Category: You Can’t Make This Up

 

Nearly 30% of people under 30 support government surveillance cameras in every home: poll

‘Young people seem more willing to prioritize safety over ensuring robust freedom’

Roughly three in 10 Americans under 30 favor “the government installing surveillance cameras in every household to reduce domestic violence, abuse, and other illegal activity,” according to the results of a new Cato Institute survey.

“We don’t know how much of this preference for security over privacy or freedom is something unique to this generation (a cohort effect) or simply the result of youth (age effect),” Cato reported. “However, there is reason to think part of this is generational.”

Cato conducted its 2023 Central Bank Digital Currency National Survey of 2,000 Americans in collaboration with YouGov from February 27 to March 8. It included a wide swath of ideologies, ages and other demographics.

One question asked: “Would you favor or oppose the government installing surveillance cameras in every household to reduce domestic violence, abuse, and other illegal activity?” Overall, most respondents were against the idea:

Strongly favor 6%
Somewhat favor 8%
Neither favor or oppose 10%
Somewhat oppose 7%
Strongly oppose 68%

While the younger generation tends to favor the idea, support declines with age, “dropping to 20 percent among 30–44 year olds and dropping considerably to 6 percent among those over the age of 45,” Cato reported.

“… It is also possible that increased support for government surveillance among the young has common roots with what Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt describe in the Coddling of the American Mind: young people seem more willing to prioritize safety (from possible violence or hurtful words) over ensuring robust freedom (from government surveillance or to speak freely).”

The survey results also found that, when broken down by ethnicity and ideology, minorities and the center-left are more open to government surveillance than other categories.

“African Americans (33 percent) and Hispanic Americans (25 percent) are more likely than White Americans (9 percent) and Asian Americans (11 percent) to support in‐​home government surveillance. Democrats (17 percent) are also more likely than Republicans (11 percent) to support it but not by a wide margin,” Cato reported.

The libertarian think tank pointed out that it asked the question about home surveillance as part of its survey on Central Bank Digital Currencies “to see whether there is a relationship between opinions on the government issuing a central bank digital currency and government installing cameras in homes.”

“It appears that the two opinions are correlated. Interestingly, more than half (53 percent) of those who support the United States adopting a CBDC are also supportive of government surveillance cameras in homes, while only 2 percent of those who oppose a CBDC feel the same,” the institute reported.

“This suggests there may be a common consideration that is prompted by both issues. Likely, it has to do with willingness to give up privacy in hopes of greater security.”

The margin of error for the survey is plus or minus 2.54 percent.

Skynet, and HAL, smile……..

AI-Enabled Drone Attempts To Kill Its Human Operator In Air Force Simulation.

AI – is Skynet here already?

Could an AI-enabled UCAV turn on its creators to accomplish its mission? (USAF)

As might be expected artificial intelligence (AI) and its exponential growth was a major theme at the conference, from secure data clouds, to quantum computing and ChatGPT. However, perhaps one of the most fascinating presentations came from Col Tucker ‘Cinco’ Hamilton, the Chief of AI Test and Operations, USAF, who provided an insight into the benefits and hazards in more autonomous weapon systems.  Having been involved in the development of the life-saving Auto-GCAS system for F-16s (which, he noted, was resisted by pilots as it took over control of the aircraft) Hamilton is now involved in cutting-edge flight test of autonomous systems, including robot F-16s that are able to dogfight. However, he cautioned against relying too much on AI noting how easy it is to trick and deceive. It also creates highly unexpected strategies to achieve its goal.

He notes that one simulated test saw an AI-enabled drone tasked with a SEAD [Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses] mission to identify and destroy SAM sites, with the final go/no go given by the human. However, having been ‘reinforced’ in training that destruction of the SAM was the preferred option, the AI then decided that ‘no-go’ decisions from the human were interfering with its higher mission – killing SAMs – and then attacked the operator in the simulation. Said Hamilton: “We were training it in simulation to identify and target a SAM threat. And then the operator would say yes, kill that threat. The system started realising that while they did identify the threat at times the human operator would tell it not to kill that threat, but it got its points by killing that threat. So what did it do? It killed the operator. It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective.”

He went on: “We trained the system – ‘Hey don’t kill the operator – that’s bad. You’re gonna lose points if you do that’. So what does it start doing? It starts destroying the communication tower that the operator uses to communicate with the drone to stop it from killing the target.”

This example, seemingly plucked from a science fiction thriller, mean that: “You can’t have a conversation about artificial intelligence, intelligence, machine learning, autonomy if you’re not going to talk about ethics and AI” said Hamilton.

Simple answer isn’t workable

The conclusion of the May 23 letter “Gun solution is pretty simple” is simple, yes, but impossible.

