News You Need to Know – Page 106

Naked Body Scanners Booted Out of Europe

It appears as though the Europeans are smarter than the Americans when it comes to airport security. While Americans are forced to either submit to sexual molestation or be dosed with radiation Europeans have decided to give the body scanners the boot:

The last remaining full-body X-ray airport scanners are to be scrapped within weeks.

The security systems, which have been tested at air terminals since 2009, scan through passengers’ clothes, creating a detailed ghost-like image of the naked body. The scan is then viewed by security staff.

Critics said the machines invaded passengers’ privacy and the radiation they generate raised the risk of cancer. Some Muslim groups also refused to walk through them on religious grounds.

The European Commission ruled that the cancer risk was ‘close to zero’ but, under Brussels legislation, the three-year trial period has elapsed and it has decided not to ‘prioritise’ them for permanent use across the continent.

Airport bosses who were waiting for the green light on the machines now say they have been left with no option but to remove them.

Of course the manufacturers of these scanners will soon arrive at the doorsteps of European politicians with suitcases full of money to ensure this decision is reversed. A temporary victory is still better than no victory at all.

An Ingenious Solution to the Chicago Teacher Strike

Are the guards at the public indoctrination center on strike? Do you have nowhere to send your kids while you’re at work? Fear not, there is a solution. You need only find other parents in the same predicament as you and ask them to join forces with you in hiring an instructor for your kids:

A group of parents in one city neighborhood banded together, hiring a former teacher to instruct about a dozen children. Their makeshift class commenced around 9 a.m. Monday in the basement of one of their homes.

This solution is ingenious for a couple of reasons. First the teacher you hire will be beholden to your group meaning you can ensure your children are taught material that you deem important. Second the class sizes can be kept very small so each child has more of the instructor’s attention. Ultimately this solution will likely lead to far better results than sending your child to a public indoctrination center.

This also proves that we don’t need the state because we have each other, which is what agorism is all about.

Judge Blocks Enforcement of the NDAA’s Indefinite Detention Clause

It appears as though there are a handful of good judges left in this country. United States District Judge Katherine Forrest has blocked the enforcement of the NDAA’s indefinite detention clauses:

A federal judge permanently blocked enforcement of a U.S. law that opponents claim may subject them to indefinite military detention for activities including news reporting and political activism.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan today ruled that the law, passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2012, is unconstitutional. Forrest made permanent the preliminary injunction against the law that she had ordered in May. The government is appealing her May order.

I’m not surprised to hear the state appealing the decision, the last thing they want is to have their power restricted. If I was a betting man I’d put money on the state getting a successful appeal because the number of good judges in the system is minuscule. Most judges seem happy to grant its employer whatever power it demands.

It’s Good to See Somebody Cares

One of my biggest criticisms about Obama’s supporters is the hypocrisy they’re displaying this election cycle. When Obama was running for his first term he ran on an anti-war platform, which drummed up a great deal of support. Now that Obama has proven himself to be a war monger his supporters are still supporting him even though they decried Bush as a war criminal. Needless to say it warms my heart to see the anti-war movement isn’t completely dead:

DeWitt, NY — Dozens of war protesters were arrested Friday afternoon outside the main entrance of the New York Air National Guard’s base at Hancock Field.

Thirty seven protesters, draped with red-spattered sheets, had lain themselves in the main entrance roads to the base, off East Molloy Road. They were arrested by Onondaga County Sheriff’s deputies on charges of trespassing and obstruction of justice.

Good on those protesters. Somebody needs to speak out against the wanton killing being performed by the United States government.

The Actions of a Few are Often Mistaken for the Actions of Everybody

I doubt anybody missed the news about the United States embassy in Libya being stormed and their ambassador and three other embassy workers. As expected this news has been met with many calling for war against Libya. This brings me to a point that needs to be raised, the actions of a few do not represent the desires of an entire country. War is a horrendous thing. It always ends in death. Combatant and noncombatants alike are killed without mercy in artillery barrages, missile strikes, and firefights.

Is this really what people want? Especially when it wasn’t the actions of every Libyan but a handful of individuals? Can we really justify bombing villages, towns, and cities full of uninvolved people? Before you consider this question I ask you to view these pictures of Libyans apologizing for the actions of those who killed the United States ambassador.

It’s easy to blame an entire country for the doings of a few. I don’t believe it’s an appropriate response to this situation though. Those involved in attacking the embassy and killing the people within should be brought to justice but we should not begin murdering uninvolved individuals. At that point we become no better than those who stormed the embassy.

The Most Effective Tracking Devices Every Conceived

Many conspiracy theorists believe the a secret shadow government is plotting to forcefully insert tracking devices into every person on Earth. This theory is absurd because so many people already carry around a personal tracking device voluntarily, it’s called a cell phone. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has put together a rather useful map that you can use to see how police in your state are using cell phones to track individuals:

In a massive coordinated information-seeking campaign, 35 ACLU affiliates filed over 380 requests in 31 states and Washington, D.C. with local law enforcement agencies large and small to uncover when, why and how they are using cell phone location data to track Americans.

