More White Terrorists

So what counts as terrorism these days? Brown-skinned people in strange clothing? What about white people killing light-browned skinned people? Apparently that's not terrorism, that's activism. And it hasn't really made the TV news much either.

An anti-illegal immigrant militia (read terrorists) killed a man and his 9-year old daughter in Arizona. Who were actually American-born US citizens. But these terrorists aren't called terrorists in the news, just activists.

What really pisses me off so much about this is that the Spanish were the original conquerors in the Southwest and "Hispanics" lived there long before white people showed up. But once these areas became "American" then anyone who wasn't white became an outsider, even if their family had lived there for hundreds of years.

Health Care

I saw this and thought it was absolutely fabulous!

Who's a Terrorist?

I just saw this article on Yahoo! A man in Dearborn, Michigan was arrested. He's a Muslim and he was outside of a church, carrying banned explosives. But he's not called a terrorist!

Oh wait - maybe I should tell you the truth: it wasn't a Muslim. It was a white man with explosives outside of a mosque. He was arrested for a terroristic threat. But so far, I haven't seen one word of him being called a terrorist. Look at my first paragraph of this post - if it was a Muslim outside a Christian church with explosives, this would be all over the news. But it's not. Because white people aren't terrorists.

Is This America?

I'm betting a bit concerned about what's going on in the United States. The WikiLeaks scandal just highlights how bad things have become, things we thought had changed under Obama.

Salon.com has some great articles about exactly what is happening. They are well thought out and contain lots of links supporting what the author claims:

• Why Julian Assange is a journalist: A look at why the First Amendment DOES apply.
  
• The government's one-way mirror: On the rise of government surveillance of innocent US citizens. Come on, say it with me: If you haven't done anything wrong, what do you have to hide? [Wait, couldn't we say the same about the government?]
  
• The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention: On how Manning is being held in solitary confinement, which is considered torture, because he is ACCUSED of wrongdoing. It also touches on the harassment of his supporters and why Manning is actually a whistleblower, not a traitor.
  
• Getting to Assange through Manning: The government can't prosecute WikiLeaks without also going after the regular media, so it's trying to link Manning and Assange in some kind of collusion.
• Government harassing and intimidating Bradley Manning supporters: This is supposed to be a free country. But if you support Manning or WikiLeaks, expect to have all of your electronics confiscated if you ever leave the country and return. Because Customs doesn't need a warrant to do that.
  

I had hopes that after Obama took over, some of the most egregious changes to our civil liberties would go away. But it appears it may be getting worse.

I'm not sure if this is related, but I ran across an interesting WikiLeaks article at the Sacramento Bee. At least, it looked interesting. I found the link via a search engine but when I clicked on it I got a 404 - article not found message. I thought the link was bad, so I searched the Bee's website for the article, and found it, and clicked on it. And got the same 404 error message. So I tried some more links. The articles about WikiLeaks gave me 404 errors, but the other articles seem to be fine. I want to know what the hell is going on!?! Is the Bee getting harassed by the government? Or are they policing themselves so that they don't get harassed? Either way, it's WRONG!


Here's a quote (via Salon) from the leaked chat logs that Wired magazine released. It's Manning saying why he did what he did (emphasis Salon):

Manning: well, it was forwarded to [WikiLeaks] - and god knows what happens now - hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms - if not, than [sic] we're doomed - as a species - i will officially give up on the society we have if nothing happens - the reaction to the video gave me immense hope; CNN's iReport was overwhelmed; Twitter exploded - people who saw, knew there was something wrong . . . Washington Post sat on the video… David Finkel acquired a copy while embedded out here. . . . - i want people to see the truth… regardless of who they are… because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.

Without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public. Words to think about.

Free Speech is Free Speech: Part 4

Westboro Again!?! I should have established by now that I firmly believe in Freedom of Speech. Even from morons ;) But what the fuck is wrong with these Westboro people? Now they plan on protesting at Elizabeth Edwards' funeral. I really don't understand how they can do this. They have to be completely insane. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Just because you CAN say something doesn't mean you SHOULD say something.

Boycott Body Scanners! Update I

I found a great article (h/t Gizmodo) about the whole debacle. It's from the Washington Examiner. And it's someone saying some of the things I've been thinking. Like: what about explosives in body cavities? (Which we already know the terrorists do.) What about people keeping copies of my naked body? (Which the US Marshal Service did in Florida.) Etc. Etc.

The most telling point is my favorite. How many people have died from terrorism, in the US, during the last decade? About 3,000 on 9-11. But we have to give up a ton of civil liberties because of that. How many people were murdered during the last decade - 150,000. But we don't have metal detectors at the Interstates leading into New Orleans.

Think about it people!

Boycott Body Scanners!

There is a call for people to boycott body scanners at airports on Wednesday November 24, 2010. And I hope everyone does. This is something that I feel strongly about. I understand about safety. That we should go through metal detectors and have our bags scanned. That's fine.

But then 9-11 happens and all of a sudden the TSA is tearing 1" nail files off of fingernail clippers. It did nothing for safety, but hey, they could say they were doing something. They took safety seriously. (The fingernail files eventually stopped.)

Then a guy tries to blow up an airplane with a shoe bomb. So now we have to take off our shoes at airports, and have them scanned. And as far as I can tell there has never been a 2nd shoe bomb.

Then a guy tries to blow up an airplane with an underwear bomb. So now we have to go through a body scanner (which is a strip search!) or get a thorough physical pat down (sexual molestation).

What's next? Al-Qa'eda has used explosives contained in a body cavity before. Will I have to get a body cavity search next? Where will it stop?

Hell, it's so annoying that I never want to fly again. But I refuse to give them that satisfaction! I really have to wonder sometimes, how much of this is real safety, and how much is just plain juvenile meanness? You don't want someone seeing you naked - fine, we'll punish you with an invasive pat down! You don't like it - don't fly! Then we don't have to scan/pat as many people. Besides, what makes you think you deserve the right to fly anyway? (Alright, I'm heading to crazy town now . . .)