Friday, August 06, 2004
This dumb nation
Every day I experience pangs of hope that the United States will again see an administration that realises that a security measure that violates free will is not one worth implementing.
Case in point, as I sigh in disapproval, is the new experimental set of Biometric Exit Procedures that are, get this, required for all foreign visitors who exit the U.S. (um, I mean 'the homeland') in one of the pilot locations.
I wish the article mentioning this new 'service' were a bit more meaty in the rationale supporting implementation of such a program, which seems to tread the line intuitively established between increasing decreasing effective safety. Biometrics in and of itself is not reason for alarm (unlike the pseudoscience of eugenics and a full host of other disciplines that eschew objectivity in varying degrees of ideological bias), but when it is coupled with international transit as a method of cataloguing great quantities of precise information about an individual, I question its usefulness as a security measure. Add to the equation an element of obligation and I suspect abuse. Abusum ne tollat usum, I suppose, so I can't really sink my teeth in to this application until I've learned more about how this innocently-named project functions both in theory and in practice.
I didn't hear a peep about this in the news, either, so to every news station that panned Michael Moore as a proselytizing panderer of lies about the impotence of contemporary media I offer a hearty fuckin' told-you-so.
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Case in point, as I sigh in disapproval, is the new experimental set of Biometric Exit Procedures that are, get this, required for all foreign visitors who exit the U.S. (um, I mean 'the homeland') in one of the pilot locations.
I wish the article mentioning this new 'service' were a bit more meaty in the rationale supporting implementation of such a program, which seems to tread the line intuitively established between increasing decreasing effective safety. Biometrics in and of itself is not reason for alarm (unlike the pseudoscience of eugenics and a full host of other disciplines that eschew objectivity in varying degrees of ideological bias), but when it is coupled with international transit as a method of cataloguing great quantities of precise information about an individual, I question its usefulness as a security measure. Add to the equation an element of obligation and I suspect abuse. Abusum ne tollat usum, I suppose, so I can't really sink my teeth in to this application until I've learned more about how this innocently-named project functions both in theory and in practice.
I didn't hear a peep about this in the news, either, so to every news station that panned Michael Moore as a proselytizing panderer of lies about the impotence of contemporary media I offer a hearty fuckin' told-you-so.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
Bushism irony
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush offered up a new entry for his catalog of "Bushisms" on Thursday, declaring that his administration will "never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people."
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Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Messenger at work
alaspoorwho says:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/sfl-panthony31jul31,0,2118209.column?coll=sfla-news-com
alaspoorwho says:
"Homo-nausic" is my new buzzword
Brady says:
your people are not to be underestimated. I wonder if there's money in homosexual pest control.
alaspoorwho says:
saaaay
alaspoorwho says:
i think you've just stumbled across my dream job
alaspoorwho says:
"you got fags? burly ones? i'll be right out!"
alaspoorwho says:
check out Ed Heeny's awesome website http://www.edheeney.com/
Brady says:
you're "one of them," so who better qualified to get rid of them
alaspoorwho says:
exactly, plus it lets people contracting the service feel all warm and non-hate-filled by actually giving work to the separate-but-equal folks
Brady says:
when you go to the infected neighborhood, you sniff the air and tell your client "Three of them. Two bears and a nancy." Pause to throw down your capri and stamp it out. "The bears shouldn't be any problem. But I have a feeling I've battled this nancy before."
alaspoorwho says:
PLEASE develop this into a movie, PLEEEEASE
Brady says:
it needs to play as a segment in the next pulp fiction, how your story later intersects with someone elses
alaspoorwho says:
the capri-stamping scene has so much potential
alaspoorwho says:
the stamping foot shod in a stack earth shoe with wicker side casing and a big, yellow sunflower adorning the toe strap
Brady says:
If I were to write this, I'd need some gay consultants, one from each "tribe"
alaspoorwho says:
forget that, this needs to be one of those "versus" pictures, where two opposing tribes set out to establish final dominance. Bears bring hulk-like strength, while nancies rely on mental skills and strategy
Brady says:
make an interesting Warcraft-style video game
alaspoorwho says:
Sounds like Blade or something, the exterminator who grapples with the fact that he's capturing his own kind... then it could even be called the Gay Blade
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/sfl-panthony31jul31,0,2118209.column?coll=sfla-news-com
alaspoorwho says:
"Homo-nausic" is my new buzzword
Brady says:
your people are not to be underestimated. I wonder if there's money in homosexual pest control.
alaspoorwho says:
saaaay
alaspoorwho says:
i think you've just stumbled across my dream job
alaspoorwho says:
"you got fags? burly ones? i'll be right out!"
alaspoorwho says:
check out Ed Heeny's awesome website http://www.edheeney.com/
Brady says:
you're "one of them," so who better qualified to get rid of them
alaspoorwho says:
exactly, plus it lets people contracting the service feel all warm and non-hate-filled by actually giving work to the separate-but-equal folks
Brady says:
when you go to the infected neighborhood, you sniff the air and tell your client "Three of them. Two bears and a nancy." Pause to throw down your capri and stamp it out. "The bears shouldn't be any problem. But I have a feeling I've battled this nancy before."
alaspoorwho says:
PLEASE develop this into a movie, PLEEEEASE
Brady says:
it needs to play as a segment in the next pulp fiction, how your story later intersects with someone elses
alaspoorwho says:
the capri-stamping scene has so much potential
alaspoorwho says:
the stamping foot shod in a stack earth shoe with wicker side casing and a big, yellow sunflower adorning the toe strap
Brady says:
If I were to write this, I'd need some gay consultants, one from each "tribe"
alaspoorwho says:
forget that, this needs to be one of those "versus" pictures, where two opposing tribes set out to establish final dominance. Bears bring hulk-like strength, while nancies rely on mental skills and strategy
Brady says:
make an interesting Warcraft-style video game
alaspoorwho says:
Sounds like Blade or something, the exterminator who grapples with the fact that he's capturing his own kind... then it could even be called the Gay Blade
Monday, August 02, 2004
Olympian
Classes: registered for,
Plane ticket: purchased,
Temporary place to live: arranged.
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Plane ticket: purchased,
Temporary place to live: arranged.
Sunday, August 01, 2004
Lakeside rumination
It's probably a relic from school days (to which I'll soon return), but Sunday never feels like a part of the weekend. The anticipation of a coming day, which begs a night of sufficient rest and minimal indulgence, simply kills too many possibilities. As a result, weekends tend to pass by so quickly that they seem nonexistent, especially from the Sunday vantage point, already dreading the next morning's groggy awakening to a bleating alarm while trying to remember if Saturday really happened. This perception, I've been told, is why I prefer the attributes of lazy inactivity to the hedonistic fervor with which most of my contemporaries aim to tackle dozens of items during any given day; a calm Saturday with nothing more pressing than sleeping on the lakeside cliffs under the sun's supervision leaves me with much more time to chat, to think, and to play than even the most frenzied butterfly route through the city.
My happy times, generally, follow a reliable template. To quote Megan from her birthday weekend, "It's like a Corona commercial."
Amen.
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My happy times, generally, follow a reliable template. To quote Megan from her birthday weekend, "It's like a Corona commercial."
Amen.
