And More Nano

As a reward for meeting my Nano goal of 50k words in one month, there's been some releases.

Chapters 3 and 4 have been updated with versions that have fewer boneheaded typos.

And chapters 5 and 6 have been posted.

Crossposted

Oh.... Canada

Bobbi's got a link to a little Canadian sketch on what they think of this TSA stuff.

Related is this thought by Robb Allen

Why it was so horrible that Bush wanted trained FBI agents who were required to get warrants first to listen in to phone conversations of suspected terrorists*, but it’s perfectly reasonable for some high school dropout to fondle a 3 year old girl’s privates?

Hell, I’m missing Bush simply because if he were in office, the leftists would be screaming for this shit to stop toute de suite and I’d be there right along with them. As it is, even feminists are champing at the bit (that was for you, Laughingdog ;) to get violated in the name of political correctness.

Yeah.... The first paragraph reminds me of this bit by Chris Matthews:

Generally speaking, the American right wing is pretty tough on law and order, and if a cop wants to stop a guy and frisk him, you’ve never had a problem with that on the right. Ever. Now you have a problem with people being scanned on airplanes. Why is there a big difference?

So either he's thinks the Right is a okay with letting the Police give random people off the street friskings? Or is he deliberately clouding the difference between a cop frisking a person before arresting them and other actions? Or maybe he thinks that fliers should be treated the same way as suspected criminals being put into police custody.

I guess flying is just like being placed into a governmental holding facility against your will. Good to know.

That is something that really cheeses me, these supposedly moral, intelligent, and oh so nuanced lefties confounding vastly different ideas of governmental power and responsibility.

They'll scream at Bush, but so many of will then line up about the patriotic duty to obey the TSA and not make waves.

Flying is not the same as being arrested. Flying is not the same as being put under warranted-obtained surveillance.

Think about how sad it is that this has to actually be said.

Not all actions of the state are equally legitimate. And their legitimacy is not dependant on the party of the man in the big chair.

You know what they call people who think that anything the state does is Ipso facto legitimate and good, provided the correct Party is doing it?


Oh and the TSA? It might not be just for flying anymore.

Don't you feel safe now?

And it's all about feeling safe.

Thus for determined and well organized terrorists, there are more vulnerable areas to get a bomb onto an aircraft than via a passenger. These more vulnerable areas are given less attention partly because they are less visible, and thus provide less visibility for politicians seeking to demonstrate that they are ‘doing something’ about airline security.

Emphasis added. Security. Theatre.
And like much of what the pols do, it gives the appearance of "doing something" while lining their pockets and increasing their power over you.

Hat trick!

What the .gov considers a bad thing:

“unquestioning compliance has diminished.”

The fact that TSA clearly regards this as a bad thing — that it regards an unquestioning citizenry as an asset in a struggle against people who want to kill us for, among other things, being the sort of folks who question things — illustrates how completely loathsome and moronic the government’s approach to security is.

This shows that the TSA is merely a symptom of greater goverment growth and control. Think of all the other areas where those in power would just wish that the rabble would shutup, stop questioning, and get in line.

Expanded on here:

The purpose of Security Theater is to convince us that the government can do something and is doing something, and most importantly to make us accept “unquestioning compliance” with government as an American value. The purpose of Security Theater is to normalize submission. But “unquestioning compliance” is not an American value. Quite the contrary.

Paying high taxes is patriotic, at a certian point you've made enough money, you don't need to own a "military style gun", you need to buy the health insurance we tell you to buy, you need a cell-phone jammer in your car, and so on.

And of course these rules and regulations and submissions are for the little people, those in charge get handy waivers.

Bobbie wins.

She takes apart and mocks a Paul "Hissy Fit" Helmke's latest pants-pissing whine-fest.

The wording gives him away: he fears the machines. He thinks if all those baddies had was a pack of sparklers and a few five-gallon cans of gasoline, or a double-bitted axe or a pitcher of koolaid and and a can of drain cleaner, or even an SUV, nothing bad could possibly have happened. He believes objects have volition. Presumably, were he ever to go mad and murder 37 grade-school children with a 12" #2 Philips screwdriver, it would be the "Craftsman assault driver" that did the killing while the man himself looked on in horror, a helpless tool of the tool. Mmm-hmm.

This while good is not the topper line.

For that we to to the footnote:

Mind you, I find these handguns unaesthetic. They're ugly. They're in-between things of no particular utility -- but if we banned things on the basis of ugliness and relative uselessness, there's a whole lot of people who'd never be allowed out of the house.

Win.

Though I wouldn't give the gun banners too many ideas. If they move from restricting items capriciously and oppressively to restricting people in much the same way. It's not like the government has grown in intrusiveness and inanity in the things it tells you to do...

Then again when you deny the human actor in violence and blame it on the tool how much can you really value human will and self determination?

The whole point of the gun banners is that Joe Citizen can't be trusted.

Nano stuff.

Well, I don't quite have content up but soon.

Meanwhile here's the site.

Looking towards 2012

Hmmm... well we could do worse. And probably will.

Though I think Smith Comma John will just exacerbate the whole Birther thing.

Meet Andrew Traver

Well after two years Obama's finally picked someone to head the BATF.
And let's go through the list.

Chicago crony? Check
For "limit[ing] the sale of multiple handguns"? Check
For banning private person to person gun sales? Check
Which is also removing the "gun show loophole" so double Check.
For "Congress enact[ing] an effective ban on military-style assault weapons"? Check
For "an effective ban on .50-caliber sniper rifles"? Check again.
Ties with the of the Joyce foundation? Again Check

Lovely.

Notes from here.

Some more basic info here.

And a more detailed bio here.

This'll be a confirmation hearing to watch. And a man and an agency to keep a real eye on.

Link walk started by the prof.

Edit: Am I surprised? Not really, this is the kind of guy that Obama'd pick. I am a bit interested that he picked the guy now. I guess such a confirmation would be damaging during the election season. Lame duck time?