The Violence Worker!

We have Gone Too Far!

A few weeks ago, my oldest son and I were having a discussion about airline security and I kind of half argued that it was good that we are more vigilant.  Well, I was wrong.  This whole TSA thing has just plain gotten out of hand.

We all want to travel safely.  When we get on an airplane, we want to be reasonably assured that when we take off from the airport, we will land safely at our destination with nothing more distressing than a case of jet lag.  That means we hope the crew is competent, the aircraft is well maintained and the weather doesn't interfere.  Also in there is the hope that some jihadist with a bomb or a weapon isn't also on the passenger manifest. 

My job requires that I travel from time to time.  Had I not injured my right index finger a couple of months ago, I would be in Alaska right now.  I've put up with the metal detectors, bag screening and the inherent lines it all causes and I have to say that adding one more element that will provide absolutely no real addition to secure travel is enough. 

There is real concern about radiation by frequent travelers and air crew members.  If you don't like the radiaton, you can opt out to be patted down by someone whom you don't know who will run his or her hands all over your body including your private areas.  They will do this even with small children!

We need to rethink this process.  We need to figure out a better way.  It's telling that the Administration could not or would not hear us when it came to the elctions of 2012.  We are starting to raise our voices again and the administration is covering their ears again.

Instead of three year olds and grandmas in wheelchairs, we should take a long tough look at who really has hijacked airplanes over the years.  I know, it's profiling and that is supposed to be racist...or something.  Common sense should prevail.  This shotgun approach to security does not make us safer and it takes up way too much time and money.

I'm no security expert, but there seems like there should be a better way to provide a reasonable amount of security without compromising our privacy and our dignity.

VW

Nuclear Poker

The North Korean regime is trying to play a deadly game of nuclear poker.  They have some bombs and they are itching to pick a fight.  With Obama in charge, they sense weakness and their weakness detector may not be that far off the mark.

Japanese intelligence sources say the NoKos might lob a Taepodong-2 toward Hawaii early next month.

North Korea may launch a long-range ballistic missile towards Hawaii on American Independence Day, according to Japanese intelligence officials.

The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles, would be launched in early July from the Dongchang-ni site on the north-western coast of the secretive country.

Intelligence analysts do not believe the device would be capable of hitting Hawaii's main islands, which are 4,500 miles from North Korea.

I don't know much about missile technology, but I wonder just how much tweeking it would take to give it an extra thousand miles?  They'd obviously have to make it weigh less and maybe figure out how to put more fuel on board and change an aerodynamic , but it seems doable and we'd still be thinking the old range was still their best.

This would not be an easy hand to play, regardless of who sat in the oval office.  I do think they'd be a little less bellicose if McCain had won, but with the NoKos, you can never be sure.

The President needs to let the NoKos know that if they lob a missile toward Hawaii, they may get what they wished in spades.  He needs to let Kim know that there will be harsh consequences and if we have to launch an intercept, there will be hell to pay.

We'll see how this spineless Socialist acts in the coming days.  I hope he remembers he has a sworn Constitutional responsibility to protect this nation.

VW

Satire? Yeah right....

Thanks Instapunk.

THE AMERICANS WITH NO ABILITIES ACT

Washington, DC - Congress is considering sweeping legislation that will provide new benefits for many Americans.

The Americans With No Abilities Act (AWNAA) is being hailed as a major legislative goal by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real ambition or skills...

'Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society,' said California Senator Barbara Boxer.

'We can no longer stand by and allow People of Inability to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of workers, simply because they have some idea of what they are doing.'

In a Capitol Hill press conference, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pointed to the success of the Transportation Security Administration, which has a long-standing policy of providing opportunity without regard to performance. 

Approximately 74 percent of postal employees lack any job skills, making this agency the single largest U. S. employer of Persons of Inability. Private-sector industries with good records of non-discrimination against the Inept include retail sales (72%), the airline industry (68%), and home improvement 'warehouse' stores (65%).

At the state government level, the Department of Motor Vehicles also has an excellent record of hiring Persons of Inability (63%).

Under the Americans With No Abilities Act, more than 25 million 'middle man' positions will be created, with important-sounding titles but little real responsibility, thus providing an illusory sense of purpose and performance.

Mandatory non-performance-based raises and promotions will be given so as to guarantee upward mobility for even the most unremarkable employees.

The legislation provides substantial tax breaks to corporations that promote a significant number of Persons of Inability into middle-management positions, and gives a tax credit to small and medium-sized businesses that agree to hire one clueless worker for every two talented hires.

Finally, the AWNAA contains tough new measures to make it more difficult to discriminate against the Non-abled, banning, for example, discriminatory interview questions such as, 'Do you have any skills or experience that relate to this job?'

'As a Non-abled person, I can't be expected to keep up with people who have something going for them,' said Mary Lou Gertz, who lost her position as a lug-nut twister at the GM plant in Flint, Michigan, due to her inability to remember righty tighty, lefty loosey. 'This new law should be real good for people like me,' Gertz added. 

