Want Some Torture With Your Peanuts?

Washington Post l Aviation Security

Posted July 01 2008 2:18 PM by Black & Denning l Jeffrey Denning

Just when you thought you’ve heard it all...


A senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser®. According to this promotional video found at the Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. website, the bracelet would be worn by all airline passengers (video also shown below).

This bracelet would:

• Take the place of an airline boarding pass
• Contain personal information about the traveler
• Be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage
• Shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes
  

The Electronic ID Bracelet, as it’s referred to, would be worn by every traveler “until they disembark the flight at their destination.” Yes, you read that correctly. Every airline passenger would be tracked by a government-funded GPS, containing personal, private and confidential information, and would shock the customer worse than an electronic dog collar if the passenger got out of line.

Clearly the Electronic ID Bracelet is a euphemism for the EMD Safety Bracelet, or at least it has a nefarious hidden ability (thus the term ID Bracelet is ambiguous at best). EMD stands for Electro-Musclar Disruption. Again, according to the promotional video, the bracelet can completely immobilize the wearer for several minutes.

So is the government really that interested in this bracelet?

Apparently so.

According to this letter from DHS official, Paul S. Ruwaldt of the Science and Technology Directorate, office of Research and Development, which was written to the inventor whom he had previously met with, Ruwaldt wrote, “To make it clear, we [the federal government] are interested in . . . the immobilizing security bracelet, and look forward to receiving a written proposal.”

The letterhead, in case you were wondering, is from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security office at the William J. Hughes Technical Center at the Atlantic City International Airport, or the Federal Aviation Administration headquarters.

In another part of the letter, Mr. Ruwaldt confirmed, “In addition, it is conceivable to envision a use to improve air security, on passenger planes.”

Would every paying airline passenger flying on a commercial airplane be mandated to wear one of these devices? I cringe at the thought. Not only could it be used as a physical restraining device, but also as a method of interrogation, according to the same aforementioned letter from Mr. Ruwaldt.

Would you let them put one of those on your wrist? Would you allow the airline employees, which would be mandated by the government, to place such a bracelet on any member of your family?

Why are tax dollars being spent on something like this?

Is this a police state or is this America?


+Videos: YouTube: via CNN l via Fox News

Doctors Pull Screws, Nails From Metal-Eating Man

Reuters l Oddly Enough: Fri Jul 11, 2008: 12:27 PM:

LIMA: Doctors in a coastal town in northwestern Peru have rescued the innards of a 38-year-old man by removing 17 metal objects - among them nails, a watch clasp and a knife - that he ate.

Luis Zarate was taken to the regional hospital of Trujillo earlier this week by his family after complaining of sharp stomach pains. Doctors took X-rays of his chest that showed his insides littered with screws.

"There were 17 strange objects found at the level of his stomach and colon," said Dr. Julio Acevedo, one of the surgeons who operated on Zarate.

The black-and-white scans showed Zarate's skeleton interlaced with things like bolts, barbed-wire and pens.

"The objects had caused the stomach to expand," said Acevedo.

Doctors said Zarate was mentally ill but it was not clear why he ate the metal.

Cagle: Jesse Jackson's Obama Trauma

Cartoon by Pat Bagley - Comment on the cartoon

The Pharcyde: If I Were President
Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde (Delicious Vinyl, 1992)

Jesse Jackson's Obama Trauma
by Clarence Page - Comment on the column

What did the Rev. Jesse Jackson mean when he accused Barack Obama of "talking down to black people"? That was the second question on my mind in a telephone interview with Jackson. My first was something like this: "Did you really say you wanted to castrate Obama?"

As the world knows by now, Jackson says he didn't know he was wearing a "hot mic," a turned-on microphone, on the set of a Fox News program when he made what one newspaper headline called his "cutting remark."

Remember the old saying about how character is what you do when nobody's looking? Jackson's inflammatory whispers suggest a new twist: Character is what you do when you don't know that the world may be listening.

If so, his whispers about America's first likely black Democratic presidential nominee reveal Jackson at his worst. He sound frustrated, marginalized and left by the side of the road in the rising glow of a younger star.

