Tuesday - November 16, 2010
I suspect agri-jihad
Authorities are conducting autopsies to determine how 925 pigs were left to die in a barn in south-central Pennsylvania - and to decide whether to charge anyone with a crime.
The pigs’ carcasses were found in various states of decay last Monday, scattered inside a warehouse-style barn on a farm in Warfordsburg, near the Maryland border.
“We are trying to determine exactly what happened,” said State Police Lt. Gregory Bacher, adding that he has never seen an apparent act of animal cruelty of this magnitude in 26 years on the job.
“There are some factors we can’t release now.”
The farm’s owner, Daniel Clark, left the property in August, authorities said, and the pigs appeared to have been dead for several months.
Attempts to reach Clark for comment on Monday were unsuccessful.
His was one of 3,200 pig farms in the state, and specialized in “finishing” young pigs several months old before sending them to slaughter. The pigs, if readied for sale, would have been worth roughly $100,000, based on current market prices.
Clark and his wife, Kerron, had been involved in a contentious divorce, according to local news reports, and until recently their 218-acre farm had been listed for sale for $1.2 million.
News of last week’s discovery sent shock waves through the state’s large farming community.
“That 1,000 pigs died somehow is a sickening situation on [the] surface. Was it an animal-health issue or a criminal issue?” said Christian Herr, executive vice president of PennAg Industries, an agribusiness trade group. “There’s nothing logical about what happened there.”
Posted by Drew458
on 11/16/2010 at 04:57 PM
Filed Under: • Odd-Strange •
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Permalink • What Time Is It In Cap Haitien?
As the cholera death count in Haiti climbs over 1000, Haitians attack UN aide workers, blaming them for the outbreak. Rioting and death ensues. Pack it in white boys, it’s time to go home.
Protesters in Haiti, blaming United Nations troops for a cholera epidemic that has killed hundreds of people, attacked U.N. peacekeepers in two cities on Monday.
One protester was shot dead in the clashes and six U.N. peacekeepers were injured.
The U.N. mission blamed the violence in Cap-Haitien and Hinche on political agitators it said were bent on stirring up unrest ahead of presidential and legislative elections set for November 28 in the earthquake-hit Caribbean country.
In Cap-Haitien, Haiti’s second city on the north coast, U.N. blue helmets were fired on by armed demonstrators and one demonstrator was killed when a peacekeeper opened fire in self-defense, the U.N. mission (MINUSTAH) said in a statement.
U.N. troops also used tear gas against the protesters.
“MINUSTAH reiterates its firm commitment to support the Haitian national police in maintaining order and security in the country to guarantee the continuation of the electoral process and Haiti’s reconstruction,” the U.N. statement said.
At Hinche in the central region, U.N. peacekeepers were among several people injured by stone-throwing protesters who attacked Nepalese troops stationed there.
The Nepalese have been the subject of widespread rumors that they brought the cholera bacteria behind the month-long epidemic of the deadly disease in Haiti that has killed more than 900 people and sickened close to 15,000.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said DNA testing shows the cholera strain in Haiti is most closely related to a strain from South Asia. But it has not pinpointed the source or linked it directly to the Nepalese troops, whom the U.N. says tested negative for the disease.
Officials and residents in Cap-Haitien said earlier on Monday that hundreds of protesters yelling anti-U.N. slogans had set up burning barricades and torched a police station.
“The whole city is blocked, businesses and schools have closed, cars have been burned. It’s chaos here,” a businessman in Cap-Haitien, Georgesmain Prophete, told Reuters.
Last month, in the central town of Saint-Marc, at the heart of the cholera outbreak, stone-throwing residents apparently fearing contagion disrupted the setting up of a cholera treatment center, burning several tents.
Aid Workers Fear Cholera Epidemic May Overwhelm Haitian Hospitals
More than 1,000 people have died and at least 14,600 have been hospitalized in Haiti. Health care workers consider those numbers to be understated.
The United Nations forecasted up to 200,000 Haitians could contract cholera as the outbreak extends.
Aid workers fear the growing numbers may soon overwhelm Haiti’s health care facilities.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/16/2010 at 04:14 PM
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Permalink • Birthday Whatsits
Look what made it through international security and showed up in the mail.
I never expected these!
Now, what the heck are they? 
