Body Scanners & Molestation

Well, it's been a busy week for the TSA. First, a woman in Phoenix grabbed a TSA agent's breast, and is being accused of molestation. Remember, it's not molestation when they do it to you! Secondly, several TSA agents are being prosecuted for stealing from passengers' luggage. What a great way to make extra money! [At least they weren't playing practical jokes.] Last, but definitely not least, finally, finally, FINALLY the TSA is getting rid of those damn naked pictures of us. The newest body scanners just show a "block figure" with a box near any area that needs extra screening. Hopefully they'll get those rolled out before I have to fly again! And I really like the way the article points out that the new body scanners will probably take over soon, because THEY'RE CHEAPER.

I used to love flying . . .

It looks like it may finally happen. Remember all my rants about how evil body scanners are? And how the terrorists will find some way around it and we'll all end up getting cavity searched before we can get on a fucking airplane? Well that may be just around the corner. Because now the terrorists are thinking of implanting bombs inside people! And that means new detection methods!!!

So now if I want to fly, I have to pay outrageous fees for my bags, sometimes even a carry-on; I can't have any liquids more than 3 ounces that fit in a small baggie; I must have a picture ID, unless I'm using the wrong boarding pass; I have to let the TSA either see pictures of me naked or molest me (although that may change for kids); and I probably won't even get food or drinks on the plane unless I buy my own, after security.

Weee..... I feel safer already.

Of course, if kids aren't getting molested by the TSA, then they would make the perfect people to implant these bombs in. Which I'm sure Al-Qaida already knows. When will the US learn that you can't make air travel 100% safe, and that most of us would rather still have some of our civil liberties instead of leaving them at the airport door? I mean, what's next???? No carry-on baggage, and we all strip down and don scrubs for our flight? Because that's about the only way you could make things safer.

I'll see you in the anal probe line.

What the hell is wrong with people!

Okay, this has been bugging me for a while. What the hell is wrong with people on the internet!?! How can a seemingly normal person, in real life, get on the internet and turn into a raving lunatic bully?

Example: That really horrible song Friday by that teenager. I mean, yeah, I hated the song. But I don't feel the need to log in to YouTube or e-mail her and call her names or send fucking death threats!

Other examples: I remember watching a news program who talked with a family whose daughter had died in a car wreck. The pictures wound up on the internet, and the family was getting e-mails from people saying "I'm glad she's dead," "she deserved to die," etc.

More examples: Sites like Slate Magazine are now requiring commenters to log in with a Facebook or Yahoo! or etc. ID. Because people are nicer when others know who they are.

Oh, and before someone calls me a hypocrite, because I'm semi-anonymous and I said that Rush Limbaugh needs to die! - Rush dishes it out every day on his show. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about ordinary, innocent people, who someone get their name known and then get attacked over NOTHING! People need to grow up and realize that if they wouldn't say something to that person's face, then they shouldn't say it on the internet. [And I would happily tell Rush Limbaugh to his face that he is an asshole.]

Boycott Body Scanners! Update III

The latest victim of a pat down is Miss USA 2003. She has started a Twitter campaign against the invasive pat downs and talks about the experience in a video on her blog.

Boycott Body Scanners! Update II

I started reading Wil Wheaton's blog last year. It's pretty good. Well, he just flew to Vancouver and as he left LA he was basically molested by the TSA agent giving him a pat-down. It was so bad he became physically ill and says he's going to contact an attorney. At least he has some name recognition. But how many people have to be irradiated or molested so that I can be "safe" when I fly on a plane?

Free Speech is Free Speech: Part 5 Supreme Court is Correct

Those idiots at the Westboro Baptist Church do have the right to protest military funerals. I'm glad the Supreme Court made the correct decision but I really feel for the military families that have to listen to that crap. Maybe individual cities can enact some kind of law that funeral protesters need a license and they can deny the license for Westboro.

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.

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!

Free Speech is Free Speech: Part 3

Wow, according to this posting, the Westboro Baptist Church has no problem with the Ground Zero Mosque. Well, they think it should be allowed to be built, but they do think Islam is a false religion. I'm not sure if they really believe that deeply in freedom of religion or not. A friend of mine suggested that they only support the mosque because they know it will piss people off.

Free Speech is Free Speech: Part 2

A friend of mine had a great idea. We should all show up outside the Westboro Baptist Church and protest them! This article on Wikipedia has their address. I wonder if they would still claim Freedom of Speech, if we stood on public property outside their church and told them they were all going to hell because God hates people like them. We could even chant and sing songs like they do.

Women Rule!

Foreign Policy has a great little photo essay on women currently ruling countries. It's almost sad to look at it. The US still hasn't had a female president, but freaking Pakistan and Bangladesh have - and they're Muslim countries!!! I had pretty much assumed we would have a black president before a woman president, which has turned out to be true. (Because no matter how prejudiced some people are, at least it's still a MAN running things, not some crazy dame!) But now that the ice has been broken, we need a female president soon. And I do NOT mean Sarah Palin; I think she's an idiot. We need some good female candidates over the next decade so that little girls can see a woman actually win the presidency.

Free Speech is Free Speech

I am a big believer in freedom of speech, and sometimes that means defending people who don't deserve it. Case in point: those damn funeral protesters. The case is now up to the Supreme Court, and I really hope they can cut through the hurt feelings and make the right decision, which is their job. Personally, I feel it is completely reprehensible to protest a soldier's funeral. But we have the right to do so in this country.

I believe I have mentioned before in this blog, that right after I graduated college, I did some shift work. I was flipping through the cable channels at 4 am and found the KKK on the local cable access network. At first I was pretty offended, but then I realized that they were protected under freedom of speech laws. To paraphrase: I don't believe in flag-burning, but I will defend to the death your right to burn the flag.

Freedom, anybody?

WTF is going on! Several blogging and messaging sites have been forced to close, by the US government. One of them had 70,000 users, who no longer have access to their blogs and never will. The blogsite is permanently closed. The webhost (who hosts the blogging site) says they had to close it because the blogsite violated the terms of service. CNET says that it was because al-Qaida materials were found on the blogsite's servers. And the CTO for the webhoster is saying the government didn't make them shut down the blogsite, it was the webhost's own decision. Which still makes me say "What the Fuck!

I understand shutting down terrorist information. No matter how much I believe in freedom, I don't believe in letting al-Qaida recruit people and build bombs. But shutting down the entire site! That's ridiculous! I'm fairly certain the blogsite wasn't intentionally hosting al-Qaida material. Hell, for all we know there are al-Qaida blogs on Blogger. I'm pretty sure that Google wouldn't shut down their entire blog service because of it. They'd just destroy the individual blogs.

I really feel badly for the bloggers who used that blogsite. They may have lost years of material and now have no recourse for getting it back. And this becomes yet another instance of a small company (the blogsite) being destroyed, whereas a larger company (Blogger) wouldn't be. So there goes your freedom of choice getting smaller. Just give in and choose the global corporation, forget the mom & pop shops! Screw them, they should have sold out when they had the chance.

Power to the People!

This is off-topic, well, maybe not, considering the perils to Academic Freedom. I found this over on I Miss fafblog, Spot! It's kinda catchy.