Tech Policy

ID Checks on the T

MBTA officials have announced that officers will be stopping passengers for identification checks at random t-stops.

This is, apparently, part of a national effort to protect our railways after the Madrid rail bombings.

"The training is part of the MBTA's overall plan for enhancing safety and security for the hundreds of thousands of people who use our system every day," Pesaturo wrote in the e-mail. "Law enforcement personnel are being trained to detect whether a person's or persons' actions are an indication of any level of risk or threat to the transit system . . . and to then take appropriate steps based on the observed behavior.

My reaction: bullshit.

One nice thing about America is that we don't have a national ID card. Most countries require citicens to carry ID on their person at all times.

The State Police officers based at Logan who are instructing T police have been trained in "behavior pattern recognition" in order to identify potential terrorists.

There are so many suspicous charachters roaming the T now, that I don't see how they are going to cherry pick the terrorists from this bunch. Anyways, this would require the T cops from getting out of Dunkin' Donuts anyways (thats why I spend so much time in Dunkin D's, quite safe there).

Martino said "we do not racially profile and do not consider that someone is suspicious because they appear to be Middle Eastern or that they are not suspicious if they don't appear to be."

a. Sure....
b. Uh-huh.....

moving on.

Is this the right line to draw in deciding on how to balance our safety from attack vs. our safety from an overreaching government? I doubt it. If the police wanted to step up investigations, collect more intel, and then act on that intel, OK. But random checks... I'm not for needle-in-the-haystack approaches that are highly visible, confidence assuring methods of fighitin the terr'a.

adam

Shoebox Memory

Isn't that a cool picture ? Via Atrios ofcourse.

A Scenario of Doom

Via deconsumption.

Island Press Environmental Issues Forum

Island Press Environmental Issues Forum seems to be ramping up slowly.

Condemned to Repeat?

Working on my last paper I came across this passage from The Discovery of Global Warming by Spencer Weart.

President George H.W. Bush was more receptive to environmental concerns than his predecessor. In a passing remark during the 1988 presidential campaign, he had pledged to take real action on the greenhouse effect.(76) Support came from the usual sources — the Department of State (under increasing pressure from European governments concerned about global warming), DOE, NOAA, and EPA. But many others in the administration, as in the Reagan administration, only wished the issue would somehow disappear. In particular, the powerful White House Chief of Staff, John H. Sununu, vigorously opposed any and all measures that environmentalists proposed. By the end of Bush's first year in office, when he spoke of global warming (or "global climate change" as he now called it), he concentrated on the scientific doubts and economic risks that argued against any action. A White House memorandum, inadvertently released, proposed that the best way to deal with concern about global warming would be "to raise the many uncertainties."(77)

First I shook my head, then I reread it, then I checked the archives.

Colin Powell On Meet The Press

Could this guy be humiliated any more than this ?

Democrats play politics with the price of oil

Democrats are asking Bush to use the strategic reserves to lower the price of oil. Bush Administration is actually right in filling up the reserves at this time. The aim of strategic reserves is exactly what the name implies: Strategic. If there is a REAL crisis, then SPR could come in to play, not to lower the price of oil. Clearly, the Dems are using this as an opportunity to corner the Bush administration. Four years ago, Clinton had (mis)used the SPR to lower the rising gas prices. Bush is right on this one!

MAD poster

I hadn't seen this until yesterday. It is hilarious.

Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal (2004): a Weblog

It must be summer vacation time at Berkeley. Brad DeLong has pointers to many many good articles, which I do not have time to read for now. If you do read some of those, do share your thoughts here.

Dave's take on outsourcing

My favorite all-time author, Dave Barry, has finally taken on a technology and policy issue. It is my great pleasure to post his recent column on outsourcing.

An excerpt from this highly philosophical position:

After we stopped making things, America became a ''service economy,'' which is a business term meaning ''an economy where it is virtually impossible to get service.'' But now even our service industries are being outsourced. Take, for example, ''Technical Support,'' which is the department you call when you are having a technical problem and need to be placed on hold.

Enjoy.

Booger