Well, it’s not much of a mystery. They are actual 12 gauge bottles, called Dram Cartridges. Someone has gone to a good bit of effort making the bottles exactly the proper diameter, and making the cap to look very much like the high brass base of an actual Cheddite shotgun shell. They aren’t, unless Cheddite has been sneaky and started using brass plated steel. These are magnetic, I checked. And the “primer” is a protruding bit of aluminum. Inside the bit of metal is a standard plastic cap with a leakproof seal. At 3 5/8” long they might just chamber in your turkey gun, but they won’t fit in any standard or magnum shotgun. The real shells in the picture are 2 3/4” 12 gauge rounds. The red one is an antique paper hulled Western Super-X. [ spot the real gun nuts: Question: How long is a 2 3/4” shotgun shell? Answer: 2 1/2”. The extra 1/4” is for the crimp flaps to open in. The 2 3/4” measurement is from the breach face to the end of the chamber inside the gun. For shotguns, “shell” means “loaded round”. The empty case is called a hull. ]
Each one of these little bottles holds just about 10ml. Call it half a fluid ounce. So in terms of standard volume, these are 4 dram equivalent loads. That’s a pretty big blast! Fill them up with your favorite après-grouse scotch and a set of 4 will give you a jigger and a third. Enough for a decent wee taste of the old poteen. Slide them in your bandoleer for easy carry in the field. The seriously high primers will remind you by feel that these aren’t for the birds.
So yes Peiper, your package arrived safely! What fun! And another fat envelop of clippings for me to peruse. Thanks greatly!!!
Hmm, now I’m wondering if a 1911 and 10 boxes of ammo would make it through customs if I labeled them “novelty salt and pepper shakers”?
Update: You live, you learn. I don’t reload shotgun ammunition. To my surprise, the Fiocchi shells use brass plated steel bases. So do a couple other types of shell I have around here. The old Super-X shell is real brass. When did this happen ... because almost all of my shotgun ammo is at least a decade old. The stuff lasts forever. And these days the “brass” part is just there for show. Lots of hulls out there are just plain old plastic. It’s really all that’s needed. So the caps on these neat little bottles probably are cut from real Cheddite hulls. So there!
Posted by Drew458
on 11/16/2010 at 02:57 PM
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Permalink • Now Make Him Pay The Price
Do I need to write any more? Ok, the House Ethics Panel found him guilty. 11 times.
A House ethics panel has found Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel of New York guilty on 11 counts of breaking House rules.
The full ethics committee will next conduct a hearing on the appropriate punishment for the former chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. The committee will then make a recommendation to the House.
Possible punishments include a House vote deploring Rangel’s conduct, a fine and denial of privileges.
The eight-member ethics panel had sat as a jury to judge Rangel’s conduct. The 80-year-old congressman from Harlem was charged with 13 counts of financial and fundraising wrongdoing.
What was wrong with the other 2 counts?
And punishment? Hey, this is a clear and unmistakable pattern of deliberate abuse. 11 counts. Not just 1 or 2. Fire him. Impeach him. Strip him of all committee memberships. Then turn the case over to a criminal prosecutor. And the IRS. Old Charlie is not above the law.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/16/2010 at 01:19 PM
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Corruption and Greed •
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Permalink • Right On
A 13-year-old Stanislaus County boy at the center of a flag controversy got a big show of support Monday as many people rallied to his side.
Cody Alicea was earlier told by Denair Middle School officials that he could not ride to school with a U.S. flag on his bike. The story has gained national attention, from Rush Limbaugh to the Drudge Report.
The school changed its mind, and now Alicea can display the stars and stripes.
When he rode from his home to school on Monday, he was followed by a parade of people on motorcycles. A military jet flyover was also expected.
“I’d just like to say thanks for the support,” Alicea said before his ride.
Officials at the school told Alicea not to display the flag, citing safety concerns. Some students had complained about the display.
Denair Unified School District Superintendent Edward Parraz said the campus recently experienced some racial tension. He said some students got out of hand on Cinco de Mayo. He said some students displayed the Mexican flag, while others displayed American flags.
Parraz said he got calls from halfway around the world about the flag controversy. Some soldiers in Afghanistan called to complain.
Alicea said he was surprised at the attention.
“This is big,” Alicea said. “I didn’t think it’d get this big.”
