Stop Calling It That!!

According to the word experts over at Merriam-Webster:

Universal: 1 : including or covering all or a whole collectively or distributively without limit or exception; especially : available equitably to all members of a society [universal health coverage]

Now look at that. They even use the specific example of universal health coverage being available — equitably — to all members of a society. So if you have a problem with my definition of universal health coverage, please take it up with them. Very handy, those clever people at Merriam-Webster. The people over at the Associated Press are by comparison not so clever.

They printed an article today entitled California Governor calls for universal [healthcare] coverage . The people over at the International Herald Tribune make the same mistake! This is yet another one of those plans that calls for every citizen to get coverage or face the consequences; larger businesses will be required to buy policies for employees; the 80% of California businesses that qualify as “small” will be exempt; if Joe Average does not have coverage, he will be forced to buy it; if he cannot afford it the state will darn well help him buy it. In fact, the Chicago Triubune is most accurate when they call it Mandatory Health Insurance.

At least this program would cover all children under a statewide program. Remember, kids don’t have employers. But otherwise, this isn’t universal. One is forced to wonder whether the program will cover students until they finish high school, or whether 18 year olds will have to buy a health insurance policy.

First, 80% of employers are not required to get with the program at all. Think about that; only one out of every 5 employers will be effected by this in any way shape or form. The employees of the overwhelming majority of businesses are still left to fend for themselves. They are in good company, in the same boat as every contractor, every unemployed person, every self-employed person. All of these people will now be required to pay through the nose for an individual health insurance policy.

Second, although we must give credit for the fact that “insurers would not be able to deny coverage based or age or pre-existing health conditions”, that does not mean that insurers will be required to charge affordable rates. Nor does it mean insurance companies can’t charge a premium to cover those with chronic health conditions. The very people who would be most helped by an actual universal health coverage program will instead find themselves bled dry by premiums.

This plan may indeed cover everyone, but it will not be equitably available. It isn’t universal, unless of course you’re a kid. The biggest risk of this program and others like it is that someday, it will be used as “proof” that universal coverage does not work, when in fact all it proves is that forcing customers to participate in an unfair market does not work.

In closing: a net gain of 167,000 new jobs in December, which sounds great until you realize that the majority of them require an specific degree you don’t have and as for jobs you could get, “Factories, however, cut 12,000 positions and construction companies eliminated 3,000 jobs — casualties of the souring housing market and the struggling auto industry. Retailers shed just over 9,000 slots” (more on where job openings are here at least locally speaking); 2007 expected to be warmest year on record but remember that some people still think global warming is just a crackpot theory; What Does 200 Calories Look Like; is there a Zombie next to you right now?; Terry Jones on the value of human life in the War on Terror; and ok, you’ve finally got your dang iPhone, along with a MacTV. Where have I seen that before?

It seemed more important in the 18th Century.

Some time ago I wrote about the First Amendment and the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The third installment of my impromptu series on the Bill of Rights has been slowed by the fact that nobody knows what it says. This isn’t one of those Amendments that comes up in Supreme Court cases all the time; it’s not one the ACLU or the NRA has to rant about. In fact, this Amendment has worked so well I can’t imagine anyone wanting to violate it.

If you’d like the context, the whole Bill of Rights is right here, but the part we need says:

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Remember, this was important enough to guys like Jefferson and Madison that they stuck it right in there between the right to bear arms and the right to be secure in your own home. As the title says, it was a bigger deal back then. quartering of British troops in private homes was a big issue prior to and during the American Revolution, a British tradition of necessity, and in fact one of the grievances mentioned in the Declaration of Independence.

It worked like this: Farmer Jones would open his door one day to find a British Officer informing him that two dozen men would be staying on his property for an indefinate period of time. Farmer Jones would be expected to make accomodations, feed them all their meals, and maybe even see to their laundry and entertainment until such time as the soldiers moved on. Woe be to Farmer Jones if he did not see to his guests properly, and woe to Farmer Jones’s daughters in any event (if Farmer or Mrs. Jones were clever and had any sort of warning, the girls might be sent away into the woods to fend for themselves — for their own protection).

