Tag Archives: Big brother

Posted on 2010/11/27 05:23 pm by thepete



Please read: The TSA is still bad, but the media sometimes isn’t even the media.

I found the above screencap and the quoted commentary on it below via stfuglennbeck (who has since taken it down and it’s still on strikegently at least as of this writing):

yoctavias:

mssswitch

Wait. Wait. Wait. WAIT.

“Goddamn Arab”?!

Thats not racial profiling. Motherfucker. He was jerking off at women athletes. Not a fucking Arab. I dont know how people think they can just get away with saying racist ass shit like that. Like SERIOUSLY?!

(I tend to curse when Im angry, sorry.)

It wasn’t long ago that everyone was screaming about needing more security.
But now we’ve taken it way too far and it’s turning into a sexual/racial issue.

I travel by train/boat/bus/car and I have no intention of getting on an airplane until this is taken care of. You have more privacy at the gynecologist anymore.

Yeah, well, don’t get your X-Ray-proof panties in a bunch about the above article or the image in the screengrab above. It’s a complete fake. I did a Google News search for the headline “Body Scanner Operator Caught Masturbating at Colorado Airport” and got no hits.  Then I did a regular web search and found an article explaining how the image, allegedly of an X-rayed woman, was actually just taken from a stock photography package and then inverted in Photoshop to give it that X-ray flavor.  Then I did a search for the reporter “Hugh Muzzbe” and found hundreds of hits, all on the same article being reposted and reblogged all over the place—but nothing else by him.

I know, I know, you’re thinking: “HUGH MUZZBE KIDDING ME!”

>_<

Does this mean that the X-ray machines and the body searches are any less invasive or any less of a violation of our rights? NOPE.  It just means that, as usual, we have to keep our heads when reading about this stuff—ALWAYS CONFIRM EVERYTHING.  If you’ve read one story in one place, don’t assume it’s accurate until you confirm it with other news sources.

But remember, just because this one image and this one article was faked, it doesn’t mean the TSA isn’t super creepy or at all competent in their job or not violating our rights—they most certainly are all those things.  Alternet.org posted their list of the top 7 creepy things about the TSA and Mythbuster, Adam Savage, just the other day, admitted he walked right through one of the TSA’s machines and then onto a plane to Seattle with two 12-inch razor blades on his person (he carries a lot of weird stuff around with him and forgot he had them).

Oh and the good old fourth amendment of the Bill of Rights promises freedom from unlawful search and seizure.  Last time I checked, the TSA checks are not done by law, but by regulation.  Big difference. I was reminded of this while reading this account of the blogger behind NoBlasters.com being held up by TSA after flying.  Essentially, if you simply ask if you’re under arrest, and they say “no” you can go. I wouldn’t try this, but if you’ve got plenty of money for a lawyer and don’t mind missing your flight…

Ultimately, the moral of the story is that we can’t trust people to do their job, whether they claim to be in the media or that they’re doing it for our own good.

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TSA Screening Soaks Bladder Cancer Survivor with His Own Urine

Posted on 2010/11/22 02:57 pm by thepete

TSA Screening Soaks Bladder Cancer Survivor with His Own Urine

Meant to post this one the other day.  It’s just so messed up when law enforcement/”security” types can’t just be fricken reasonable.  That’s what this whole thing is, by the way, unreasonable.  I think it’s reasonable for some kind of security when you go on a plane.  But assuming everyone is a terrorist until they prove they are not seems to go against everything our country was founded on.

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Why the TSA Practices Could Result In Public Rebellion or a Terrorist Attack

Posted on 2010/11/22 02:25 pm by thepete

Why the TSA Practices Could Result In Public Rebellion or a Terrorist Attack

I don’t think this post on Gizmodo by a former law enforcement officer quite does what the title suggests, but it is definitely a worthwhile read.

In it, the officer suggests that the TSA needs to get their act together and decide what they are really trying to do.  Their procedures are not consistent and not thorough and even then they are intrusive and of questionable use against fighting terror.

I still maintain my position that if we’re going to live in  free country, anything more than metal detectors and X-ray conveyor belts is abusive and an infringement of our human rights to control our bodies.

We can’t trust our authorities to do anything right because they’ve manage to fuck everything up so far.  Not really sure what to say or do about it at this point. 

I mean, the level of hypocrisy here is absurd.  They say they want to protect our lives by making them less free.

I’ll pass, thanks.  Can we at least have the option to fly with an airline that doesn’t jam a snake-cam up our buts?