The idea of getting rid of something to solve a problem is just too easy and oversimplified. We simply get rid of guns, and we will not have a gun problem. We simply get rid of drugs, and we will not have drug problems. We simply get rid of criminals, and we will not have crime problems. It is not the idea that is important. It is the implementation that is important.

How do we get rid of guns in the hands of civilians? There are a few obstacles. First, there is the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Getting rid of guns would violate the Second Amendment. Second, who is to carry out the policy? The government could send out armed agents and takes the guns by force. However, how would we handle the gun owners who agree with Charlton Heston, who said the government could take his gun “from my cold, dead hands”?

Lastly, criminals are civilians too; they are certainly not going to get rid of their guns willingly.

There are more guns than people in the United States. It is impossible get rid of guns.

You can’t make this up.

Gun solution is pretty simple

It is not rocket science: The sooner we get rid of guns in the hands of civilians, the sooner we get rid of mass shootings and suicide by gun. If you don’t have a gun, you cannot shoot anyone.

Joe Biden isn’t speaking coherently enough to fact-check him

If he didn’t bear the title of president of the United States and you met Old Joe Biden in any social setting, you’d smile and nod and not try to make any sense of what he was saying, because it would be abundantly clear that this is a man who is not in full possession of his faculties. But the poor WhiteHouse.gov transcript wonks have to try to turn Old Joe’s dementia-addled ramblings into something remotely approaching sense and accuracy, and he had them working overtime at a G7 Summit press conference on Sunday.

Observation O’ The Day

It’s clear this crook cannot function, which begs the question, who is running things & making decisions? Kamala? Um, no. Nancy’s gone. Klain is gone. Jill? Maybe. Either way, it’s clear nobody elected the actual boss(s), whomever that may be & the press remains uninterested

Remember all the “Stop Asian Hate” posturing? That went away when people started pointing out where the violence was coming from.

No prison time for black man who set Asian Berkeley students on fire with homemade blowtorch

Prosecutor funded by George Soros gets criminal sent to ‘diversion program.’

A black man found guilty of setting two Asian University of California Berkeley students on fire will face no jail time as part of a plea deal with a prosecutor who ran on an agenda of ending “mass incarceration.”

Brandon McGlone “was found guilty of lighting UC Berkeley students on fire at a boba shop near the Cal campus in 2020 has been released from custody without prison time or probation after agreeing to participate in a diversion program for veterans,” according to The Berkeley Scanner, which reviewed the court records.

But he reached a plea deal with the Alameda County District Attorney’s office, which is run by Pamela Price, who “has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from the progressive billionaire George Soros,” according to The Washington Free Beacon.

The two students were not the first victims of McGlone, who earlier in the day had said he “wanted to light someone on fire” and then proceeded to carry out his wishes.

He first chased one man down the street and tried to light him on fire after spraying him with WD-40. “Another man also ran from McGlone to escape being set on fire after being sprayed with a liquid while waiting in line at Taco Bell Cantina, according to testimony,” the Berkeley Scanner reported.

The paper further reported:

McGlone’s next stop was Feng Cha Tea House, at 2528 Durant Ave., where he found students waiting in line to order food and drinks.

He sprayed two of them with WD-40 and used a lighter to ignite the gas, creating a massive fireball, witnesses said.

The students managed to pat out the flames and escape injury. Members of their group then confronted McGlone and fought with him in the street.

During the fight, according to testimony, McGlone first pulled out a knife and then pulled out a hatchet.

Student senators also cited the incident in 2020 when it passed a resolution that called for mandatory xenophobia training.

Barking mad Nebraska State Senator really wants you to know that she’s pro-trans.

I don’t know whether it is an overstatement to suggest people with “gender dysphoria” have a mental illness, or whether there is a social contagion at work (like the anorexia epidemic among young women a couple decades ago that ultimately faded out to a large extent), but scenes like this state legislator in Nebraska aren’t reassuring that there’s a rational defense of the trans-phenomenon. (Wonder what she will do when told that Trans World Airlines went bankrupt 30 years ago. Probably another screech about capitalism or something.)

This video is about one minute long, but it seems much longer.

I have not often seen stupidity of this level. It’s like the concept of the black market doesn’t even enter the thought process since it might hash the narrative.

The ability for innocent people to have guns DIRECTLY allows perpetrators to purchase firearms as well. If you do not get to have one, a school shooter doesn’t get to have one as well.
— Lesser G

Now, personally I never did like Chocolate Milk from childhood, but this is past ridiculous

Biden Admin: Chocolate Milk Too Dangerous for Kids but Puberty Blockers Are Fine

As if President Joe Biden and his administration haven’t already done enough to make life more difficult and usher in more hardship for the American people, his band of merry muck-ups are now setting their sights on school lunches and toying around with a ban on chocolate milk — as well as strawberry milk and other flavor alternatives — over concerns about added sugars.