This was a big enough and bad enough problem that it was worth writing not just a law, but a Constitutional guaranty that it would never happen in peacetime, and during war would require a special act of Congress.

In closing: help for those of you trying to lose weight this year; by way of follow-up I am not the only one who says software sucks, but Harvard is willing to say software sucks because of programmers; another follow-up, somebody is trying to do something about the problem of kids with no health insurance; a tidbit on the problems with eVoting in Florida points out that “Some observers have suggested that the 18,000 voters simply did not vote in the District 13 race; others claim the touch-screen ballots did not record the votes,” but the real problem is that without a paper trail we will never know which; rapists are the number one cause of rape, causing 100% of them; a quarter of start-up companies in the United States are started by people who weren’t born here; some friendly advice for the Democrats; and Wil Wheaton is mad about it and you should be too, once again the President has used a signing statement to undermine a bill as he makes it a law, and asserts his right to violate the Fourth Amendment while he is at it.

Shorties and the Rainbow

Hot Time in the Big City, um, I Meant Glacier: China is worried about global warming, but maybe not as much as Canada, eh?

Don’t Fix what you can Replace for a Few Million Dollars More: follow up on low-income rental housing in New Orleans.

More Americans Expect Rain of Fire and Brimstone than Alien Invasion: Specifically, in 2007, 60% think there will be a terrorist attack in the United States, 70% think global warming will get worse, 29% think we will actually get our troops home, 35% expect reinstatement of the draft, 35% predict a cure for “cancer”, 19% think we will find extraterrestrial life, and 25% think Jesus will return. Yes, that’s right, one in four Americans expects the events described in Revelation to start happening in 2007. Look around you; one in four thinks the world ends before the ball drops in New York again. Somehow, I don’t consider that a strategy for dealing with global warming.

Now with 27% Less Agonizing, Eating Holes In Your Brain Death: Genetically engineered cows may resist Mad Cow Disease. No word on whether they can transmit it to unwitting humans. Now tell me something; is it really easier to genetically modify every cow on the planet than to just stop feeding them bits of ground up old sick cows? I mean, really?

We don’t need no steenking Federal help: A peculiar Katrina after-effect. “Frustrated by poor federal cooperation, U.S. states and cities are building their own network of intelligence centers led by police to help detect and disrupt terrorist plots.” ‘Nuff Said.

Numbers Only Lie When They Are Misused: Ezra Klein on Universal Healthcare.

Fly in Wall Street’s Ointment? Maybe: two items on probably slowing consumer spending and a potentially slowing economy.

And finally, Do the Right Thing: I have been harping for years about studies that show teenagers’ brains just aren’t functioning early in the morning, pointing out how dumb it is to make them attend classes at 7 or 8 AM and then letting them loose by 1 or 2 PM so they can roam town virtually unsupervised until Mom and/or Dad get home at 5 or 7 PM. It turns out a legislative commitee agrees with me! But not because it will improve academic performance. No, because they think it will reduce traffic accidents! The great irony is that the insurance industry will probably be the driving force behind getting high school hours set to reasonable times. It’s about time.

This One is Too Hot, Too Cold, Just Wrong!

The New York Times, here via the International Herald Tribune, declares that we have achieved a remarkable anti-Goldilocks economy. Housing has cooled, manufacturing is too cold, inflation is too high, and Fannie Mae (of all places) is forcasting a 35% chance of recession.

Hold that thought.

Poverty might not be a new thing in New Orleans, where poor residents are having to fight for a simple roof-over-head, but now the suburban poor outnumber the urban poor. And more’s the pity, because the “good jobs” are all out in the suburbs now, and services designed to help the poor are all in town. As if that isn’t bad enough, in some states health insurance costs went up 89.2% in the last 6 years compared to a full-time pay increase of only 11%. And remember, this is in a state where the minimum wage goes up every year.

No wonder Joe and Jane Average think the economy sucks: their house value isn’t going up the way it used to, their health care expenses are going up, their wages aren’t going up nearly as fast as their expenses, gas is back up now that the elections are over, and there are a lot more people living in quiet poverty in their neighborhood than they imagined.

