Want some torture with your peanuts?
Older news, but very relevant given the current push for additional air travel regulations-
A small inconvenience to safeguard you and your family during air travel: mandatory stun-cuff, err- sorry, that's "EMD Safety Bracelet." (Marketing is a beautiful thing, isn’t it?) The EMD is "electro-muscular disruption", a fancy word for what happens when you're Tased.
See the video link below for a description of this product and how the manufacturer is selling it to protect Americans. I’ll wait.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar2gZiT5dDM
No, it’s not a joke. Everyone on a plane would wear one, and at any sign of trouble, they activate the bracelets. Though I wonder, during an emergency, how feasible it is to recognize the threatening behavior, identify the passenger, select the passenger’s stun bracelet ID, and then activate the Taser, versus simply hitting a panic button and everyone on board gets Tased. I think Occam's razor can be reasonably applied here.
My thoughts? Why stop at airlines? The bracelet will have all of your identification credentials electronically embedded, so it's just as easy to wear it like a watch at all times and use it to buy groceries, gas, and prove to law enforcement during house-to-house inspections that you are who you say you are. Plus, terrorism does not always happen on a plane, and having everyone wear one would allow law enforcement to remotely Tase anyone who looks like they may have at one point had subversive thoughts or otherwise questioned the implications of treating good, honest people as if they were criminals.
You may think that this is too ludicrous to even be plausible, but according to a letter from Dept. of Homeland Security official, Paul S. Ruwaldt of the Science and Technology Directorate, office of Research and Development, which was written to the inventor whom he had previously met with, Ruwaldt wrote, "To make it clear, we [the federal government] are interested in . . . the immobilizing security bracelet, and look forward to receiving a written proposal." The link to the letter is below (1).
I typically fly twice a week and after removing your coat, hat, belt, and shoes, it was not uncommon to hear the joke that the next step is the strip search. Only it's not a joke any more. Terminal D at DFW airport along with several other airports throughout the U.S. and Europe have "millimeter wave" scanners, colloquially known as “naked scanners.” When I first went through one the TSA agent refused to tell me what it was, only that I had to go through it (not true).
If you haven't heard of them yet, these scanners produce an image of your naked body that is viewed in a separate room. They see everything in detail. In fact, so much that by legal definition it’s child pornography when they scan your children. I’ve witnessed the TSA commanding kids through without notifying the parents of what is happening, and given that I was lied to about the machine and my option to refuse, I truly question the legality of what they are doing.
Since the attempt on December 25th to detonate an explosive on an international flight we’ve heard politicians and legislators citing “systemic failure” of transportation security (and how many billions have we already spent on a system that doesn’t work as promised?)
From my perspective the only possible failure I see is that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was added to the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment but not also to the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database. I don’t know the rules or processes in which a name is added to the TSD so there may have been no failure at all.
There certainly wasn’t a failure at the airport. TSA pre-flight security screenings functioned exactly as designed. There was no failure. The TSA x-rays baggage and uses metal detectors for passengers. Non-metal items affixed to a passenger will not be detected, including explosives and ceramic knives (2).
The silver bullet cure-all that’s being touted in D.C.? Naked scanners so we can see under clothes and catch people who attach explosives to themselves. There is one glaring problem: They still would not have detected Abdulmutallab’s explosives (3). Low-density plastics like syringes, Zip-loc bags, and similar materials are invisible to the scanners. Nor would they detect contraband hidden inside the body. Gross, yes, but for people who have decided to blow themselves up I don’t think they’re terribly squeamish about where they hide their tools of destruction. Are we going to start body-cavity searches?
Nevertheless, the TSA spent $165 million of your tax dollars to buy hundreds of these scanners. That’s sort of like having your house treated for termites when instead it has black mold. Sure, if you’ve just got money to blow that isn’t yours that you’re not accountable for, it could make sense. Oh wait.
