The Doctrine of Hell

TSA Tyranny

"You know why we're doing this"

Yes, we know why. Because you're good little Gestapo agents just "doing your job" and "following orders", right, you Nazi pigs? If a revolution comes I wonder what people will think of those who were "just doing their job" and "following orders"? Perhaps they'll feel that real criminal acts should be punished.


Little Ryan (4 years old) was heading to Walt Disney World for his birthday, when he encountered a nasty piece of human refuse called a TSA screener at the airport:

The boy is developmentally delayed, one of the effects of being born 16 weeks prematurely. His ankles are malformed and his legs have low muscle tone. In March he was just starting to walk.

Mid-morning on March 19, his parents wheeled his stroller to the TSA security point, a couple of hours before their Southwest Airlines flight was to depart.

The boy's father broke down the stroller and put it on the conveyor belt as Leona Thomas walked Ryan through the metal detector.

The alarm went off.

The screener told them to take off the boy's braces.

The Thomases were dumbfounded. "I told them he can't walk without them on his own," Bob Thomas said.

"He said, 'He'll need to take them off.' "

Ryan's mother offered to walk him through the detector after they removed the braces, which are custom-made of metal and hardened plastic.

No, the screener replied. The boy had to walk on his own.

Naturally, Bob Thomas, the boy's father and a police officer, was angry. When he spoke to a supervisor about the incident he was told "You know why we're doing this".

On Friday, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said the boy never should have been told to remove his braces.

TSA policy should have allowed the parents to help the boy to a private screening area where he could have been swabbed for traces of explosive materials.

She said she wished Thomas had reported the matter to TSA immediately. "If screening is not properly done, we need to go back to that officer and offer retraining so it's corrected."

Let's see if I understand this right. Forcing 4 year olds to remove their leg braces and then making them walk through a metal detector on their own is not something that a TSA agent would know is wrong without getting more "training"?

These are the idiots "protecting" us from "terrorists"?

And of course no sane person could object to the "proper" procedure of examining a 4 year old for "traces of explosive materials", when obviously it was the metal braces that set off the detector in the first place.

What's next, TSA anal examiners? Oh wait, they've already got those.

Fascist America has arrived, and most of the sheeple don't even realize it, and those that do have an inkling of the situation actually support it.


h/t to The Rogue Jew

The most moronic theist story I've ever heard

Some girl posted this on my Facebook wall. I think it's the most laughably ridiculous (not to mention torturously long) piece of theist propaganda I've ever seen.

In and Out with the First Couples

In and Out of Office

Mr. and Mrs. Carter


Mr. and Mrs. Reagan


Mr. and Mrs. Clinton


Mr. and Mrs. Bush


Mr. and Mrs. Obama

h/t to Offbeat Emails

The State Is Just A Gigantic Feudal Landlord

Presidents Day Dream

Why did I have to work yesterday? It was a holiday, wasn't it? Children were off from school, the banksters had locked their doors along with their allies, the government offices of the land, and people everywhere were frolicking about in great joy over not having to deal with the evil parasites (no, I don't mean to include the children in that designation).

I dreamed I asked the higher ups (well, the assistant higher up, the only one who was there and not taking the day off as a paid holiday) if it made sense to stay open on a day when most everyone was having Presidents Day barbecues and picnics, exchanging Presidents Day presents, and eating hollow chocolate Washingtons and Lincolns.

And then I had another dream, a dream of a President who actually promised hope and change, and guess what? He was chocolate, just like those little Georges and Abes that the kids find in their baskets on Presidents Day morning. We believed he would end two wars and bring all the troops home and fulfill the dreams of the anti-war movement. But then the chocolate President was really in the White House, and as I watched in horror his outer chocolate coating began to crack, which might not have proved fatal to our hopes, if, that is, we hadn't discovered that beneath that crack he was hollow inside.

And then the true horror of the dream revealed itself, as the chocolate of the new President's head also began to crack and fall away. Would we have a headless President? But no, it was far more terrible than that. Underneath the smiling chocolate face was another one, a grinning, stupid looking face made of white chocolate, and as the last of the real chocolate dropped to the ground, I stared in horror and disbelief. It was George W. Bush!

I woke up screaming.

No more hollow chocolate bunnies for me before bedtime.

