October, 2012 archive
TSA Security Theatre 0
The Roseville, Mich., woman thought she had prepared by calling the airline ahead of time, asking for a wheelchair, carrying documentation for her feeding tubes and making sure she had prescriptions for all her medications, including five bags of saline solution. But Dunaj said she received a full pat-down in the security line at Seattle-Tacoma Airport and had to lift her shirt and pull back bandages so agents could get a good look. She said everyone else in line got a look, too.
The story reports that the TSA claims all procedures were followed, followed by a resounding “no further comment.”
TSA: Voyeurs and mashers, apply within.
Sabre-Toothed Mitt 0
Political Prof evaluates Mitt the Flip’s foreign policy paean to blowing stuff up as a first resort and finds its hollow core:
Outsourcing the American Dream 0
Sacrificing the middle class so the suits get to keep their country club memberships:
Nothing has changed about the fleet service clerk’s physically taxing job except the pay: An outsourcing firm is now offering just $8.50 an hour with no benefits, if Youk and her coworkers decide to reapply.
Do the math: They are “offering” a 60% pay cut.
Afterthought:
Trickle Tinkle on economics at work.
The Candidates Debate 0
The Lebanon Daily Star analyzes the kabuki. A snippet:
The candidates in U.S. debates address carefully selected journalists who rarely follow up on a question. And the candidates’ performances are scrutinized less on the substance of their arguments than on their presentation . . . .
Celebration Time, Come On! 0
I wonder how they would have reacted to a loss.
(snip)
According to police news releases, five men were charged with malicious burning and 10 others were charged with offenses ranging from battery on an officer, escape, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest/obstructing an officer. So far, police have released the identities of the five charged with burning. Four are WVU students, according to the mayor and WVU vice president of student affairs Ken Gray.
“Malicious burning,” indeed.
Birth of a Nation, Reprise 3
In a typically long and densely reasoned post, Chauncey Devega considers how the right wing uses fantasies of race war and conflict to further itself. A very small nugget:
In all, the Right-wing media apparatus feeds conservatives a daily diet of misinformation, distortions, and hate speech in which their foes are described as insects to be crushed, mentally defective, traitors, and people not fit to live. Such rhetoric is not harmless political theater: seeds do indeed bear fruit.
In September, the conservative website the Free Republic published a hypothetical scenario about how the American economy will collapse and “urban” riots by black people will need to be put down by white suburban vigilantes.
The right has nothing to sell but hate, but, sadly, hate sells.
Check the comments. One of the commenters thinks Devega may be overreacting to the fringe.
I’m inclined to disagree; the fringe may be at the edges, like the fringe on a rug, but it’s still part of the rug, woven from the same fabric.
The Internet Is a Public Place 0
Please practice Safe HEX.
A survey by credit reference agency Equifax has found that while more than a quarter of people do online banking on their phone, a third don’t log out of social media or banking websites, 42% fail to clear their browser history and 45% do not protect their smartphones with passwords.
More at the link.
Endess War 0
“Because we are there” is not by itself sufficient reason to stay.
Take the Test 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Arthur Dobrin points out that
Take the quiz and see how you do. My results under the fold.