As if that isn’t enough, the local school has their hand out again, because that’s the only way to pay for field trips and orchestra programs and library books. I consider this an unfair burden upon parents, who are already expected to help with homework and school projects and transportation and volunteer work. It is even an unfair burden on teachers and administrators, who have to manage these fundraisers and account for the money at the end instead of actually teaching kids. I furthermore think this sort of thing widens the gap between “wealthy” schools and “poor” schools; parents in the wealthy neighborhood can afford to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars in aggregate but parents in the poor neighborhood cannot.

Nevertheless, having said all this about how bad the economy is when seen from the bottom, smart guys like Jim Cramer think it’s looking great from the top. Mr. Cramer predicts a 17% rise in the Dow, based on price targets of each of the 30 Dow Components. That’s a lot lower than GDP and higher than inflation. It’s higher than both combined. Higher than the two multiplied. By the way, that Bloomberg link points out “Even as the U.S. economy added 132,000 workers in November, more than economists had forecast, wages increased by only 0.2 percent. The average weekly paycheck of $574.27 last month was a modest gain from $573.25 in October.” First, it still takes 150,000-200,000 new jobs a month to absorb new entries to the workforce (stuff that in your “but we need undocumented workers” and smoke it) and second, I don’t know how people can support a family on $574.27 a week.

Sooner or later, Anti-Goldilocks needs to expect the Bears to come home.

In closing: How to hold corporations accountable; Best Wishes to Mr. Barrowman and Mr. Gill; homemade peppermint patties; and Child’s Play.

End of a Dynasty?

Or, “Yo Quiero Job at Taco Bell”

Yesterday, some people commented on Jeb Bush’s comments that he had no [political] future:

“No tengo futuro (I have no future),” Jeb Bush told Spanish-language reporters in Miami, when asked about any possible political ambitions after he steps down next month.” Jeb Bush told Spanish-language reporters in Miami, when asked about any possible political ambitions after he steps down next month.

Senator Brownback thinks that’s just a shame. Yes, that Senator Brownback.

The nice folks over at The Moderate Voice have a nice commentary with roundup and a brilliant picture of soon-to-be-ex Governor Bush and his esteemed brother, the President.

Now of course political pundits say the Governor is in his current state for no better reason than his brother’s poor approval ratings. Nope, couldn’t have anything at all to do with Terri Schiavo. Nope, everybody secretly hopes the Governor will interfere in their family’s most difficult decisions. Nor could it possibly have anything to do with his stance on the issues, including not even teaching about abortion, supporting “abstinence only” sex-ed, refering to feminism as a “modern victim movement”, repealing motorcycle helmet laws, supporting draconian criminal punishments, spending more money on drug enforcement, bringing in more farm workers from Mexico, and a host of other things that just might not sit well with Joe and Jane Average. At least he supports the Kyoto Treaty.

Alright then, Governor Bush’s comments tend to suggest he is officially planning on not running for President in 2008. Very well. Brother Neil is probably not a viable candidate either. That’s expected; this country has had father/son presidents before, but never brothers. Not even the Kennedys pulled that off.

Now I figure we have 20 years until it’s time to worry about the twins. And even then, I don’t think Jenna is the political one. Barbara is the Yalie, after all. Barbara is in fact the one named after a former first lady, the one who is a fourth generation Yale graduate, the one who was voted most likely to be on the cover of Vogue, and the one who has been clever enough not to say anything stupid on the internet (yet, of course). Oh, and if something she says does get quoted in a bad light, she can always blame Gramma.

In closing: make a better life for yourself, but do it without job training, more education, or help with childcare; “Um yeah, it turns out the economy isn’t doing as well as we told you before, sorry about that”; strangely enough it turns out that contraception reduces infidelity while increasing women’s income potential, put that in your “root of all modern society’s problems” and smoke it; it’s purely a coincidence that yesterday Mr. Bush was talking about a bigger military and today the Canadian news is reporting a test of the Selective Service system; still trying to find a gift for a teenager?; parents, experts agree “maybe we don’t have to drug little Johnny”; how long can Americans continue too spend more than they earn?; an item on ethics, food, restaurants, and you (thanks to Elisa); and finally, GIANT SQUID! Oishii desu ka? (Is it delicious?)

