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Covid’s nasty – there’s more to life than imprisoning ourselves

It is not an accident that the US constitution gives equal weight to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as the guiding principles for government.

A concern for life and health must always be balanced with a concern to protect spaces for us to do our own thing and to define wellbeing in our own way.

A pandemic may be a chance for some medical leaders to impose their ideas of how people should live – but it does not mean they should be allowed to do so.

It is time to stop “following the science” and to recognise we are making choices about the sort of society we want to live in.

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Your Phone Is Spying On You: Companies Are Generating Secret “Surveillance Scores” Based On That Data

Nothing that you do on your phone is private.  In this day and age, most of us have become extremely dependent on our phones, and most Americans never even realize that these extremely sophisticated little devices are gathering mountains of information on each one of us. 

Your phone knows what you look like, it knows the sound of your voice, it knows where you have been, it knows where you have shopped, it knows your Internet searches and it knows what you like to do in your free time.  In fact, your phone literally knows thousands of things about you, and all of that information is bought and sold every single day without you knowing. 

And as you will see below, there are lots of companies out there that use information collected from our phones to create secret “surveillance scores” that are used for a whole host of alarming purposes.

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Grand Jury Charges Ed Buck with Four Additional Felonies, Including that He Enticed Victims to Travel Interstate to Engage in Prostitution

A federal grand jury today returned a superseding indictment charging Edward Buck with four additional felonies, including that he allegedly enticed victims – including a man who died at his West Hollywood apartment after he administered drugs to him – to travel interstate to engage in prostitution.

          Buck, 65, was arrested in September 2019 after being charged in United States District Court with providing methamphetamine to a man who died after receiving the drug intravenously. Since that time, federal authorities have continued to investigate Buck for additional crimes.

          The four additional counts charged today – bringing the total number of charges in this case to nine counts – include one count alleging that Buck knowingly enticed 26-year-old Gemmel Moore to travel to the Los Angeles area to engage in prostitution. Buck allegedly provided methamphetamine to Moore, who overdosed on the drug and died on July 27, 2017.

          Buck also is charged with another count of enticing another man to travel with the intent of engaging in prostitution.

          The superseding indictment also charges Buck with one count of knowingly and intentionally distributing methamphetamine, and one count of using his residence for the purpose of distributing narcotics such as methamphetamine, and the sedatives gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) and clonazepam.

          Last year, a federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment charging that Buck “engaged in a pattern of soliciting men to consume drugs that Buck provided and perform sexual acts at Buck’s apartment,” which is a practice described as “party and play.” Buck allegedly solicited victims on social media platforms, including a gay dating website, and used a recruiter to scout and proposition men.

          Once the men were at his apartment, Buck allegedly prepared syringes containing methamphetamine, sometimes personally injecting the victims with or without their consent, according to the indictment. Buck also allegedly injected victims with more narcotics than they expected and sometimes injected victims while they were unconscious.

          Another victim, Timothy Dean also suffered a fatal overdose in Buck’s apartment, on January 7, 2019, the indictment alleges.

          Buck is scheduled to go to trial in this matter on January 19, 2021. His arraignment on the first superseding indictment is expected in the coming weeks.

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