Speaking of propaganda...

The NY Times' David Carr files a typically nuanced view of the media response to the TSA Grope n' Fly program.  It was a false alarm, according to him.

If a squadron of mad scientists surrounded by supercomputers gathered in a laboratory to try to conjure a single news topic that would blow up large, they could not touch the T.S.A. pat-down story.
<snippage>
The pat-down story was the equivalent of vaporware — it seemed as if something huge was about to happen, but it turned out that it was a story about a story, the noisy, fervent sound of a news system feeding on itself.

Yeah, because it -couldn't- be about the TSA shutting the machines off and stepping WAY back on the groping for the Thanksgiving Day travel rush could it?

In the face of such obvious official retrenchment, this Democrat Party opperative is trying to make it look like a public tantrum. Trying, but not doing well.

At a time of incredibly fractionalized politics, the pat-down was a single issue we could all rally around. For liberals, it was Big Brother grabbing liberties (with both hands) and conservatives once again felt the intrusive touch of Big Government in their pocket.

"Fractionalized"?  This is a word now?  Are we talking fractions, factions or fractures?  Retard!

But this here is my favorite, favorite part.

The issue of personal searches and enhanced visibility on scans would seem to be a more acute one for women, given the objectification of women in general and greater history of assault. But discussion on Twitter included two times as many men as women, according to Trendrr. Something primal is at work here, that speaks to both machismo — boys don't touch boys — and certain male insecurities about being visible to strangers. You thought that dream of being in high school in your underwear was bad.

Yep, its all about the homophobia.  Also racism, 'cause only White people in America aren't used to getting "patted down" by the authorities.  Really.

And that my friends is why everyone with a single functional neuron reads the New York Times strictly for the comedy.  Pure propaganda, badly delivered.  Plus, we all know the shrieks of rage this author would have expressed had a Republican been president. 

Here's his email addy, let him know how you feel.
E-mail: carr@nytimes.com;
twitter.com/carr2n

The Phantom
 

How the Canadian propaganda system works.

Saw this article at Borque today about Toronto being the most miserable city in Canada. "No duh!" said I.
Fairly standard news gruel we get served these days, some bunch of overpaid wankers do a quickie study, issue a press release with a catchy title, newsies puff it, then its gone.

Despite having the country's largest GDP and population, the megacity ranks lowest on the happiness scale. The study used data from the Canadian Community Health Survey for 2007 and 2008 to determine the happiness of various regions of Canada and the factors which contribute to the variation.

Ok, typical publish-or-perish ivory tower grant getter. Major findings were stunningly obvious:

The study also hinted at the reasons for Toronto's relative unhappiness. A key finding of the study is that "the most important reason for geographical variation in happiness in Canada is differences in the sense of belonging to local communities, which is generally higher in small CMAs, rural areas, and Atlantic Canada."

Stress was also an important determinant of happiness, something found in great abundance on Toronto subways and highways each morning. And while household income did help with happiness, the benefits it offered were scant.

Yeah, because in places like Toronto more money does not buy you less stress (not even -way- more money) and population churn gives you a new set of neighbors every three years or so. Duh.

So why bother even doing the article? What's the "Canadian Community Health Survey", who's the frickin' "Canadian Centre for the Study of Living Standards", and why should I care anyway? Well, I googled it.

Turns out the CCHS is (peeling away the impressive bureaucratese) a telephone survey done by StatsCan every year. One of those things that helps drive your taxes up, an office full of university graduates sending each other email.

The purpose of having it is to provide data for outfits like CCSLS to do POLICY RESEARCH on. I found their list of donors interesting. This is basically a federal government funded liberal lobbying organ. So we paid for this "study". Nice work if you can get it eh?

What's the policy goal this time? Its a beauty!

The report suggests Canada consider a new metric for measuring success, one originally championed by the tiny Buddhist nation of Bhutan and now taken up by France and the United Kingdom: Gross national happiness.

No, really. This thing probably cost a couple hundred grand once you add all the salaries up, all to promote that singular bit of abject stupidity.

