TSA Enters Fondling Business

The bad news is that if you don't want to be irradiated, or have your privacy invaded, by the TSA's new full-body scanners, soon you can get groped by a TSA "officer". The good news is, there aren't any additional fees or taxes associated with this! At least for now.

http://www.smartertravel.com/blogs/today-in-travel/tsa-experimenting-with-enhanced-patdowns.html?id=5396474&source=dealalert_test_b&value=2010-08-25+00:00:00&u=3E91EFB00D

I wonder whether the TSA will publish some guidance about how to tip your TSA officer for exceptional service. Slide the singles into his/her badge holder? The belt? In your belt or waistband (if they're any good at all, they'll find them!). And what happens if you opt for this perk in the middle of a raging erection? Will they wave you through the line, or would that provoke the Defenders Of Our Skies to take you into a back room and beat it out of you? Inquiring minds want to know!

Isn't Tech Awesome?

Here's the latest small step in the march towards....dystopia? the surveillance state? the end of speeding, illegal lefts, and mowing pedestrians down in crosswalks? Time will tell. Makes me wonder, though - did Orwell, Bradbury, Gibson, Gilliam, and all those fellows who write/wrote about a dystopic future anticipate the advance of technology, and that humans just wouldn't be able to resist using it for these purposes? Or did they think the worst of humankind, and assumed that given enough time it was inevitable that we would consciously work toward the development of these tools of the police state? In other words, which comes first, the camera or the man in the control booth studying you on the monitor? And does it even matter, now that it's here (and growing)?

Legalizing the Surveillance State

It's done, the new FISA bill has passed in the Senate. No, this doesn't plunge us into 1984. But it does bring us a few steps closer.

I think Obama's stark reversal on this issue is oddly reassuring - having a principled, honest person running for president is way too suspicious, but now we know he's just another politician. Will I still vote for the guy? Sure! (as if I'd vote for McCain). But he's not the Second Coming, as his hard-core supporters like to imagine. He's just another poll-driven, broken-promises, triangulating candidate. Much more appropriate behavior for someone running for president.

Newsworthy?

Maybe I'm just being cynical, but does the WP front page "revelation", that Verizon turned over phone records without a court order, really matter much? The government is going to get this information one way or another, since not cooperating can tend to hurt the bottom line. Corporations will continue to roll over for the Feds, to protect themselves and their shareholders. How shocking!