“Many” writes the author in this MSNBC piece. Try hundreds. A whole parade. And phone calls? Try thousands. Parraz ought to be mortified. Mortified right out of a job. Commie bastard.
More here
Is this a “disproportionate response”? Hell no. If every minor issue got this kind of public reaction, we wouldn’t have any major issues. Government - and that includes schools - needs to be slapped down firmly at each and every opportunity.
PS - hey teach, here’s a clue for free: there ain’t NO frickin’ Cinco de Mayo celebration north of the Rio Grande. Not in American schools. Capice? You want to have a Whoopee Do For Mexico Day, go down there and hold one. This is NOT Mexico.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/16/2010 at 12:51 PM
Filed Under: • Patriotism •
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Permalink • British terror suspects to get up to £10million compensation. they’re brits like I’m the pope.
The damn thing is .... most aren’t Brits at all. And that Bin Man sure as hell isn’t. OK, what if by some odd chance some of em are telling the truth?
Our folks could not have seen this coming I don’t think. But I believe both our people on the ground need to get smarter and just disappear these sort of folks.
No record of arrests or detention. Everything quiet. Some folks might ask questions but let em ask. With nothing to prove there won’t be anything to answer for.
Pretty stark and pretty extreme perhaps. But then, so is the enemy we face. Not only Brit libtards but even some conservatives here are jumping on the human rights bandwagon and wringing their collective hands and weeping crocodile tears (some are) about how mean and awful both our intel services treated these folks. For shame they say. And America’s standing and image has been badly hurt. Yeah well, I’m not too sure we need the good thoughts and gropes of those complaining fools. In fact, I’d be worried if they approved of us. It would be a sure sign we have moved even further to the left. Or they want a loan.
I think we should redesign our flag. Smack in the middle of the red and white stripes, we should put a middle finger up to the world. I think I’ve hit on something.
Hey ... off the subject posted here but I just found out something I had not known. It was reported in a paper today, that this country has given 5 BILLION plus
in aid to Somalia. In dollars, that’s a hell of a lot of tribute. Oh woops. Sorry. It’s “aid” innit?
See the link below. If any of this three are ever on a plane you’re on, get the hell off.
The ‘tortured’ 16: More than a dozen British terror suspects to get up to £10million compensation
By Daily Mail ReporterLast updated at 3:47 PM on 16th November 2010
* Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed to get one of the largest payouts
* Taxpayer could have be left with bill in excess of £50m if case went to court
* Ministers acted to halt release of half a million secret documentsSixteen terror suspects who were allegedly tortured at the behest of the United States are being paid millions of pounds from the taxpayer in return for their silence over British involvement.
At least one former Guantanamo Bay detainee will receive more than £1million in hush money from ministers desperate to stop the cases reaching court.
One of the largest payouts will go to Binyam Mohamed, the British resident who claims MI5 and MI6 fed questions to his CIA-backed torturers.
The Government refused to confirm or deny reports that the total compensation was £5 million or £10 million.
The cash is being handed over in secret deals without any evidence being shown to the public that Britain condoned or was complicit in what happened.
In return for the cash, the detainees will drop the civil cases for damages that had threatened to lift the lid on the activities of the intelligence agencies after 9/11.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: ‘It’s not very palatable but there is a price to be paid for lawlessness and torture in freedom’s name. There are torture victims who were entitled to expect protection from their country. The Government now accepts torture is never justified and we were all let down. Let’s learn the lessons and move on.’
Thing is Shami-rami ding dong ... this really IS NOT THEIR COUNTRY! I kinda doubt it’s any more yours then it is mine.
Posted by peiper
on 11/16/2010 at 11:16 AM
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINE • muslims • Terrorists • UK •
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Permalink • don’t like spiders and snakes and liberals and anthing on the left. wearing snakes another thing.
I guess you all know by now, there’s a truck dealer in Florida giving vouchers away for the weapon with the purchase of a truck.
It’s been done before so I haven’t bothered with posting the whole story. But here’s the link that shows his address and phone number.
Now here’s something you might hunt with that there bit of eye candy above.
She is of course the wife of the former PM, Tony Blair. Her name doesn’t fit the photo. It’s Cherie. She’s one of those civil rights lawyers with ALL that implies.