This is called "moving the goal-posts" in rhetoric. Your policies measurably suck and cause misery, but you can't change them because they are in place to pay off the guys who bankroll your party. So you change the way things get measured, and then by magic the misery isn't your fault! Over taxation and corruption have ruined the economy, but if we measure by Gross National Happiness (as measured by a two-bit telephone survey overseen by certified Liberal useful idiots) then it doesn't matter if there's no money! Money can't buy you love, right?

Faithfully reported in the MSM too, of course. Like parrots.

That's how the Canadian federal propaganda system works. By Liberals, for Liberals, paid for by you and me. Each province has a duplicate set, and all the large cities too. And it costs us -billions- every freaking year. Great eh?

Stupid shit like this is the reason we have centrally planned health care, mass immigration of peasants with zero skills, Caledonia, revolving door jails, gun control, and et cetera.

I think an excellent piece of political kung fu would be to quietly de-fund all these policy mills by nefarious, back alley accounting measures. Pretty soon all these jackass policy stories disappear out of the MSM, and the Liberals have to PAY FOR THEIR OWN PROPAGANDA. That'd break their backs I bet.

The Phantom

Update: Welcome to Five Feet of Fury readers. Kathy's on a roll today!

Toldja.

The Phantom, proven not paranoid enough again. TSA's X-rated X-ray scanner coming to boats,  trains and buses near y'all, real soon. Janet says.

The next step in tightened security could be on U.S. public transportation, trains and boats.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says terrorists will continue to look for U.S. vulnerabilities, making tighter security standards necessary.

"[Terrorists] are going to continue to probe the system and try to find a way through," Napolitano said in an interview that aired Monday night on "Charlie Rose."

"I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime. So, what do we need to be doing to strengthen our protections there?"

Told ya so.

All I can say is this will prove real interesting in states like Arizona.  Where concealed carry of pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns, knives, bats, swords, switchblades, ninja stars, kubotans, nunchaku, sai, kukries, bayonets, brass knuckles and Gatling guns... is legal. If you can schlep it you can have one under your coat.  How'd you like to be the official TSA ball fondler at the Phoenix bus station? 

Given the "Hands Off My Teabag!" talk from the Tea Party these days, I don't think Janet Napolitano has a very bright future after January.

An inspired rant.

Linkage courtesy of Kate McMillan's excellent blog, an inspired rant from Stop Shouting. Added bonus, nice battle cry.

The following rebuttal is mine alone. I do not speak for my husband, for my friends, for my children, but solely for myself.

I am tired of being told to sit down and shut up.

I am tired of being told what I can and can not say.

What is "acceptable", while my ideas and values are mocked and trampled.

Enough. I have had enough.

Fix bayonets!

The Sharp and Pointy Phantom

Oh, the humanity.

Why is it we only see these stories in Brit newspapers? TSA grope 'n grab agents whinging about fatties and people who smell. I kid you not.

'It is not comfortable to come to work knowing full well that my hands will be feeling another man's private parts, their butt, their inner thigh,' one told the BoardingArea blog.

'Even worse is having to try and feel inside the flab rolls of obese passengers and we seem to get a lot of obese passengers!'

Another said he had a huge problem dealing with a 'large number of passengers... daily that have a problem understanding what personal hygieneFur is.'

All the staff said that they had experienced a high level of personal abuse while carrying out the pat-downs.

'Being a TSO means often being verbally abused, you let the comments roll off and check the next person,' one said.

'However, when a woman refuses the scanner then comes to me and tells me that she feels like I am molesting her, that is beyond verbal abuse.

'I asked the woman if she thought I like touching other women all day and she told me that I probably did or I wouldn't be with the TSA.

Gee, I feel so sorry for the poor things, trapped for hours and hours and HOURS in an airport with no way to get out, forced to undergo demeaning and perverted yet utterly useless procedures... oh wait, that's not them, that's ME! They can down tools and walk any time they want, whereas I get tased and arrested or maybe even shot in the ass if I complain.

Hey TSA whiners! If you don't like life as a jackbooted thug, can't handle the abuse as you handle other people's wedding tackle and make their kids cry,

QUIT YOUR JOB.

