If you’re the sort who likes the actual facts, here’s where you can find the wikileaks cables. The ones I read didn’t look particularly damning. Cruddy, and very political but not that surprising. And I can’t argue much about the US trying to limit the number of man portable anti-air missiles floating around non- governmental forces.
December 10, 2010
December 1, 2010
Why I’m done with Apple
Folks ask why I didn’t stick with Apple for my second smart phone. It’s because they act like nannies and limit what their users can do. Most recently, Apple banned an app that presents Android news. And, as I looked into it, I found out that Apple gets to approve each and every issue of a magazine before it’s allowed to be published via an iPhone app. That’s just not acceptable.
November 22, 2010
TSA compromise
Looks like the TSA is going to compromise by doing everything the same long enough that it stops being news.
A NY Times article has some great quotes. “in the sort term there will not be any changes.” And “most Americans are not used to a real law-enforcement pat-down like that.”
Yeah, it’s surprising how few law-abiding citizens have been arrested or treated like criminals isn’t it?
VIP’s like TV magician Penn (& Teller) and congressmen can opt out of security. Some people are, after all, more equal than others.
In the land of the free, routine search is not acceptable.
November 19, 2010
secret airport boobies!
That’s right ma’am, lift your arms up and smile while you show my friend your boobies!
November 18, 2010
our xray glasses make you safer citizen
This image more or less sums up my feelings about the TSA’s Advanced Imaging Tech.
It’s from the new website Fly With Dignity
April 21, 2010
Undressed protest
Today, a short video of some protesters spreading awareness of full body scanners at airports.
Yes, really, the scanners see through you clothing. You don’t have anything to hide though so why shouldn’t you be stripped naked. I’m sure the fellow operating the machine isn’t checking out your body, saving the image and bringing it home.
April 3, 2010
news, fear, acorn, hope
Here’s an editorial video about how FOX News and the Republican Party are making up thing to worry about. It’s by Rachael Maddow and is called Let Them Eat Fake.
After being afraid of razor blades in apples, needles in caddy bars and the “dangers” of role playing games I’ve decided that the news no longer has permission to make me afraid. It is the policy of many news outlets to be inflammatory and induce fear so they can sell advertising. (Wikipedia “Culture of Fear“)
I will not live in fear. The bad things on the news are newsworthy because they are unusually bad. The world is not getting worse.
Humans try to make the world a little bit better than in was before them. That’s been going on for 200,000 years. The world is not getting worse.
We hear about smaller problems from farther away. That’s a reasonable effect of improved safety and efficient communication. Today we can worry about a boy from 2000 miles away who might be floating away in a balloon that can’t lift him. The world is not getting worse.
This is not the first year that there have been crazy people, murder, rape, kidnapping or war. The rates are going down. Have you ever needed to jump into a longship or a canoe to kill and plunder the folks on the other side of a lake for some shiny objects and some genetic diversity? That’s because the world is not getting worse.
There are 6.8 billion people in the world today and we largely get along. Every time you find a terrible headline, try reading it with this sentence before it: “6.8 billion people were mostly nice to each other today and …”
March 24, 2010
Auto strip search…
It comes as no surprise that a young man working at airport security used the new See-through-clothing machine to check out his coworker. She’s traumatized. The police warned him. I’m curious to know if the targeted woman has an opinion about the routine capability to look at “stripped” people’s bodies.
I’ll try to find the article about how closed circuit camera systems get used mostly to check out women in preference to looking for crime. EDIT: In the course of that search I found numerous artcles about security cameras being utilized to convict or catch criminals. Hrmm
Much of the security that we see and hear about is just theater. It’s primary effect is to give the impression that people are thinking about security. When this theater includes the removal of my right to be free from unreasonable search, I have a problem.
March 3, 2010
DC allows more marriages!
Washington DC allows more marriages; line forms; temp workers hired
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100303/ap_on_re_us/us_dc_gay_marriage
Yes, I believe that my lesbian and gay friends should be allowed to marry the people they love too.
January 13, 2010
Automatic Strip Searching Machines
Just so’s ya know, there are several companies selling “full body scanners” aka Millimeter wave scanners(wikipedia) which use really high frequency radio waves to see through clothing. This will allow operators to see anyone in the buff through the scanner. Mandatory strip searches! We’ve removed your rights for your own security.
The NY Times covered how these scanners
can save and send the nude images.
Here are some examples(google) of the images. Images are safe for work.