It’s not enough, apparently, that the TSA has a well-established record for humiliating, degrading, stealing from, bullying, and terrifying the traveling public. Its agents’ arrogance is now moving into the realm of actually life-threatening. A Type-1 diabetic teen’s insulin pump was broken by a TSA scanner, despite her showing a TSA agent her pump...
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[The Independent Institute does not work to influence the legislative process, but we find the following information and analysis interesting and worth passing on.—Ed.] Later this year Americans could wake up to some unpleasant surprises: Higher fees and costs associated with banking, pensions, insurance, and investment; Reduced foreign investment in the United States and,...
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This story reports that two TSA employees were arrested for taking bribes to allow large narcotic shipments pass through the Los Angeles airport. I put up a post about a similar story last year, so I’ll raise similar questions again. There is no rule against carrying drugs on airplanes, and carrying them did not...
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How has the vision of our forebears—of men and women, black, white, and every other complexion, standing tall, shoulder to shoulder, in free and full access to equal opportunities and enjoying the blessings of equal rights in the sanctity of our persons and property—devolved to skirmishes among dependent subjects of the state over the...
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In another ratcheting up of the national security surveillance state, the Obama administration has weakened a privacy safeguard that even the Bush administration kept intact. The AP reports: The U.S. intelligence community will be able to store information about Americans with no ties to terrorism for up to five years under new Obama administration...
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There is increasing concern that government surveillance drones will undermine privacy. Then there is the safety concern: Consider the police drone that crashed into a sheriff’s tank during training. This really is the kind of state the U.S. has become: One in which there is no real expectation of privacy from the government. First...
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Boy, I miss the days when the future depicted in Terminator appeared ridiculously dystopian. The Washington Times reports: The legislation would order the FAA, before the end of the year, to expedite the process through which it authorizes the use of drones by federal, state and local police and other agencies. The FAA currently issues certificates, which...
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This story has been getting some press, and I hope it gets a lot more. The Senator who was detained was Rand Paul, which may make the story more interesting. Senator Paul has been a frequent critic of the TSA. Even though I do a fair amount of airline travel, I still get a...
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I posted earlier about the provisions of the New Years Eve-signed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) a/k/a the “Homeland Battlefield Bill,” allowing the President of the U.S., at his or her sole discretion, to order the indefinite detention of any U.S. citizen, with no burden of proof whatsoever, and no recourse for the detainee—in...
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We live in a secularized world of nation states in which traditional religion, especially Christianity, is unwelcome. Rooted in the “Enlightenment,” this view supports a secularized and authoritarian public square enforced by government and that progress requires forcing religion ever backward into remote corners of society. In short, America has become a secular theocracy...
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