My point is that we’re allowing Congress, DHS, TSA, and other organizations to further erode our civil liberties and drive us even deeper in debt, while not actually solving any problems, but in fact creating new problems for law-abiding citizens. The capability of a terrorist blowing up an airliner is likely not much different from what it was decades ago, but the real threat is when an aircraft is overtaken and used as a missile, as we unfortunately saw on 9/11. I believe this threat has largely been mitigated simply by reinforcing cockpit doors and reminding passengers that they have the power to act against would-be terrorists, as we’ve seen time and time again. Flying, even amidst threats of terrorism, is still sixty-two (62) times safer than traveling by car (4). You can think about the implications of that.
We must maintain perspective. When we’re told by the media and the government that we’re not safe and our families and children are at risk, don’t take it at face value. Question the risk quantitatively. Will the proposed solution actually solve the problem or just create the illusion of security? What will this cost us in terms of taxes per family and impact on our civil liberties? Unless we stand together to question policies and demand objective validation and proposals we will continue to be treated as subservient subjects of the government. We must remember that we are privileged in having a government “by the people, for the people” and that they exist to serve us. Remember that the more power you give away the less you have yourself.
Bottom line: YOU can make a difference. Regardless of your beliefs, I want your voice to be heard. Don’t just vote; write your congressmen when there’s an issue important to you. It’s easier than ever with the Internet and I’ve included some websites below that are important to me (6).
(1) http://media.washingtontimes.com/media/img/blogs/entry_img/2008/Jul/08/Homeland_Security_Letter_1_-_JUL2006.pdf
(2) Ceramic knives are usually sharper than regular knives and come in every variety from kitchen to pocket folder. Many manufacturers embed materials to them to make them detectable by metal detectors - but not all do and it’s easy to identify knives that that are undetectable.
(3) http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/crime/2700-whole-body-scanners-would-they-have-detected-the-detroit-bomb
(4) Safety in terms of fatalities per billion passengers, normalized by kilometer. http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/square/ca14/ALYCIDON%20RAIL/INFORMED%20SOURCES%20ARCHIVE/INF%20SRCS%202000/Informed%20Sources%2010%202000.htm
(5) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2053.html
(6) http://www.downsizedc.org/
(7) http://www.eff.org/
(8) http://nra-ila.org/
(9) http://www.politifact.com/
(10) http://www.sobran.com/articles/tyranny.shtml
A small inconvenience to safeguard you and your family during air travel: mandatory stun-cuff, err- sorry, that's "EMD Safety Bracelet." (Marketing is a beautiful thing, isn’t it?) The EMD is "electro-muscular disruption", a fancy word for what happens when you're Tased.
See the video link below for a description of this product and how the manufacturer is selling it to protect Americans. I’ll wait.
Click to viewhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar2gZiT5dDM
No, it’s not a joke. Everyone on a plane would wear one, and at any sign of trouble, they activate the bracelets. Though I wonder, during an emergency, how feasible it is to recognize the threatening behavior, identify the passenger, select the passenger’s stun bracelet ID, and then activate the Taser, versus simply hitting a panic button and everyone on board gets Tased. I think Occam's razor can be reasonably applied here.
My thoughts? Why stop at airlines? The bracelet will have all of your identification credentials electronically embedded, so it's just as easy to wear it like a watch at all times and use it to buy groceries, gas, and prove to law enforcement during house-to-house inspections that you are who you say you are. Plus, terrorism does not always happen on a plane, and having everyone wear one would allow law enforcement to remotely Tase anyone who looks like they may have at one point had subversive thoughts or otherwise questioned the implications of treating good, honest people as if they were criminals.
You may think that this is too ludicrous to even be plausible, but according to a letter from Dept. of Homeland Security official, Paul S. Ruwaldt of the Science and Technology Directorate, office of Research and Development, which was written to the inventor whom he had previously met with, Ruwaldt wrote, "To make it clear, we [the federal government] are interested in . . . the immobilizing security bracelet, and look forward to receiving a written proposal." The link to the letter is below (1).
I typically fly twice a week and after removing your coat, hat, belt, and shoes, it was not uncommon to hear the joke that the next step is the strip search. Only it's not a joke any more. Terminal D at DFW airport along with several other airports throughout the U.S. and Europe have "millimeter wave" scanners, colloquially known as “naked scanners.” When I first went through one the TSA agent refused to tell me what it was, only that I had to go through it (not true).