And my wife and I are supposed to be flying to NoCal during the holidays. :\

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EFFYOU.ORG: The EFFYOU this week goes to TSA Chief, JOHN PISTOLE

Posted on 2010/11/19 04:05 pm by thepete

EFFYOU.ORG: The EFFYOU this week goes to TSA Chief, JOHN PISTOLE

effyouorg:

He looks a little like General Ripper from the Stanley Kubrick classic Dr. Strangelove, doesn’t he? And it’s an ironic likeness since this guy is batshit insane with paranoia.

Read the rest at effyou.org

Got any suggestions for who should get the next EFFYOU?  Let me know!

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Posted on 2010/11/19 03:02 pm by thepete



motherjones:

Chinese woman sentenced to a year in a labor camp for a tweet (via Gawker)

I’ve been complaining a lot about the US police state, as mild as it is, but seeing this in my Tumblr stream reminds me of just how mild our police state is in the US.

Apparently, Cheng Jianping, RTed her fiance’s tweet about really sticking it to Japan by destroying the Japanese Expo pavilion in Shanghai—she apparently added a comment that jokingly encouraged China’s youth to go do exactly that.  Of course, any moron could see that she was kidding, but the commie bastards that run China’s government stuck her in a labor camp for “disturbing social order.”  Ah yeah, by joking.

The only place we can’t joke, here in the US, is during a TSA security check.

Read more about it on Gizmodo.  Not sure why they were blogging about this story, but then Gizmodo does waste a LOT of time with posts having jack to do with gadgets.  Sounds like SOMEbody needs to spend some time in a Chinese labor camp! ;)

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TSA pats down a screaming toddler : The Mommy Files

Posted on 2010/11/18 12:37 pm by thepete

TSA pats down a screaming toddler : The Mommy Files

The toddler was 3 years-old.

‘nuff said.

This is big brother, kids. It’s happening. I’m not saying the viewscreens are next, but how else will the government know we’re not planning to blow up an airplane before we leave our homes?

Hopefully the invasiveness we’re seeing at these airports won’t continue mission-creeping its way into our homes, but what’s to stop it when our security must be irrationally protected from a statistically non-existent threat?

It’s like asking a militant Israeli for proof that he owns the land he lives on and having him point to the Bible.

ORLY?

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Posted on 2010/11/15 04:45 pm by thepete



More on the Morons at TSA and our Government re: full-body scanning and pat-downs/feel-ups.

After I posted about a woman who had both labia touched during a so-called “pat-down” by a TSA operative, I saw a post on lifehacker.com that went into more depth (and included the above pic—I love how the blond TSA guy looks a little flush at the prospect of doing a cavity search on that boy). Anyway, so it’s an interesting post (read it) and it directly addresses whether or not you can refuse to be security-checked:

Can You Refuse These New Measures?

The short answer is no. Once you get to security there’s no turning back. You’re in for some serious consequences if you refuse to participate:

[A]nyone 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. The ruling, from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, says that “requiring that a potential passenger be allowed to revoke consent to an ongoing airport security search makes little sense in a post-9/11 world. Such a rule would afford terrorists multiple opportunities to attempt to penetrate airport security by ‘electing not to fly’ on the cusp of detection until a vulnerable portal is found.

What to Do?

You can opt to sign the We Won’t Fly petition, try methods suggested on Shut Down the Airports, or support organizations like Flyer’s Rights if you feel these new security measures are too invasive and should be removed. On the other hand, if you travel infrequently these measures may not be that big of a deal.

GOTTA LOVE BIG GOVERNMENT!

Do you actually agree with these new TSA rules? Well, if so, ask yourself this:

What are the odds of you or anyone you know actually being killed by a terrorist?

The answer is zero. It doesn’t happen enough to really be able to work out the numbers. Statistically, Americans are never killed by terrorists while flying over American soil. There was ONE TIME when it happened.

What’s really sad is that the terrorists have won.

We don’t live in a free country anymore. If we did I wouldn’t have to have my nads fiddled with just to prove I’m not Osama bin ThePete.

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She then felt my inner thighs and my vagina area, touching both of my labia.

Posted on 2010/11/15 02:10 pm by thepete

She then felt my inner thighs and my vagina area, touching both of my labia.

Our Little Chatterboxes: TSA – Sexual Assault

That comes from an account of a woman who was subjected to the TSA’s new policy on airport screenings. 

And to think I was planning to blog today about how lobbyists for the airport security industry are predominantly behind the push for full-body scanners. These are the devices that, if you decide you don’t want strangers seeing through your clothes, are replaced with a full-body search, like the above quoted woman was subjected to.  Ironically, the airport she was at doesn’t have the full body scanners, nor was she given any other option but to be felt up by a TSA operative.