She once, while as a judge I think it was, let off an aggressive muslim who assaulted someone, because he was “religious” and understood that what he did was wrong. Think Gloria Alred. Both ugly as sin, both are skanks, they could be sisters.
Since I posted that god awful ugly photo and offended innocent eyes, it’s only fair I guess to leave with more of an eye feast to make up for it.
Hey ... that isn’t a real snake is it? Hope not.
Posted by peiper
on 11/16/2010 at 10:01 AM
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy • Miscellaneous •
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Permalink • welcome to a new world of nothing but moonbats
Here’s a quickie test BMEWS readers.
Spot the difference? Sure ya do. What’s missing in that second photo?
I sent Drew an email a short while ago. He no doubt might think I was just having a reaction to a pneumonia shot I just got.
Here ya go people. I just can’t add anything to this story to make it funny or more ridiculous. As we near year end ... I’m thinking that my previous Moonbat awards are no longer valid. Forget about them, if you even remember them. Maybe (providing I remember to do it) I should save all the stupid stories that I run across, and at the end of the year present them in some way and let you guys vote on the most insanely stupid.
Early Learning Centre bans toy pig from farmyard set for fear of offending Muslims
(but keeps sty and oink noise)By Louise Eccles
A children’s shop has removed toy pigs from farmyard sets in case they offend Muslims and Jews.
The Early Learning Centre ditched the pig from its HappyLand Goosefeather Farm toy set after it upset some customers.
One mother realised the pig was missing from the set she bought for her daughter’s birthday when she found a pig sty and a button that made oinking noises, but no pig.
Last night, the retailer did a U-turn and agreed to bring back the pigs after disappointed families complained at such a move driven by political correctness.
The angry mother, named only as Caroline, told The Sun newspaper: ‘This is political correctness gone loopy. Surely if someone has an issue with a toy they don’t agree with then they don’t buy it.’
Just how fucking stupid do you have to be to buy this crap? It’s most doubtful there are any muslims who’d be offended by a plastic pig. WTF? Is anyone going to eat the damn thing, as one Daily Mail commenter asks. And I can not imagine a single Jew anywhere on the planet who’d be offended by a plastic pig and besides, why do so many folks think Jews do not eat pork? That is NOT TRUE of great many and in fact I’d go so far as to say that the majority of Jews today ignore that old orthodox stricture. But even for those who still don’t partake, can anyone imagine any of them being offended by this toy?
I guess this is what the world is coming to. Total idiocy. Sure, the dumb asses at the store did a U-turn. They shouldn’t have done this in the first place so that u-turn excuses nothing. They’re still stupid! And so far, the clear winner for the Moonbat of The Year award.
If you have anything dumber then this, I’d sure like to see it. Or maybe I wouldn’t. This stuff is nerve wracking. Give this a thought. There’s millions of kids growing up in this kind of environment and this kind of thing will be very normal to them. And then they grow up knowing nothing else and so .............
Welcome to a new world ... there’s the sign post up ahead .... A world of moonbats.
Posted by peiper
on 11/16/2010 at 07:57 AM
Filed Under: • Moonbat Award to: • UK •
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Permalink • Monday - November 15, 2010
I see a blue moon arising
Yup, another syzygy tonight. Definitely. Jupiter’s influence waxing. Or perhaps there is a blue moon out tonight. Yeah, that’s it.
Once in a blue moon you get a wonderful concurrence in bowling. Everyone on your team bowls well and well above average. Everyone on the other team bowls well, and well above average. And both teams have nearly the exact same team average, so the net handicap is either zero or close to it. Scratch bowling. And your team wins. Seriously, this is a rare thing, and I almost didn’t notice until it was too late. But I did, so I was able to savor it while it was happening.
And that’s what happened to us tonight. We took all of it. The other team had a real strong anchor, a 204 average guy who was throwing in the low 240s. We’d get way ahead in the frame, but he’d roll another strike - 5, 6, 8 in a row, and tack another 30 onto their score to shrink the lead down to just a tiny bit or even pull ahead a little. And it went like that all night, almost down to the wire in every game. Great bowling. Plus Amy the Babe was drinking, and she gets all giggly and touchy flirtatious after 2 beers. So that was fun too.
I threw 2 in the 190s and 1 just over average, so I had a good night. Nothing prize winning, but a good night. Upper 500s, but no 600 series.
