This Is Not Going Away

President Barack Obama, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and Transportation Security Administration head John Pistole think the outcry and anger over their "security measures" will soon fade. They think the air travelers will soon accept the procedures they have imposed. I think they're wrong.

Things have gotten people upset before, but they haven't responded in ways like this. Here is one thing that happened at the Albuquerque airport.

Those are military veterans — the man on the left was in the Marine Corps, the woman was in the Army. Their service, and others', was to protect our rights. And they are rightly angered and frustrated to have our own government treating them and all of us as if we were the terrorists. The Air Force, too — also at Albuquerque.

This isn't going away. It's going to get worse — for the bureaucrats that are doing this to us.

(Photos from the Albuquerque Journal, story here.)

UPDATE: More evident TSA stupidity. And, of course, we have to read about it in an English newspaper, because our own main-stream media insist on living in the Administration's pocket doing this Administration's bidding.

From that story, too, as well as from others like this, we learn that TSA is so completely uncaring about the safety of the flying public that they don't even bother to change gloves between gropings. They're perfectly happy to contaminate subsequent gropees with whatever they picked up from prior ones — animal, vegetable, or mineral. That kind of disregard for public health and safety would subject normal people to large fines and prison terms. It should do no less for these people and their bosses.

The People, Revolting

After I wrote my prior post on the TSA's offensive new procedures, I saw where others had weighed in on the topic. Herewith, a small selection — a trio — of representative comments:

• Scott Johnson at Powerline:
  “The TSA is bound by a form of political correctness that has long rendered it a joke. With its newly implemented scanning and patdown procedures, however, the TSA has become something worse than a joke. It has become intrusive and humiliating to a degree that is difficult to accept.” ... “In its absurd intrusiveness and glaring incompetence, the TSA has become a perfect metaphor for the Obama administration. Thus the revolt.”

  
  

• Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post:
  “The junk man’s revolt marks the point at which a docile public declares that it will tolerate only so much idiocy.”

  
  

• Security and terrorism expert Bruce Schneier, on the TSA Scans:
  “Q: Is this security theater?
  “A: 100 percent. It won't catch anybody.”

Meanwhile, the TSA response is to up the ante:

“The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is warning that any would-be commercial airline passenger who enters an airport checkpoint and then refuses to undergo the method of inspection designated by TSA will not be allowed to fly and also will not be permitted to simply leave the airport.” (emphasis in the original)

Nor was this an idle threat. There has already been a man arrested and marched through two separate airport terminals in handcuffs and underwear by TSA thugs. His crime: He demonstrated that TSA was only interested in its defined process and not in results. He stripped down to his underwear, which “left nothing to the imagination,” so TSA could verify nothing illegal was being carried without him having to be groped. “But that wasn’t enough for the TSA supervisor who was called to the scene and asked me to put my clothes on so I could be properly patted down.” In other words, TSA insisted on coercing him into submitting to a sexual assault (which TSA pretends isn't a sexual assault because it's being done in an airport by the government). In this and its other actions (like strip searches of children), TSA has demonstrated it's just a bureaucracy of thugs.

And our Dear Leader is less than sympathetic:

“Barack Obama admitted today during his NATO Question and Answer session that he does not worry about the TSA gropings because he does not fly commercial. (Thank you for enlightening us on that, Mr. President. We almost forgot your were the Commander in Chief.) But, he added that he had no problem with ordinary Americans getting groped by TSA agents at airports.”

Obama's comments produced some interesting responses on that posting:

• Always the false choices with this chump. Sure, build a coal plant, if you want, but you’ll go bankrupt. Sure, go ahead and opt out of government-healthcare, you’ll be fined. Want to fly? Sure, get sexually assaulted. Typical fascist bs from a typical fascist loser. I’m not accepting this “conditioning” for a totalitarian police state. Period.

  
  

• It’s better that a million innocent children get groped than one Muslim extremist get profiled. It’s in the Consitution! Somewhere…

  
  

• Has the nation gone bat sh** crazy? Where are all of the leftards who were screaming about losing constitutional rights during the Bush administration over the Patriot Act? Where are they? Do absolutely none of them fly or are they all closet gropers or exhibitionists and voyeurs?

  
  

• As far as the TSA having the authority to do this, well they have the same authority to do it as the EPA has to refuse to give operating permits to 80% of the oil refineries. All of this over reaching from the executive into the private lives and private businesses to keep the masses in line.

