Airport security

Notice how, over the past five years, American airport security has gotten systematically more invasive, more edgy, and more unpleasant? Well, apparently it still hasn’t gotten more effective to go with that. You can still transport as many bombs as you want aboard aircraft, just so long as they aren’t hidden inside your shoe.

(Which, really, shouldn’t surprise anyone. Fake security monitors objects and has lots of procedures; real security monitors people. But that requires extensive training and may involve things like profiling, which are politically unpalatable. Even the best physical security screening of luggage doesn’t really achieve anything, since there are plenty of other places you could smuggle things aboard. [Left as an exercise for the reader — I can think of some really fun ones that they’ll never be able to screen for without causing a riot])

Published in: on March 20, 2006 at 10:29  Comments (6)  
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On this day in history…

Well, three years since our fearless leader decided to start a land war in Asia. On this anniversary, we have an editorial by Donald Rumsfeld demonstrating that he really has no idea of what’s going on around him (and is somehow still capable of confusing elections with democracy); an editorial by George Will showing that he does; and remarks by our President and Vice President where it’s hard to tell if we’re dealing with willful ignorance or congenital idiocy.

Published in: on March 19, 2006 at 16:04  Comments (4)  
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Protected: Caption contest!

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Published in: on March 17, 2006 at 10:21  Enter your password to view comments.  
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And now, some good news.

There is liquid water on Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

Published in: on March 9, 2006 at 13:43  Comments (10)  
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Faith-based organizations

Well, it looks like some faith-based organizations are being extremely active in continued earthquake relief in Pakistan. Miltant Islamists, in particular. (Has our government really thought this whole faith-based routine through? cf. on Tuesday, the President ordered DHS to create a faith-based division. No word yet on which faiths will be invited to participate.)

(And the article cited suggests that “there is hope that [these] groups… are trading the mantle of militancy for social work.” I’m not really sure why they think that radical groups engaging in social work means they’re going to stop killing people; Hamas has been running schools and hospitals for years, in parallel with suicide bombing campaigns, and they’re far from the only ones)

Published in: on March 9, 2006 at 13:02  Comments Off on Faith-based organizations  
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Okay…

Yes, it looks like Rumsfeld has finally lost his last bit of touch with reality. “U.S. to rely on Iraqi forces to quell civil war” is the headline. Now, the Iraqi forces are in no small part involved in the civil war, but don’t let that intervene.

Seriously, I can see how a civil war in Iraq could even be to the United States’ advantage, but I would really like to know that we’re doing our foreign policy on purpose rather than by accident, and that we have something resembling a sane operational plan for how to protect our own people there when the shit hits the industrial-sized fan.

Published in: on March 9, 2006 at 12:55  Comments (4)  
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Not tonight, dear, I have a haddock

I always knew that being in Israel occasionally made tourists go a little odd, but normally it happens in Jerusalem rather than Eilat. And, um, doesn’t involve dolphins.

Published in: on March 8, 2006 at 15:09  Comments (20)  
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Some reading material for a long Monday

From Aviation Week: Secret two-stage-to-orbit plane program ends. I’d say it’s pretty likely that these rumors are legit, and if so… damn, that’s a beautiful bit of design. I wish we could reuse it (well, minus the use of insanely toxic fuels) for civilian purposes.

From Seed: A great article on Elizabeth Gould’s research on neurogenesis and stress.

From Philip Greenspun: An interesting article on why there aren’t so many women in science, which basically raises the question of why anyone would be in science. There’s stuff to think about in there…

And if you’re really bored, my own post from a few days ago with more politics stuff. I should really know better than to post long essays over the weekend…

Published in: on March 6, 2006 at 17:26  Comments (6)  
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Cross-Currents

Take a look at the following list of articles from the recent past:
Jewish man tortured and killed in France
Russia urges Hamas to change
Bombing of Shi’ite shrine leads to bloodshed
France reassesses its future after major riots
Map of the Cartoon Riots

We are standing on the verge of war, not the minor sort of war we’ve seen so far in Iraq, but an all-out war that could spread across the globe. But there are other counterpressures that could divert the flood into something wholly different.
(more…)

Published in: on March 4, 2006 at 22:34  Comments (6)  
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Something to read

Flemming Rose, culture editor of Jyllands-Posten and the editor responsible for the decision to publish the famous cartoons of the Prophet, writes an editorial in the Washington Post explaining why he published them.

(And for the record, I am in entire, wholehearted agreement with Mr. Rose on this issue. I have no sympathy, none whatsoever, for the sorts of people who want everyone in the world to obey their tribal rules. I speak respectfully of the Prophet; but I will defend, without hesitation and with all due force, the right of anyone not to. And frankly, countries that sponsor 41-part television series based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, as a matter of government policy, really don’t have much room to be complaining about the insensitive Danish free press. Let them choke on it.)

Published in: on February 26, 2006 at 21:49  Comments (2)  
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