Thursday, February 20, 2003

The TSA's Latest Directive: Random Vehicle Searches. Plastic::Work::Terrorism: "The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has begun randomly inspecting vehicles as they approach airports, including cars and trucks that drop off passengers" [Plastic: Most Recent] That reminds me - does anyone know if any of these various civil-liberty-and-privacy-violatin', terrorist-seekin', information-gatherin' programs actually include gun purchasing data? I seem to remember this NOT being included, which makes perfect sense, given our current administration's ties to the NRA. But that just seems SO stupid that I can't believe it. Anyone know anything about this?

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Something that keeps bothering me: the anti-aircraft weapons installed around DC. Why are they there, exactly? It's not like Iraq can fly a plane to DC and drop chemical weapons - they'd have enough trouble getting out of Iraq, let alone across the Atlantic and all. The only aerial threat I can think of is hijacked airplanes. And if hijacked airplanes are still so much of a threat that we need missles surrounding the nation's capital, doesn't that suggest that we've done a pretty horrible job in responding to 9/11? Or am I missing something?

1:11:48 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

As I was driving into work this morning, I heard a Joe Jackson song. My first thought was "Another Jackson brother? I thought we'd been through them." Ok, not really, but I did think of Joe Jackson the basketball player, currently on the Sacramento Kings. But that's completely beside the point. I heard this song, "Awkward Age" or something like that. It was amazing - that is, it's amazing how much it sounded like Elvis Costello circa 1980 if you'd taken away his attitude, his originality, and his lyric-writing ability. This Joe Jackson guy has listened to a LOT of Armed Forces and This Year's Model - the only thing missing was the organ. His singing style was even a lightweight ripoff of Costello's. I want to make it perfectly clear - it wasn't a GOOD song, just a song that jumepd out at me as completely derivative, though admittedly derivative of great music. Oh, hi, everybody. I've got a bit more free time, so I thought I'd make another run at blogging again. My daily 4pm-6pm meeting has gone away, which gives me a lot more time during the rest of the day to write. More later - I've got another meeting now. Shock. =)

9:53:09 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []