Stupid Censorship, Stupid Security

The 2003 Jefferson Muzzle "winners" are out. This year's crop starts with John Ashcroft and the U.S. Congress, and works its way down through the school board that voted to put Harry Potter on the restricted shelf. Innovation in censorship deserves recognition, read and enjoy. And in other stupid news, the winners of the Stupid Security Competition have been announced. I like that I'm being protected from tea. It makes me feel safe.

Comments

I can't get to it!

[jlleblanc]

My school's filter has blocked the Muzzle Awards under the category of "Pornographic and Recreational Nudity"! -Joe

Re:Stupid people or stupid regulations?

[Mononoke]

Is ironic that most of the measures assumed that the terrorist are dumb and use always the same method or container for what they will do, not changing a bit their habits (puting bombs in backpacks instead of big, uncontrolled bags?)

This brings up an interesting point about the 9/11 hijackers that gets glossed over and hidden behind the fear of box openers. From an article about the heros of flight 93:

At least five passengers and flight attendants described the hijackers in their calls in similar terms: three men, wearing red bandannas, one with some sort of box strapped around his waist that he claimed was a bomb. One passenger reported that two of the hijackers were in the cockpit and a third guarded passengers in first class from behind a curtain.

Yes, they hijacked the place with an empty box! Funny, but I haven't seen any new rules about the possession of empty boxes aboard airplanes. These hijackers social-engineered their way into the cockpit, then got the boxcutters out. Even an armed pilot is going to be defenseless against a hijacker holding a 'bomb.'

Me? If I can't drive there, I don't go.

Re:Why I don't sail to the USA

[MillionthMonkey]

I am Canadian, and live in Toronto. I used to sail over to the US to visit their friendly towns, but I stopped a few years ago because of their weird customs rules. If they decide your I68 form is not in order, your boat will be impounded. Due to their zero-tolerance drug laws, if an immigration officer decides that there is even one speck of marijuana on your boat, your boat will be impounded. I am NOT a pot user, btw.

This is a disturbing trend I heard more and more often during the Drug War (which continues to rage unabated), but especially since 9/11- people from countries like Canada and Great Britain are cancelling trips to the U.S. because they are scared to come here. With all the loud and apologetic rhetoric about how "rights are only for citizens" (which any lawyer can tell you is bullshit), can you blame them? If I weren't a U.S. citizen I'd be nervous to come here too given the scary shit I've been seeing enter the conventional wisdom. I've never seen a level of nationalism and xenophobia like I'm seeing now.

This country likes to shoot its collective mouth off about its "freedoms", and it slathers the words "freedom" and "liberty" through its propaganda. Just look at the obnoxious names we give to things like Operation Iraqi Freedom. Even a few years ago it would have gotten a sensible name like Operation Desert Storm or Operation Desert Fox. Our naming of military operations has become perfused with propaganda- Operation Restore Hope, and now Operation Iraqi Freedom which just sounds creepily dishonest. We have made no secret of the fact that these are freedoms for us, not for you in the rest of the world. And while we like the idea of democracy taking root in foreign lands, it better not get in the way of cheap gas here or something has to be done about it. We have no problems with our government undermining or overthrowing democratically elected governments, or propping up repressive regimes. That stuff happens in countries we know or care nothing about and 90% of us couldn't place them on a map to save our lives anyway.

Except that the freedom that Americans lecture the world about is really like the royalty in Britain- sort of there for show, functioning as a crowd-pleaser, but with no solid or meaningful foundation underneath it. The Queen has meaningless rights that have mere ceremonial value, and as an American citizen, so do you! The reaction to one day of hijackings has revealed that much. When it comes time to put up or shut up, and actually honor these inalienable rights that we brag about, we're really clever at coming up with various excuses for denying them. Ironically, we often do this by dreaming up new contervailing powers for the state, phrased as if they're rights enjoyed by individuals- like the "right not to be killed in a terrorist attack" or the "right to protect our flag from desecration". The British may be a little pretentious with their own cultural fiction, but at least they're not as hypocritical.

This "freedom fries" talk can't be helping, either. Here it's just funny, but I just can't believe that nobody overseas is hearing the words "freedom fries" and questioning the wisdom of their investments here.

Americans are stupidly digging their own grave. If it means they might never have to start an uncomfortable conversation with their children about pot, the idiots will watch contentedly as thousands of people's lives are ruined in prison and Canadians (i.e. foreigners) have their boats confiscated with no due process. Then when the country has succeeded in scaring all foreign investment away and sinks into a depression, we'll just pin the blame on France (or whatever other representative of the civilized world has gotten in our way most recently). We're so wonderful, that if the world thinks we've lost our minds, it must be someone else's fault.