I know times are tough, but how hard can it be to get minimum wage doing something that doesn't involve sexual assault eight hours a day?

The Fondling Averse Phantom

Proof that DemocRats have not cornered the market on stupid.

Stupid appears to be a bipartisan phenomenon.

Stewart Baker, who worked at the Department of Homeland Security as its first secretary of policy under President George W. Bush, suspects the new security protocols and the aggressive reaction of some passengers is hurting TSA morale.

"TSA has made a lot of progress in training its officers to be professional even in the face of unhappy passengers, but the latest protocols — and press coverage of the most inflammatory stories — have led to a much higher level of hostility," said Baker.

"Instead of making this Wednesday National Opt-Out Day in which a bunch of self-appointed guardians of liberty slow down the line for everyone by asking for pat-downs," said Baker, "maybe what we need is a day when everyone who goes through the line says, 'Thanks for what you do.' "

See?

So,Stewie thinks we should thank the camp guards for their service, then shut the hell up and get on with the groping and the x-rated x-rays because all the mean talk is hurting TSA morale.

Um, no.  National Opt Out day should be EVERY goddamn day, number one, and number two TSA agents need to be made aware they are working for the f-ing Gestapo and need to quit ASA-frickin'-P.  Nobody should be doing that job, period.  It is not a job that should be done, ever.

Some more food for TSA thought,  Americans are the most  well trained and well equipped sons of bitches on Earth.  Americans have cellphone cameras, night vision gear, the Internet, YouTube, and all manner of whatnot at their personal disposal.  And they are CRANKY at their government.  Getting crankier by the day, too.

Time to hang up the rubber gloves, boys.  I don't think Joe Sixpack is going to put up with this shit for long.

Here be dragons.

Change of pace from the politics, here's something you don't see every day: a flying dinosaur the size of a giraffe.

Dr Witton said: ''Most birds take off either by running to pick up speed and jumping into the air before flapping wildly, or if they're small enough, they may simply launch themselves into the air from a standstill.

''Previous theories suggested that giant pterosaurs were too big and heavy to perform either of these manoeuvres and therefore they would have remained on the ground.

''But when examining pterosaurs the bird analogy can be stretched too far.

''These creatures were not birds, they were flying reptiles with a distinctly different skeletal structure, wing proportions and muscle mass.

''They would have achieved flight in a completely different way to birds and would have had a lower angle of take off and initial flight trajectory.

''The anatomy of these creatures is unique.''

Their research, published today in the international Public Library of Science journal, PLoS ONE, follows claims that pterosaurs were too heavy to take off like birds.

But Drs Witton and Habib suggest that the creatures, with up to 50kg of forelimb muscle, could easily have launched themselves into the air despite their massive size and weight.

Previous theories have asserted that giant pterosaurs could have been six metres tall with a wingspan of up to 12 metres but the researchers argue that five metres high with a 10 meter wingspan would have been more realistic.

Dr Witton said: ''The size of the flight muscles in a giant pterosaur would be incredible: they alone would be up to 50kg (110lbs) and account for 20% of the animal's total mass providing tremendous power and lift.''

Q: What does a 15 foot tall flying dinosaur eat?
A: Anything it wants! Bwaha!

Here is the actual journal article, its got math in it and everything. In case any Lefties want to look, there are pictures too. ~:)

The Phantom Flying Dinosaur Hunter

Signs of sickness in British body politic.

Official voyeurism is reaching new heights in Britain, with remote controlled flying cameras being the brand new police toy this season.

Already in the UK police are using drones to track thieves. In February, the Air Robot was deployed by Merseyside police after officers lost an alleged car thief who had escaped on foot in thick fog.

Using the device's on-board camera and thermal-imaging technology, the operator was able to pick up the suspect through his body heat and direct foot patrols to his location.

It led officers to a 16-year-old youth, who was hiding in bushes alongside the Leeds-Liverpool canal, in Litherland, Merseyside.

The drone, which measures 3ft between the tips of its four carbon fibre rotor blades, uses unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology originally designed for military reconnaissance.

The battery-powered device can have a range of cameras attached to its main body, including CCTV surveillance or thermal imaging cameras.

