Anne Applebaum almost gets it right.  Right up to the very end when she should be concluding the obvious (“security screening” probably cannot ever be made to work successfully and should be abandoned) she wimps out and doesn’t face the facts she herself put forward.  But it’s close enough to get people thinking.  Here’s a taste of the good stuff:

…outside inspectors have found, over and over again, that federal screeners perform no better than the private screeners they replaced. Since they inspect only passengers and baggage, not the airport and its perimeter, they haven’t eliminated the need for other forms of law enforcement either. And even when they are doing their rather narrow job correctly, their impact is dubious.

…this mass ceremonial sacrifice of toenail clippers on the altar of security comes at an extraordinarily high price. The annual budget of the federal Transportation Security Administration hovers around $5.5 billion — just about the same price as the entire FBI — a figure that doesn’t include the cost of wasted time. De Rugy reckons that if 624 million passengers each spend two hours every year waiting in line, the annual loss to the economy comes to $32 billion.

…

But, then, this isn’t a country that has ever been good at risk analysis. If it were, we would never have invented the TSA at all. Instead, we would have taken that $5.5 billion, doubled the FBI’s budget, and set up a questioning system that identifies potentially suspicious passengers, as the Israelis do.

BINGO!!!

…

I conclude that we don’t actually want value for money. No, we want every passenger to have the chance to recite that I-packed-these-bags-myself mantra to a uniformed official before boarding an airplane. Magic words, it seems, are what make Americans feel really safe.

Yup.  You got that right.

See also my web pages on this topic.

From Schneier’s blog I found a link to a lock for your pint of Ben & Jerry’s.  Interesting enough for a blog posting all on it’s own.  But what I found even more interesting/amusing at the site was this sketch:

I’m shocked!  Is freedom making a comeback in Canada?  Does this mean we might not have to liberate them after we get done with the Mid-East?  I know–I’m getting way ahead of things here.  They still officially have their gun registration scheme and they haven’t actually reversed their downward spiral into the abyss of the most failed political system of all time, but they did have an important court ruling that may cause some serious ripples in the fabric of the ‘reality’ of socialists in both Canada and this country.  The socialists know it and even say it out loud.  Here’s the story:

In the decision of Chaoulli v. Quebec (Attorney General) that was handed down on Thursday by the Supreme Court of Canada, the court found that Quebec laws that prohibit the purchase of insurance to cover private medical treatment violated the Quebec Charter and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The majority of the court found that waiting times in the public system violated the Quebec Charter of Rights. While it was not necessary to decide, three of the justices found that the Quebec law violates section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights that guarantees the right to life, liberty and security of the person. The court held that delays in the public health system led to prolonged pain and suffering, deteriorating medical conditions and in some cases, death. In coming to this conclusion in what will inevitably be to the dismay of those on the political left, the Supreme Court followed its 1998 decision in R. v. Morgentaler that held that delays encountered by women seeking abortions breached section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The interesting aspect of the Chaoulli decision, and the one that most deviated from what politicians of all political parties have been spewing for years was the finding that this breach of a charter right was not reasonable. The court found that while the preservation of a publicly funded health care system was a substantive and legitimate government objective, the outright ban on private health care insurance had no rational connection to saving the public system and went further than was necessary to meet that objective. In the majority’s opinion, the government of Quebec failed to show that allowing Quebeckers to purchase insurance for private health care would destroy Canada’s public health care system. In reaching this conclusion the court examined other countries in the OECD such as Sweden and the U.K. that have strong public health care systems despite allowing private parallel health care services.

This finding is at odds with what the politicians have been saying for years; that not only will allowing private medical services destroy our health care system; it will destroy Canada as we know it. The entire fabric of our society will disappear. We are constantly being told that our health care system is what defines us as a country. Allow someone to actually pay for what is now a public service and we will be no different than the United States.

From The Salt Lake Tribune:

 A state legislator is setting up free concealed weapon classes for policy-makers and their families this summer, while at the same time formulating a proposal to make it easier for Utahns to secretly carry a firearm.
    Clearfield Republican Rep. Curtis Oda says the sessions are aimed at educating lawmakers and debunking gun-control advocates’ criticism of Utah’s gun laws.
    The first two students were Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert. Since then, 12 legislators and eight other elected officials have taken the free gun-handling classes. And Oda has another 25 legislators interested, with the next class scheduled for July.

