The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
Being debated in the House right now. It would appear there will be a vote on it, which I believe will end up going in our favor. For live coverage of the debate, you can follow @PAGunRights on Twitter. Â Bitter will be covering the debate, which she is watching live. Here’s hoping we’ll get to see some cane waving legislators on the floor like we did last time.
UPDATE: It has PASSED! 161-35, and is headed to Governor Rendell.
Because my hair is apparently the next big terrorist threat according to TSA, I’m curious as to why I was not allowed to pat down my hair and have a chemical swipe of my hands instead of having the girls groped. Muslim women are apparently given this option, but I was instructed to stand their while being felt up by an old woman without being given a choice.
According to CAIR, here are some guidelines on options muslim women are given when dealing with TSA:
To some degree, this was the case in my situation. I didn’t have anyone’s hands roaming down my legs, but the front of my chest was felt up while I had absolutely no hair hanging down in front of my shoulders. If my hair set it off, only my back should have been groped.
I was never given this option at all. And considering I wasn’t wearing a scarf, a swipe of my hands would have been far more likely to turn up any problematic substances. Why is my hair treated differently because I don’t have a religious scarf, even though the same issues may be the cause of secondary screening?
Is the only way to avoid a TSA-groping to dress like a muslim woman? If so, anyone know where I can get a long, stylish scarf?
Todd Zywicki argues against an article by David Gans who points out the problems that were meant to be solved by the 17th Amendment:
[T]he system led to rampant and blatant corruption, letting corporations and other moneyed interests effectively buy U.S. Senators, and tied state legislatures up in numerous, lengthy deadlocks over whom to send to Washington, leaving those bodies with far less time to devote to the job of enacting the laws their states needed for the welfare of the people. These ills made the case for bringing the election of Senators in line with the Constitution’s fundamental values of protecting democracy and securing the right to vote to all Americans a very strong one.
Deadlocked state legislatures? You say that like it’s a bad thing. And I’d suggest we could use a more business friendly Senate these days anyway. And what’s this about the Constitution protecting democracy? I want the Constitution to protect rights. I could give a rat’s behind about democracy. Democracy hasn’t done so wonderfully for getting politicians to but their noises out of where it doesn’t belong. Truth is, I’m skeptical of the claim that repealing the 17th Amendment is going to make things any better, but if deadlocked state legislatures, fighting over who to send to Washington is a possible result, maybe I ought to get on board the repeal train.
I never really thought we’d get to the point where government agents tell me that my hairstyle is cause for concern. Apparently, my hair is too thick, too long, and, on Friday, was too damp. (I was only joking back in September when I said that my hair being damp might be a security risk to TSA, I didn’t know they took that post seriously.) Along with the groping, I was surrounded, and submitted to a bit of government-issued snark on the problems my hair poses for their machines.
Starting from the top, I didn’t mean to get in the line for the new screeners. I accidentally started down the frequent traveler lane early on in security at Nashville, but I backtracked when I realized that line was probably the single machine my brother warned me about in the airport. When I glanced up at my line while juggling my bag, purse, and sunglasses, I saw the magnetometer in front of me. Everyone in line was pulling off their shoes, and getting ready for the standard routine. Literally, only when I looked up to walk through did I notice that it was a nudie-picture machine. (Turns out they replaced them all while my brother was out on the road.) I’m not sure why I didn’t just tell them to grope me, but I didn’t. I guess a part of me wondered if this technology was really that great. Since we still had to remove our shoes, it’s definitely not speeding things up.
I was asked to step forward, and then when I tried to go over to my bag, I was held back and surrounded. Yes, literally surrounded. By 5 TSA agents. In fact, they made sure to inform that I was surrounded and was not to take another step. Um, okay. Then, they stopped the entire line of people behind me. Again, not any faster than the damn magnetometer sitting unused right next to us. In fact, at this rate, it’s officially slower than the magnetometer & questionably competent staff at Philly. They cannot search me until they get their orders from the people checking out my girly bits in some shady room somewhere. Unfortunately, those getting their rocks off at all the naked pictures can’t actually figure out why I set off the machines. They just informed the old woman in front of me to check my chest.
Now, I did luck out when it comes to my TSA groping. The woman used the older-style patdowns which are less grabby than the “we hate you for believing you have any rights” new patdowns. However, she was thoroughly confused when she found nothing buy underwires. So, she called back. They told her to try my back. She had me move my hair out of the way, and then felt down my back to find absolutely nothing. Now I’m surrounded by 5 dumbfounded TSA agents. I mean, come on, this technology is foolproof, right? They wouldn’t have me surrounded and groped if there wasn’t something highly suspicious hidden under my clothes, right? By the way, at this point, everyone is staring at me. So much for the TSA claims that they respect people’s privacy. Bullshit, the security line behind me was only getting longer with more people staring.
