The last leg of my moving from Virginia to Arizona was to transport my kitty out to the South-West. I decided to carry her on the plane with me. Not that big a deal, you can buy specialist carriers, and United charges an extra $85 to transport an animal in the cabin. We worked out the correct amount to drug the kitty so she was calm through the flight, and she was.
To get her through the security at Dulles in Washington DC I had to remove her from the bag. I refused to and a supervisor came and said we could go into a locked room where she couldn't escape. The kitty is a 'jumper' as they are known. Just before we headed off to the room a young fellow in a TSA uniform asked me if this was my bag. I said yes, he then pulled out a tube of toothpaste and said it is too big. Whatever, I am not having my flight held up for $2.99, especially when I have a drugged and stressed cat to transport. I said, "Throw it out." (more)
A recent GAO report finds that the Terrorist Watch-List has ballooned to 750,000 people in the US. The list has been accruing approximately 200,000 new people a year. Tim Berners Lee argues that this large number ensures a high false positive rate and may be contributing to the inefficiency of the TSA. Lee writes:
On the other hand, it's difficult to see what purpose is served by a domestic no-fly list. If government officials have concrete evidence that an American person is engaged in terrorist-related activities, then the government should be doing a lot more than putting that individual on a no-fly list. They should be actively investigating the individual, tapping his phone, reading his email, monitoring his financial transactions, and generally gathering the evidence required to either clear his name, deport him, or arrest him.(more)
Republicanism is the political science expression of liberalism. As with democracy, they require the osmosis of interaction, deliberation, competition, discourse and openness for them to have any public legitimacy. When the polis is fenced and the arms of the state oversee - it ceases to be the political republic and instead becomes the state's exclusive executive garden. The polis is temporarily drained until the state leaves and the urbanites come back.
Photo from Sydney Daily Photo: Wrapping democracy in a 3m high fence (more)
Photo from Sydney Daily Photo: Wrapping democracy in a 3m high fence (more) Nice sensationalist headline;
"FA-18s to protect MCG"
. How about instead we take
a cue from Bruce Schneier
.
(more)
