August 2006 – Page 2 – Complaint Hub

Stop using terrorism as a political tool

CNN.com – UK lowers threat level to ‘severe’ – Aug 14, 2006

“The threat level is at severe, indicating the high likelihood of an attempted terrorist attack at some stage, and I urge the public to remain vigilant.”

I’m glad that was the British Home Secretary saying that, and not someone from our DHS. It would have been really embarrassing if Chertoff said something that dumb. Now, if I had a devoted readership, it would be mere minutes before someone would dig up an equally stupid quote from Chertoff. But, since my devoted readership is about five people, I’m not sure it’s going to happen.

Anyway, the point of this post is not to attack stupid quotes. I mean, if the British government wants to terrify their citizens over the threat of attempted attacks, that’s fine. It’s idiotic, but it’s fine.

The point of this post is that all of these security measures are ridiculous. You can bring electronics on this flight, but not that flight. You can only bring a clear plastic bag on this flight, but three days later you can bring a regular carry-on. You can bring a computer or a hair dryer, “provided they are visible at security checkpoints”. So, I’m free to put a bomb in my suitcase and use my hair dryer to set it off, but I ABSOLUTELY MUST ensure that the hair dryer is visible to the security folks.

None of this is making us safe. This is making us afraid, and this is making it a pain in the ass to travel. But it does nothing for our safety. It’s so frustrating that I don’t feel as if there’s anything I can do. I could make a fuss at the airport, but what will that accomplish? The people there are just following orders from higher up (If anyone makes a “the Nazis were just following orders, too” comment, I’m going to block your IP. If I can figure out how to do that.), so complaining to them is useless, and likely to only delay me further.

So I bitch about it here, and to anyone else who will listen. I’ve heard people suggest that many of these terrorists we’ve caught were planted by the government as an excuse to do things in the name of national security. I don’t think I’ve sunk quite to the level of paranoia it takes to believe that, but the fact that it doesn’t sound all that far-fetched anymore worries me.

Note to any and all government agencies who may be listening in: I am not a terrorist. I am not bringing any bombs on any planes, nor have I ever even seen a bomb. I love my country, for better or for worse, and have no ties to any terrorist organizations. When I talk about being free to bring a bomb on a plane, I mean that in a purely hypothetical sense. I would never actually do it.

Oh, the Web 2.0-ness is spectacular!

I posted about HotSoup a while back, and it looks like they’re one step closer to going live. They’ve got little quotes from some famous people like John McCain and Lance Armstrong. They’ve got little animated ads for themselves on a splash screen. Who uses splash screens? Aside from fifteen-year-old girls and car manufacturers?

I know the site’s not live yet, but when it goes live, they’re going to have to remember that they need some real content behind the pretty pictures and draggable divs. Hopefully they’re just trying to drum up some interest now, and the real site will be very different.

I’m also curious about their poll. What, exactly, is the difference between “Government” and “Political leaders”? If I go to my political leaders, does that mean going straight to the top? Skipping the low- and mid-levels of government and taking my complaint or concern straight to the big boss? It seems like an awfully subtle distinction for such a general poll.

But maybe I’m just in a bad mood because it’s Monday.

CNN.com – Navarrette – What really bothers immigration foes – Aug 11, 2006

CNN.com – Navarrette: What really bothers immigration foes – Aug 11, 2006

Update to this post.

Aha! This guy agrees with me. Many of the people opposed to illegal immigrants are using border security as an excuse to hide the fact that they just don’t like Mexicans. Some people expressed fear that the immigrants were a threat to our security. But when a proposal came out that satisfied their demands, they came up with new demands. You’ve made our borders safe? Now make sure that you give preference to English-speakers and skilled workers.

No, I’m sorry, you can’t do that. This is America. This is not English-Speaking-Skilled-Worker Land. There’s no sign on the Statue of Liberty that says “You must be this Americanized to enter”. If you want to hate Mexicans, fine, that’s your right. But stop lying about it, and stop trying to pass laws so you don’t have to see them. You can go live in your close-minded little world all you want, but stop forcing your racism on me and the rest of the country.

Weve known about the threat for a year, but just now overreact?

