Most of us probably take for granted the process that allows us to sample the food, music, and culture of the world, without having to travel all over the world.  I certainly take for granted the fact that I can enjoy upper-crust sushi complete with a decorative, flaming shot of Everclear in the evening, followed by a hole-in-the-wall diner the next morning.

“Cultural appropriation” is merely a smear of the wonderful process of cultural exchange that ineluctably occurs when people are given a modicum of liberty.  How would society look if cultural barriers were put up?  Would we be better or worse off if we could only participate in our own culture?

WSJ: FISA abuses are a special threat to privacy and due process.  The standard for obtaining an intelligence surveillance warrant is lower than that in a criminal investigation.

CNBC: Here are the 7 biggest things you missed about the Democratic memo on the Russia probe

CyberScoop: Case against alleged hoarder of NSA documents gets tougher for federal prosecutors

The Federalist: How to reform federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies

National Review: Broward County sheriff is everything that’s wrong with American authority

Reason: Trump wants to start executing drug dealers

High Times: NYPD facing criticism for racial disparity in marijuana arrests

Techdirt: Kansas legislature introduces two bills mandating speedy release of police body camera footage

Washington Examiner: The fight against extremism is turning into a fight against freedom

Cipher Brief: No Facebook or Twitter? You’re probably a spy

Gizmodo: US Air Force chief warns of space war “in a matter of years”

CNBC: This smartphone cuts off your camera and microphone so no spy agencies can watch you

Well+Good: Are psychedelic drugs about to become the new Prozac? Ed: We can only hope

BoingBoing: Surveillance-happy authoritarian “Democratic” California senator Dianne Feinstein loses endorsement of Democratic Party

The Hill: Is the Supreme Court set to establish major precedent in email privacy?

Reuters: Europe seeks power to seize overseas data in challenge to tech giants

TheAfricom: Apple to store iCloud cryptographic keys in China, raising privacy fears

Techdirt: Rancher sues CBP after officers install surveillance camera on his private property

WENDY MCELROY: Privacy is the virtue that sparked the American Revolution

The Federalist: Michael Flynn’s case could prove Democrats wrong about federal agencies’ court abuse

Also The Federalist: Florida sheriff Scott Israel needs to resign for incompetence

The real questions: Forbes: Why haven’t we bumped into another universe? 

Activist Post: Newly released documents proves secret surveillance court spying on innocent Americans

Daily Signal: Fired Google employee warns social media users about censored speech

TechCrunch: Congress should close loophole allowing warrantless digital car searches

NextGov: The city that remembers everything Ed: Euphemistically called the ‘smart city’, it’s really a total surveillance ecosystem that makes use of AI and data for “efficiency purposes”.  It is total, unbridled surveillance.

National Review: The Schiff memo harms Democrats more than it helps them

Reason: Florida Sheriff who received multiple tips on shooter won’t resign, says his leadership “has been amazing”

Zero Hedge: Florida governor orders investigation into Parkland shooting response

The Intercept: California Democrats deny Feinstein their endorsement for Senate

Reuters: Ecuador says mediation with Britain over Assange has failed

Smithsonian: Settles buried truth about the Midwest’s mysterious mound cities

The Guardian: Don’t worry about AI going bad, it’s the minds behind it that are the danger

Aeon: Algorithmic wilderness

Press Herald: Portland’s ‘smart city’ ambition has privacy risks, ACLU says

Unz: Russiagate: will every critic of our government policies soon be indictable?

AZCentral: Harder drugs, higher profits: US-Mexico border sees shift in the kinds of drugs seized

Time: 21 Red Cross staffers involved in sexual misconduct since 2015

Flashback: Rampant sexual abuse of poor populations at the hands of UN peacekeepers

LibertyLaw: The long war as permanent state of emergency

Marshall Project: A “death spiral” for police unions?

Green Market Report: MedMen becomes first marijuana ‘unicorn’

The emerging narrative of the Parkland aftermath is clear: greater gun control, and more cops in our schools.  These ideas are would be ineffective at best, and would succeed only in turning schools into prisons, and students into inmates.  But imagine the public funds it would take to pull off this type of domestic militarization, and it’s easy to see why so many powerful industries are rising in its support.

What our public schools need is the presence of members of private security, not more cowards hiding behind a badge, a union, and an “officers bill of rights”.  Protectors of our children should be ones who feel the ever-present fear of accountability, and of losing a paycheck.  After all, “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest.  We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages.”

