The Warrant Canary is Illegal in Australia

For those who don't know, a warrant canary is the periodic transmission of a statement along the lines of, "We have not received any warrant demanding your data." If the message stops being sent then the recipient(s) can assume such a warrant has been served. The idea behind this is that the gag-order that often accompanies such demands from law enforcement cannot prevent a person from not speaking.

Until now. In Australia.

Australian government minister: Dodge new data retention law like this

Warrant canaries can't be used in this context either. Section 182A of the new law says that a person commits an offense if he or she discloses or uses information about "the existence or non-existence of such a [journalist information] warrant." The penalty upon conviction is two years imprisonment.

In truth the warrant canaries were unlikely to work for long. In the current, fear driven environment there is little reason for law enforcement to restrain itself from coercing the target of a warrant into sending false canary messages. By outlawing even the attempt to use a warrant canary, the Australians are just being more honest about being a bunch of progressive schmucks.

I anticipate similar wording will be added to US law.

America Needs a Senator like This

A Australian Social Democrat named Gary Burns argued that multiculturalism is the law in Australia. Senator David Leyonjhelm replied with a simple and direct, "Go fuck yourself you communist turd."

"Go F**k Yourself You Communist Turd" Senator Says To Anti-Free Speech Democrat

Good for him.

Judging from the Wikipedia article on him, Leyonjhelm is a libertarian who supports decriminalizing marijuana, legalizing same sex marriage and charging a fee for permanent residency in Australia. He is also pro gun and supports legalizing assisted suicide *.

And he doesn't like communist turds.

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* Suicide is legal in Australia but only by your own hand. Apparently, no one is permitted to assist in any way so those too weak to manage the deed alone are sentenced to whatever lingering death nature arranges for them.

Dumb Down Under

The Australian Olympic swimmers, Nick D'Arcy and Kenrick Monk, stopped at a gun shop reportedly in Santa Clara, California. There the evil gun virus infected their brains and prompted them to be photographed inexpertly holding firearms.

Monk posted the image to his Facebook page.

Predictably, Swimming Australia and Gun Control Australia immediately started pissing in the pool. Swimming Australia demanded the picture be removed from Facebook. GCA spokeshole John Crook called it a new low commenting, "If ever there was a photo of two kids playing macho boys this is it."

Australian Olympic swimmers Nick D'Arcy and Kenrick Monk pose with guns in Facebook photo

Wow! A couple of healthy males posing with guns. Are Australians now afraid of photographs? I suppose the pair will be sent to a re-education camp to have their attitude adjusted to be more in line with what the ruling class in Australia wants it to be.

H/T to David Codrea over at The War on Guns

See also: Australian Olympic swimmers in hot water after gun photo

Psychological Screening of Gun Owners

In his latest Gun Rights Examiner column, David Codrea looks at this report in World News Australia.

Prospective gun owners would have to pass a mental health test before being granted a firearms licence[sic] under recommendations submitted by a NSW coroner.

This is one of those proposals that sounds reasonable at first. After all, does anyone want a "mentally ill" person to have a gun? In fact, does anyone want a mentally ill person to have a drivers license? For that matter, why would anyone want the mentally ill voting?

The abuse of "mental health" screening has a long and distinguished history. It was used by the Soviets to quell dissent by simply declaring that anyone who opposed the Communist Party was mentally ill then locking them up for reeducation. Institutional psychiatry was a willing and enthusiastic servant of the fascists in Italy and Spain. Hell, the Italian fascists invented Electo-Shock Therapy. The abuses of the label "mentally defective" was used by the National Socialists as a precursor to disposing of the labelee.

The average public school graduate may dismiss this as a Slippery Slope argument. However, the Slippery Slope is an informal fallacy only if the stated connections cannot be established. If the logic of the first step can be connected to the logic of the next then it is a legitimate argument. This makes it vital to reject any destructive principle with a demonstrated and logical identification with its worst implications.

The voice in my head tells me this is bad idea

Concealed Weapons Permits in Oz

Interesting to see this idea floated here

Despite governments putting more and more police on the street in the CBD of melbourne and getting "tough" on crime, violence is still on the rise. Being under Common Law, Australians' rights are spelled out in the Magna Carta. One of the rights in the Magna Carta is self defense. In the U.S., carry concealed weapons permits have been successful in deterring criminal behaviour, and reducing crimes since potential victims are now able to defend themselves. Criminals think twice. The Liberals party should look at allowing law-abiding adults, with no criminal records the ability to carry concealed weapons in an effort to deter criminal behaviour.

Judging from the comments and my, admittedly incomplete, knowledge of Australian culture, I seriously doubt this will ever happen. The Government and criminal class in Australia have the citizens just about where they want them. I suspect that the crime victim in near future Australia will be forced to follow after his English brethren:  Reduced to hiding his head under the seat cushions in the hope the bad guys will mistake his ass for a bean bag chair.

H/T to David Codrea