OK, the latest round of crazy TSA rules had solidified my resolve to not fly into America again (at least not until there are substantial changes in the way border and airport security are run)–not that this is a big deal, since my basic hatred of airports has had me driving to Boston and such locales rather than flying for well over a decade now. But now I have to see my own country make even more STUPID security theatre rules than the Americans? Argh. No books or magazines on the plane? Seriously? The directive is specific to “US-bound” planes, and as I said, I wasn’t planning to get on any of those, but still this kind of stupidity actually makes my cranium ache.
Tag: society of fear
Aside
Over the last decade I’ve become increasingly cynical about, and frankly afraid of Americans. Not all of them–I know they’re not all the same, and there are lots of them I love–but Americans in the aggregate. I had some hope that things were changing there last year, but when I read statistics like 58% of US voters favour the use of torture in gathering information–specifically in a case where there is no ticking bomb–I am more scared than ever. Factor in that the rate is even higher for younger people and I’m left wondering if there will be anyone left who understands that this isn’t how things should be. Those numbers about how many people think the US legal system is too worried about individual rights make me despair for humanity, and for the American voting public’s ability to read.
A short comment on the US Health Care Debate
I’ve been mostly keeping my nose out of the US debate–I don’t understand the debate, since I look on a certain level of access to quality health care as a right of all me–but I do want to point out the comments of John Gary Maxwell, a 40 year veteran surgeon. You should read the whole piece, but here’s a… Read more →
Aside
I love garlic like few men love garlic, and I have even bought garlic from Lenny, but that doesn’t stop me from recognizing utter stupidity when I see it. If I were one of those “majority of householders” who were being prevented from having high speed by this kind of utterly cornball FUD, I would certainly be giving old Lenny a piece of my mind.
Aside
Um… this is not a story in the Onion. This is actual news. Everyone please take a moment to breathe and settle yourselves down–we’re beyond farce at this point: Afghanistan’s only pig quarantined in flu fear
Maybe this is a bit optimistic
For a couple of years now, this image has run in the sidebar of this blog: If you didn’t know what that was about, you can click through and read the post from the time I put it up. Today, I’m taking it down. There are two reasons, and both of them amount to my hope that America is returning… Read more →
A message for some Californians
We’ve had it in place for several years now, and you know somehow the fabric of civilization has not disintegrated. And, you know, I still haven’t heard any argument against gay marriage that isn’t premised on either “God said so” or “Gays are icky” or both. Also, the best quote I read on this subject today: “I’m waiting for an… Read more →
Aside
You know, watching all this news about the U.S. financial crisis, I’m forced to wonder if Osama isn’t winning after all.
Raging Out: DVD designed to create xenophobia works
So, the Clarion fund, which exists to “educate the public about the threat of Islamic terrorism” has massively distributing their DVD, which sure seems designed to make Americans afraid of brown people. Interesting, the fund seems to have done this massive distribution in the swing states only. I wonder what objective they could hope to achieve by fanning the flames… Read more →
It’s actually not a joke, although it’s easy to come up with a punchline
I’ve been quick to criticize American history for HUAC, and CoIntelPro, and the general internal espionage of the early FBI, as well not recognizing the lessons of history when they swing around again, so I should probably also point out that we do a lot of the same stuff. As you can see in the story that broke this week… Read more →
“Long Weekend” Bag of Links
I put it in scare quotes because I am a member of the global information economy, and apparently what that means is that I have to take some meetings on those holidays that are merely national in scope. Yes, I am a grumpy about this. Well, honestly I’m mostly grumpy about having to be up in time for an 8AM… Read more →
Hemmingway said some true things too
We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer. —Hunter S. Thompson Read more →
Can Not Process Data
You know those hoary old SF stories where the hero defeats the robot/intelligent energy matrix/computer/whatever by giving it information that can not be logically processed–isn’t “Is the following statement true? ‘This statement is false.’” the classic one?–and thus causing the super-powerful processing of the robot/intelligent energy matrix/computer/whatever to burn out, usually accompanied by a nice visual of electrical explosions? Well,… Read more →
CoIntelPro Redux
Please allow me to quote a couple of paragraphs from Steven Grant’s Master of the Obvious column for this week–as I’ve mentioned before, this nominally comic book column often does a great job of simply explaining some of Bush’s nasty moves. Well, this week it’s not so much Bush… Jeez, do we have to fight everybody all the time? If… Read more →