I shouldn’t say she was “felt up”.  There’s a disgusting idea among humans that any physical contact short of violence is pleasurable and no big deal.

The woman quoted above says she was sexually assaulted because she wasn’t informed her private bits were about to be touched.  This suggests that if the TSA operative had just said “I’m going to touch your vajayjay” everything would be cool.

This is kind of a fucked up attitude.

Being touched IN ANY WAY should be 100% VOLUNTARY.

There is NO EXCUSE FOR THIS. 

Is rape not a big deal if the rapist lets you know he’s going to do it first?

“OK, now I’m going to force my penis into you, OK?”

That makes it FINE, doesn’t it?

How about this:  “If you want to leave, you’re going to have to let me sexually assault you.  If you stay, I won’t sexually assault you.”

Ah, that’s even better, right?

This is disgusting and I’m sick of living in a country who will put up with this shit.  We are living in a police state.  It may be a mild one, but we are still all assumed to be criminals before our innocence can be proven to corporations and government.

Whether it’s showing our receipt at the Best Buy on the way out to prove we’re not shoplifters, or getting fingered at the airport to prove we’re not planning on blowing up a plane—the old, forgotten principle of everyone being “innocent until proven guilty” is long dead.

Read the rest of the woman’s account and for God’s sake, speak out on this.  Get a blog, Tweet about it, post it on Facebook.  Just do something.  We have to speak out against all forms of sexual assault, even the ones sanctioned by our governments.

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Computers can ID you and 30-50 other folks as you mind your own business in public

Posted on 2010/08/20 01:48 pm by thepete

From “Who Will Watch The Watchers?” via underpaidgenius:

Who Will Watch The Watchers?

The city of Leon, Mexico, is installed real-time eye scanners that can identity 50 people per minute in motion, without any participation on their part. These can be set up in public places to identify anyone whose retinal prints are on file.

Jesus Diaz, The End of Privacy: Entire City to Track People With Public Eye Scanners

There are different kinds of machines being installed across Leon, from large scanners—capable of identifying 50 people per minute in motion— to smaller ones—like the EyeSwipe in the video above—that range from 15 to 30 people per minute. These devices are being installed in public places, like train and bus stations, and connected to a database that will track people across the city.

City officials and proponents of the system are hoping that public retinal scans will stop crime and fraud. According to Jeff Carter, CDO of Global Rainmakers:

If you’ve been convicted of a crime, in essence, this will act as a digital scarlet letter. If you’re a known shoplifter, for example, you won’t be able to go into a store without being flagged. Certainly for others, boarding a plane will be impossible.

< snip >

The usual arguments in favor run like this:

People that are law-abiding have nothing to fear from this surveillance. It only finds out those that are criminals or people breaking laws. It increases security for all of us. What’s not to like?

But if you worry about government omniscience and the ways that such tools can be misused by the state and its functionaries, you start to have a dull ache in your stomach.

Also, I firmly believe that the gray areas of life need to be conserved. Prostitution — for example — is illegal in the US, but exists, and serves a social function. It should be legal (like many other things) but isn’t. I believe that anonymity in public places is a cornerstone of a broader understanding of society, one that is larger than what is on the law books, or preached in church on Sunday.

Wearing sunglasses will be a subversive act.

via underpaidgenius.com

Yeah, pretty fricken lovely, huh?  They claim retinal scans from dozens of feet away.  Your retina is in the back of your eye—how lasers/cameras have gotten so accurate as to be able to hit the back of your eye at all, let alone ID you by it, is beyond me.  I’m guessing that there are a lot of false positives and that these things are really easy to fool.  Like sunglasses, as Stowe Boyd, from UnderpaidGenius.com, suggests or I’m thinking colored contacts would be more subtle but just as effective. 

Either way, this is truly messed up.  I mean, the whole reason America was founded was to get away from big government abusing its power.  If this becomes legal/commonplace in the US, I say we GPS-chip every elected politician in the country and see how they like being tracked every minute of every day.

Hell, we should already chip them and force them to have Foursquare accounts so that they tweet every time the go from their desk, to the Senate floor (or where ever they go to do their job), to the bathroom, to a cheap motel with their mistress.

I don’t think this sort of thing is good, but if it’s going to happen, it should happen to our leaders, first.

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The conscience of Google & how to opt out of Stalkery Ads

Posted on 2010/08/10 06:52 pm by thepete

Link: The conscience of Google & how to opt out of Stalkery Ads

Apparently Sergey Brin had some issues with Googles move towards ad-targeting that relies on “stalkery” to the point where there was a shouting match in front of subordinates. Also: find out how you…

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