According to several sources, but I’ll only link to The Register’s article, the TSA has been misleading the public about the capabilities of their new full body scanner technology. Apparently, the devices can see through clothing and create a blue-tinged image of the person being scanned. The image is effectively that of a freaky-looking naked person (though not what I would think would be a flattering photo). The TSA has been claiming that the scanners cannot store or send images, but it turns out that’s utterly untrue. In fact, according to their own specs, the device will have:

“a high capacity read/write drive… to permit data uploads and downloads.” It will also “provide capabilities for data transfers via USB devices” and support both Ethernet and TCP/IP. Field reporting data for up to a year will be stored on the hard drive.

As per usual, the people in this country could give a shit about their own privacy and would prefer to have Big Brother walk them through their lives, hands held tight. According to a poll in USA Today, the majority of people surveyed are fine with having their image scanned and stored, even if it “compromises their privacy.” Sigh. It never ceases to sadden me how uninterested people seem to be with their rights and their privacy. Apparently there’s nothing too invasive for people to accept as long as there’s a possibility of slightly improving security. Maybe they won’t be so blase once the first pictures stolen by underpaid and authority-starved TSA employees start to show up online…especially if they are pictures of their children. Yeah, like it won’t happen.

And here’s some food for thought about the “terrorist threat” from the Wall Street Journal.

I was taking a break and reading an article about work-at-home scams on the CNN website today when my attention was caught by the following (the writer is comparing work-at-home scams with Madoff’s ponzi scam to prove that people who get scammed aren’t necessarily gullible):

For example, many of the people who say they lost money in Madoff’s Ponzi scheme were celebrity actors, writers, wealthy people — people with abundant smarts.

Ummmmm…what? Talk about an incredible leap of logic. What, exactly, qualifies “celebrity actors, writers, wealthy people” as innately intelligent? It particularly galls me that this writer would assume that celebrities are somehow “people with abundant smarts.” For every Natalie Portman, there’s an activist like Sean Penn (who dropped out of community college). For every Jodie Foster, there’s a Drew Barrymore (who never completed high school). It drives me up a wall that people assume that just because someone is a successful actor that they are somehow more intelligent or well-educated than the average person (and yes, I understand that education != intelligence, but there are some correlations). This holds true for any group, including the wealthy or writers (just because someone has written a book or an article doesn’t make them more intelligent, nor does earning or inheriting a lot of money).

It just struck me as incredibly lazy journalism to make such an illogical assumption, even in such a soft and weak piece.

Boston’s City Council defeated a proposal that would have set term limits for the office of the Mayor and the City Council itself. Doesn’t that seem somewhat ridiculous? The City Council…is voting on whether to impose term limits…on themselves. Yeah, no conflict of interest there at all! Surprisingly the vote was a close 7-6 against. I think the following quote from the Boston.com article states pretty clearly why we SHOULD have term limits in place:

Councilor Charles C. Yancey, who has served 25 years on the council, urged his colleagues to vote against term limits. He said they “artificially restrict choice of voters, and I don’t think that’s fair to voters. I believe the collective of voters has wisdom, and we should not second-guess them.”

It’s my interpretation that anytime a politician invokes fairness in relation to their constituents, one should pretty much assume that they’re serving their own interests. I guess 25 years as a professional politician hasn’t prepared Mr. Yancey for a career in the private sector where you are sometimes expected to actually do some work and NOT take bribes (unlike City Councilor Chuck Turner).

If you’re interested in Asatru and are looking for more information, detail and examples of blots (ceremonies/rituals), you should check out the Asatru Folk Assembly’s “Book of Blots” on Lulu.com. I’m a member of the AFA and have just ordered my own copy (for full disclosure’s sake), so this is shameless promotion. :)

I’m thrilled by this news, honestly. As if it wasn’t bad enough that yet another Massachusetts Speak of the House was indicted for corruption (at the Federal level, mind you), it turns out the state used $378,000 of our tax money to cover “the House’s legal costs” during the investigation. This isn’t that shocking (and to most Massachusetts residents it doesn’t matter, because they seem to believe that handing their paychecks over to corrupt, life-long politicians is the way the world should work), but what is amazing is that four House Democrats are calling for an audit of the State House of Representatives! They want a full accounting of the money spent, including invoices. I don’t know what their motives are (there’s not a lot of detail out there), but I’m hopeful that it’s outrage over spending taxpayer money to cover the costs of political fraud and corruption. If so, it’s a small sign of hope in a single-party state that has traditionally run roughshod over the taxpayer (and the pathetic majority of taxpayers seem to enjoy the abuse…maybe MA state tax forms should be accompanied by ball gags and whips), and we should applaud those Democrats for not toeing the party line and actually fighting for what’s right (assuming those are the intentions).

Perhaps you’ve heard of the “Climategate” scandal, perhaps not. Regardless, there’s a nice explanation and brief analysis of why it matters over at The Register. I highly recommend giving it a reading – it might remind us all (myself included) that we need to question instead of just blindly accepting what we’re told. It’s truly scary stuff once you start digging into the scandal, especially now that people are digging into the uncovered code.

Good news! After the Supreme Court ruled in favor of 17 White and 1 Hispanic firefighter who had been denied promotion after they passed their promotion exams but no Black candidates passed, the state of Connecticut will honor the ruling (at the prompting of a federal judge, of course) and promote the firefighters “as soon as practicable.” Connecticut had feared a lawsuit from Black firefighters who did not pass the test if they promoted the White and Hispanic firefighters who did pass the test. The White and Hispanic firefighters brought their own suit claiming reverse discrimination (though I hate that term – discrimination is discrimination, period). The concern is that the promotion test is race-biased, because no Black candidates passed, though as I understand it the test was designed to be race-neutral. Do I think the state should review the test for fairness? Absolutely. Should other firefighters be denied their promotions? Absolutely not.

Yeah. This state is comprised primarily of morons who would rather turn off their brains and cede all responsibility for their own welfare and best interests to a government that is only interested in self-preservation and power. Let’s just keep voting in the same corrupt people instead of actually applying some critical thinking skills. GG Massachusetts voters. You get what you deserve.

The simple truth is that over and over and over again in our country, people use weapons, such as handguns, to save their lives, the lives of their family and the lives of their friends…sometimes even strangers. We don’t hear about these stories because most times, the weapons are never actually used, but merely brandished. This is rarely newsworthy (newsworthy = moneymaking, sadly). But recently in Boston, an off-duty security guard who was legally carrying his concealed weapon saved the life of a doctor who was being stabbed by a mentally ill patient. | Read the rest of this entry …

“As many as two dozen” people watch a fifteen-year-old girl plied with liquor, assaulted and gang-raped outside her homecoming dance in Richmond, Virginia and not one of them called police, let alone tried to prevent what occurred. What is wrong with us? Seriously, just what the fuck is wrong with people?