A private security firm doesn’t have the time nor the endless stream of public funds at its disposal to paper over colossal blunders such as the ones committed by law enforcement at every stage leading up to Parkland.  They would almost certainly screen out the cowards in favor of the Frank Castles.

This won’t happen, but it should.  Schools need do need protection, what they don’t need is more government intervention.  I can’t imagine it would be that hard to hire a number of armed, professional guards from a private firm to patrol the school grounds.  There would be no need for far-reaching legislation, no “gun control”.

Nevertheless, it is clear that a narrative is being constructed that is already being wielded in favor of turning public schools into Police States in miniature, which means either more cops, or an expansion of the TSA into our kids’ lives.  More cops in schools mean more interactions between minorities and cops at a younger age.  Which means a greater probability of kids building a rap sheet much earlier in life. It also means conditioning children to accept the Police State they will become acquainted with when they emerge from these prisons as adults.  But it won’t keep them safe. Not from other students, but especially from the institution that will always remain the greatest and most immediate threat to their safety: the State itself.

Just a few thoughts from a caffeine-addled mind.

USA Today: Democratic memo alleges FBI began spying on Carter Page before receiving Steele dossier

The Federalist: Could the police legally do no wrong during the Parkland massacre?

Reason: Florida Gov. Rick Scott calls for more gun control, more cops in schools

Activist Post: Apparently the “solution” to mass shootings is to turn schools into prisons

Express: Funeral parlour looking for ‘volunteers’ for ‘Black Mirror’ project to create immortal AI

The Guardian: Worry less about the march of robots, more about techno panic

CNN: How biometrics is giving identities to ‘invisible citizens’

MintPressNews: Coke, Nestle to privatize world’s second largest aquifer in Brazil

NZ Herald: New series details intelligence failures that led to 9/11

High Times: These 12 states could pass marijuana laws this year

Forbes: If the universe is 13.8 billion years old, how can we see 46 billion light years away?

Discover: Chemists forge custom molecules upon ‘diamond anvils’

NatGeo: Antarctic ice study finds freezing, not melting

Activist Post: Second Florida survivor family now alleging scripted CNN narrative to push gun ban

The Independent: Apple to move iCloud data to China, prompting fears over government access to personal data

FactorDaily: When Big Brother meets Big Data, we’ll live in glass houses

National Review: Is ‘Collusion with Russia’ over?

SHELDON RICHMAN: The tragicomedy of ‘Russiagate’

The Federalist: The Russia probe has turned the news into “Ancient Aliens”

Daily Mail: Army Major facing new probe in Iraqi deaths hands in medals

The Federalist: Full transcript: Tipster warned FBI that Parkland shooter “is going to explode”

Reason: 3 officers made no attempt to enter school and engage shooter

National Review: Excusing cowardice is no path to gun control

Activist Post: State Chinese paper encourages US to restrict guns “to protect human rights”

Zero Hedge: Mexican gun control ensures that the cartels outgun citizens

PAT BUCHANAN: Don’t confiscate guns: protect schools.

Motherboard: Military, FBI, and ICE are customers of controversial “stalkerware”

Techdirt: US border officials have never verified chipped passports, despite demanding their usage

MintPressNews: ‘Mother Jones’ senior reporter asks Medium to silence antiwar leftists

SyFy: What mysteries lurk at Proxima Centauri?

Fox News: Police officers guard home of Florida HS cop who hid outside during shooting

The Federalist: Officer’s hesitation to stop shooting fits a pattern of police cowardice

Miami Herald: How many more in authority failed Stoneman Douglas High School?

Intellectual Takeout: Tech exec doomsday preppers: Protecting themselves from the automation monster they created

Daily Mail: The robot that can read your mind: Creepy ‘Black Mirror’-style machine scans your brain to recreate the face you’re thinking about

Antiwar.com: Let’s acknowledge US interference in foreign elections

USA Today: Free-range kids: Finally, one state lets kids grow up without helicopter parents

National Review: Steel tariffs do not advance national security

CBS: Private company is trying to get Baltimore spy plane in the air again

IBTimes: Militarized spying dolphins? US military wants to recruit sea creatures to spy on enemy submarines

Christian Post: WhatsApp founder donates $50 million to encrypting technology