Letting Off Some Steam

This is a continuation of my last post, but I think I should change this to me just venting and complaining about the things going on around us and the entire world. 

SECURITY THEATER
This is something that has bothered me for a while now and has only in the recent months been something that has hit the mainstream media, but hasn't been on it for more than a day or two.

What I'm talking about is the TSA in the airports.  Have you flown anywhere lately?  Have you had to go through a larger machine where you put your hands up and spin around?  Most of the people have no idea what that is ... they do not tell you what it is when you get to the "security" checkpoint.  You have to read the signs and ask if you really want to know what they are.  Or you can simply read this blog, many news and other blog sites around the interwebs that tells you what they are.

They are what have been dubbed as the "naked body scanners."  It's basically an xray of your entire body.  You're picturing an xray that you've seen when your bones are checked ... but it doesn't go that deep.  It will xray your body up to your skin level, meaning that it pretty much strips your clothes off and leaves you standing there in just your twigs and berries for all to see - correction, for only one TSA agent to see who is locked up in a room.  According to the TSA that's the only person that ever sees these naked images of you, and they are not stored or saved anywhere.  I call bullshit on that ... it's already been proven that these machines save the images and the images have been leaked online.  Anything that has a hard drive and that means any computer, saves and stores things.  This has a hard drive and stores the images, in the manual from the manufacturing company it even says that the images are stored.  So why is the TSA saying different?  So that you and I won't make a fuss and just walk through without incident. 

You say "but they are doing it to protect us!"  So is it alright to give up your liberties, your rights, your privacy for the feeling of being safe?  It's alright to have a negative image of you in your birthday suit being viewed and with the potential for anyone and everyone to see done just because they say it's keeping us safe?  The reason these body scanners are around is a reaction to the Christmas underwear bomber. 

"If that guy can sneak liquids in his underwear and try to blow up the plane, we need to have machines that can see through everyone's underwear to make sure this doesn't happen again!"

That logic is just horrible and that's pretty much what is being said and done. 

Alright, so you're one of the sheeple that think this is alright.  What about the radiation, do we have any information on that?  Absolutely not ... but know this.  The technology that is being used in some of these body scanners are the same technology the military is using in wars to see through walls and buildings - the operators of these xrays have lead plates between them and the xrays.  Think of when you get an xray of your bones, or even your teeth.  What is the big heavy vest or blanket they put on you?  It's a lead blanket or vest ... to protect you from these xrays.  But now it's alright to have these same kinds of xrays just free flowing through our bodies at least two times during a trip somewhere? 

So now you've heard my pov on these ... "what else can you do, you have to go through it."  No you can opt out.  There are no laws or rules that you have to go through those cancer inducing naked body scanners.  If you opt out you will be subject to a patdown. 

Ahhh yes these patdowns you've seen before, no problems there right?  They actually changed that whole thing and the "enhanced patdowns" are more invasive.  They touch you in areas that only a doctor or someone you're having relations with is allowed to touch.  Keep in mind that these are not doctors touching you, not even close.  These are low paid employees who are running their hands through your hair, over your arms, legs, chest, boobies, bootay, wang and sometimes the credit card slot down your bootay.

Ooh you didn't know that!?  Well again this is dependent on whom the TSA agent is and how much of a power trip they get from something like this.  But this is definitely a violation of your constitutional rights. 

I've opted out and was put through a patdown.  Luckily for me the TSA agent I had at LAX saw my laptop and we started chit chatting about playing video games.  This broke the ice and he seemed to be a little less invasive with me.  Very polite and told me everything that he was going to do, but even though someone is telling you what they are going to be doing, doesn't make it right.  One thing that I was very uncomfortable with was him putting his hands down the waistband of my pants and going around the entire thing.  He did ease up with he was running his hand down my legs and skipped touching the junk which I appreciated but the lady next to me who was getting patted down didn't seem to have the same experience that I had.  She was getting upset that the lady was touching her, running her fingers through her hair and whatever else happened that I did not see. 

The bottom line is what is more important to you.  Do you value your liberties and freedom more, or is the feeling of being safe something you treasure? 

Keep this in mind if you choose the latter ... this installation of body scanners and enhanced patdowns was a reaction to the underwear bomber.  So now ask yourself what would the TSA and government do if there was a bomber who was found to have explosives hidden in a place where the sun don't shine?  Judging from the reactive nature of the TSA and our government we'd all be reaching forward and touching our toes while a cavity search is done on many innocent passengers, women, men and (yes!) children alike. 

Where is the line draw?  When is it too much?  Do we wait for the rubber glove to be snapped into place while we're bending over?  Or is it now when we still have somewhat of a voice, is it now when we still have our freedoms and liberty? 