The reporter is biased (notice the use of the word “secretly“ instead of the more common “concealed“ and the picture of the legislator is terrible) against gun ownership but still our side is on the offensive and making progress.  And of course it’s always pleasant to hear the other side whine:

    Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah board member Maura Carabello calls Oda’s classes “exposure lobbying” that gets around Utah’s lobbyist disclosure laws but still persuades lawmakers to be sympathetic to his cause.
    “I object to this being framed as merely educational, with no larger political intent,” Carabello said. “This is not government responding to the public. This is a special interest trying to affect lawmakers.”

…

     But Carabello says the free classes don’t pass the proverbial “smell test.” Oda’s classes, she says, are a subtle form of lobbying for looser laws – something Utah doesn’t need.

Since my posting nearly a week ago there has been speculation I was fired because of my blog or it’s content.  Technically I’m sure that is not true or at least it is a very small component of the official internal record.  The blog was used to find sufficient cause to investigate other things.  At least one item was ultimately found, which I knew was wrong when I did it and admitted to it when asked about it, which was sufficient cause according to company policy to terminate my employment .  That item was allowing my wife and daughter to browse the web using the company laptop.  I suspect there were other things which they believed to be wrong, but in fact were not, which were also used to justify their actions.  I probably will never know because they did not and probably will not ever allow those items to be examined and refuted.  But it doesn’t matter because it only takes one step “over the line“.

A full report from my viewpoint, about what happened, the lessons learned, and how you can protect yourself will probably be released sometime next week.  Please keep your speculation to a minimum until then.

I absolutely love Neanderpundit’s post on Great Americans (Thomas Edison and Henry Ford).  Dearborn Michigan is now on my list of places I must visit.

I just got a call from [deleted–for reasons of security].  They are going to do a phone interview with me at 13:00 today.

Update: It seemed to go well for the most part.  The worst of it was I had not used some of the programming language they were interested in such as SmallTalk and Visual Basic and of course they asked why I was leaving my previous job.  I was blunt–“I was fired“.  That was early in the interview and I did well on all the rest of it.

Barb’s brother has a son, Jason Scott who is in Iraq now.  He was trained as a tank commander but they are doing patrols in Humvee north of Bagdad.  I’d much rather he was in his tank than a Humvee but you do the job you have to do. 

It’s kind of a local-people/human-interest story.  It’s nice to hear about him and hear his voice.

They did an “investigation” starting with my web site Boomershoot.org, then this blog and other web sites of mine, asked me a few questions along the way, suspended me without pay effective May 30th, then announced the results of their “investigation” yesterday–”You are being terminated.”  When I asked for the details of what I did wrong or an opportunity to dispute the findings of their “investigation“ I was told, “That discussion wouldn’t be productive.“

I turned down a job in Moscow just two weeks ago and now they have hired someone else.

Most annoying.

I got email from Crystal, the ATF investigator, yesterday.  Even though the locks I used on the magazines were approved years ago without “hoods” by a different ATF person there is now some question about that approval.  I could apply for a variance or I just just put the hoods on.  I think I’ll go with the hoods.  I suggested that since the magazines are empty now I could just wait until later in the summer when the ground is dry enough to drive out there with a portable welder in the back of the van and Crystal agreed.  I’ll send her pictures when the work is done and if she needs to inspect things again she can probably visit without me being there.

My thought is that if there is ever a loss of material and the lock was breached I would be at greater risk if I went the paperwork route rather than the mechanical route.  And besides, it isn’t all that much work anyway.

I corresponded some with Kim Griffis at KING5 Evening Magazine who did the Boomershoot story for them (complete video is here).  As of May 19th they had zero negative responses to the story.  And that was despite having numbers that were “very high“.  She speculates it was because people saw what a great shot she was and were too afraid to complain.  🙂

Here is a picture of the cameraman, Kim, her detonated target, me, and Ry:

Picture by Jason

Xenia’s comments on it are here.  Xenia got four hits, I was just hit once.  No, I didn’t “return fire”.  Colleen didn’t intend to hurt anyone and was just trying to do her job.