  
  

• You Know How to Combat the march to 1984? ………. 1776 !!!

I'm with Scott Johnson, Charles Krauthammer, and Bruce Schneier. These new TSA policies and procedures are political “security theater”, completely worthless in providing any actual security. The public “will tolerate only so much idiocy.” “Thus the revolt.”

The only solution is to disband the Transportation Security Agency and turn their responsibilities over to someone who at least has some concept of what the responsibility entails.

Obama's Manhood

James Carville tossed off a one-liner: “If Hillary gave up one of her balls and gave it to Obama, he’d have two.” (Actually, he'd probably only have one.) The White House was predictably outraged. To which Carville had a responst: “If I offended anybody, I’m not sorry and I don’t apologize.”

Related, from Hudnall & Lash:


(Sorry. I couldn't resist.)

PC Run Amok + Bureaucratic Overreach

“Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while.”

It may be a fluke, but I feel a little prescient. Almost a year ago, I asked “Since this guy had his PETN explosive in his underwear, will we have to start taking ours off for TSA?” The answer is apparently yes, though TSA is doing is doing this with a combination of (a) technology (full-body scanners) and (b) “enhanced pat-downs” — in a coercive environment — in place of traditional strip searches. In other words, TSA is making their employees into a combination of peepers and gropers, both varieties of sex offenders who would have to register with law enforcement (and would face jail time) if they weren't government employees.

I also said “It looks to me like the bureaucrats of the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) really don't know what they're doing. As a result, they are mainly just hassling ordinary passengers without doing what's needed to make us safer.” And I see no reason to change that assessment.

The bottom line is this: Limited by its bureaucrats' ideology, the TSA has no idea what to do to make actual improvements in aviation safety. So they opt for the “politically correct” solution, thereby harassing (sexually and otherwise) millions of passengers they already have reason to know are innocent while detecting no hijackers or terrorists. That's bureaucratic overreach at its best.

I would categorize this as deliberate stupidity. Somebody obviously said words like “Do something, even if it's wrong.”

As usual, Trever identifies the situation best.

It looks to me like the only solution is to disband the Transportation Security Agency and turn their responsibilities over to someone who at least has some concept of what the responsibility entails — like concentrating on who gets on the plane, instead of assaulting everyone because TSA won't focus on actual (real and projected) threats.

That way, too, we can get away from the combination of political correctness run amok combined with bureaucratic overreach — the current toxic combination that gives a program that fulfills bureaucracy's promise by being offensive, stupid, and ineffective.

Veterans Day (a week late)

Remember Veterans' Day — thank all the veterans for their service.

The posting is late, though the thought was on time.

The Election of 2010

After all the rallies and all the campaign appearances, after all the campaign signs and billboards, after all the political commercials on radio and TV, the election of 2010 finally arrived. That's the one day the politicians take a back seat to the nation's voters. It's when the citizens of the country have their say. Trever (of the Albuquerque Journal) puts it this way:

And the voters had their say. I doubt anyone was completely happy. In this state, for example, the Republicans were happy to end the era of two-term Governor Bill Richardson by defeating his hand-picked successor and serving Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish, and by taking the office of the Secretary of State (defeating the incumbent) for the first time since 1930. But the Democrats were happy to re-elect the Attorney General, Treasurer, and Auditor.

Both sides were unhappy with the Congressional results. The Republicans knocked off the most inoffensive of the state's three first-term Democrats in Congress (Harry Teague in the second district). The more offensive incumbents, Martin Heinrich in the first district (Albuquerque) and Ben Ray Lujan in the third (the northern district) won re-election.

In general, I agree with Trever's take here, too:

But there's more. Here in New Mexico, we were going to make history no matter how the election for governor turned out. Both candidates were women, and New Mexico has never elected a woman governor. But in this election, we went further and elected the nation's first Hispanic woman governor, Susana Martinez, who until now has been the district attorney of Doña Ana county (Las Cruces area) in the southern part of the state. (Her husband, soon to be the state's First Gent, is about to retire as the county's undersheriff.)

By the way, I don't think it should be a surprise that Governor-Elect Susana Martinez in New Mexico and Governor-Elect Brian Sandoval in Nevada are both Republicans (and both defeated gringos to win their offices). Nor should it be a surprise that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and South Carolina Governor-Elect Nikki Haley, the nation's two Indian-American governors, are also Republicans. (Yes, I'm sure there are others.)