Skin Care for Humans

Today’s news includes an admission that yes, Laura Bush has had a small skin cancer removed. I’d like to take a minute to quickly discuss the proper care of something I know you have, skin.

My sincere apologies if you are in fact a burn victim with no skin. Moving on.

The nice people at the Skin Cancer Foundation have this to say about the type of cancer Mrs. Bush had removed: it is the second most common form of skin cancer, and ” Like all skin cancers, chronic overexposure to the sun is the primary cause of nearly all cases of squamous cell carcinoma.” It is worth noting that your face is a prime area for such cancers because unlike most other body parts, it is almost never covered by clothing.

Taking care of your skin is not difficult, but it does take a few minutes every day and a little thinking ahead. To me that seems a small price to pay for both preventing cancer and looking good. In fact, I’m going to give you both versions of Skin Care for Humans, the lazy version and the deluxe version.

The lazy version is for you if I can only get you to spend an extra 60 seconds on your skin each day: when you clean your face daily (you are doing that, right? I mean otherwise… ew), use a good quality facial cleanser instead of soap; use a moisturizing sunscreen or sunscreen with moisturizer designed for use on your face each and every day.

When selecting your products, remember that you only have one face. Don’t accept anything inferior to Avon or Neutrogena, even if you are trying to be budget conscious. I like SkinMedica products, personally. Did I mention that I’m a thirty-something woman who gets carded regularly? As for your sunscreen, it should specifically say it blocks both UVA and UVB rays and have an SPF of at least 15. I specify a moisturizing sunscreen because it reduces the number of products used by combining two things everybody needs. And yes, you need sunscreen every day, even in Seattle, even if you are “just going to and from the car.” If you spend 5 minutes outdoors 12 times a day, that’s still an hour; you wouldn’t spend an hour in the sun without sunscreen, would you? And the nice folks at Cancer Research UK tell us that “Untreated glass, water and clouds are not good shields against UV radiation,” and “Even on overcast skies, 30-40% of UV will still penetrate through cloud cover.”

Now then, if I can get you to spend 5 minutes a day on your face, here’s the Deluxe 4 Step Skin Care for Humans Plan. Follow these steps twice daily:

Clean. Good quality facial cleanser. Use your hands instead of a washcloth, because the lines in your hands are just exactly abrasive enough to get stuff like dirt and loose skin off your face without ripping healthy skin cells off your face. Pat dry with towel when you are done instead of rubbing, for the same reason. Folks with facial peircings have already figured this one out the hard way.

Tone. Ideally, your toner should be made by the same company that made your cleanser. The purpose of toner is to bring your face back to a normal pH after cleaning or other treatments, and prep it for the next step.

Serums and/or eye cream. A serum is nothing more complicated than a skin treatment. There are more serums out there than you can shake a stick at. You have anti-oxidant serums such as vitamin C, and you have retinol based serums, and hydroquinone serums for getting rid of dark spots, and acne serums with ingredients like benzoyl peroxide or salicytic acid. Basically anything you would apply to your face to address a problem goes here. Make sure you let this product dry before doing anything else.

Sunscreen/moisturizer. Suncreen during the day; moisturizer at night. You don’t need sunscreen at night — the mass of the earth does a good job of blocking all the sun’s direct light — so why put it on?

I hope this is helpful. Take care of your skin; it’s attached to you.

China Follow Up: Chinese middle class fights back, making it clear that even people with an oppressive government can (and do!) fight back when necessary; the Chicago Tribune onthe ecologic effect of cheap Chinese goods such as cashmere; the AFP in a news item that doesn’t even mention China but illustrates the economic effect of cheap Chinese goods; a Chinese spin on the soup kitchen, or a publicity stunt?; and finally the Chinese experiment with a city run on cheap migrant labor is a failure, but the migrants are too poor to leave the sinking ship. A choice quote:

Among Chinese economic planners, Shenzhen’s recipe is increasingly seen as all but irrelevant: too harsh, too wasteful, too polluted, too dependent on the churning, ceaseless turnover of migrant labor.

