Alfur Ut Ur Hol

occupy

New York border with Rhode Island?

Was checking out the location of "Old Saybrook High School" in Connecticut today and found something strange on Google Maps.

By the way, Old Saybroook HS has an awesome submarine team that competed in the 2011 International Submarine Races.

http://www.navy.mil/swf/mmu/mmplyr.asp?id=15970 - pretty cool video of the winning Naval Academy team.

The title of this post is about the border of New York though. If you have been around New England you may have noticed one funny thing about tourists' license plates: 20% of them come from Florida, 20% from New Jersey, and 50% from New York (10% from places unknown).

Now I always think of New York as a world away, even though it's about 200 miles from here. In fact, it's much, much closer than that. The entire state of Connecticut is actually bordered by New York, all the way to the coastal border of Rhode Island in fact! Very strange!

I had no idea that Block Island actually borders New York. So next time you get cut off in the parking lot of the local supermarket by an extremely rude/impatient New York tourist, you can cut them some slack a bit, because they really are our neighbors after all! They're not truly the infested plague vermin they make themselves out to be - rather just our unruly neighbors to the extreme southwest... who knew? Well, someday I really need to get the full history of the charting of Block Island and the Dutch settlements of New Amsterdam and New York. Adrian Block

Labels: education, transportation

The $2.5 Trillion Tragedy: What America Has Given Up For 10 Years Of Bush Tax Cuts | Common Dreams

Barrack Obama is being blamed for failure of his presidency left and right. He hasn't impressed me but the conservatives had 8 years to keep the ship afloat and instead our country is the lowest its been in my 30 year lifetime. This followed the highest of all modern cultures in the 1990s. We have to right the ship. We need accountability, leadership, and vision. And we need a country to stand up and get smart about their lives. We have more tools and more resources than ever before. I am guessing over 50% of the public has a smart phone or a computer access near them all the time now. It's on us now. No one has an excuse. We have to overcome the lies and the propaganda and move forward and make this nation strong again. George Bush said the war on terrorism isn't our war, it's civilization's war.

This is not, however, just America's fight. And what is at stake is not just America's freedom. This is the world's fight. This is civilization's fight. This is the fight of all who believe in progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom.

We ask every nation to join us. We will ask, and we will need, the help of police forces, intelligence services, and banking systems around the world.

LINK TO SPEECH

If you believe that regarding the war on terrorism then it follows that the challenge of our success on a global scale as a leader in education, commerce, industry, and scientific exploration represents not just our one country's goal but the goal of all modern civilization. It's too important to ruin with politics. We simply must find a way forward and do the correct choice. What we have now is unacceptable and people are going to have to change. I see us moving backwards in the wake of Obama's presidency. Until we accept those mistakes made by the right-wing we will just keep repeating them and further decimate our position in the world.

Labels: education, transportation

No Naked Photos!

I'VE ONLY SERVED FIFTY YEARS OF MY TIME: GUILTY

Memphis Pilot denies TSA to scan his full body or to illegally perform a full body search on him

This is a national hero.

The TSA investigator arrived and asked for my account of the situation. I explained that the agents weren't allowing me to pass through the checkpoint. He told me he had been advised that I was refusing security screening, to which I replied that I had willingly walked through the metal detector with no alarms, the same way I always do when commuting to work. He then briefed me on the recent screening policy changes and, apparently confused, asked whether they would be a problem for me. I stated that I did indeed have a problem with the infringement of my civil rights and liberty.

His reply: "That's irrelevant."

We have to stop the fascism developing in this country that is tearing down the boundaries of decency and accusing our president of being a socialist and making "Marxist" a common stereotype to anyone with a slight liberal bent.

Personal account: A few years ago - BEFORE that guy set fire to himself, I refused to take my shoes off because they were slip on shoes and I couldn't possibly be carrying anything in them that wouldn't show up in the metal detectors. Also I was really grouchy, tired, and feeling extremely self-righteous.

The TSA guards flipped out on me. They were like "come on buddy why you got to do this?" and I said "you asked me if I would like to take my shoes off, I'm telling you simply no I do not want to." I said I don't think I should have to. This led to me getting a full search and holding me up for my plane of course. Around this time I got flagged and for years I had to go through the full search every time I went through security. This always was a laugh because I have a metal plate and 6 screws in my left arm (radius). The guys with the high frequency scanners get a chuckle when the scanners go off from that stuff.

Look at what's already out there scanning you and your children probably every time you go through a toll booth or pass any federal building:

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0927/technology-x-rays-homeland-security-aclu-drive-by-snooping.html

UPDATED 11/22/2010

Things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better:

TSA responds to traveler outrages

Denver TSA operator caught masterbating to female high school sports team members going through full-body scanner.

Body Scanner Operator Caught Masturbating at Colorado Airport
Category: Colorado News,Off the Beaten Path – xstreme – 1:34 pm
Body Scanner Operator Caught Masturbating at Colorado Airport
DENVER – USA – A full body scanner operator was caught masturbating during a scanning session by airport staff late Tuesday.
Not only do the new airport body scanners take risque pictures but according to the U.S. Marshals Service, the images in their thousands are being saved on hard disks.
Airport officials at Denver International airport were on high alert yesterday when a full body scanner operator was caught masturbating in his booth as a team of High School netball players went through the scanner.

“The young ladies were going through the scanner one by one, and every time one went through, this guys face was getting redder and redder. His hand was moving and then he started sweating. He was then seen doing his ‘O’ face. That’s when the security dragged him out of his booth and cuffed him. He had his pants round his ankles and everybody was really disgusted,” Jeb Rather, a passenger on a flight to New York told CBS news.

The controversial scanners display every minute detail of a person’s body and have been called intrusive by privacy campaigners. Body scanners penetrate clothing to provide a highly detailed image so accurate that critics have likened it to a virtual porn shoot. Technologies vary, with millimeter wave systems capturing highly detailed pictures of genitals, and backscatter X-ray machines able to show precise anatomical detail. The U.S. government likes the idea because body scanners can detect concealed weapons better than traditional magnetometers.

“What do you want to do, get blown up by a goddamn Arab at 30,000 feet or we get to see your private parts? It’s up to you, the ball’s in your park,” head of the TSA’s scanning department, Rodney Schroeder, told CNN.
This article is categorized under “Colorado News” and “Off the beaten path” sections, no pun intended.

Labels: transportation