Tip Followed ’05 Attacks on London Transit

Apparently the group that was going to blow up some planes yesterday has been under surveillance for about a year. So now, they got too close to maybe pulling off something, and they had to be arrested. And as a result of that arrest, when theoretically the threat is the lowest it’s been in a year, we can’t bring any liquids on planes.

Cory Doctorow over at BoingBoing had an interesting post yesterday. He’s a little ticked off. Hopefully, we all are.

Until they handcuff us all nude to our seats and dart us with tranquilizers, there will always be the possibility that a passenger will do something naughty on a plane

I’m tired of having my life disturbed because of some supposed terrorist threat. I live just outside of Washington, DC. I know we’re a big target, and that if something big happened in DC, I’d be at risk. I’m willing to take that risk because I like living in this area. Sure, there are some downsides. But I choose to live here, and deal with the possible consequences. I also like to travel. I’m getting married a week from tomorrow, and we’re flying to LA then on to New Zealand next Sunday. Because of these ridiculous restrictions, I’m probably going to have to sit in lines for hours before my 14 hour flight from LA. And all for what? So everyone is extra scared so we can lose some more civil rights? If they were really concerned about our safety, they’d ban electronics, too. They were planning to set off the liquid explosives with cell phones, right? So why are the cell phones still allowed?

It’s ridiculous. I refuse to live in fear of a terrorist plot. I refuse to let some extremist nutjobs tell me how I can live my life. That includes you, President Bush.

Mom as a role model for kids? Say it aint so.

Mom’s dieting can be unhealthy for kids – Yahoo! News

Shocker. Mothers who live unhealthy lifestyles then diet when they can’t fit into their pants are likely to have daughters who do the same. Thank you, Yahoo!, for that unexpected fact. Note – the study cited in the article focused on mothers and daughters, since a higher percentage of women have body image problems. Perhaps because all the studies focus on them.

The gist of the article is that mothers who obsess about weight and diet all the time tend to have daughters who do the same. Mothers who make lifestyle changes towards better health also tend to have daughters who do the same. Imagine that. The way you live your life often has a strong influence on the way your kids live theirs.

As someone who has, in the last six months to a year, made a real conscious effort towards a healthier lifestyle, I can tell you that it’s hard. It’s especially hard at work when we go to lunch. It’s hard not to get the bacon cheeseburger and fries with six Cokes. And even the “healthy” choices are usually only healthy in comparison to the 1200+ calorie meals that are typical of most restaurants. And I even have the advantage of a fiancee who’s a great cook. If all you out there don’t have that, you’re kind of screwed. And you can’t have mine. I found her first.

British Police Thwart Major Terror Plot

U.S. officials raised the “threat level” for air transport to red , the highest alert. The terrorists had targeted flights operated by American Airlines, Continental Airlines and United Airlines, a U.S. official said.

Emphasis above is mine. I can certainly understand why someone would want to blow up an American Airlines flight. They probably missed out on 16 hours of bachelor party, too.

I ‘m just kidding. I understand that this is serious. But sometimes you have to joke about it or you go crazy. And since the plot was foiled by British authorities, this seems like a good time to joke.

The TSA said passengers who need to bring medicine and baby formula on board planes would need to present those items for inspection at checkpoints. In Britain, passengers were being asked to taste these liquids in the presence of security guards.

I hope that’s not the case when I fly to Australia in less than two weeks. I’ll have my nasal spray to prevent clogged eustachian tubes, and I don’t relish the thought of tasting it. I mean, I imagine it’s safe, since they can’t very well expect you to spray the stuff up your nose if you can’t swallow a little bit. But I doubt it’s terribly pleasant to taste. I’m going to stop now before this gets really unpleasant.

Anyway, the article is short on detail. It doesn’t say if this was a known terrorist group, or just a bunch of pissed off but well-organized people. I suppose more details should be forthcoming.

Perhaps the sexiest piece of stereo equipment Ive seen

Yamaha RX-V2700 and RX-V1700 HDMI Receivers – Gizmodo

The higher-end member of this pair is the RX-V2700 . . ., bringing Ethernet connectivity to the feature list, where it’s able to hook up with PCs on your network and stream their music files, or it can let you listen to Internet radio stations right in your home theater.