“This path is now a dead end,” said Zhao Xiao, an economist and former adviser to the Chinese State Council, or cabinet. After cataloging the city’s problems, he said, “Governments can’t count on the beauty of investment covering up 100 other kinds of ugliness.”

Gee, sounds like they have figured out what Americans have not.

In closing: Wil Wheaton’s Security Theatre Experience; a news item not to be underestimated, Japan rolls back pacifist pillars; CNN brings you 6 strategies to survive the coming real estate bust, particularly if you are in one of the 10 housing markets they think is poised to fall in 2007; and finally don’t blame Taco Bell for the problems of big corporate agri-business.

The Dragon and the Tiger

According to the Shaolin Warrior-Monks, the Dragon is a mythical animal able to fight on land, in the air, and in the sea. By turning its long body, it is able to move smoothly and fight multiple enemies approaching from several directions. This long body, however, is a large target.

Likewise, according to the Shaolin Warrior-Monks, the Tiger is an all-too-real animal known for its strength and ferocity. However, a Tiger has limited stamina, and must count on overcoming enemies quickly.

Today’s financial news is dominated by the new record high set by the Dow, and the 6 year high set by the S&P 500. Apparently Wall Street is in deep denial about what is happening half a world away. In China, American Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson and Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi began a “strategic economic dialog. They were joined on the American side by 4 other members of the President’s Cabinet, the Chairman of the Fed, and our trade representative to China. On the Chinese side were ten senior ministers and their Ambassador to the United States.

If the size of the delegations alone indicate the importance of this meeting.

And to be honest, things are not going well. Mr. Paulson apparenty began the dialog by telling the Chinese their currency would have to float freely, and they needed to maintain economic growth without a trade surplus, and furthermore they’d better open their markets and crack down on piracy. The L.A. Times is under the delusion that these last two points are the important ones. Oh, and Paulson added “[T]hey have just got to move quicker.” Do everything I want and make it snappy? If this is how he thinks, I wonder how long until he is divorced.

Not too surprisingly, China [is] unwilling to budge. More specifically, Ms. Wu says “We have had the genuine feeling that some American friends are not only having limited knowledge of, but harboring much misunderstanding about, the reality in China.” In other words, respectfully, you don’t know what you’re talking about. She went on: “Wu said Beijing would ‘actively push forward trade and investment liberalization.’ But she stressed that changing China’s economy is a ‘long-term and arduous’ task.” Or, we will do it our way and we will do it in our timing.

Meanwhile, the Yuan is at record highs and Chinese banking IPOs are hot, hot, hot.

So Mr. Paulson has rushed in, hoping to get everything he wanted before anybody noticed he was attacking. Meanwhile, Ms. Wu has deftly turned and left the Tiger’s claws empty, knowing she will have time to turn and attack at will.

Why does this matter? Because China has the ability to bankrupt the United States at least 3 different ways.

First, they can continue to be our largest trade partner, draining off American money each month as the trade deficit increases and we buy more and more Chinese manufactured goods. Remember, that’s the reason the Bush Administration wants the Yuan to float freely. Currently it is pegged to the dollar, which keeps the cost of Chinese imports low in the United States. This would be the slow way to do the job. But Asian philosophy allows for the idea that a good plan well implemented might take generations to come to fruition. Look at Hong Kong: the Chinese managed to get the British to build the place and create its economy before taking it back over a century later.

The second way China could send the American economy into a terrible place is they could sell their dollar reserves. A source no less authoritative than the Wall Street Journal warns us “If the Chinese government reduces the amount of dollars it holds in reserve — or slows the pace at which it buys dollars — the revaluation could put upward pressure on U.S. interest rates.” Higher American interest rates means disaster in the housing sector and severe contraction of businesses financing new equipment. Just selling the dollars would severely devalue it, meaning deflation. Higher interest rates would probably exacerbate the effect.