The Economics of the Coming Crash

Interview with Marc Faber, who writes the monthly investment newsletter The Gloom Boom & Doom Report

Kevin Smith kicked off airplane for being too fat

Funny stuff.

I've got to be honest here: I hate it when I'm seated next to a really fat guy on a plane--the seats are small and uncomfortable enough as is. At what point does it become necessary to boot a fatty? I'm not sure, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere.

Maybe the solution is to make plus-sized people pay for larger seats in a different section of the plane.

Thoughts?

Another sickening "holiday"

President's Day is perhaps the most disgusting "holiday" of the year--even worse than Memorial Day and Flag Day. Yes, yes, let's honor all the power-hungry tyrants, warmongers, thieves and mass murderers who usurped power in the US and dismantled its Constitution (not that I'm pro-Constitution, but following it would be preferable to the current dictatorship).

A "president" is simply the head of the criminal gang we call "government" (the band of thugs that has arbitrarily monopolized power over a certain geographical area). Screw the presidency and its boot-licking apologists.

So you really want another revolution in Iran?

Many neoconservatives are beginning to realize that there’s not going to be a war with Iran, at least not anytime soon. Give the neocons a couple years to replace the evil but rational Barack Obama with an evil but not so rational Republican, and they might get their wish. But until then, they’re being forced to look for different, less violent ways to topple the Islamic regime.

Along with pressuring Obama to impose “harsh sanctions” on Iran, many continue insisting that the president needs to do more to show his support for the Green Movement. Bill Kristol, for example, writes that Obama should support “The Iran Democratic Transition Act.” Recently introduced in the Senate by John Coryn (R-Texas) and Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), the bill which would authorize the president “to support a transition to democracy in Iran by providing non-military assistance to Iranian democratic opposition organizations.” The Iranian people, Kristol believes, might be able to prevail without “a champion in the White House. But it would be easier if they had a champion.”

The assumption here is that a democratic Iran would be an American-like, American-friendly Iran. Just get rid of the ruling regime, Kristol believes, and the United States, and by extension Israel, will gain an ally in the Middle East.

As you might remember, Kristol gave us this exact argument in the months preceding the Iraq invasion. Echoing Dick Cheney’s prediction that Iraqis would greet American forces as “liberators,” Kristol claimed that removing Saddam Hussein would cause the United States to be “respected in the Arab world,” that it “could have terrifically good effects throughout the Middle East,” starting “a chain reaction in the Arab world that would be very healthy.”

Of course, none of these predictions came to pass. While Iraqis were happy to be rid of Saddam, most of them viewed American troops as occupiers. A 2006 poll showed that the vast majority of Iraqis wanted U.S. forces to leave their country within the year; more than 60% supported insurgent attacks against U.S. forces. At the same time, America’s popularity throughout the Muslim world plummeted [.pdf]. And none of those other “terrifically good effects” ever ensued. What did ensue was a new police state in Iraq, one that, unlike Saddam’s regime, is closely allied with Iran.

Similarly, there is no reason to believe that regime change in Iran would serve America’s interests. Although there was certainly some vote-rigging in last summer’s presidential election, polls conducted before and after the election reveal that a majority of voters did in fact support Ahmadinejad. Moreover, 87% of Iranians are satisfied with the current “system of government” (41% are very satisfied, 46% somewhat satisfied), and “[l]arge majorities, including majorities of Mousavi supporters, endorse the Islamist character of the regime such as having a body of Islamic scholars with the power to veto laws they see as contrary to sharia.”

According to a 2009 poll, only 29% of Iranians hold a favorable view of the United States. Another poll shows that less than 5% [.pdf] hold a favorable view of Israel. The same poll found that 62% oppose a peace treaty with Israel and favor “all Muslims fighting until there is no State of Israel in the Middle East.” Similar numbers believe Iran should continue arming Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah.

And it’s not as though removing Khamenei and company will put an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The vast majority of Iranians share the ruling regime’s view that Iran has the right to a nuclear program, a full 91% believing it’s important to have a “full-fuel-cycle nuclear program.”

I don’t write any of this to justify the Iranian government or to downplay the grievances of the reformists. I just think it’s important to better understand what the Iranian people believe and the probable consequences of a new revolution. Their anger against the United States is real and deep, and if we really want to gain a new friend in the Middle East, then we need to change our foreign policy. Ending our current (harsh) sanctions against Iran and recognizing the nation’s right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes would be a good start.