Xenia got MMR, Tetanus, HEP A, and HEP B shots.  I just got my Tetanus booster.  While nurse Colleen was out of the office I told Xenia that she was going to get it in both arms and both cheeks.  She wasn’t too keen on that idea and I wish I had brought my camera in to record her reactions to the various things–she can be so expressive without saying a single word.

Daughter Kim has been working nearly every day but less than full time hours at a local motel as a housekeeper.  Yesterday she interviewed for and accepted a job at a local business that does research via telephone polling. Earlier this week I had introduced her to the people at UltiMak who have problems manufacturing their product fast enough let alone things like answer the phone to take more orders and do what they really enjoy doing–product development.  They called while she was in the middle of the interview and asked her to come over as soon as she could.  It will just be part time at UltiMak for now as she works around her other jobs.  Kim is so mechanically adept and such a good organizer I expect she will be a asset to them in far more ways than they realize.

It won’t work, but they live in a fantasy world so what do they care about reality?  The California Senate narrowly passed this piece of nonsense:

A novel proposal to etch identifying serial numbers on handgun ammunition sold in California narrowly passed the Senate yesterday, although supporters conceded the legislation remains a work in progress.

…

A related measure, to require manufacturers to equip some semiautomatic handguns with components that would place an identifying code on spent cartridges, passed the Assembly 41-38 and was sent to the Senate.

The Senate measure is sponsored by Attorney General Bill Lockyer but so far has drawn tepid support from the balance of the state’s law enforcement community. It would link purchasers to handgun ammunition through an electronic swipe of a driver license at the point of sale.

Manufacturers say the proposal would force drastic changes to a high-volume, low-margin business. The required modifications to the manufacturing process, the companies warned, would either drive them out of business or send consumer prices skyward.

Sen. Joseph Dunn, a Garden Grove Democrat who introduced the bill for Lockyer, said he is working with law enforcement groups to resolve concerns about how to treat a massive existing inventory, possession of unmarked ammunition in homes and an exemption sought for shooting ranges.

Sen Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside, illustrated the magnitude of the potential ammunition stockpile in the state. He has used about half of a substantial supply his father left when he died in 1981, Morrow said.

“If I plan right, I figure it will get me through the rest of my life,” Morrow said.

Morrow and other opponents questioned whether the proposal, which has never been attempted anywhere else, was technologically feasible. Aides to Lockyer said manufacturers place individual serial numbers on many different consumer products.

The Assembly bill, AB 352 by Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, would apply only to future production of easily concealable semiautomatic handguns that have not passed a state safety test.

I haven’t done a whole lot of laughing recently but this la-la land statement remedies that condition:

Aides to Lockyer said manufacturers place individual serial numbers on many different consumer products.

How many manufacturers place individual serial numbers on something as small as the eraser on your pencil and have a current manufacturing cost of a penny?

I’ve commented on this hare-brained scheme before:

• Naive gun control
• More info on bullet serial number scheme
• Update on ammo marking

Lots of people have commented on the news from the UK about the proposed restrictions on pointy knives.  I thought they were already beyond that with the restrictions on clothes.  But I guess the knife job isn’t complete yet.  And of course, as pointed out by the Brady Bunch in that same article:

Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which supports gun control, joked, “Can sharp stick control be far behind?”

To answer Hamm’s question, which may not have been that much of a joke, “No.  It can’t be far behind.”  The mindset of these people has to be completely changed before things will get better.  As long as they are a nation of cowards and rely on increasing government power to provide decreasing security they will continue to suffer high crime rates and the humiliation of being the laughing stock of the world.

