// February 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // Security & Privacy
Apparently All Subversive Organizations Now Must Register in South Carolina. I’m guessing this will save the authorities countless hours of investigation time in finding criminals accused of crimes where these organizations are suspected of involvement. Brilliant!
// July 11th, 2008 // No Comments » // Security & Privacy
Rivaling only the IRS in the public’s collective derision, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) now has a new gadget through which to extend their reign of Orwellian coercion on we, the throngs of presumed-terrorists boarding U.S. flights every day.
The new “millimeter wave scanners” rolling out in some U.S. airports — and used as part of the “secondary screening” on selected passengers — photograph the human body through the clothing with a high-degree of photo-realistic accuracy.
From the article:
“These machines, which show detailed images of a person’s naked body, are equivalent to a ‘virtual strip search,’ ” says the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). “The image resolution … is high so the picture of the body presented to screeners is detailed enough to show genitalia.”
…and…
Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union marvels at the government’s double standard: “If Playboy published them, there would be politicians out there saying they’re pornographic.”
The TSA has also begun handing out cracker-jack-box badges to it’s workforce and outfitting them in blue, police-looking uniforms. Real law enforcement officers are none to happy being cast in the same lot with the TSA workers.
Now … they want to see us naked. Are we ready yet to say enough is enough, or will we, as we have since 9/11, simply march like lemmings through the nudie-portal and continue to let the TSA and their policies run amok, awash in excessive power and limited, ineffective oversight?
The TSA itself likely represents the greatest threat to aviation safety and the long-term economic viability of the airline industry. In so poorly executing their mission, they create a very thin illusion of security when in fact it could be argued the aviation safety record of the last 7 years was achieved in spite of them, rather than because of them.
A serious, thoughtful discussion needs to occur about how best to understand and guard against whatever the real threat to airline safety is, and shape new policies and, if necessary, organizations around the outcomes of that discussion. The TSA was hastily conceived during a period of fear and sorrow and since inception the divergence between real threats and their ill-conceived policies has only grown. 5 ounces of shampoo and a butter knife do not a terrorist make. Folks, It’s time to start over with this one.
// June 18th, 2007 // No Comments » // Business & Politics, Security & Privacy
Bruce Schneier has an excellent article that aligns exactly with how I feel every time I hear news of a new “terrorist plot” that has been disrupted. Inevitably, the story that follows paints a picture of a marginalized, incompetent set of characters who had little chance of carrying out a mass-casualty attack, and who often hadn’t progressed beyond the “yelling-at-the-TV” phase of their so-called “plot”.
I’m sure there is real investigation going on and real plots are being uncovered and disrupted. But the ones that seem to get the most attention are the ones that revolve around sensational targets or the potential, however remote, of mass-casualties, regardless of the actors’ operational capacity.
As he says in his article: “[...] in this country, while you have to be competent to pull off a terrorist attack, you don’t have to be competent to cause terror.”
Perhaps these stories are the security equivalent of an opiate for the masses. The appearance that the security folks are “on the job” and “getting things done”. The reality sometimes seems so different.
There are real terrorists out there that pose a real threat to us. Too often, the ones you see getting arrested on TV or simmering in their cages at Gitmo aren’t the ones we should worry about.
// March 3rd, 2007 // No Comments » // Business & Politics
A friend sent me a link to OpenCongress.org. It’s a site that aggregates information related to Congressional activity and presents it in a format that’s easy to read and follow the issues before Congress that are important to you.
From their site:
OpenCongress is a free, open-source, non-profit, and non-partisan web resource with a mission to help make Congress more transparent and to encourage civic engagement. OpenCongress is a joint project of the Sunlight Foundation and the Participatory Politics Foundation.
OpenCongress brings together, for the first time in one place, all the best data on what’s really happening in Congress:
- Official Congressional information from Thomas, made available by GovTrack.us: bills, votes, committee reports, and more.
- News articles about bills and Members of Congress from Google News.
- Blog posts about bills and Members of Congress from Google Blog Search and Technorati.
- Campaign contribution information for every Member of Congress from the website of the non-profit, non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, OpenSecrets.org.
- Congress Gossip Blog: a blog written by the site editors of OpenCongress that highlights useful news and blog reporting from around the web. The blog also solicits tips, either anonymous or attributed, from political insiders, citizen journalists, and the public in order to build public knowledge about Congress.
Looks like a very useful site to more easily follow what the old-white-male-lawyers who run our country are up to.
// February 15th, 2007 // 4 Comments » // Business & Politics, Security & Privacy
Michael Crichton has an interesting op-ed in the New York Times discussing what has become among the most egregious abuse of the underfunded US Patent Office and their penchant for rubber stamping most patent applications that come across their desk, regardless of the true originality, merit, or social value of the claim.
Companies now hold gene patents for the genes that compose common diseases, such as Hepatitis. This stifles research as scientists who would otherwise devote energy to researching cures are dissuaded by the sometimes huge licensing fees that must be paid to the owners of the patent to conduct their research.
People die because of this, as Crichton points out. He cites proposed legislation to nullify prior gene patents and prevent the future patenting of genes but the only reference I could find to a similarly titled piece of legislation died in Congress 3 years ago. If anyone can find evidence that the legislation is on the docket for the current Congressional session, please comment and provide a citation.
