Society's ChildS


Monkey Wrench

How Hollywood spawned the ban on DIY repair

Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy
The Conversation
Fri, 22 May 2026 18:04 UTC
betamax video player repair right to
© Steve Jurvetson/Wikimedia CommonsBetamax video recorders like this one helped set off a chain of events leading to bans on repairing your own devices.
Today's bans on DIY repairs of everything from cell phones to tractors grew out of Hollywood's fear of videotaping

If you have ever tried to repair something, realized that it was beyond your financial or technical means, and ended up buying a new one, you are not alone. Repairing electronics and household appliances has not been a real option in the United States for decades now, particularly for items that have proprietary software in them.

Absurd situations have proliferated. It can cost about the same to buy a new printer as it does to replace the ink cartridge. The U.S. Department of Defense cannot repair the weapons systems it purchases because the intellectual property rights remain with the manufacturer. John Deere, the farming equipment company, doesn't allow farmers to access the software needed to repair their own combines and tractors because, while the purchase covers the physical machinery, it does not cover the software.

Comment: The issue has been simmering for a while now:



More on the fight to regain sovereignty over one aspect of life.

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Snakes in Suits

Masked man? Fox News guest Robert Harward sparks wild conspiracy theory over latest TV appearance

Emily Crane
NY Post
Fri, 22 May 2026 14:46 UTC
Robert Harward
© FOX NewsMany speculated on social media that Harward was wearing a mask.
A Fox News guest has sparked a social media frenzy with wild speculation that he went on live TV wearing a prosthetic mask.

Retired Navy Vice Adm. Robert Harward made a brief appearance on the "America's Newsroom" program on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing war with Iran with Fox hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino.

In the days since, his TV spot has exploded online — but not for his actual remarks about the conflict.

Instead, bizarre conspiracy theories have been popping up claiming Harward, who was once tapped to be President Trump's National Security Adviser, had donned a mask for the interview.

Viewers pointed specifically to a dark mark that could be seen near the bottom of his neck as supposed proof of a cover-up.
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Biohazard

Toxic chemicals rain from sky as terrifying leak at Garden Grove plant forces evacuations

Kevin Barr
NY Post
Fri, 22 May 2026 14:35 UTC
GKN Aerospace leak
© KTLAAn aerial view of a storage tank leaking toxic chemicals at the GKN Aerospace facility in Garden Grove
A leak of toxic chemicals from a massive tank at a Garden Grove aerospace facility forced evacuations to be reissued on Friday, a day after residents were first ordered out of the area.

Firefighters on Thursday afternoon responded to a vapor release from a 34,000-gallon tank containing methyl methacrylate at the site on the 12100 block of Western Avenue, according to the Orange County Fire Authority.

The industrial chemical is used in plastics and manufacturing, officials said. The leak occurred at the GKN Aerospace plant, KABC reported.

The tank's temperature had increased, activating a relief valve designed to safely release vapors, according to OCFA.

An overhead sprinkler system was activated to cool the tank, and vapor conditions improved as the liquid's temperature decreased, officials said.
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Cowboy Hat

Musk offers to fund lawsuit against UK police in Henry Nowak stabbing tragedy

Steve Watson
ZeroHedge
Fri, 22 May 2026 21:43 UTC
henry nowak
© Henry Nowak/XHenry Nowak was stabbed by a Sikh man wielding a ceremonial sword and bled to death while handcuffed by Southampton police.
Elon Musk has stepped forward to hold UK police accountable in what appears to be one of the most disturbing policing failures to emerge from Britain in years.

The tech mogul publicly offered to bankroll a wrongful death lawsuit against officers who allegedly prioritized an attacker's claims of "racism" over saving the life of 18-year-old Henry Nowak.

Musk's intervention comes as harrowing bodycam footage from the scene plays out in Southampton Crown Court during the ongoing murder trial of Vickrum Singh Digwa, the 23-year-old man of Indian Sikh heritage accused of stabbing Nowak four times with a 21cm blade.

Comment: From Hungarian Conservative:
The case triggered immediate backlash on British social media, particularly among right-wing anti-immigration commentators and supporters of Reform UK, over what critics described as 'two-tier policing' in Britain.

Much of the outrage centred on the decision to handcuff a visibly bleeding white British teenager while, according to critics, immediately accepting claims of racial abuse made by the alleged attacker, who is reportedly from a Sikh immigrant background and was allegedly wearing a turban at the time.

Nowak's death also reignited criticism of Britain's legal exemptions allowing Sikhs to carry ceremonial blades in public for religious reasons. However, according to the prosecution, Digwa's weapon exceeded what would normally qualify as a protected ceremonial item under the relevant legal framework.

The trial has generated further controversy because prosecutors also accuse the suspect's mother, Kiran Kaur, of assisting Digwa by allegedly removing the knife from the scene and taking it back to the family home after the stabbing. She denies the charge.

British police have not publicly provided a detailed explanation regarding the allegations surrounding officers' actions at the scene, and there is currently no indication that any officer involved faces criminal charges or disciplinary consequences.


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Family

The best cities to live in the US are located in GOP states with conservative mayors

David Propper and Anna Young
New York Post
Wed, 20 May 2026 18:58 UTC
small city aerial shot generic safe clean conservative
© Chase – stock.adobe.coUS News & World Report in 2026-27 revealed that the 10 best US cities to live in are mostly in ruby-red states with mayors that lean into conservative values.
Nine of the 10 best American cities in which to live are located in GOP-led states with mayors that lean into conservative values like law and order and "more accountable" government spending, according to a new report.

Quality of life, affordability, a strong job market and overall desirability were taken into account when ranking the best places in the US to settle down.