Opt out

+mon

Multitude of Thoughts

Well hello there blog, I forgot about you for a while.  It's been a long time between posts and a lot has happened since so there are many ramblings and thoughts which I can put down onto this digital paper, so where to begin?

Instead of going back in time I'll just fill this page with thoughts of things that are currently happening in the world around us and in my world.  Hopefully I'll be able to come up with some interesting titles.

SHADY
So we've been told that the #1 most wanted terrorist has been shot and killed, that isn't too far fetched considering it took 10 years for that to happen.  DNA testing within a 24 hour time period confirmed the identity to be 99% ... ok I'm not sure how long DNA testing takes but 24 hour time period, feasible.  Let's see some pictures, the response was that they are too horrible to show and they still might show it anyway - we're all waiting on the edge of our seats.  Now comes the kicker - where' the body?  "Oh yeah we threw it into the ocean." 

It goes from the sensation of "yay they got him!" going down incremently to "wth?? why would you do that!?"

I've read and watched video clips from way back as late 2001 and early 2002 where Dan Rather and "journalists" of his caliber said that this guy was dead or dying from kidney disease.  There were even reports and evidence of him going into a hospital for dialysis treatment. 

10 years later we hear that they finally got him, then they threw the body into the ocean. There are just so many inconsistencies, so many different versions that you don't know what or whom to believe anymore.  My tendancy is to not listen to the mainstream media because everything is filtered, everythign is controlled.  Where do I get my news from you ask?  The internet ... it's free, it's open to anyone and there isn't one person that can say this story doesn't belong, or that you need to edit this.  That's a double edged sword in that you can read news from everywhere and anyone, but how do you know it's reliable?  The quick answer for me is to judge based on the track record of that person/website reporting and if they have been truthful before or have withheld anything, or if they were just flat out wrong about a topic.

The more you hear about the story that he died recently and the events surrounding it, the worst it sounds.  Don't even get me started on 9/11 ... but just hearing how they threw the body into the ocean reminds me so much of what happened on that date.  Evidence, key evidence was destroyed ... they just threw it away and got rid of it. 

Also the fact that people were in the streets celebrating that he was dead??  What's the celebration for?  Some people said that this was closure for a lot of 9/11 families ... but why?  There was never any evidence that he was behind what happened.  Sure you can read what the not so independent 9/11 commission put into that book but he never even claimed to have any part in the attacks. 

Anyhow, this whole story of him being killed and announced on May 1st (May Day, look up the roots and what it means) is nothing more than just shady.  The presidents ratings were down, horrible ratings.  With news this big it was like jumping off a moonbounce that was situated on the moon. 

It just boggles my mind to see how many people just blindly believe and listen to the mainstream media without doing any sort of research themselves.  But that's besides the point and throwing away the evidence for the second time in 10 years for a major event in our history is just idiotic.

DEPRESSED YET?
This economy is horrible, the dollar is tanking and it's just going down the drain, but yet the news reports are saying that things are getting better!  Things are looking up!  The unemployment rates have dropped! 

Of course the unemployment rates have dropped ... there are so many people who can no longer claim their benefits because that period of 1 year has run out for them!  They are still unemployed, they just no longer count in the percentages because they can't file and get money from the government. 

Things are not getting better and the dollar is only getting weaker.  I've advised many people in the past two years where to put their money, but I don't think they are listening.  It's hard to stop believing in something (the dollar) and think that it's going to collapse totally.  I forget the term but it's the thinking that the United States is such a powerful country that it will never fail, that we are the strongest nation in the world and we'll always continue to be.  But that's the kind of thinking that Rome had ... and what happened to them?  We're on the same path if things don't change drastically. 

There was one republican candidate running for the presidency back in 2008, Ron Paul.  One of his first orders of business if he were to become the president was to get rid of the IRS, to get rid of the income tax.  The other politicians laughed and asked where the government would get those millions, billions of dollars that come from income back.  The answer was simple, very very simple ... bring our troops home.  All the spending of millions, billions and even trillions per day would be gone if we brought them home instead of fighting wars all over the world and becoming the self proclaiming world police. 

I think I might have gone off on a tangent, but the point is we're all in a depression.  The recession has come and gone.  If you don't believe me, take a walk down any of your family streets for shopping or eating in Manhattan, even in Queens and you'll see that businesses that you knew were there just 2 or 3 years ago are no longer there, that they were replaced by new businesses, or more often you'll see the storefront that they once occupied with some signs saying it's for rent, for lease, they went out of business or any of the sort. 

Harder days are coming when we're going to be trying to scrounge for any money we can, so it's a good idea now to start saving, to invest in something that can be backed worldwide.  Put your US dollars into something more feasible and something that is not losing value but rather gaining value.  For those whom I've already spoke to and told where to put your money, the time to listen was when I actually told you because you would have made at least 300% already.