I'm beginning to see a pattern here.

Obama Has Convinced Me

I must confess — President Obama has convinced me, with the help of his minions in the Congress. And so I take up the mantra popularized by Barack Obama. I call for throwing out the corrupt bastards, including all of my state's Congressional representatives. (We don't have a Senate seat up this year.) That is, I call for CHANGE.

If Bush Dug the Hole ...

No comment is necessary.

NM MOM -- An Incredible Event

This has been an incredible event. More than 200 dentists, supported by more than 400 other dental professionals and more than 1000 other volunteers, treated more than 2100 patients over two days for free on a first come, first served basis providing everything from cleanings and fillings to root canals and partial dentures. It has been an incredible event event over October 15-16, 2010. That makes it the largest inaugural Mission of Mercy event ever. Mrs. Critter and I are so glad we volunteered.

UPDATE: We have been given what appear to be final numbers from the NM MOM event. The dentists treated 2201 patients in the two-day event. 8724 separate procedures were completed, valued at $1.3 million. (From what one of the event dentists told us, that may actually be the wholesale value.) Still an amazing event.

APS Fellow Resigns, Cites Global Warming

Hal Lewis, a Professor Emeritus of physics at the University of California at Santa Barbara and a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) for many years, has had enough. He can no longer put up with the corruption of the Society's membership and processes, and has resigned from the Society by means of a letter of resignation sent to its president. And to what does he attribute the corruption that has driven him out?

It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist.

He goes on to cite chapter and verse of the Society's action and inaction with regard to global warming, climate change, and whatever other term is to be applied to this subject area.

Naturally, the U.S. press wouldn't give this much (or any) coverage — Professor Lewis attacks an important shibboleth of theirs. For press coverage, one must go to the Telegraph in the rather more open British press. In this country, coverage is left to the blogs, particularly including Gateway Pundit and Watts Up With That. And that, too, helps prove Professor Lewis' point.

Obama Changes Venues

Barack Obama has changed tactics and venues. Now he's taken to talking with smaller groups of people in their back yards. His handlers say he wants to take what opportunities he can to interact with people more.

Besides, it makes for good photo opportunities.

But I'm a bit suspicious. I note that, just before these backyard visits were started, Obama spoke at a series of events where he couldn't fill the hall, and his handlers had to run around rounding up "volunteers" to fill the seats. Now he has less of a problem — it's easier to fill up an individual's back yard.

Meanwhile, Trever of the Albuquerque Journal has a related thought.

Trever Gets It Right

Trever, political cartoonist for the Albuquerque Journal, regularly gets it right. He's done it again — twice in the last two days. Once on the Democrats' new logo.

And once on the Democrats' response to last Tuesday's primary elections.

Gotta admit, Trever's good.

Quran Burning Threat Response

Muslims burn Bibles and the holy books of other religions virtually every day. Muslims attack Christian churches and synagogues and the places of worship of other religions virtually every day. Muslims tell those of other faiths, in areas they control, that they must leave or convert to Islam or they will be murdered.

Given this history, Muslims must expect to be on the receiving end of similar behavior wherever they are not in control. Otherwise, they are part of a culture that has been completely infantilized. That means they have never progressed beyond a mental and emotional age of perhaps as high as age five. It means they are truly, completely uncultured and uncivilized barbarians who have no sense of individual responsibility and no concept of human nature.

That brings us to the (unrealized) threats to burn Qurans a week ago. Muslims reacted to the threats as if Pastor Jones had threatened the nuclear destruction of Mecca. They rioted, and murdered a number of people — as senior U.S. officials knew they would. President Obama and his cabinet secretaries knew Muslims would react in a completely irrational and uncivilized manner — that's why they put so much pressure on Pastor Jones not to go through with his Quran burning threat.

Look — I am against book burnings of any sort. But I also know we wouldn't have heard anything about this threat if Pastor Jones had proposed to burn a stack of Bibles, or copies of the Bhagavad Gita, or the Dhammapada, or the Book of Mormon -- or an American flag.

Given all this, there's something that needs to be said:

GET OVER IT, PEOPLE! IT'S JUST A DAMNED BOOK!!
Alternatively, try to at least pretend you're civilized.