The top-notch cities were revealed by US News & World Report this week and only one landed in a blue state — Rochester Hills, Michigan, which was ranked the 7th best spot.

US News & World Report in 2026-27 revealed that the 10 best US cities to live in are mostly in ruby-red states with mayors that lean into conservative values.

Comment: Alas, such publicity is not always good for the city in question. The very things that make it attractive tend to bring elements that degrade those qualities. It takes firm political leadership to maintain (conserve!) the quality of life.

On another note, how in the world did Frisco, TX make that list?







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Bad Guys

Authoritarianism arrives not with a coup, but with a login

Sam Lowry
The Daily Sceptic
Thu, 21 May 2026 18:24 UTC
surveillance security login thumbprint digital identification totalitarianism
© Blue Planet Studio/iStock
Authoritarianism doesn't usually arrive with a coup. It arrives with a login, a compliance form, a penalty notice for keeping records in the wrong format. It comes with a quietly extended electoral term, a cancelled bank account, a prison sentence for a social media post. Each measure has a reasonable-sounding justification. The problem is the direction — and how far it has already travelled.

Power is migrating from the visible arena of democratic politics to the less visible world of systems — compliance regimes, regulators with elastic mandates and an expanding mesh of rules governing more of daily life than most people have yet registered. No single measure looks like tyranny. The problem is the cumulative direction and the speed at which it is moving.

None of what follows was in any manifesto. All of it is happening.
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Arrow Down

Starmer government doubles down on anti-free speech policies

Johnathan Turley
jonathanturley,org
Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00 UTC
Keir Starmer
© WPA Pool/Getty ImagesSir Keir Starmer
When hundreds of thousands of Britons joined the recent Unite the Kingdom rally, the government of Keir Starmer wanted them to know that they were being watched for possible arrest. By deploying facial recognition systems and invoking the United Kingdom's anti-free speech laws, Starmer's government made it clear that it would not tolerate anything it considered hateful or xenophobic, on the heels of its losses to Reform UK in council elections.

Under its Online Safety Act, the government removed posts from social media platforms such as TikTok, including statements about Reform UK's immigration policies.

Among those impacted was Reform UK's shadow home secretary Zia Yusuf who reportedly had "two videos removed from TikTok — one for a user report under the UK's Online Safety Act and another for hate speech." They were later restored.

Starmer's government also reportedly prevented speakers from the rally from entering the county, citing concerns they might "incite" the crowd.

The Times reported last year that the government was arresting 30 people a day for speech crimes.
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Bizarro Earth

Land grab: The billionaires' club at the center of America's public lands fight

Evan Simon and Ames Alexander
High Country News
Wed, 13 May 2026 20:24 UTC
yellowstone
© Evan Simon / FloodlightThe Yellowstone Club has a long history of transforming public lands across Montana and was deeply involved in reshaping the Crazy Mountains through a controversial land swap in 2025.
A controversial land swap orchestrated by the mega rich could be 'a harbinger of what's to come' for public lands under Trump.

At the end of a dirt road along the northeastern edge of Montana's Crazy Mountains, a simple sign warns visitors they are now entering private property.

For fifth-generation Montanan Brad Wilson, the notice marks a defeat with implications far beyond the Crazies.

"The fate of our public lands and our rights are in jeopardy right now," Wilson told Floodlight.

Wilson is a former sheriff's deputy and lifelong hunter. For most of his life, he has lived in the jagged shadows of the Crazy Mountains — their snow-capped peaks and twisting valleys watched him grow from a boy herding sheep on his grandfather's ranch to a grey-haired hunter tracking elk herds across their remote slopes.

"The loss of this access means a lot to me and everybody else," he said beside the gate, looking down and hiding the wet corners of his eyes.
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Attention

Small UK town forced to form 'vigilante' security team to protect women and kids from migrants

Steve Watson
Modernity
Wed, 20 May 2026 20:01 UTC
britain crowsborough security patrol migrants
© gbnews.comVolunteers in Crowsborough, UK have formed patrols in response to threatening behavior from migrants housed in a camp nearby.
Government plopped hundreds of them in former army barracks.

Residents of a quiet East Sussex town have been left with no choice but to patrol their own streets after the leftist Labour government dumped hundreds of unvetted male migrants into a former army camp on their doorstep.

Crowborough, a small community of around 20,000 people, is now home to a volunteer security force called Crowborough Aware. With 81 vetted locals stepping up, the group is conducting regular patrols to deter trouble and keep women and children safe.

This is the direct result of years of open borders policies that have seen tiny, peaceful towns turned into testing grounds for mass migration.
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Wall Street

Economics: The sociological foundation of civilization

Joe Chavez
Mises Institute
Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00 UTC
wheel cogs
© AdobeStock
People often wonder about the origins of the civil world. Few, if any, have ever reached conclusions. Civilization begins in the imagination of gifted men. To make progress individuals must imagine the relationship between the physical world, the timing of events, and the control/influence they have of the world around them. It is in these subjective perspectives where value is created out of seemingly valueless items. It is in the mind of the individual where a unique perspective/insight gives rise to goods once considered useless into goods of value.

Carl Menger the founder of the Austrian School of economics wrote,
When a hunting people is passing over to sedentary agriculture, land and materials that were not previously used and are now employed for the first time for the satisfaction of human needs (lime, sand, timber, and stones for building, for example) usually maintain their non-economic character for some time after the transition has begun. It is therefore not the limited quantities of these goods that prevents economizing men in the first stages of civilization from making progress in the employment of goods of higher orders for the satisfaction of their needs.
The original limiting factor is the knowledge of the causal relationship and how it can satisfy human wants.
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