Finally, one of the men behind me said my hair was probably the source of the hit. So I got a mini-scalp massage from the short old lady. I was not going to bend down to make it easy on her at this point. Again, one of the guys behind me then decided to comment on something I didn’t catch completely beyond “her long hair caused the problem.” Wow. Really? My hair is to blame? My hair which, other than being a little thicker than most other people’s hair, is the entire source of the problem for your inability to read your own damn machines that are supposedly the savior to airport security? My hair will singlehandedly bring TSA’s system to a grinding halt? How about the incompetence behind the screen? Or the stupidity behind these freakin’ machines?
Reflecting on my time spent trapped between 5 TSA agents while several dozen people looked on wondering about the soon-to-be-designated Hair Terrorist, I realized that when traveling through an airport like Nashville, I have exactly 3 options. All involve groping simply because I have thick hair that can sometimes stay a little damp if I’ve showered anytime in the last 12-18 hours. Contrary to what TSA spokespeople claim, the simple fact that I have reasonable personal grooming habits and choose not to cut my hair to a length they designate acceptable, I cannot opt out of being groped.
Given this complete lack of viable options to not be unfairly targeted because God and genetics graced me with a lot of hair, the simple choice is not to fly. I’m going to let Continental/United know of my decision since I’ve spent many miles in their airplanes. They know their pilots are unhappy, their flight attendants are unhappy, and now it’s time to make sure they know their customers are unhappy. While the airlines are not to blame, they certainly hold more sway over Congress than I do as an individual.
That said, I will also be writing to my Congressman-elect and my new Senator-elect to let them know that TSA is making false promises about this security, and I’ll also highlight the blog post discussed here that shows these new policies aren’t actually designed to keep us safer. The current behavior of TSA agents deserves an investigation, and the entire system needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. And since the incentives for safe travel with minimally invasive security are the “best” for airlines directly, I will advocate a return to private enterprise to run security.
This is an interesting article on the top business that have been destroyed by the emergence of the smart phone. I have my doubts that PDAs were killed by Smart Phones so much as PDA’s became Smart Phones. Palm was destroyed because they failed to keep up. I think Research in Motion, who pioneered the Smart Phone with a truly awful product may not be far behind. Smart Phones probably will largely eat the MP3 player market, and the low end point and shoot market. That much makes sense.
But the GPS market? The PC market? Watches? Having once upon a time been a fairly serious hiker, my iPhone presents a serious impediment to being used as a GPS, namely that it won’t tolerate being dunked in water, rained on, smashed against a rock, or dropped. Those are important features for something going with you outdoors, and I’ve never seen a PDA that had a speaker loud enough, and mounting hardware good enough to do auto navigation effectively. That’s one function I’m looking for application specificity. What if I get a call while I’m navigating somewhere? As for watches, who wants to have to dig a Smart Phone out from under 10 layers of clothes during the winter just to see what you could easily see by turning your wrist? And the idea that Smart Phones having displaced PC is laughable. Until a smart phone can project two 1080p monitors side by side directly onto my retina, I’m pretty sure the PC has a future.
The fact that Gartner is quoted in this is really all you need to know. I don’t think Gartner has been right about any major computing trend, and I can’t believe people still pay them money to keep producing that drivel.
This is pretty standard for how the State of New Jersey treats gun owners. There’s clubs over in New Jersey that run a lot of good matches, but I won’t go to any of them because of this. I’ve asked people who are lawyers what they thought of a PA resident attending matches in New Jersey and I was basically told it’s a serious risk, and I’d have to decide for myself whether it’s worth it.
I do hope Chris Christie gives this guy a pardon. He deserves it. I’m happy to see Christie already ousted the judge responsible for this case.
By attempting to riddle a van with bullets. I say attempting, because they weren’t very good shots.
Glad to see this idea getting traction from a mainstream publication.
Hat Tip to SayUncle
I promise this won’t turn into an anti-TSA blog, but we had some issue with Bitter coming back from visiting family in Nashville, which I’m hoping she’ll write about, that has me on the warpath against the agency that never should have been created.
Well, at least that’s what we hope to be saying by the end of the evening. The House comes into session at 1pm, and, according to John Micek, that means we might start to see some action on various legislation late this afternoon.
He also talks about the House Democratic leadership votes slated for tomorrow. It appears an NRA A-rated incumbent is likely to be Minority Leader, and that’s a nice perk even though the GOP won the House for the next term. For Democratic Whip, there’s another friend to gun rights running against 3 strong anti-gunners. That ain’t so good news.
I hope that all Pennsylvania gun owners learned why party leadership positions can make a difference in a vote. One man held up Castle Doctrine for months. The good news is that he’s being challenged from within his party by a pro-gun Democrat for the leadership position on his committee. While the Republicans will hold a bigger lead in the House next term than the Democrats currently have, we will still need the votes of pro-gun Democrats to defeat anti-gun amendments and to make up for any slacking anti-rights Republicans who might have slipped through. Even under one party rule, we can’t let this become a partisan issue.
Miguel notices that there’s a program in Mexico to melt down firearms and turn them into shovels:
This shovels will more likely be used to continuing piling the bullshit regarding US guns into Mexico and digging graves for those who are dying in the local Drug Wars.
They are going to need a lot more shovels to continue piling that much BS. Does anyone think the cartels are going to turn in their guns?