Barb and I both got our bachelor’s degrees from the University of Idaho.  My dad and her mom went to the UI.  Barb’s sister and my brother got degrees there and our son is attending now.  We currently live walking distance from the campus.  I got this in my weekly news letter from the University of Idaho:

“I’m the Guy They Called Deep Throat” is the title of an article in the current issue of Vanity Fair magazine. UI alumnus W. Mark Felt ’35 reveals he was the informant to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during the Watergate Scandal in the early 1970’s. Felt served as a top-ranking F.B.I. official at the time. Felt earned a bachelor’s degree in letters and science from UI, where he served as president of Beta Theta Pi fraternity and was a member of the debate team, and the Bench and Bar Association. He was inducted into the UI Alumni Hall of Fame in 1972. Felt joined the F.B.I. in 1942 after earning a law degree from George Washington University. The 91-year-old now lives in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Should I be proud or ashamed Felt once attended school here?  I’m not sure I know what to think about Felt’s role in Watergate.  Schneier, of course, thinks the security aspects are interesting.  Some think Felt was a ‘rat’.  Others think he was a hero.  Sometimes breaking the law (my guess is that Felt broke the law by revealing details of a FBI investigation in progress) is the right thing to do.  It’s something I have spent some time thinking about but I’m not sure Felt reached my threshold.

[shrug]

I think it’s interesting to know after all these years but overall I’m more inclined to go with Kim du Toit’s view.  I have that movie in my collection someplace.  Maybe Barb and I should watch it this weekend to celebrate the revealing of Deep Throat.

I’ve barely posted anything in the last week or two.  Lots of things I wanted to comment on but just didn’t have the motivation.  Things have been a bit rough lately and I just didn’t feel like touching the computer.  Externally things aren’t any different but I’ve got a lot of my energy back.  I’ll be playing catch up this morning.

I have virtually no interest in anything computer related right now.  Thing are unpleasant at work and I just want to escape having anything to do with computers. I actually started cleaning out the garage today.  I found my solar powered ear protection I had left in the rental car in New Mexico last month.  I called them and asked they send to me and they said they would.  But despite me asking everyone here at home no one said anything about them arriving.  I found them in a UPS plastic envelope in the recycling.  I looked up the tracking number and found they had been delivered on April 20th.

Barb and I have been spending a lot of time watching movies. Two yesterday and two today.  Nothing really good, nothing really bad.

Ry had lots of excitement last night.  Burning rubber, 60 MPH on residential streets, lots of police, and there was the car crash (hit and run) and the smoke and fire.

I just finished up a presentation I am to give next week in Houston.  I looked through my collection of quotes and things and found this to conclude my talk with when I turn it over to questions and comments:

If your mind goes blank, don’t forget to turn off the sound.

The attribution is hazy.  It probably was from an email received at Microsoft but I don’t know who wrote it or when.

Almost all politicians and about 75% of meeting participants could benefit from this advice.

The Brits did a trial run on a biometric ID card with 10,000 people.  The results are in:

THE technology behind the government’s controversial ID card scheme fails to recognise one in every 25 people, it emerged yesterday.

A Home Office trial that collected the biometric details of 10,000 volunteers showed at best the technology was 96 per cent foolproof if iris scans were used.

It was even less accurate for black people and the over-59s, and worse for those with disabilities, as the scans had more difficulty recognising them.

…

It was also revealed that the estimated cost per card had risen to £93, up from £85 in November – an amount that did not include the start-up technology costs. Running costs over ten years are estimated to be £5.8 billion.

A report on the trial said the reasons for the lower success rates among certain groups remained unclear and that more work was needed to identify the reasons.

Meanwhile, facial biometric technology was only 69 per cent accurate, while using fingerprints was 81 per cent failsafe.

…

David Winnick, Labour MP for Walsall North, insisted he would continue to oppose the bill and pointed to the government’s shifting the justification for identity cards, from thwarting terrorism to identity fraud.

I’m actually surprised the results are this bad.  I know biometrics isn’t really up to the task it is being asked to do, but this was much worse than I thought it would be.  This is great news for freedom lovers everywhere and in the U.S. in particular.  Our government is running a little behind the U.K. in police state race.  To see the U.K. fail so badly in this important (to would-be tyrants) tool may mean we will be spared the expense.  Yeah, I know, Real ID passed but all it requires in terms of a biometric identifier is a digital photo of your face and your signature–two of the least accurate biometric measures.  Real ID will accomplish only one thing well–making a few people feel good and the U.K. experience will be further evidence of that.