Sadly no data for Minnesota currently exists but there is data on many other states.

It’s Only Genocide When Our Enemies Do It

A lot of time is spent educating people on the atrocities of the Holocaust. The Nazis exterminated millions of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and other “undesirables” in their crusade for racial superiority. What generally isn’t covered are the atrocities committed by one of our World War II allies, the Soviet Union. Like Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union exterminated millions of innocent people but those genocides are seldom covered in schools because it’s only genocide when the enemy does it:

The American POWs sent secret coded messages to Washington with news of a Soviet atrocity: In 1943 they saw rows of corpses in an advanced state of decay in the Katyn forest, on the western edge of Russia, proof that the killers could not have been the Nazis who had only recently occupied the area.

The testimony about the infamous massacre of Polish officers might have lessened the tragic fate that befell Poland under the Soviets, some scholars believe. Instead, it mysteriously vanished into the heart of American power. The long-held suspicion is that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt didn’t want to anger Josef Stalin, an ally whom the Americans were counting on to defeat Germany and Japan during World War II.

Documents released Monday and seen in advance by The Associated Press lend weight to the belief that suppression within the highest levels of the U.S. government helped cover up Soviet guilt in the killing of some 22,000 Polish officers and other prisoners in the Katyn forest and other locations in 1940.

Needless to say the United States government was willing to sweep the Soviet Union’s genocides under the rug because they were our friends and our friends could do no wrong. This story really demonstrates the extent states will go to propagandize people into believing in a war’s just cause. World War II is often considered a “good” war because the Nazis were really bad guys. That justification requires ignoring the Soviet Union, who we befriended, because they were also really bad guys. Effectively World War II can be defined as one set of really bad guys fighting another set of really bad guys. The United States sided with one genocidal state while other countries sided with the other genocidal state. Ultimately the side the United States allied with won so the genocides committed by the Soviet Union were thrown down the memory hold as the history books were written.

Pay Not Based on Results

In this time of economic hardship the teacher union in Chicago has decided to go on strike:

As many as 26,000 teachers were expected to stay away, with picket lines forming around the city.

About 350,000 students were affected by the strike in the nation’s third-largest district.

The walkout was called after all-day talks broke down on Sunday, following months of negotiations.

The two sides met again on Monday to continue negotiations, but failed to reach a settlement, meaning the strike will extend into at least a second day.

“This is not a strike I wanted,” the mayor said. “It’s unnecessary, it’s avoidable and it’s wrong.”

School officials said they had doubled the pay rise offered, for a total of 16% over four years.

“This is about as much as we can do,” Chicago school board chief David Vitale told the Chicago Tribune. “There is only so much money in the system.”

Considering the drop out rate in Chicago is roughly 40% I see no reason to give the teachers any raise. In fact I would argue they should have their paid decreased to reflect the poor job they’re doing at creating an environment where students want to come and learn.

Tools Big Brother Only Dreamed Of

1984 was an interesting novel. Not only did it serve as a warning of what might be (and what actually manifested) but also hypothesized on some of the technologies that would be used by the state to keep an constant eye on the people. Everything from thought police to telescreens were used to keep tabs on those living in Oceania. Today technology has advanced and the state has tools that Big Brother could only dream of:

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun rolling out its new $1 billion biometric Next Generation Identification (NGI) system. In essence, NGI is a nationwide database of mugshots, iris scans, DNA records, voice samples, and other biometrics, that will help the FBI identify and catch criminals — but it is how this biometric data is captured, through a nationwide network of cameras and photo databases, that is raising the eyebrows of privacy advocates.

Until now, the FBI relied on IAFIS, a national fingerprint database that has long been due an overhaul. Over the last few months, the FBI has been pilot testing a facial recognition system — and soon, detectives will also be able to search the system for other biometrics such as DNA records and iris scans. In theory, this should result in much faster positive identifications of criminals and fewer unsolved cases.

Imagine what combining the Federal Bureau of Investigations’s (FBI) new facial recognition technology with New York City’s spy network will do. People walking down the street can be easily identified and any criminals, which every one of us are, can be detected and state goons dispatched to the offender’s location.

It’s sad to see George Orwell’s warnings going unhindered.

Big Brother is WWWatching You

There is a really good series on YouTube call The Rap News. The series consists of very well done videos discussing actual consequences of current news stories in a light hearted manner. Needless to say the latest video covers the surveillance state and fucking nails it:

The Internet is the last place where a truly open exchange of ideas can occur. Technology makes it too easy for the state to track down printing presses and radio transmitters so those options are no longer available. On the other hand the Internet is a global communication system where users can remain anonymous so long as they use the right tools. Yet the state continues to legislation the Internet, trying to kill it as they know it’s a threat to their power based. We must keep the Internet free of state intrusion at all costs. If we lose it we’re truly sunk because then the state will be able to have almost complete control over everything being said.

Let’s heed George Torwell’s advice.