas Dog Owners Want Cops Trained In How Not To Kill Animals

Buffalo Police Department: The Happy Dog Killers

Outdoor Hub:

There’s no question – the AR-15 doesn’t look like your daddy’s deer rifle. Of course, the Winchester Model 94 lever-action rifle your granddad used doesn’t look anything like his father’s Hawken, either.

However, we see progress all around us. The smartphone is nothing like the rotary phones I grew up with, and if my grandpa stepped in my pickup truck, he’d think it was a spaceship.

The American hunter is experiencing this same thrust into the 21st century. While it might not have the lure, feel and warmth of walnut and blued steel, performance matters over nostalgia. I’m not suggesting you trade in your old .30-30 on an AR, or regulate your bolt rifle to the closet for all eternity. What I hope you will do is consider the many factors that make the AR-15, and its bigger brother the AR-10, ideal for deer hunting.

We’re living in a brave new world and the AR is the hunting rifle of the new millennium – and here’s why.

He goes on to describe a number of things my readers already know about the AR that make it a good choice, including man-machine interface, modularity and adjustability, reliability, etc.  Then there is this.

There does exist more powerful options for those who demand it. Nine of the 41 states permitting centerfire rifles for deer hunting prohibit the use of the .223 Remington. If you hunt in one of those states, the 6.8 SPC or .300 Blackout are an option, as is the new .25-45 Sharps, which duplicates the performance of the old .250 Savage. If you want to stretch your range or just think you need more power, you can step up to an AR-10 and choose a cartridge like the .243 Winchester, 6.5 Creedmoor, .308 Winchester, and in some cases even magnum cartridges.

The semi-automatic AR-15s that shoot anything but the 5.56/.223 or 300 Blackout are non-existent to my knowledge, and the AR-10s that shoot anything else can be very pricey (except for .308).  Or in other words, designer cartridge black guns are very expensive – even the AR style bolt action guns.

But I do like the idea of the 300 Blackout, where I can swap out an upper receiver quickly and easily and have a larger round, slightly slower muzzle velocity, but better long range ballistics than the 5.56/.223 (while I would also assert than the 5.56/.223 is ideal for many situations that don’t suit the 300 Blackout).

So in summary I would say to the old time hunters with puzzled looks at the kids bringing out the new fangled black guns, you need to welcome them and perhaps even learn something.  They are carrying on a proud tradition.  To the Fudds who refuse to accept it, I would say get over it.  Your opinions don’t matter.

But here is a word of caution for the AR hunters.  Know you rifle, know your round, and know your limitations.  Make ethical shots.  Only make ethical shots.

David Codrea:

Incumbent Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, target of the Obama Justice Department for his stand against the administration’s goal of culturally terraforming the Republic through illegal “immigration,” has been defeated in his bid for reelection by challenger Paul Penzone. Actually, it might be more accurate to say Arpaio was defeated by “dual citizen” Hungarian-American George Soros.

That’s because globalist billionaire Soros, a proponent of reshaping the world to his will, spent $2M on ads and mailers to defeat Arpaio …

Read the rest here.  I have two thoughts.  First of all, Soros is a wicked man who has destroyed the currencies of entire nations in order to turn a profit.  He meddles in the affairs of countries like a cat playing with a mouse, and he ought to be arrested for his criminality.  Or if his actions aren’t criminal, they should be.  There is no sympathy for Soros here, and I’ll celebrate with a glass of good wine the day he passes from here to hell when he breathes his last breath.

But in addition to blaming Soros, I blame the voters who don’t know enough or don’t care to know what they’re doing (or prefer wicked government).  We get the government we ask for, and throwing out a man who is arguably the best Sheriff in America (but Sheriff Chuck Wright is a pretty stand-up guy too) is not only stupid but will bear long term consequences.  Maricopa County might just regret this decision, and I strongly suspect they will.  How sad for you.

This subreddit thread, while being a complicated read, full of surprises and ins and outs, with caveat, qualifier and stipulations, demonstrates that Google appears to be actively removing “spirit cooking” conversation and censoring search results.  As I said, the issue is complicated and you can study this discussion thread yourself, and to be fair, the allegation is also directed at Reddit, not just Google.

Now, I’ve always had a good working relationship with Google, and I truly hope that continues.  I have always gotten good service from you, and I have made good use of your search engine.  But I see that Google has taken steps to censor news and views based on political proclivities.

Google plans to prohibit fake-news websites from using its ad-selling software, a move that could crimp revenue at those sites.

Google said Monday that it is updating its policies to ban Google ads being placed “on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher’s content, or the primary purpose” of the website. The policy would include sites that distribute false news, a Google spokeswoman said.

[ … ]

Google has long prohibited AdSense from being used on sites that promote hate speech or include pornography and violent content. Its policies previously didn’t include language about sites that spread false content. A spokeswoman said the change to the policy was imminent, and that it follows existing Google policies that ban advertisements that misrepresent what they are marketing.

Oh dear.  This is a bad move for Google.  Listen to me, on the outside chance that there are any Google executives or high level managers who are reading this, this is a very, very bad move on your part.  This isn’t something you want to happen.  Don’t test these waters.  This is your Bermuda triangle.

As I was reading from one commenter at one subreddit, “We are now the new underground.”  You see, the cool kids already think you guys are a bunch of gray hairs, and telling them you’re going to get into bed with the establishment will be the last straw.  You will look back and regret getting into bed with the establishment by censoring sites.

This is how it’s going to work.  You won’t really get to make this decision – the consumers will.  They will tell you by their patronage whether they approve of your behavior.  I hadn’t said anything about it, but using your tool Google Analytics, I have been fairly closely watching sources of my traffic over the last year or two.

I am beginning to get a non-trivial amount of traffic from Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo.  I haven’t changed.  My coverage and commentary hasn’t changed.  Google hasn’t changed much over the last year.  What has changed is that people are beginning to use other search engines, and Facebook stock is dropping like a rock.

You would do well to consider these things.  You don’t want the “cool kids” to think of you as another arm of the fedgov.  The cool kids run things around here.