The nice folks at the WSJ are kind enough to bring us way three that China could destroy our economy and send us into a great depression in the very next paragraph. They could sell the very large piece of the United States National Debt that they own. “China’s position in U.S. bonds is huge. China is the second-largest holder of Treasury securities (after Japan), with $243.5 billion of U.S. government securities as of May 2005.” Now granted, the National Debt currently stands over $8 Trillion, or $8 Million Million. Even so, over $200 Thousand Million of bonds hitting the market is going to make a big, big mess. And the thing that many people don’t realize is that “When interest rates go up, bond prices go down and when interest rates go down, bond prices go up.” So if China were to sell a bunch of bonds, interest rates would inevitably rise. Furthermore, this would be seen as a no-confidence vote on the ability of the United States Government to pay back its debts. Just like when Joe Average has lousy credit he has to pay higher rates, the same thing would apply to his Uncle Sam. This would in all likelihood drive up general interest rates, with the same effects listed in the previous paragraph.

Maybe Mr. Paulson should stop treating China like a small child and start treating them like a sovereign nation.

The Shorties of Yucca Flats

Sorry for the delay in posting. I was travelling last week. I hope to relate some thoughts on travel and the modern world that occured to me, but not today.

It is also worth noting that I have been just about buried under comment spam lately. You guys never see this stuff because I have to approve comments by new posters. A few minutes ago I set up a filter to automatically delete comments that contain the names of a couple of high profile pharmaceuticals for men, and I hope that does some good.

On to the Shorties!

Life, on earth, in one of the most imporbable places. One scientist described it as “a bit like a person agreeing to live in a blistering sauna and be hosed at random with freezing water.” The region in question is by a volcanic sea vent blasting 400 degree Celcius water, yet the water meters away is barely above freezing.

Medical Refugees Flee to India. Yes that’s right. Medical care for certain conditions is so expensive in the United States that people are traveling to India for essential medical treatment. I guess maybe medicine can be outsourced after all.

Meanwhile, Congress has approved a bill to pay Medicare doctors a bonus for doing a “good job”, as defined by the Government of course. What could possibly go wrong?? “Doctor Brownie, you’re doin a heckuva job!”

More than you ever wanted to know about Total Travel Information Awareness, and even more.

Gee imagine that: when women are able to participate in basic decisions about their families, their children benefit. By “benefit”, I mean that they have less malnutrition, more education, and better health care. The next time some closet mysogynist tells you feminism is a problem, nay the root of all problems in this country, you tell them about this.

Everybody else seems to get it, but Washington doesn’t understand that the Iraqis want the Americans OUT. It’s a big chicken and egg thing. The Americans say “It’s chaotic here! You need us to keep the peace. Once things have calmed down we’ll get out of here.” The Iraqis reply “Yes, it’s chaotic here. Because you are here. It isn’t going to calm down as long as you remain here, so please go now.” To which the Americans reply “We can’t do that! It’s chaotic here….” Lather, rinse, repeat.

A ray of sunshine in the civil liberties nightmare, “bipartisan legislation authored by Senators Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and John Sununu (R-NH) that would add privacy and civil liberties safeguards to the Real ID Act.”

And finally a story to make any boy over the age of 5 smile (if not giggle hysterically), “How Cow Farts Become Fuel.”

Security Theatre Acts XV, XVI, and XVII

A Veritable Toika of Security Theatre straight from the warped minds of the TSA.

Security Theatre Act XV: Return of the Registered Traveller System

The nice folks over at Wired have nicely summarized it: “Fake Security.” For $100 you submit your fingerprints (Do they submit it to the FBI database? Compare against unsolved crimes? Who knows!); they do a background check; and you are issued a bit of plastic that gives you access to a special short line. When you get the the airport you present your card, get your fingerprints scanned against the bit of plastic, and — assuming you aren’t in the 2% failure rate for fingerprint scanning — get into a short line where you still have to take off your shoes and present your plastic baggie of personal hygiene products. But people who have been “selected” for additional screening should still allow extra time and KY Jelly for screening.

