Now, really, doesn’t this explain everything?
I love it when Daleks get pissy. “All you do is pro-cras-tin-ate! Pro-cras-tin-ate!”
Category Archives: Censorship
TWAT roundup
Just a quickie roundup of TWAT news buzzing around the blogosphere.
British schoolchildren are being fingerprinted without parental approval, and on pain of suspension for non-cooperation. So Guido was late to it; I’m later than anyone, but not too proud to post!
Ah yes, and they’re being fingerprinted by the same corporation that trains interrogators for Abu Ghraib and Gitmo. We all love a strong corporate culture, don’t we? Mind you, this isn’t the same company that’s being sued by all those war widows for the wrongful deaths of their husbands. I know, it’s just so hard to keep them straight!
A Florida company is looking for permission to stick RFID chips in all service personnel in the US. Look for legislation making it an offence to remove these chips, if such legislation’s not on the books already. And don’t expect an out when you retire. We’ve already covered in this blog the fact that there IS no meaningful retirement anymore.
VeriChip Corp, based in Delray Beach, Fla., and described by the D.C. Examiner as “one of the most aggressive marketers of radio frequency identification chips,” is hoping to convince the Pentagon to allow them to insert the chips, known as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips under the skin of the right arms of U.S. servicemen and servicewomen to enable them to scan an arm and obtain that person’s identity and medical history. The chips would replace the legendary metal dog tags that have been worn by U.S. military personnel since 1906.
And if they can’t get your children or yourself, they’ll at least get your garbage cans. Fighting TWAT in the back alleys, in the Rubbermaids…Churchill would be so proud.
Half a million household wheelie bins have been secretly tagged with hidden electronic “bugs”, it has been reported.
The tiny devices identify each bin so that records can be kept on the waste disposal habits of its owners, and up to 500,000 bins in council districts across England are thought to have already been fitted…
A similar controversy also emerged in Ryde, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, earlier this week.
Residents accused the local authority of acting like “Big Brother” after workers suddenly began fitting the devices to the rims of an estimated 90,000 bins.
The devices use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology which have also been used to identify objects as diverse as animals, vehicles and expensive goods.
Like cannon fodder units.
TWAT: the war against t-shirts
That’s a fine looking fellow, the guy on the left. And a fine looking shirt he’s got on, too. Can you read it? I can’t, which is why I had to read the article about him and his shirt and why it’s illegal at JFK.
The article that informs me that it is now illegal to wear a shirt with Arabic writing on it in American airports.
Yes, TWAT is now The War Against Tees.
Then I once again asked the three of them : “How come you are asking me to change my t-shirt? Isn’t this my constitutional right to wear it? I am ready to change it if you tell me why I should. Do you have an order against Arabic t-shirts? Is there such a law against Arabic script?”
so inspector Harris answered “you can’t wear a t-shirt with Arabic script and come to an airport. It is like wearing a t-shirt that reads “I am a robber” and going to a bank”.
I said “but the message on my t-shirt is not offensive, it just says “we will not be silent“. I got this t-shirt from Washington DC. There are more than a 1000 t-shirts printed with the same slogan, you can google them or email them at wewillnotbesilent@gmail.com . It is printed in many other languages: Arabic, Farsi, Spanish, English, etc.”
Inspector Harris said: “We cant make sure that your t-shirt means we will not be silent, we don’t have a translator. Maybe it means something else”.
I said: “But as you can see, the statement is in both Arabic and English“.
He said “maybe it is not the same message“…
At the point of almost missing his flight, he allows JetBlue to buy him another shirt to wear over the “illegal” one. Apparently, lots of people had called and ratted him out. Remind me to dig out the story of my Arabic necklace and the nice lady at US Customs and Immigration.
I put the t-shirt on and removed the price tag. I told the four people who were involved in the conversation: “I feel very sad that my personal freedom was taken away like this. I grew up under authoritarian governments in the Middle East, and one of the reasons I chose to move to the US was that I don’t want an officer to make me change my t-shirt. I will pursue this incident today through a Constitutional rights organization, and I am sure we will meet soon”.
If you want to call Jet Blue and ask about their regulations against Arabic script, you can use the following numbers:
* If calling within the U.S., Bahamas or Puerto Rico: 1-800-JETBLUE (538-2583)
* If calling from the Dominican Republic: 1-200-9898
* If calling from outside the U.S. or Dominican Republic: 001-801-365-2525
* Customers who are deaf or heard of hearing (TTY/TDD): 1-800-336-553Raed Jarrar’s blog Raed in the middle
TWAt: bloggers as enemies
Say hello to Josh Wolf, the second American I know of to be jailed for blog content (the first was a hapless Middle-American who blithely snapped a photo of the hotel in which Cheney was staying, several years ago. He has since been sprung). Let’s go to the ever-reliable BoingBoing for the report:
Earlier this month, San Francisco-based blogger Josh Wolf was jailed for refusing to hand over video to the federal government. He shot the footage at a 2005 G8 protest in San Francisco.
Details about the video, why authorities wanted it, and why Wolf declined, are here. The incident is the first I know of in which a blogger has been jailed for not relinquishing content on demand.
Violet Blue writes,
There are two benefits coming up; one is this Saturday the 19th at Cafe La Boheme and another is Thursday the 24th at House of Shields — and if you can’t make it to either, donate to his legal fund. Our local politicians are fumbling around with little more than two hands and a flashlight trying to figure out what to do, and SFMike is all over it in his deatiled Civic Center post about the supes trying to pass *something* more than gas in Josh Wolf Rules (Kimo Crossman points us to video of this session here). Interesting to note that the SFPD didn’t bother to show up for the hearing, isn’t it? In case it wasn’t obvious, Josh is still in jail for refusing to hand over the video he shot — but he’s not silent, as pal Jackson West is exchanging letters (analog email) with Josh and transcribing Josh‘s mail into blog posts over at The Revolution Will Be Televised. There’s a wiki, too. Josh would love to get mail, so if you still remember what a pen is, drop him a line at:
Federal Correctional Institution – Dublin
Joshua Wolf 98005-111
5701 8th St. Camp-Parks, Unit J2
Dublin, CA 94568Link. Photo of Josh Wolf by punkmonksf.
Previously on BoingBoing:
I’d like to thank the academy…if I thought any of them gave a rat’s ass…
Well, it seems that those who are devalued by having their Emmys split off from the rest and consigned in the middle of a normal Wednesday, without benefit of television coverage, might be a tad bitter about it.
Whodathunkit?
From Defamer (and please excuse formatting weirdness; it’s WordPress’ fault!):
Take this novel Emmy-repurposing as a commentary on how some Creative Arts victors might feel about having their ceremony held in untelevised obscurity a week before the more glamorous primetime event if you must, but we find it a wholly practical use of a glittery eyesore that would otherwise be nothing more than a dust-collecting conversation piece going to waste on a mantel. In any event, we’re glad it’s being deployed as a toilet tissue holder and not a personal hygiene device, as the aureate angel’s pointed wings were clearly not designed to be placed anywhere near sensitive parts of the human anatomy.
raincoaster 