I hope this blue moon is still working it’s mojo tomorrow night for Team Loser. It would be nice to win a few, so we could dig our way up to last place. That may not be possible: we’re 17 games in the hole at this point. Oh well. But that league is dying anyway, and we all know it. I see the signs, and one of these days I’ll post a How To Kill Your Bowling League In Just 3 Years post. I’ve been on a league that died that way, and this one is going down too. Can’t be stopped at this point. This is the last year, I guarantee it.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/15/2010 at 09:55 PM
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Permalink • A Line In The Sand
When government literally has you by the balls, things have gone way too far.
The next rebellion is going to be over 4th Amendment rights. Airport “security” has gone too far, and it’s a useless jobsworth program for losers anyway. Cut the crap, get the government out of it, and find a sensible solution: profile the towelheads, leave granny alone. Catch someone with a bomb? Take them outside and shoot them. Right on the spot. And then leave the rest of us the hell alone.
The middle-aged man in the blue shirt spoke gently, but directly, to Tabitha, as if he had done this a thousand times before with 12-year-old girls like her. In words tailored to her understanding, and designed to make what he was about to do seem normal, not creepy, the man in the blue shirt made it clear that if she didn’t do as he instructed she would not get to go to Disneyland. He merely wanted to show another man what was under Tabitha’s blouse and panties. Her refusal was so firm, and her face so alarmed, that he backed off and tried another tactic. If Tabitha would merely stand still while one of the man’s friends touched her body all over (caressing her in ways that no one ever had) then that would be the end of it, and she could go to Disneyland.
If you’re one of those who has basically decided that any indignity is merely the price of safety, consider that so far, it has been airline passengers and on board crews who have prevented tragedy … not the federal government.
It’s time to return the responsibility for flight safety to the airlines and the passengers — who have thus far deployed the only effective countermeasures anyway. It’s time to end the TSA’s strip-and-grope protocol before it becomes so commonplace and accepted that we forget it was ever objectionable. In the memorable words of President Obama (on another topic), it will become “the new normal.”
Having thus submitted to such unconscionable invasion of our bodies and souls, how could we ever rationally draw the line to prevent any sort of federal government encroachment?
A growing pilot and passenger revolt over full-body scans and what many consider intrusive pat-downs couldn’t have come at a worse time for the nation’s air travel system. Thanksgiving, the busiest travel time of the year, is less than two weeks away. Grassroots groups are urging travelers to either not fly or to protest by opting out of the full-body scanners and undergo time-consuming pat-downs instead. Such concerns prompted a meeting Friday of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano with leaders of travel industry groups.
Napolitano met with the U.S.Travel Association and 20 travel companies “to underscore the Department’s continued commitment to partnering with the nation’s travel and tourism industry to facilitate the flow of trade and travel while maintaining high security standards to protect the American people,” the department said in a statement. Federal officials have increased security in the wake of plots attributed to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Industry leaders are worried about the grassroots backlash to Transportation Security Administration security procedures. Some pilots, passengers and flight attendants have chosen to opt out of the revealing scans.
More of the units are arriving at airports, with 1,000 expected to be in place by the end of 2011.
Right, so now you have a choice: either submit to a full body X-ray where some high school dropout gets to gawk at your naked body, or submit to a serious fondling by a total stranger in front of a crowd.
Proper response: Eff off, we’re not flying. Not here, not there, not anywhere. TSA is crap. After spending billions you haven’t caught one terrorist, yet you’ve made tens of millions of innocents suffer and feel degraded. Screw you.
John Tyner won’t be pheasant hunting in South Dakota with his father-in-law any time soon. Tyner was simultaneously thrown out of San Diego International Airport on Saturday morning for refusing to submit to a security check and threatened with a lawsuit and a $10,000 fine if he left. And he got the whole thing on his cell phone. Well, the audio at least.
...
He’d been reading about the scanners and didn’t like them for a number of reasons, ranging from health concerns to “a huge invasion of privacy.”
...
During the next half-hour, his cell phone recorded Tyner refusing to submit to a full body scan, opting for the traditional metal scanner and a basic “pat down”—and then refusing to submit to a “groin check” by a TSA security guard.He even told the guard, “You touch my junk and I’m going to have you arrested.”