With the passage of this bill, Gertz and millions of other untalented citizens will finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Said Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL): 'As a Senator with no abilities, I believe the same privileges that elected officials enjoy ought to be extended to every American with no abilities. It is our duty as lawmakers to provide each and every American citizen,   regardless of his or her adequacy, with some sort of space to take up in this great nation and a good salary for doing so.'

Remembering "A Date Which Will Live In Infamy"

Sixty-seven years ago, at 7:55 in the morning, Japanese aircraft started attacking U.S. Bases on Oahu.  They struck the airbases first, crippling our ability to respond or defend from the air.  They then turned their torpedo bombers on our fleet in Pearl Harbor, sinking or disabling most of the ships anchored there.  The Japanese won a tactical victory that day, but they woke up a complacent people to the fact that the war, swirling around them and the globe, now involved the United States.

I, like millions of others, took the tour of the USS Arizona memorial that spans her midship.  You understand at a very basic level, as you step off the boat and on to the memorial itself, that you are standing in a sacred and hallowed place.  Your fellow visitors feel it too;  their conversations hush, their vacation gaiety suddenly turns to hushed reverence.  As we slowly proceeded to the wall containing the names of those entombed below us, many (including me) are teary-eyed.  Most of us bow our heads in prayer and meditation.  We pray for our country, grateful for these men and the millions of others who sacrificed their lives in the cause of freedom.  Silently we prayed for those who now serve and I'm sure that most of us also prayed for peace.

 One part of the attack most people don't see are the scars still preserved at Hickam Air Force Base which borders the entrance to Pearl Harbor.  The row of hangars on the flightline, too small to house modern aircraft, still stand.  Most of them are now warehouses or turned into office space.  But outside, many of them still bear the pockmarks from the bullets that were sprayed on them from the Japanese Zeros, preserved for posterity.  In the past five years, I've been dispatched there three different times to perfom maintenance on equipment and engines we have stored there.  I always enter those hangars with a sense of respect for what happened on that day, 67 years ago.

The lesson of Pearl Harbor, 9/11, and even Mumbai, is that we must be forever vigilant.  There are evil people who seek to rule us or destroy us.  Along with vigilance, we must also be strong enough to make any potential enemy think long and hard before they trifle with us.

Remember Pearl Harbor and learn the lesson!

VW

Rethinking Posse Comitatus

All of us are concerned (or should be) about national security.  If you didn't get the lessons of Mumbai, you weren't paying attention.  Can you imagine the damage a small group of well armed terrorists could do in a major US city?  None of us even want to contemplate such a tragedy but it is something that we should unfortunately plan for and defend against.

That said, the Pentagon announced a plan to deploy up to 20,000 federal troops for Homeland Security.

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

First, I think we need to rethink defense just a little.  For the better part of the 20th century -especially post WWII - our military was trained to fight enemies everywhere but here.  We have a lot of military bases here in the US, but their missions were not built around defending our borders per se.  When I was in Bomber Wings, we trained to bomb Russia and China.  When I was in Fighter Wings, we trained to deploy to predetermined hot spots such as Korea or the defense of Europe.  Most Army troops garrisoned here were actually slated to deploy to Korea, Europe, or wherever.  Few trained to fight on US soil except some fighter interceptor units, but most of those weren't large enough to stave off a large attack.  Certainly training for overseas would translate to homeland defense, but by and large, we were trained for foreign theaters. 

I'm thinking homeland security was mostly an after thought.  After all, we didn't figure a land army would even attempt an invasion and it was not a mistaken assumption.  No one in their right mind would attempt to invade the US.  

And that still holds true.  However, the world has changed and so has warfare.  It's no longer solely a symmetrical endeavor with front lines and generals hovering over huge maps moving toy tanks and soldiers around like Las Vegas Craps croupiers.  To be sure, we still need that kind of training, but with the advent of Islamic terrorism, we also need to rework our defense strategy to deal with the threat today and to anticipate future threats.

The article mentions the Posse Comitatus act of 1878 that limits how federal troops can be used.  From Wikipedia: 

The statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units of the National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. The Coast Guard is exempt from the Act.

In general, the Posse Comitatus act is a good idea.  It has served us well and there are some that are worried about using Federal troops for homeland defense.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the libertarian Cato Institute are troubled by what they consider an expansion of executive authority.

Domestic emergency deployment may be "just the first example of a series of expansions in presidential and military authority," or even an increase in domestic surveillance, said Anna Christensen of the ACLU's National Security Project. And Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of "a creeping militarization" of homeland security.

While I think there is reason to be cautious, this is not the America of 1878.  We face threats no one would have even imagined back 130 years ago.  The article also points out that this will possibly stretch our military too far.  If that's the case, I think we need to expand it. 

Warfare and threats are ever changing and in many cases, ever increasing.  Today, we even have a headline telling us some rather chilling news: 

Study Reports U.S. Can Expect Nuclear Terrorist Attack Before 2013

We need to rethink Posse Comitatus and work on building or national defenses.  The continued military draw down since the Reagan years leaves us vulnerable and our enemies know it.

VW