The people who have planned this have the gall to say this will speed up checkin for everyone. This is mathematically impossible. If you have one “short line”, sure things will be faster for those in the short line. Nevertheless, the people manning the short line have to make sure Joe Average belongs there. And the people running the “short line” could have been helping make sure everybody gets through faster.

I am disturbed by the number of people who think this is a good idea. It is not a “get out of the security line free” card, it won’t help you get out of baggage inspection, it won’t do a thing for the David Nelsons of the world. It only changes the line you stand in waiting for your shoes to be returned to you. It is a sham, and a waste of $100.

Security Theatre Act XVI: Tall people are all terrorists

Way back when, credit scores were secret information. Now you have a right to know what the big credit agencies say about you, and you even have a right to correct information in the report. Not so with the terror risk assessments authorized by the Department of Homeland Security. In fact, they’ve been doing this for 4 years now, and only now are details coming to light. Oh, and they plan to keep this information for 40 years. Because goodness knows nothing changes over that period of time. Apparently, some of the “important” details include seat and meal preferences. Ok, sure, someone with an aisle seat might be planning to make trouble; but maybe they are just tall and like the slightly extra room of an aisle seat. I suppose heaven help you if you request a special meal.

Security Theatre Act XVII, Huhuhuhuhmmhuhuhuh.

It’s baaaack! Coming to airports this month are x-rays that can see through your clothes. The ACLU calls this a “virtual strip search.” If you believe these machines are not going to be abused by some minority of screeners looking for a cheap thrill, I have some lovely swampland to sell you. How long until there is an entire porn category of such images? Before Christmas, if I had to guess.

Why are we so afraid of something unlikely — nutcases doing Bad Things to an airplane — that we are willing to give up basic privacy for it? I mean think about it. A terrorist could do a whole lot more damage in a mall, movie theatre, or even a high school football game. Airplanes are passe.

In closing: the press war against working moms; Judge says “Bush doesn’t like ’em” is not a definition of “terror group”; a classical music database; a special item for World AIDS Day, Bill Clinton working to see that kids around the world have access to affordable medication; the MPAA has effectively killed a bill in California that would have made it illegal to pretend to be you and get your phone records because it might prevent them from cracking down on people who think a whole record album isn’t worth $17.98 when it only has 2 good tracks; one in 32 Americans was in jail or on parole at the end of 2005, it’s just something to remember next time you look through your high school yearbook; we’re supposed to “support our troops” but we aren’t allowed to remember the ones who have died?; and finally new Congressman in hot water for swearing on Holy Text he actually believes in! I love the comment about swearing on the Bible because it is “the Bible of this country.” Someone smack him upside the head with the First Amendment for me.

Touristas, Go Shorties

History of the AK-47.

Something that will make a fascinating museum someday.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s a bad idea for police officers to break down someone’s door without bothering to knock and let the people inside know they are police officers rather than home invaders, particularly on the say-so of a junkie.

Speaking of guns, it turns out 80% of convicts who used guns got them from illegal sources. Think about it: gun control laws work on the premise that criminals will bother to follow the law.

Ok, I understand why you need to show your ID to be served alcohol, but for pancakes?? The bad news is some IHOP manager decided confiscating the drivers licenses of diners might reduce the number of people who leave without paying. The good news is IHOP corporate said “WHAT??”

RFID Passports are a bad idea, but what about RFID luggage tags? They might reduce lost luggage, but only if airlines are willing to suck up 5 to 10 times the cost of baggage tagging.

Business Week tells us about LEGO. Don’t forget to watch the slideshow.

Jim Hightower on the maintenance of the American infrastructure.

Lots of people are talking about Newt Gingrich saying there ought to be limits to free speech on the internet — at a First Amendment Awards Dinner! And as scary as that is, Mr. Gingrich seems to forget that the internet is also international. Just the same, thank goodness he’s no longer an elected official!

And in closing, two all-too true cartoons: one, two. Ford Motor Company? Number one is looking at you. As for number two, let’s hope the Democratic Party accepts their progressive mandate.