That threat triggered a code red of sorts as TSA agents, supervisors and eventually the local police gravitated to the spot where the reluctant traveler stood in his stocking feet, his cell phone sitting in the nearby bin (which he wasn’t allowed to touch) picking up the audio.
According to TSA at the time the controversial body scanners were installed, travelers would have the option to request walking through the traditional metal detector but that option would be accompanied by a “pat down.”
Why Tyner was targeted for a secondary pat down is unknown.
It’s “unknown” only if you are willfully stupid. Everyone else can see the obvious truth: he balked at the intrusive behavior and so was singled out for punishment. How dare this little sheep resist the shearing?
How about a body search for a 3 year old? Sure, this cartoon was ironic dark humor when it came out, but now it’s becoming standard practice. This is the real world result of Death By Political Correctness. Or as Drudge puts it, The Terrorists Have Won. So submit to major indignity one or the other, or go directly to jail. You, the sheeple, have no choice.
“Advanced imaging technology screening is optional for all passengers,” TSA said in a statement released Monday. “Passengers who opt out of [advanced imaging] screening will receive alternative screening, including a physical pat-down.”
But anyone who refuses to complete the screening process will be denied access to airport secure areas and could be subject to civil penalties, the administration said, citing a federal appeals court ruling in support of the rule.
Well, no. We do have a choice. And the choice is that we boycott flying. Take the train, take the boat, drive yourself or don’t go. Let the airlines rot. Let them go out of business yet again. (hell, it seems they all file for Chapter 11 every year anyway)
Want to hear stupid? The pilot of that 300 passenger missile has to go through the X-ray screening too. Just in case the guy flying the airplane is trying to sneak in a bomb. Idiots. Didn’t anyone figure out on 9/11 that a jetliner IS a bomb, fare more effective than any pair of underpants filled with PETN?
So let the protests begin. Let the boycotts commence. And let the airlines go to hell. And tell that worthless moonbat witch Napolitano to step the hell off. She’s using the “it’s for your own good” bullshit line, which is even worse than “it’s for the chiiiiildren” crap. Protecting us from an unseen, unnamed enemy, saving us from “man caused disasters”. And yet catching no one, EVER.
As part of our layered approach, we have expedited the deployment of new Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) units to help detect concealed metallic and non-metallic threats on passengers. These machines are now in use at airports nationwide, and the vast majority of travelers say they prefer this technology to alternative screening measures.
...
All images generated by imaging technology are viewed in a walled-off location not visible to the public. The officer assisting the passenger never sees the image, and the officer viewing the image never interacts with the passenger. The imaging technology that we use cannot store, export, print or transmit images. [do you actually believe that? Hell no!]
I think you could count the time in minutes between some hot famous actress getting a screening and her recognizable image being sold to TMZ or the gossip blogs. Minutes. Maybe only seconds.
Hey government: you can’t take our guns, you can’t take our land (Kelo v. New London be damned), and you can’t take pictures of us undressed. That’s our right, and that’s what digital cameras and Facebook are for. Sod off.
Full Frontal Nudity Doesn’t Make Us Safer: Abolish the TSA
The Republicans control the House of Representatives and are bracing for a long battle over the President’s health care proposal. In the spirit of bipartisanship and sanity, I propose that the first thing on the chopping block should be an ineffective organization that wastes money, violates our rights, and encourages us to make decisions that imperil our safety. I’m talking about the Transportation Security Administration.Bipartisan support should be immediate. For fiscal conservatives, it’s hard to come up with a more wasteful agency than the TSA. For privacy advocates, eliminating an organization that requires you to choose between a nude body scan or genital groping in order to board a plane should be a no-brainer.
When it comes to protecting against terrorism, this is how things usually go: A danger presents itself; the federal government responds with new rules that erode privacy, treat innocent people as suspicious and blur the distinction between life in a free society and life in a correctional facility; and we all tamely accept the new intrusions, like sheep being shorn.
Maybe not this time.
A lot of people, of course, couldn’t care less if a stranger wants to gaze upon everything God gave them. But some retain a modesty that makes them reluctant to parade naked in front of people they don’t know, even virtually. Henceforth, Jennifer Aniston is going to think twice before flying commercial.
Besides the indignity of having one’s body exposed to an airport screener, there is a danger the images will find a wider audience. The U.S. Marshals Service recently admitted saving some 35,000 images from a machine at a federal courthouse in Florida. TSA says that will never happen. Human experience says, oh, yes, it will.