Jackson did not dispute that he made the vulgar remark in angry whispers to another show guest about Obama's recent call to expand President Bush's faith-based initiatives. Twice he complained that Obama has been "talking down to black people."

That was a reference, Jackson says, to speeches like Obama's Father's Day address at the predominantly black Apostolic Church of God in Chicago.

It was a speech in which Obama revealed his inner Bill Cosby. He called for more parental responsibility, whether it was assisted by government help or not.

"Any fool can have a child," Obama preached. "That doesn't make you a father. It's the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.

Jackson, too, has called for parental responsibility. I was part of the national media that gave glowing coverage to his PUSH for Excellence drive in the 1970s. Across the country he preached to black youths: READ MORE

Eddie Murphy: Party All The Time (Video)

I trace Eddie Murphy’s alleged yet documented sexual union with Johnny Gill to the Put Your Mouth On Me (Columbia, 1989). With songs such as Boogie In Your Butt (Columbia, 1982) I dare you to contest me. With Eddie double-clapping every several bars I dare you to object.

Party All The Time featuring Rick James (Columbia, 1985) is only tenable, although composed by The King of Funk, once James Ambrose Johnson, Jr. (Rick's birth name) enters the track at 3:27 (per YouTube). Rick bears no formulations (mechanistic strutting) nor metronomic counting to catch the beat as Eddie depositions. Rick is no L7; conversely, Eddie is not Bustin' out of L Seven.

RIP Rick:
Cocaine is God's way of saying that you're making too much money.
Robin Williams

The Roots Picnic Webisode: 1 (Video)

Continuing to highlight Philly: plagiarized from 2dopeboyz:

Look out for more webisodes from OKP featuring J*DaVeY, The Cool Kids and more. This is also in conjunction with the Philly edition of iMeem’s Keys to the City series which OKP is apart and will start on July 14th.

Erykah Badu – Live From VH1 Soul Stage (2008)

11

If I haven't mentioned the following: I have a new job wherein I cannot post as freely as I once did so please afford me some patience in between my post. My emails even suffer - "straight-up!"
I am still here and will always make my presence felt - "that's my word" and a 5 Percenter's "word is bond".

I missed this performance, yet having seen her before I know this joint was smokin'.
I am listening to the concert as I write this entry - the laptop is bucking in tandem with my head bobbing:

1. Intro
2. The Healer
3. On & On
4. ... & On
5. Me
6. Interlude: Train to Philly
7. Otherside of the Game
8. Honey
9. Interlude: Recording vs. Performing
10. Soldier
11. Didn't Cha Know/ A Brighter Day/ If You Believe in Yourself/ Outro
12. Encore: Annie (Don't Wear No Panties)

48:02 minutes: 66.7mb

Download

Just Married II: Phrase No. 51

Enforcer

Clarence Wheeler & The Enforcers: Doin’ What We Wanna
Atlantic/Bomba (Japan), 1970

Can you say, “eff that!!!”?

Video: Obama Faces Racism in West Virginia

“...Yankee do it ethic…”

In other racist Obama news:

Obama sock monkey: thesockobama.com is hosted by Binkley-Toys.com.

Per Binkley Toys:

“We are a ‘Work For Hire’ custom manufacturer. We do not own the property you are referring to so we cannot comment on the intent of the creators of that product. … I don’t believe there would be any negative intent behind their product and I am sure that they can enlighten you on their thinking.”

The Sockobama Co., LLC is registered in Utah as a Limited Liability Company.
The owners are David J. Lawson and Elizabeth A. Lawson, residents of West Jordan, UT.

Per webmaster update – the newest version of their website – reads:

AN APOLOGY

We are very apologetic to all who were upset by our toy idea.
We will not be proceeding with the manufacturing of this toy.
Thank you.

GD

+Plunderblund: Racist Obama Doll
+City Room l New York Times Blog: ‘Assassination’ Artist Is Questioned and Released
+The Real News Network: Official Site

Just Married

Word, I jumped the broom - the jump-off official down to the bone gristle.