Kafka's Cops live

A friend points me to a New York Times piece detailing some of the horrors of the anti-terrorist bureaucracy. In his note my pal mentions Kafka, leading me to wonder if that genius's name cracks the consciousness of enough modern skulls to make a difference.

(Kafka wrote of accused persons who might be guilty, or might not. The prisoner himself had no idea because the charges against him were secret. It was permissible because the bureaucracy said it was permissible.)

The Times report pegs itself on the case of a woman who, five years ago, was found to be on the no-fly list, questioned, detained, and turned loose without explanation. She sued, and a portion of her case against the secret government which compiles such lists has survived in the courts, despite the best efforts of the government.

The point is not that bureaucrats sometimes err. It is that any human is owed the minimum civility of a statement of why he is under suspicion and, if the accusation is found baseless, an apology for the bureaucrats' bumbling.

My buddy John lives in the GMA where he is employed as an expert. In his spare time he keeps me up to date on quarter-MOA groups shot by James Lileks. The latest:

"It’s never the future for a dog, but they’re aware of it, inasmuch as they have a keen sense of expecting what is to come, but that’s just displacing the Present into the realm of Desire, and barking until it comes true. See also, politics."

Improvised weaponry

"Barefoot" is pretty good wine for the money, and it doesn't suffer the ignominy of coming with a screw top. It closes with a "cork" of plastic or some such, and the thing looks durable enough to stand rough handling.

It mikes .8125. I'm looking for something in the shed with a .8125 ID. Then compressed air? Surgical tubing? Hair spray?

Look to your laurels, Dr. Strangegun.

Renewal

This is just to keep the TMR author focused. It's repeated occasionally, and it has been too long.

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There's a good deal of plain wise-assery in The McGee Reader, and no change is foreseen. But crude and vulgar bile promulgated to the public should rest on some kind of philosophical and intellectual basis, to wit:

Three kinds of people exist.

(1) authoritarians -- the stunted cretins who wish to use government to dictate the manner in which you live your life

(2) libertarians -- the opposite, believers in personal sovereignty who suspect that things like the United States Constitution mean pretty much what they say

(3) inerts -- those who, in return for potted chickens, put authoritarians in power