For the camera-shy, TSA will offer an alternative: “enhanced” pat-downs. This is not the gentle frisking you may have experienced at the airport in the past. It requires agents to probe aggressively in intimate zones — breasts, buttocks, crotches.
If you enjoyed your last mammography or prostate exam, you’ll love the enhanced pat-down. And you’ll get a chance to have an interesting conversation with your children about being touched by strangers.
Reviews of the procedure are coming in, and they are not raves. The Allied Pilots Association calls it a “demeaning experience,” and one pilot complained it amounted to “sexual molestation.” The head of a flight attendants’ union local said that for anyone who has been sexually assaulted, it will “drudge [sic] up some bad memories.”
Join the movement. Take back your right to privacy, take back your dignity, take back your country. Dump TSA and give the airlines back the responsibility for passenger safety. Competition will find an effective, dignified, low-cost solution in a matter of months. And if Red Eye Air’s safety policy is lax and their planes get blown up, they’ll be out of business the very next day.
She described to me that because I had opted out of the backscatter screening, I would now be patted down, and that involved running hands up the inside of my legs until they felt my groin. I stated that I would not allow myself to be subject to a molestation as a condition of getting on my flight. The supervisor informed me that it was a standard administrative security check and that they were authorized to do it. I repeated that I felt what they were doing was a sexual assault, and that if they were anyone but the government, the act would be illegal. I believe that I was then informed that if I did not submit to the inspection, I would not be getting on my flight. I again stated that I thought the search was illegal. I told her that I would be willing to submit to a walk through the metal detector as over 80% of the rest of the people were doing, but I would not be groped. The supervisor, then offered to go get her supervisor.
I took a seat in a tiny metal chair next to the table with my belongings and waited. While waiting, I asked the original agent (who was supposed to do the pat down) if he had many people opt out to which he replied, none (or almost none, I don’t remember exactly). He said that I gave up a lot of rights when I bought my ticket. I replied that the government took them away after September 11th.
No. This has gone too far. Dump this, dump the TSA, dump the Patriot Act, and probably dump Homeland Security. It is time to rise up.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/15/2010 at 01:37 PM
Filed Under: • Big Brother • FREEDOM •
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Permalink • Looks like a no brainer to me!
h/t to Carol!
Posted by Drew458
on 11/15/2010 at 10:13 AM
Filed Under: • Border Security • Humor •
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Permalink • Sunday - November 14, 2010
PC brought back to life
Ok, it took a day or so of messing about, but I’ve got the machine up and running again. After 11 years of daily use, 6-15 hours a day, my hard drive final developed a single bad spot. About 40,000 hours I think. Wouldn’t you know it, it was right on the boot information area. So I had to do the full rigamarole to make it better. Boot from a disk - ha, what’s a disk? Took me 2 hours just to find them! - run the diagnostics, move the files, mark the sector, clean out the trash, toss extra files, uninstall junk programs I never use, compress and defrag the HD, et cetera et al. I have a whole slew of digital computer tools that almost never get used, but when things go all topsy-turvy, I’m glad they’re there. That is, if I can get the machine up and running in Safe Mode to get to them.
So anyway, crisis avoided, Window put back in, service packs and a quarter million security updates reinstalled, blah blah blah ... and it’s a computer once again. And it even boots a bit faster, now that I’ve once again trimmed down all the myriad background processes that Windows wants to run.
Hey Peiper, nice cartoon with the bears there. Looks awfully familiar somehow! Thanks again!!
Meanwhile, I’m spending today ... cleaning grout! Did you know that there are actual blogs devoted exclusively to cleaning grout? Wow. And you thought BMEWS was dull and boring sometimes. Ha! But when you really need to learn what works, those grout blogs are priceless. Baking soda and lemon juice not doing the job? Worried about using Clorox? Should I scrub down the grout lines or across them? Grout blogs have the answers!
