TSA Outrage of the Day
The TSA chose Meg McLain for special screening. They wanted her to go through the new porno-scanners. When she opted out, TSA agents raised an enormous ruckus. When she asked some question about what they planned to do to her, they flipped out. TSA agents yelled at her, handcuffed her to a chair, ripped up her ticket, called in 12 local Miami cops and finally escorted her out of the airport.
So their policy is that you can opt out of the porno scanners (perfect name, I say), but if you do, you’ll be detained, physically molested. Most of us have a natural and deep-seated inclination to avoid being treated as a “troublemaker” by law enforcement agents, and they’re taking advantage of this to coerce people into submitting to these scans.
The TSA has posted security camera footage of the incident. It’s hard to see much detail, but at the very least it proves she was detained for about 20 minutes and then led away by five officers.
Meet the Resistance
Let’s find our balls, and then make them touch ’em.
I Remember
You're damn right I remember.
My Photos & Video from The Rally For Sanity
Below are a bunch of selected photos that I took today during The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear which took place on the National Mall from 12:00 - 3:00. At the bottom is a slideshow of all the images I took.
You may also want to check out a few photos my wife took from a different vantage point during the rally.
Before I get to the photos though, here are two short videos I shot during the event:
During the pre-show portion of The Rally For Sanity and/or Fear on the National Mall in Washington DC on October 30, 2010. The Mythbusters appeared on stage and conducted several experiments using the crowd to help. I recorded the first and third experiment, The Wave and The Jump.
Update: Comedy Central now has the entire video of the Mythbusters posted if you care to see it from the vantage point of the stage:
This movie is comprised of three short clips. The first is a 360 degree pan of the crowd before the rally got started, just to show the size of the crowd. The second is a bit of Jon Stewart at the beginning of the show (didn't think to start filming until after he came out - sorry about that) and the 3rd clip is just after Stephen Colbert started coming out of the stage in his faux Chilean miner rescue capsule.
Update: Comedy Central now has video posted of the hilarious duet Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert sang, entitled "I'm More American Than You":
And finally, Jon Stewarts moving speach at the end of the rally:
Rachel Maddow exposes ignorance of Joe Miller Supporters
Faux News indeed.
A Web Of GOP Influence
NPR has a wonderful interactive flow chart up of the source of GOP money in campaign ads this year and how they're connected to the Republicans
These groups style themselves as independent, grass-roots organizations, though they are tightly interconnected. The network is behind a slew of campaign ads this fall.
Memo to Andy Rubin: Steve Jobs Is A Better Marketer Than You
From Matt Drace at Apple Outsider:
The Definition of “Echo Chamber”
Google’s Android VP Andy Rubin was apparently so hurt by Steve Jobs’ earnings call comments about Android that he created a Twitter account. The result was classic: A socially awkward outburst about open source software… on a closed source social network. No news on when we’ll be able to clone AdWords from GitHub.
It’s particularly awkward because it’s obtuse and evasive. Jobs wasn’t debating definitions; he said Google’s use of the word was a smokescreen. So Rubin responds with a smokescreen. Nothing in his tweet, or in his recent defense of the carriers (!!!), explains why “open” automatically means “better.” Google is so drunk on its keyword that it has lost the ability to explain it.
In essence, Apple turned the propaganda tables and put Google executives on their heels within ten hours. Steve Jobs doesn’t write code. Andy Rubin shouldn’t do PR.
So Andy Rubin fancies himself as up to the task of winning an argument with Steve Jobs? Good luck with that.