It’s a familiar story now. WikiLeaks, a website dedicated to peddling secret documents, and its founder Julian Assange, have come under worldwide attack by governments of various countries. Assange, arrested after being accused by two women of sexual assault, has been released from prison after initially being denied bail, though he’s under house arrest in Great Britain.
Depending on your perspective, Assange was either making great strides providing information via WikiLeaks or was undermining the national security of many nations by his website’s publishings. Either way, very powerful forces decided he had to be stopped. Continued…
I was thinking about how to start this post. I think this will work:
- The Federal Labor Relations Authority has decided that the T.S.A. can vote on whether to unionize or not. Why grant them the right to form a union? They are already a bunch of overpaid, underskilled day laborers. T.S.A employees are also virtually impossible to fire – they’re government workers, and it’s tough to get rid of even the very worst of the lot.
- There was no T.S.A. prior to 9/11, Airport security was handled by contractors who bid to secure the right to provide security services. Those were the good ol’ days, and they weren’t that great. At least incompetent employess could be canned and replaced very quicky.
- We already know that the T.S.A. has never detected Continued…
Rafi Sela, a top Israeli security consultant who helps make sure Ben Gurion Airport (Israel’s international airport) is safe from terrorists, asks an important question:
‘How many times – in the history of aviation – have the scanners and security procedures that currently cause such huge anger and inconvenience actually found explosives in baggage or on a passenger in the United States?’
Well, Mr. Sela, let me do a little research. Hmm….
It turns out that answer is – shockingly – zero. Nada. None. For all of the money the U.S. spends on counter-terrorism at our nations airports, all of the fancy devices we currently have in place have never – let me repeat – NEVER – turned up one single explosive device on anyone or in any baggage destined for an outbound commercial flight in the U.S. Can that be right? Depending on your view, fortunately (or unfortunately) it is correct.
What about the ban on liquids? Surely there was a good reason for it, right? Mr. Sela has a comment about that, too:
‘The liquids ban also sucks. (America) always seems to be fighting the last war.’
Let me clear it up for anyone who is in the dark:
After the discovery of the 2006 Al Qaeda scheme to mix liquids in aircraft toilets in order to make bombs, all but tiny quantities of liquid taken on to planes were banned. That was a smart security measure, right?
Not really. As it turns out, the toilet-bowl-in-the-plane bomb has a few drawbacks. The explosive is called Acetone Peroxide (TATP), and it’s not very easy to make at 35,000 feet. It’s so unstable that it can’t be made prior to boarding a plane, so a would be terrorist would have to stir it up in flight. Mixing the explosive takes over an hour and, because it is so unstable, Sela considers the idea that terrorists might use TATP ‘interesting’, but unlikely to succeed. As an example:
On September 10, 2010, a TATP bomb accidentally exploded injuring the bombmaker in a toilet at the Hotel Jørgensen in Copenhagen. The bombmaker couldn’t get it right in a perfectly still hotel toilet in a private room. What chance do you think a terrorist has locking himself in an airplane bathroom for over an hour- without being noticed – while the ‘can’ does the can-can a few miles high? Can it happen? Probably. Is it likely? No.
Yet airport security is still vigilant in their search for more than 3 oz. of liquid. In fact, they will STOP AT NOTHING TO ENFORCE THEIR RULES, EVEN IF THE RULE THEY’RE ENFORCING DOESN’T EXIST! (This is well-worth watching). Americans,it is time to make a stand. If you watch this video and don’t come away angry at the abuse being dealt out by incompetent TSA employees, something is wrong with you.
I’m too mad to write more now, but watch for an update very soon……
The Transportation Security Administration was founded on the heels of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center buildings. At the time, I don’t think anyone could imagine:
1) How large the agency would become
2) That they agency would basically be given carte blanche on how to conduct airport security
3) How inane and arbitrary their rules would be
4) How they would be totally unresponsive to the public interest
And there’s more, but the number ‘five’ on my keyboard flaked out, so I’ll stop there.
The T.S.A. is given the task of ensuring Continued…
Just uttering the team’s name brings emotion to almost all football fans (and many non-fans, too). Die-hard followers will endure the worst of the worse (see: first eight games of this season, J. Johnson’s first season, et al) and gloat about the best of the best. Haters sometimes have more stats on the ‘Boys than fans do: they’ll reel off stats about Suber Bowl losses and famous plays like “The Catch”. There are bandwogoners as well (I’m sure they describe themselves as original ‘loyalists’) - many don’t know this, but after Jerry Lones purchased the team and endured his first two horrific seasons as the owner, there were fans who had held season tickets from the Cowboys inaugural season who gave up the heretofore impossible tickets to acquire. They obviously Continued…
So it’s Sunday and I’m all jazzed up because it looks like the Cowboys might finally win a game. Halftime hits and I decide to play a little guitar during the break. I grab my trusty acoustic off of the wall mount, turn around, and…. Continued…
Well, our move to the wild, wild west is complete. I have to tell you, it took more energy than I thought it would to relocate over 1600 miles. It’s done now, though, so it’s back to writing my mindless drivel. Let’s take a brief tour of events that occurred during my absence:
- The Democrats lost control of the House. Obama should be grateful to voters – another 2 years of getting his way may have led this country into a hole that we couldn’t dig out of (though we may already be close to that), and the mid-term elections may have lessened the chance that history will remember Obama as one of the worst leaders our country has ever had the pleasure of knowing.
- The Dallas Cowboys, once considered a possible Super Bowl contender, have reminded us that you actually have to do something about your dreams rather than just dream them. At least the beat the Giants yesterday – welcome Jason Garrett.
- One of my ex-in-laws was part of a group of ticket holders that hit Florida’s Lotto and cashed for about $900k. I knew I should have kept her on my holiday card list. Oh well….. Continued…
Notwithstanding the spectacle that LeBron James created, ESPN bought, and the all of the fans watched, I don’t understand some of the remarks spewing from the mouths of otherwise respected participants in professional sports.
- Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, called James a “coward” for taking the deal that the Miami Heat offered him.
- Another group declared that James’ move to Miami would prevent him from ever becoming a billionaire.
- A Boston Globe reporter writes, “”You can’t really become a megastar until you earn it at the highest levels. At this moment, the sad truth is that James is more like Freddy Adu or Michelle Wie or Anna Kournikova than he is Tiger Woods or even Alex Rodriguez.”
What? LeBron is a megastar, there isn’t much difference (to me, anyway) if one has a net worth of Continued…
It’s the 4th of July again, and Americans across our great nation are preparing to celebrate. Some will fire rockets (which will burst in the air, blaze with red glare, and scare the shit out of my dogs), while others will try to figure out why banks and government offices are closing on Monday, July 5th. I wouldn’t care personally, but I’m not smart enough to figure out the modified trash pickup schedule for holiday weeks. My strategy of hauling all the trash Continued…
I started to write this politically correctly – I wasn’t going to tell you where I really read the newspaper. Then it struck me: I’m buying into the same bullshit I warn other people to avoid. Politically correct? Any goddamn thing I say is politically correct, that’s what makes America great.
Back to the death thing.
Newspapers are finished, and it’s unfortunate. From twelve years old and for almost 30 years, this is how every morning started for me: Continued…
It’s always a pleasure to meet fellow surfers, especially those that find themselves virtually alone as they near the calmer waters at the base of the face. With that said, I surf with great humility – my ability to occassionally hang one, five, or ten doesn’t make me any better than the many that are [...]more →