Allow me to save you time: Go buy a couple pounds of pure, unencapsulated sodium percarbonate. Put a double handful in a gallon of hot water, and mix it with a wooden stick for 3 minutes. Mop it out on the tiles, let it sit for about half an hour, then scrub it a bit. Then mop it up and then rinse things off a couple times. Ta da, done. Better than in your wildest grout cleaning dreams. [ and if you are dreaming of cleaning grout, you really, really, really need to get laid!!! ] Sodium percarbonate is the stuff that puts the Oxy in OxyClean. Except that OxyClean is only about 50% percarbonate, the other 50% being sodium carbonate - also known as washing soda and soda ash; ie, regular detergent. The pure stuff is about 4 times more effective than OxyClean, but you should wear rubber gloves and eye goggles. And you have to rinse things. Who cares? This stuff will clean everything, from wooden decks to shingles to concrete to dentures to yellowed curtains to killing the algae in your little pond to cleaning carpet to dishes, laundry, and you can even use it to sterilize your wort pot and your carboys if you are a home brewer or winemaker. For as big a revolution as Billy Mays started, he was really only selling you the mild version of the chemical. The only thing is does poorly is soften up soap scum in the bathtub.
But Google up the grout blogs and pay them a visit anyway. Those folks have put in a lot of effort, so they deserve some readership.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/14/2010 at 02:12 PM
Filed Under: • Computers and Cyberspace • Daily Life •
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Permalink • some humor to lift the spirits and eye candy to …. lift the spirits
Found it at the Sunday Mail and you just know I have to share it. Some is familiar and some not but all are I think, funny.
OK you might be wondering about this. Me too. Besides, I had to fill space with something. Why not this?
Posted by peiper
on 11/14/2010 at 11:02 AM
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy • Humor •
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Permalink • sovereignty and the european union … what sovereignty? the eu gravy train rolls on …
OK this may bore some of you but ... pay heed. This is what eventually happens when a country signs away it’s sovereignty by joining a world order.
Can you in the USA actually say with absolute assurance and not a chance in a million of being wrong, that some day in the far future as in when even we’re gone from the scene, that the UN won’t come up with something like this. So it’s a bit far fetched at this point in time but Brits never saw this coming either, way back when. Not to say even this will actually take place as written, but just that there is a chance of it. And make no mistake whatever, these stuffed shirts in the EU printing their own money. They have a gravy train powered by their member states.
Oh wait ... something else to share from the same source. That being the masters in Brussels.
Museums here might have to stop giving free access to local people because EU rules say the policy discriminates against other Europeans. One city council has already been told it is discriminating against other EU nationals by giving preferential treatment to locals. Either ALL people must be allowed in free, or ALL people must be charged. And just to show you folks how far this kind of thing can go and has gone already; The European court has ruled AGAINST Italy for allowing passes to museums for old age pensioners.
Please think well on these things America, as some of our poo-baas back home favor locking arms in solidarity with Europe in more ways then one.
EU to target individuals in exchange for retreat on budgetBy James Chapman And Tim Shipman
The European Parliament has launched a controversial new power grab, demanding the right to make tax raids on Britain.
MEPs said they would approve a 2.9 per cent rise in the Brussels budget – demanded by David Cameron rather than the 6 per cent originally proposed – but only if they get powers to raise taxes.At present European funds come from member state governments but now the European Parliament wants to tax individuals across Europe directly to pay for its pet projects.
Questions to be asked: David Cameron is said to be ‘extremely staunch’ with regards to EU plans to tax individuals
The demands, quickly labelled outrageous, have plunged negotiations over this year’s budget into deadlock.The Prime Minister held emergency talks with his counterparts from France, Germany and Italy yesterday to face down the demands. Mr Cameron broke off from the G20 summit in Seoul, South Korea, after Brussels tried to impose a string of conditions if it gives up the 6 per cent budget increase it wants next year.
The Prime Minister said Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and Silvio Berlusconi had been ‘extremely staunch’.
Eurosceptics warned that the audacious bid to tax individuals is evidence that Eurocrats are still determined to seize new powers from member states.Mr Cameron said he would be ‘perfectly content’ if MEPs – who voted by a huge majority for an inflation-busting 6 per cent rise – kept on refusing to back the 2.9 per cent deal. The European Parliament must vote again on the limited increase, which will still cost the British taxpayer an extra £435million, while the European Council, made up of EU leaders, also has to agree.
If the Parliament refuses to accept a 2.9 per cent increase, the EU would have to make do with last year’s budget – paid month by month – until an agreement can be reached.
Posted by peiper
on 11/14/2010 at 03:32 AM
Filed Under: • EUro-peons • UK •
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
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- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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