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Geo

Beach Fanatic
Dec 24, 2006
2,740
2,795
Santa Rosa Beach, FL
I find it noteworthy that there hasn't been a thread in this forum on NY State's passage of Marriage Equality. A really really big state pushed through gay marriage and no one had a word to say.

Keith Olbermann's new show started this week on Current TV. It is oddly similar to his Countdown show on MSNBC. Actually, except for a much lower quality production (e.g. lighting, graphics, no HD) it *is* the same show. I am surprised he went this route. I viewed him as somewhat of a liberal media legend since he put MSNBC's political programming on the map and then departing after standing up to corporate management. Figured he would do something bigger/better, trailblaze another medium or format. He's doing the same show but without any sizzle.

Just watched a documentary on HBO about tort reform. The premise was that corporate lobbyists are using the infamous McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit to coax folks into voting for legal reform that basically removes the rights of citizens with legitimate beefs against corporations who wronged them. Check out Hot Coffee. Really interesting.

Fascinating the way Michelle Bachman can climb up the polls in only a few weeks by employing a strategy of not saying really stupid inflammatory things and instead focusing on jobs. Ed Rollins deserves every penny she's paying him. I think she is a quack, BTW.

I had an issue at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport last week. I refused to go through the body scanner opting instead to get felt up for free by a male stranger employed by the TSA. The gentleman grabbed my carry on bag when it came out of the Xray machine and carried it over to me in the feel up area. He explained the groping he would be doing and then he put on rubber gloves. Before he touched me (or anything) with the gloves he tested them and they set off the bomb detector machine. After a few minutes a supervisor came over along with bomb squad personnel. They told me they were going to take me into a private room for a more in depth screening. I refused. I told them that I agreed to the groping and that they should get on with it right here so I don't miss my flight. They told me to stop talking. I said no. They said yes. I said no. They said I needed to go with the bomb squad people because I set off the bomb detector. I said no- I did not. You guys did. To make a long story short. TSA assumed that the first guy with the gloves actually touched me and/or my stuff after he put on the gloves. He never laid a hand on me or my stuff. The gloves in their package set off the bomb bells and whistles. It took a whole lot of arguing before I could get anyone to realize this. We never did go into that private room which would have left me feeling vindicated were it not for the revenge groping they gave me after the scene I made. Barely made my flight. I think the TSA is a joke along with the million dollar machines they waste our time and money buying and using under the guise of keeping us safe.
 
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30ashopper

SoWal Insider
Apr 30, 2008
6,845
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Right here!
Sounds like you had a "resolution screening", which tends to be very invasive. Refusing such a search can get you booted from the airport. Refusing to leave when asked is a federal crime. The charges / fines are pretty hefty - over $10,000.00 and time in jail.
 
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futurebeachbum

Beach Fanatic
Jul 11, 2005
1,100
375
70
Snellsburg, GA
www.myfloridacottage.com
Sounds like you had a "resolution screening", which tends to be very invasive. Refusing such a search can get you booted from the airport. Refusing to leave when asked is a federal crime. The charges / fines are pretty hefty - over $10,000.00 and time in jail.

Its all part of the TSA's mandate to subdue the citizenry (and keep TSA employees employed.)

Apparently there is apparently some karmic balance for TSA employees. There are a bunch of articles in the news this morning about a cancer cluster among TSA employees hanging around the scanners. Here is one called: TSA 'ignored warnings' on cancer cluster.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) says it's got evidence that the Department of Homeland Security has failed to properly evaluate the level of risk from airport body scanners.

In a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the DHS, EPIC says it's obtained documents concerning the scanners' radiation risks, including agency emails, radiation studies, memoranda of agreement concerning radiation testing programs and the results of some radiation tests.

EPIC says that TSA staff have been concerned that a large number of workers have been falling victim to cancer, strokes and heart disease. But the documents show that the TSA's response was simply to tell them: "Because TSA systems comply with federal regulations, the increased risk of developing radiation-induced cancer in later life is extremely small, no greater than other risks people routinely accept in their daily lives".

"One document set reveals that even after TSA employees identified cancer clusters possibly linked to radiation exposure, the agency failed to issue employees dosimeters - safety devices that could assess the level of radiation exposure," says EPIC.

We've spent (literally) billions of dollars for the TSA's 'Security Theatre' without one whit of proof that it has in anyway actually prevented anything from happening. The cost of any damage done by a hijacker would be a fraction of what we spend in our so-call 'preventative measures' and the related economic toll it causes.

Its amazing that the simple economics of this are totally ignored.
 

scooterbug44

SoWal Expert
May 8, 2007
16,706
3,339
Sowal
The economics were ignored because of $$$ from the companies making the machines going to the people making the decisions.
 

Zebraspots

Beach Fanatic
May 15, 2008
840
247
Santa Rosa Beach
You're just paranoid.

There is nothing wrong with the former head of the TSA getting a no-bid government contract to supply expensive full body radiation devices to the TSA. How else can they comply with the policies he put in place before leaving?

It's not like they were never independently tested for safety before they were installed, were found to be ineffective in foreign airport tests, or that 27 European countries recently voted to make penalty free opting out of the scans a pre-condition of any installation due to radiation concerns.
 

Rita

margarita brocolia
Dec 1, 2004
5,207
1,634
Dune Allen Beach
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Exxon Mobil pledged to stop funding climate change deniers. It didn’t happen. The oil giant has contributed $76,000 to global-warming skeptic and astrophysicist Wei Hock Soon who has peviously been funded by American Petroleum Institute., Koch, and Exxon. Not illegal, but sure places a conflict of interest on his work in a lot of people’s eyes.

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/06/exxonmobil-soon-climate-change-denier

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30ashopper

SoWal Insider
Apr 30, 2008
6,845
3,471
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Right here!
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Exxon Mobil pledged to stop funding climate change deniers. It didn’t happen. The oil giant has contributed $76,000 to global-warming skeptic and astrophysicist Wei Hock Soon whose has peviously been funded by American Petroleum Institute., Koch, and Exxon. Not illegal, but sure places a conflict of interest on his work in a lot of people’s eyes.

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/06/exxonmobil-soon-climate-change-denier

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Science is supposed to be agnostic, it's supposed to question everything, but right here in your article we have proof that certain political groups are actively trying to suppress scientific research that goes against the grain of their world view. A truly sad state of affairs.
 

Zebraspots

Beach Fanatic
May 15, 2008
840
247
Santa Rosa Beach
Science is supposed to be unbiased, not agnostic. Many scientists and researchers believe in God.
 

Rita

margarita brocolia
Dec 1, 2004
5,207
1,634
Dune Allen Beach
I find it noteworthy that there hasn't been a thread in this forum on NY State's passage of Marriage Equality. A really really big state pushed through gay marriage and no one had a word to say.
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thAAAWooHooRainbowWave.gif

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New York State legalizes gay marriage despite Bill O'Reilly warnings about interspecies romance.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-co...gay-marriage---dolphin-love?xrs=synd_facebook

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