This is what I want. Interconnectivity. Just because my music’s on my computer doesn’t mean I’ll never want to listen to it anywhere else. Plus, this thing is HDMI-capable, in case I ever get around to getting HD from the cable company, or buy a new DVD player.

I wonder what the ethernet streaming interface is like. They don’t say it’s PC-only, and the thing works with iPods, so that could be cool, especially if it will work with Ubuntu.

This is actually great for the country

CNN.com – Lieberman concedes to Lamont, vows to run in November – Aug 9, 2006

Lamont wins, and now Lieberman is going to run as an independant. Screw you, two party system! First, Lamont shows that you don’t have to be the candidate that the national party likes. You can use the internet to get your name out and bypass the big party machine. And now, Lieberman shows us that the two party system is not enough, that sometimes you have to go outside the system. Let’s abolish Democrats and Republicans. They’ve had their time in the sun.

The danger for Connecticut Democrats, I suppose, is that Lamont and Lieberman split the liberal vote and hand the election to a Republican challenger. But since Connecticut voters have already made it quite clear that supporting President Bush and his war on civil rights and separation of power is not going to fly, perhaps they’ll get a nice, intelligent Republican who goes against the President because the President has, as a Republican, lost his way.

Is this what it takes to get people to vote?

CNN.com – High turnout in Lieberman-Lamont showdown – Aug 8, 2006

Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz predicted Tuesday that turnout for the primary could reach 45 to 50 percent.

So, it takes a Republican pretending to be a Democrat and supporting an unpopular President to get an almost reasonable voter turnout. Congratulations, Connecticut – you’re way ahead of most of the rest of us, although you should still be embarrassed about your turnout.

The rest of the country is watching this race very closely, I know. Many think this is a good indication of what’s going to happen in other states. I hope it is. I would love to see record voter turnouts. Of course, I would always love to see that.

I don’t know that I really have a point here. I don’t really like Lieberman. Lamont obviously has a lot of support in the blog community, which could be good or bad. I think there’s some great stuff coming out of the blog community (Much of it from right here), and I think it’s great to fill in some gaps in the mainstream news coverage and help get people involved and paying attention to the news. But it’s dangerous to put too much stock in a random blogger. Me, for example. I don’t know jack. But sometimes I might sound like I do.

Whether that’s a reason to support Lamont or not, I don’t know. I like to see people using alternative means to promote a candidate, taking power away from the centralized party and the special interest groups and maybe actually responding to the people. But I can’t tell you whether or not their faith in Lamont is misguided.

Okay, I’m done rambling. I don’t know whether Connecticut should have voted for Lamont or Lieberman. I’m just happy that a bunch of them voted.

Dont you love the DMV?

How can the customer service line for the Department of Motor Vehicles be busy? I just got a bill for my property tax on the truck I sold last year. I called the county, and they said that the DMV has no record of the sale. So I guess someone forgot to write it down when I turned in my tags. And now I can’t get through to the DMV. I do not want to have to go there in person. Although it might turn out to be easier.

And honestly, how does Virginia get away with a yearly tax on a depreciating asset? They like to talk about how wonderful the car tax relief they offer is, but they fail to mention how stupid the car tax is in the first place. If they want to tax the USE of the car to help pay for roads and such, I wouldn’t be totally opposed. That would place the tax burden firmly where it belongs – on those who drive the most. But a tax on the car itself, above and beyond sales tax, is ridiculous.

Update: I’m currently on hold with the DMV. After a half hour of redial, I finally got past the busy signal and got their automated system. How the heck do I get a busy signal when I’m calling a computer? That’s just a bad system.

Not only that, but when I finally got through, they launched into the recorded spiel about how much you can do on their website. How do they think I got the stupid phone number? So, as I was verbally expressing my disgust at their awful phone system, that very same phone system interpreted my words as me having trouble with their menu system. This is actually impossible, because they never gave me any menu options. At least my supposed difficulties got me straight into the customer service queue, which is where I wanted to be anyway.

Update II: So it looks like I got it taken care of. The CSR was completely incapable of answering any questions as to why they failed to take the vehicle out of my name, but at least she took it out.

By the way, if you ever find a Virgina driver’s license, you can do all sorts of things. They don’t ask any identifying information beyond what’s on the license. That makes me feel safe.