NEW YORK – The battle over New York’s carriage horses just got hunkier.

Hollywood badass Liam Neeson went one-on-one with killjoy Mayor de Blasio, slamming Hizzoner for vowing to ban the city’s 220-plus clip-clopping, carriage-pulling equines from city streets and Central Park.

“They’ll die, you know, darlin,’ ” Liam, who at 6-foot-4 can pretty much look the 6-foot-5 mayor in the eye, told me in his gorgeous Northern Irish brogue.

The 61-year-old heartthrob interrupted his hectic A-list acting schedule to call me Thursday night, alarmed by de Blasio’s treachery.

“It’s criminal!’’ cried Liam. “This is an iconic, historic part of New York. (more…)

The leader of UKIP Nigel Farage stared down all the EU Bureau-weanies and called them “muppets”. He has wolverine blood.

The often stale British political system is being rocked by its very own Tea Party.

The UK Independence Party (UKIP), formed in 1993 opposing Britain’s entry into the European Union, failed to make an electoral dent for a long time. However UKIP has built up steam in recent years and is spearheading a seismic shift in the British political spectrum.

In this year’s local elections – the British version of midterms — UKIP took a stunning 23 percent of the vote, up from the 3.1 percent they won in the 2010 national election. Their leader, Nigel Farage, is buoyed by their recent success. (more…)

“It is not an easy task to unring a bell, nor to remove from the mind an impression once firmly imprinted there*”

“I’m not anti-government …. I’m just pro Freedom”.

-Ladar Levison, (the founder of secure email provider Lavabit, facing a court case because he closed his company rather than hand over encryption keys) interviewed in the interactive UK Guardian piece published November, 2013

Whether or not you think Snowden was a traitor or a hero; the fact remains that “the bell can not be unrung”.

(more…)

Jacob Appelbaum is a US citizen and core member of TOR project (funded originally to provide internet communication security).  He writes open source software, is an independent security software developer, activist hacker and passionate resister to tyranny.
He has stated in past interviews that he believes “personal privacy and institutional transparency are complementary ideas that help to create a free and open society …..Tor is part of an ecosystem of software that helps people regain and reclaim their autonomy. It helps to enable people to have agency of all kinds; it helps others to help each other and it helps you to help yourself. It runs, it is open and it is supported by a large community spread across all walks of life.”
Appelbaum eloquently discusses warrantless or “open writ” dragnet surveillance as “turnkey tyranny” and posits that the black budget agencies that engage in such surveillance are violating the 3rd Amendment Rights of US Citizens, likening the actions of the NSA to de facto “digital soldiers” being quartered in our homes without our knowledge or permission. (more…)

WOLVERINES !!

Tune in to Sean Hannity’s time slot tonight at 10:00pm on Fox to hear details.  [Eric Bolling will be filling in for Sean Hannity who is on vacation.]
WASHINGTON DC – Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is leading a class-action lawsuit with hundreds of thousands of Americans against President Barack Obama’s National Security Agency (NSA) over its spying on the American people, Breitbart News has learned.
Sen. Paul will be discussing the lawsuit in an exclusive appearance on Fox News with host Eric Bolling at 10 PM ET on Friday. Breitbart News has learned that Paul will file the class action lawsuit soon in the D.C. District Court and that he will be filing it as an individual, not as a U.S. Senator. For a U.S. Senator to file a such a class action lawsuit against the President of the United States would be extremely rare.
With regard to NSA spying, this is the first class action lawsuit against such activity. This allows the American people to join together in a grassroots manner against President Obama’s NSA for the first time in the legal system, as all other lawsuits have been individuals suing against the agency.  (read more)

(CNNMoney) — The family-owned business at the center of the hit TV show “Duck Dynasty” has launched its own line of guns.

The gunmaker Mossberg has teamed with Duck Commander, the company owned by “Duck Dynasty’s” Robertson clan, to release nine different shotguns, as well as two semiautomatic rifles and a semiautomatic pistol.
Mossberg has begun shipping some of the shotguns to distributors, according to spokeswoman Linda Powell. She declined to name specific retailers that will carry them.  (link)

The 2010 and 2012 class of Tea Party House Congressional members have done an outstanding job of holding the line amid attacks from both Democrats and Republicans.  Can you just imagine what legislative life would be like without their fight?
Ted Cruz appears on ABC This Week and discusses his meeting with them during the shutdown.   Jonathan Karl is just aghast at their united patriotic perspectives.

Some mighty fine folks have organized the resistance (origin here)

Now YOU TOO can make a difference – CLICK HERE 

Twitter has apologized for blocking users from linking to a website supporting Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson’s right to freedom of speech.
The social network has issued a formal apology for blocking the site iStandwithPhil.com saying it was flagged as spam, which prohibited Twitter users from linking to the page.
Twitter users are now able to freely link to the site without any problems.  (link)

“I paint like the world depends upon it, then I come home and my wife tells me to change diapers. Life is good”
– Jon McNaughton