Imam Rauf's Taqiyya

Imam Rauf, the promoter of the mosque cum cultural center 600 feet from New York's Ground Zero, claims he intends the structure he develops to help build bridges between Muslims and non-Muslims. If that is true, he will happliy move his structure to a less problematic location. If he refuses to do so, his claim is exposed as a lie.

Imam Rauf claims the U.S. constitution "reflects Muslim values", and that "90% of Sharia law is fully compatible -- not only compatible -- it's consistent or compatible with American constitutional law and American laws. The areas of difference are small and minor." Of course, when not speaking to the American press, he said "secularism has failed to deliver what the Muslim wants, which is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The only law that the Muslim needs exists already in the Koran and the Hadith." One statement or the other is a deliberate lie. Which one to you think is taqiyya?

It seems to me the best that can be said of Imam Rauf and the rest of those promoting this structure — the "Ground Zero Mosque" — is that they are dishonest Islamist supremacists. That's why so many associate this structure with the Islamists' practice, since the days of Mohammet, of building mosques on top of their victims' priority religious and political sites. And that's why so many refer to this structure as Rauf's "Victory Mosque".

9/11 — 9 Years Later

We were not at war with them. We were not at war at all. But they were at war with us. They had been telling us so for a long time, but we ignored them. We should not have done so.

Now it is nine years since their major attack — the largest attack ever on the American homeland. Some may have forgotten, but I have not. We still have an implacable enemy striving to attack us by whatever means they can manage — by force of arms if they can, by deceit and deception otherwise.

Here's part of what we must remember: Our enemies are adherents of an all-consuming political ideology committed to world conquest. We can't meet them on just one battlefield. We must oppose them everywhere they bring their lies — everywhere they attempt to subvert or attack us.

And we need to get ahead of the power curve and attack them where they are weakest, in logic and reality. Their entire ideology is based on deceit and deception — and they must be made to understand that. The alternative is exterminating them like their predecessors in faith, the assassin and thug cults (now reduced to being just words in our dictionaries).

I am reminded of the (probably apocryphal) story about Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. Asked why there were no Muslims in Star Trek, he answered "Because it's in the future."

Muslims Plan "Burn an American Flag Day"

And how would that be different from just about every other day?

Obama is a Damned Hypocrite

Yes, President Barack Obama is a damned hypocrite. And so are his flunkies including Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Holder and Obama condemned a Florida pastor's plan to "burn a Koran" on September 11. Yet they don't seem to care that Muslims burn the Bible frequently — nearly daily — and even the U.S. military confiscated (stole) and burned privately owned Bibles in Afghanistan.

These people are a disgrace. Guess we need to start threatening violence and murder.

Update: Just another example of what's happening without any "provocations" — Terrorists attacked a Roman Catholic church & school & convent in Gaza, using RPGs to break in. Actual violence, not just a symbolic act. I also noted an article saying Islamist gunmen attacked an Episcopal church in Baghdad. Yet, in these and other frequent similar cases, we here no condemnation of the barbarians. Instead, we are told to give in and to avoid "provoking" those throwing the temper tantrums. This is ass backwards, at best, and must be changed. Immediately.

Harmonies

I've noticed something lately about the music I've been listening to. I sometimes put one of the music stations on the radio. But when I'm listening to something other than the radio, it's almost always one of two things — barbershop music, either quartet or chorus, on my MP3 or Los Panchos (or El Trio Los Panchos) on CD.

Once I noticed that, it started me thinking about why. And I realized it was because of the harmony in both. Nearly every note sung is in harmony — a chord. And then I realized the same thing, the harmony, is what's driven a lot of my musical preferences over the years, including in my preferences in instrumental music.

Listen to the harmonies for yourself (on YouTube) — here's a song called La Hiedra by Los Panchos and God Bless America by Albuquerque's New MexiChords barbershop chorus. The harmonies in both are indeed excellent.

Headed in the Right Direction

The country lost more jobslast month. Unemployment went up. In response, President Obama said (among lots of hesitations and "uh"s on the audio clip) "We are confident that we are moving in the right direction, but we want to keep this recovery moving stronger and accelerate the job growth that’s needed so desperately all across the country."

I'd say this is more accurate

Serendipity & E-Mails

A couple of days ago, I put up information from an e-mail I received. That e-mail did not make me happy.

Then I ran across this posting where Bernie had done the same thing and incorporated another e-mail. This one makes me much happier. Here are people that not only remember their history, but that are using that memory to build something better. It's a good read.

God bless the people of the Czech Republic.