Monday, May 16, 2005

Ever seen a grown man naked? DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff supports the use of new airport X-Ray scanners (backscatter technology) that, according to the ACLU, provide a "virtual strip search" of any traveller: Security workers using the machines can see through clothes and peer at whatever may be hidden in undergarments, shirts or pants. The images also paint a revealing picture of a person's nude body. [snip] The ACLU says the scanners invade personal privacy. "This leads directly to a surveillance society," says Barry Steinhardt, who runs the group's technology program. But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a Senate subcommittee last month that he wants to employ the technology and doesn't want an "endless debate" over privacy issues. He just wants to get off. What a perve. 4:45:39 PM    comment [] Compassionate Conservatism The Daily Sentinel reports that the Praetorian Guard Secret Service has visited Ted Nugent's Crawford, Texas ranch for some target practice. Three dozen agents took target practice last month at Nugent's ranch, he said. They initiated the visit, bringing machine guns and other government-issued weapons and ammunition -- and spent hours having fun at taxpayers' expense, Nugent said with a laugh. Secret Service officials would not confirm or deny the incident. "(We were) just shooting and shooting and shooting and talking and went down to the river ... just like a bunch of guys hanging out, but these were all the world's greatest warriors, every one of them," Nugent said. It also seems that Ted and Dubya are mutual admirers: When Nugent attended a private Washington, D.C., party after the 2000 presidential election, Bush hugged him and said "just keep doing what you're doing," he said. [snip] White House spokesman Taylor Gross declined to say whether Bush and Nugent are friends but said "the president appreciates the support of any American that feels strongly about his compassionate conservative agenda and his plans to make America a safer, better place." Safer and more compassionate? "Isn't it fascinating that without compromising a spit, that now those who traditionally despised me and all my NRA, Bambi-slaughtering lifestyle, now realize that my connection to the huge segment of America is something to instead of condemn and run away from, they might want to upgrade their level of that awareness and tap into it," Nugent said. Yes, nowadays even Ted Nugent is mainstream. 4:37:11 PM    comment [] American Eugenics ABC News reports on a secret government eugenics program that led to the sterilization of approximately 65,000 between 1900 and the 1970's. The article highlights the case of Elaine Riddick, an African American woman from North Carolina. State authorities sterilized Ms. Riddick without her knowledge when she was 14, after she gave birth to a child conceived from a prior rape, on the grounds that she was "too promiscuous" and "too feeble-minded" to raise children responsibly. She subsequently got a college degree and is now an engineering consultant. She discovered the secret after she got married and found it impossible to get pregnant with her husband. [Via Coasttocoast AM] 11:56:32 AM    comment []

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