Month: August 2015

I am apparently being “Ridiculous”

“I don’t mean people are packages, so let’s not be ridiculous,” the New Jersey governor told an interviewer on Fox News Sunday who pointed out that foreigners do not have labels on their wrists.

“This is once again a situation where the private sector laps us in the government with the use of technology,” Christie said. “We should bring in the folks from FedEx to use the technology to be able to do it. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

I’m not entirely sure how he intends to “use the technology” without something that seems very much like barcoding visitors. Maybe mandatory checkins with local authorities?

In Closing: this might be worth watching, but nobody better get in my way on the 21st. Got that??

Chirstie Shows his True Colors

So the latest “brilliant idea” from the Presidential candidate Chris Christie is to track immigrants as if they were Fed-Ex packages. Claiming that 40% of illegal immigrants are here on expired visas, his idea is to keep track of where they are, “And then when your time is up … however long your visa is, then we go get you and tap you on the shoulder and say ‘Excuse me, thanks for coming, time to go.’” Yes, real quote. Also, no specifics on how that would work. It’s not exactly dignified to slap a bar-code on them when they arrive at the airport. Hey, make sure the hotel scans that for you regularly, mmkay?

Now allow me to point out that — even if we take Mr. Christie’s often-quoted statistic at face value, this will catch at most 2/5 of illegal immigrants at some point in the future. It won’t do anything about the other 3/5. Hmm, interesting fraction that, since many illegal immigrants work in jobs that routinely violate labor laws, or are in outright slavery.

 

Back to the idea of somehow tracking every non-American who shows up at an port of entry, including airports and border crossings. Maybe give them some kind of emblem to pin on their jackets?? Now, if the Religious Right wing of the Republican base actually knows the tenets of their faith, they should have a specific Bible verse coming to mind.

Anybody who really wants to talk about the illegal immigration problem needs to address the fact that it can take many many years to get normal permanent status and/or become a citizen. There are only a limited number of permanent visas and green cards issued each year, and most immigrants must maintain that status for 5 years before applying to become a citizen. Dealing with current immigrants under these quotas is much like attempting to drink a gallon of milk using a teaspoon.

But hey, it sure sounds cool to track them like some package you’ve ordered.

In closing: boat; no, she can’t; irreproducible results; what recovery?; the plague.

Back to School Repost Post

As our school and college students prepare to head back to school, I thought I’d go ahead and round up some things I’ve said over the years (mostly, with a couple new links too) for your entertainment:

Have a great school year.

In closing: I think this BlogHer post might have been talking about this one!

Things I Learned at the Gym

 

  • Henry Rollins once said that the iron doesn’t lie. And he is correct.
  • The treadmill doesn’t lie either. You can’t lie to yourself about how fast you’re going or how hard you’re working. There is no stopping to look at something interesting, no stopping to take a sip of water. You either keep pace, or you fall on your face.
  • Most of the trainers I’ve met are nice people whose profession is helping people out. Of course they’d like you to be their client, but that’s business.
  • I’ve been complimented on my flexibility. It doesn’t matter whether or not you can lift 200 pounds if you can’t reach your shoelaces.
  • If you go to a gym, you will encounter a vast array of physical fitness levels (well, most places anyway). Remember that each one of them needs to be paying attention to their own workout; chances are they don’t care what you look like — and will only notice you if you’re clearly in trouble. They’re not laughing at you. They aren’t “miring” you.
  • There appears to be a small number of songs that will never go out of style as far as gym playlists are concerned. Iron Man is on that list.

BAMTOR is Back

Remember that Banks Always Make Their Own Rules?

So then here’s a story that has two sides, after a fashion. On one side, banks know that if there’s a back door to their communications that governments can use, there is by definition a back door that Bad Guys can use*. On the other side, these same banks have a history of not exactly being Good Guys themselves, and some are rightly pointing out that this same security prevents the legitimate government action of rooting out and punishing unlawful actions.

Ha right, like bankers get prosecuted! Now there’s a good one.

In Closing: Def Con; darn math; back to school preview; bunker; fun; not so much fun; more TPP; and LLAP.

* I know, I actually agreed with something That Asshat Michael Chertoff said! Alert the media.