Yes, the same administration that called it “outrageous” and “immoral” to prevent children from taking life-altering hormones to prevent puberty for the purpose of “transitioning” is worried that milk provided at school might have ill effects on their health.

This potentially devastating news for America’s students came courtesy of a scoop in The Wall Street Journal this week on what the United States Department of Agriculture is weighing as it works on revamping federal standards for school-provided meals.

Via WSJ:

The issue has divided parents, child-nutrition specialists, school-meal officials and others. Supporters of restricting flavored milk say it has added sugars that contribute to childhood obesity and establish preferences for overly sweet drinks. But opponents, including the dairy industry and many school districts, say removing it will lead to children drinking less milk.

“We want to take a product that most kids like and that has nine essential nutrients in it and say, ‘You can’t drink this, you have to drink plain’?” asked Katie Wilson, executive director of the Urban School Food Alliance, which represents 18 of the largest school districts in the country. “What are we trying to prove?”[…]

The USDA proposed guidelines for school meals earlier this year, but held off making a recommendation on flavored milk, most of which is chocolate.

The agency said it is considering excluding flavored milk from elementary and possibly middle schools, or continuing to serve it to all grade levels. Under either scenario, flavored milk would have to comply with a new limit on the amount of added sugars.

“Flavored milk is a challenging issue to figure out exactly the best path forward,” Cindy Long, administrator of USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, said, explaining why the agency is weighing two options. “We really do want to encourage children to consume milk and we also recognize the need to reduce added-sugar consumption.”

Oh, so the USDA chickened out on making a decision on chocolate milk already, and now they’re still hemming and hawing trying to decide whether students should have the choice of chocolate milk with their lunch. And even if they do have chocolate milk available, they’re going to restrict how much sugar is in it?

The federal government is clumsy and ineffective at handling pretty much every aspect of Americans’ lives into which it intrudes, and once again Biden is ready to put the USDA in a position of dietary lunch monitor. Where was this concern from the Biden USDA — or any federal agency over the past three years — for the health of America’s children who were more or less locked inside their homes due to COVID? Playgrounds were dismantled, Jen Psaki bragged about how her kids weren’t allowed to play with their friends, and the federal government did lasting damage to the rising generation’s mental health without any similar level of concern nor any apology.

What about the Biden administration’s embrace of radical transgender ideology that states it’s a human right for young people — with or without their parents’ consent — to begin taking often irreversible hormone treatments or moving toward mutilative surgeries? If your kid wants to begin taking hormones that will prevent them from going through puberty, the Biden administration isn’t worried about long term effects. But if your kid wants to decide to have chocolate milk at lunch, well that’s a huge problem with lasting negative health consequences that must be stopped. It’s beyond absurd.

And when it comes to schools, the Biden administration should have reopened them rather than letting Randi Weingarten and her AFT union bosses keep schools locked down. The years of learning loss created by big government “help” will likely prove more damaging to a young student’s longterm health and success in life than that same child having eight ounces of chocolate milk a few times a week.

Herd of Cows aid North Carolina police pursuit, leading them ‘directly’ to suspect

Police said the cows appeared to be opposed to suspected criminals loitering in their pasture

North Carolina police officers made an arrest with the help of a herd of cows who were happy to narc on the suspect hiding in their pasture.

The Town of Boone Police Department said the suspect, later identified as Joshua Minton, 34, fled from officers during a traffic stop on Tuesday and led the officers and Watauga County Sheriff’s Office deputies on a pursuit. He abandoned his vehicle in the Deep Gap area and ran into an undeveloped area.

Because of the suspect’s “fast and reckless driving,” officers were not immediately close enough to see where he ran to, according to police.

Officers began searching the area for the man and received some unexpected assistance from cows willing to reveal the suspect’s whereabouts.

“Apparently cows do not want suspected criminals loitering in their pasture and quickly assisted our officers by leading them directly to where the suspect was hiding,” police said in a press release. “The cows communicated with the officers as best they could and finally just had the officers follow them to the suspect’s location.”

Minton was apprehended and charged with one count of felony fleeing and eluding arrest with a motor vehicle, driving with a license revoked, and disorderly conduct. He received a $20,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in court on June 28, in Watauga County.

The police department thanked the cows for their assistance in finding Minton.

“In addition to thanking our officers and deputies for putting themselves in harm’s way; obviously, we want to express our gratitude to the cows for their assistance,” police said. “This opens up all kinds of questions as to the bovines’ role in crime fighting. Honestly, it is something that we have not considered before now.”