It is designed to hover almost silently above crime scenes and send live footage to officers on the ground, but the unit can also 'perch and stare' from a solid platform, allowing the operator to capture hours of footage from a hidden vantage point.

Merseyside Police is one of a handful of forces trying out the devices which, at £40,000 each, are far cheaper to use for small-scale operations than a conventional helicopter.

They have been using the drones for two years, mainly to help in search and rescue operations, to execute drug warrants and to crack down on anti-social behaviour.

The Home Office is now exploring how the craft can be used to give back-up to police, ambulance and fire services.

Its not enough that there's a CCTV camera on every light standard and fence post in Britain, now they've got to have free flying ones ripping around following people.

Interesting that the Daily Mail choses to view with alarm the prospects of this technology coming into private hands, while the government is gearing up to use it on a grand scale. That would be the sickness I refer to in the title above. Trusting the government while fearing the people is a disease rampant in the British ruling class.

Meanwhile, a strange blue light was seen flying around on Friday evening in Centerville Virginia, pretty close to Washington DC. Gee, wonder what that could be eh?

The Phantom

Signs of health in US body politic.

Freaky Fred Phelps and his merry band of homo-haters got seen off in Missouri on Saturday.

Members of a small Missouri town banded together Saturday to block a controversial pastor and members of his Westboro Baptist Church from protesting the funeral of a fallen U.S. soldier, Fox4kc.com reports.

Hundreds of residents in Weston, Mo. -- as well as people as far away as California and Australia -- rallied in support of Sgt. First Class C.J. Sadell, who died from injuries suffered during a surprise attack in Afghanistan.

Sadly they didn't mob-and-stomp Mr. Phelps and company, because these cretins need a serious attitude adjustment.

Phelps' church has been the subject of intense criticism for holding more than 44,000 pickets at funerals and other events – including the services of fallen service members.

Citing their First Amendment right to protest, Phelps' followers say they use funerals as an "available public platform" to "deliver the message that there is a consequence for sin." Phelps is openly opposed to homosexuality and all government policies they he says supports homosexuals.

What did they do that worked to drive these creeps away?

"We got everybody here early so we could take up all the parking spots," Rebecca Rooney of Weston, Mo., told Fox4kc.com. "We did that so Mr. Phelps wouldn't have a contingency that was really close."

Pretty simple eh?  They also had a large flag to cover the sight line to any unwanted interlopers at the funeral. and they had a large line of "bystanders" waving flags with fairly good sized poles on them between the protesters and the funeral.  Oh, and a good sized sound system too.  Mostly just being there, I expect.

I think this is a VERY good sign that people in the United States are starting to wake the hell up to the fact that their values and traditions are being destroyed by inches, and their government is the main enabler of the destruction.  Having the whole town show up to deny some assholes a chance to grandstand sends a message to a lot more people than just the assholes in question.  I'd say some town officials felt a little frisson of fear in their nether regions, looking at that turn out and thinking about the next election.  I would not want to be the guy who wrote that permit for Phelps next town election.

The Phantom

Today's absolute proof...

... that utter morons have taken over the US (and Canadian!) government.

Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School Senior Dan Depaolis, dressed in mid-evil [sic] garb, rode a horse into the school's parking lot as part of spirit week.

What he, and his parents, thought was a good-natured stunt, the school deemed dangerous. Depaolis was suspended from school for two days.

The vice principle allegedly suspended the 17-year-old even after the boy's father explained that the horse was brought in on a trailer and that no one was in danger.

The father tells FOX25 the school compared the stunt to bringing a "loaded firearm" to school and that he and his wife were shocked to hear about the suspension, saying that the 1100-pound horse, named Pierre, would never hurt a fly.

Cowboys have horses, cowboys have guns, therefore horse equals gun.  Perfectly logical in modern education land. Can anyone guess what the Vice Principals party affiliation might be?
All you Americans, just remember what's a stake tomorrow.  Vote early, vote often.

The Horseless Phantom

P.S. The moronification appears to have spread to Fox News, "mid-evil" forsooth.  Not even spell check can save the determinedly moronic.