If you haven't heard of them yet, these scanners produce an image of your naked body that is viewed in a separate room. They see everything in detail. In fact, so much that by legal definition it’s child pornography when they scan your children. I’ve witnessed the TSA commanding kids through without notifying the parents of what is happening, and given that I was lied to about the machine and my option to refuse, I truly question the legality of what they are doing.
Since the attempt on December 25th to detonate an explosive on an international flight we’ve heard politicians and legislators citing “systemic failure” of transportation security (and how many billions have we already spent on a system that doesn’t work as promised?)
From my perspective the only possible failure I see is that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was added to the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment but not also to the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database. I don’t know the rules or processes in which a name is added to the TSD so there may have been no failure at all.
There certainly wasn’t a failure at the airport. TSA pre-flight security screenings functioned exactly as designed. There was no failure. The TSA x-rays baggage and uses metal detectors for passengers. Non-metal items affixed to a passenger will not be detected, including explosives and ceramic knives (2).
The silver bullet cure-all that’s being touted in D.C.? Naked scanners so we can see under clothes and catch people who attach explosives to themselves. There is one glaring problem: They still would not have detected Abdulmutallab’s explosives (3). Low-density plastics like syringes, Zip-loc bags, and similar materials are invisible to the scanners. Nor would they detect contraband hidden inside the body. Gross, yes, but for people who have decided to blow themselves up I don’t think they’re terribly squeamish about where they hide their tools of destruction. Are we going to start body-cavity searches?
Nevertheless, the TSA spent $165 million of your tax dollars to buy hundreds of these scanners. That’s sort of like having your house treated for termites when instead it has black mold. Sure, if you’ve just got money to blow that isn’t yours that you’re not accountable for, it could make sense. Oh wait.
My point is that we’re allowing Congress, DHS, TSA, and other organizations to further erode our civil liberties and drive us even deeper in debt, while not actually solving any problems, but in fact creating new problems for law-abiding citizens. The capability of a terrorist blowing up an airliner is likely not much different from what it was decades ago, but the real threat is when an aircraft is overtaken and used as a missile, as we unfortunately saw on 9/11. I believe this threat has largely been mitigated simply by reinforcing cockpit doors and reminding passengers that they have the power to act against would-be terrorists, as we’ve seen time and time again. Flying, even amidst threats of terrorism, is still sixty-two (62) times safer than traveling by car (4). You can think about the implications of that.
We must maintain perspective. When we’re told by the media and the government that we’re not safe and our families and children are at risk, don’t take it at face value. Question the risk quantitatively. Will the proposed solution actually solve the problem or just create the illusion of security? What will this cost us in terms of taxes per family and impact on our civil liberties? Unless we stand together to question policies and demand objective validation and proposals we will continue to be treated as subservient subjects of the government. We must remember that we are privileged in having a government “by the people, for the people” and that they exist to serve us. Remember that the more power you give away the less you have yourself.
Bottom line: YOU can make a difference. Regardless of your beliefs, I want your voice to be heard. Don’t just vote; write your congressmen when there’s an issue important to you. It’s easier than ever with the Internet and I’ve included some websites below that are important to me (6).
(1) http://media.washingtontimes.com/media/img/blogs/entry_img/2008/Jul/08/Homeland_Security_Letter_1_-_JUL2006.pdf
(2) Ceramic knives are usually sharper than regular knives and come in every variety from kitchen to pocket folder. Many manufacturers embed materials to them to make them detectable by metal detectors - but not all do and it’s easy to identify knives that that are undetectable.
(3) http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/crime/2700-whole-body-scanners-would-they-have-detected-the-detroit-bomb
(4) Safety in terms of fatalities per billion passengers, normalized by kilometer. http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/square/ca14/ALYCIDON%20RAIL/INFORMED%20SOURCES%20ARCHIVE/INF%20SRCS%202000/Informed%20Sources%2010%202000.htm
(5) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2053.html
(6) http://www.downsizedc.org/
(7) http://www.eff.org/
(8) http://nra-ila.org/
(9) http://www.politifact.com/
(10) http://www.sobran.com/articles/tyranny.shtml