Free Republic

The system is working AS PLANNED.

The Gore Commission, formed after the flight 800 explosion, proposed several regulations that were watered down due to protests from the usual suspects. One that was finally implemented was something called CAPPS (Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System). It was a profiling system that had the unfortunate property of being accurate. This lead to complaints and protests from Arab groups and the FAA started backing away from those procedures designed to investigate passengers flagged by CAPPS. They finally achieved their goal, which was ZERO complaints per year from all Arab passengers.

On 9/11, CAPPS flagged the majority of the hijackers. However, nothing was done to investigate any of them, because there was no method of doing so without alerting them that they had been flagged, and that might lead to a complaint. They couldn’t even ask them a simple question, like “Why are all of you carrying box cutters?”

After 9/11, the government was caught in a quandary. How do they appear to be doing something about airline security, when all of the hijackers fit a specific profile, yet they don’t want to be accused of “profiling?” Why, you design a system that is so incompetent and overbearing that all kinds of people are inconvenienced and burdened. Then if a special interest group was to complain, you could point at those other people and say, “We’re not ‘profiling’, look at what that grandma in a wheelchair went through!”

In fact, this newspaper story about a white guy from Texas being shafted (that’s right, I’m “profiling” in assuming that a hunter and fisherman from Texas that travels to Alaska regularly to hunt, is white, and everyone that reads the story will assume the same thing) is just what the FAA likes to see. It’s free publicity and helps keep the Arab special interest groups off their back.

I would need a lot more information to make up my mind on this one. When I see a drug company arguing that their higher-priced drug is somehow superior to a drug that has gone generic, and therefore is lower in price, I have to wonder if the hundreds of millions of dollars in potential profits is affecting their actions.

"How dare the media (exercise their freedom of speech to) call people who speak out against the war unpatriotic."

If you are really Danny Ainge, you can tell us what happened in the last minute of the game at San Diego State in 1981.

When the retirees were working, the steel market was very strong, in part because there was no foreign competition. Wages had risen so high that union negotiators started looking at other items to pursue, and began negotiating large retirement benefits. Unfortunately they did not secure the funding up-front, but relied on conditions to remain as they were so that the companys could pay the retirees out of the monthly profits. When conditions changed, the money was not there to pay the benefits.

Who's to blame? Probably the unions for negotiating benefits to be paid from future earnings. Those earnings are unsure at best, and also they were taking away from the future workers.

Could the companies have withstood the demands from the unions? Probably not, as it would be difficult to convince workers not to strike because "things might be different in the future."

I dont't think that taxpayers should bail-out retirees who negotiated pie-in-the-sky benefits. It should only apply to pension funds that are lost due to embezzlement or banking failure or the like. We have a basic safety net, called Social Security.

The shuttle launch could not be delayed because NASA desired the public accolades that would result from being mentioned by President Reagan during that night's "State of the Union" address. All federal agencies such as NASA are constantly engaged in raising funds from Congress. Having Reagan speak during a nationally televised speach about the "Teacher in Space" orbiting the earth at that moment would provide wonderfull PR with the American public, making it easier for NASA to put the bite on lawmakers for more funding.

I believe that there are two parties to blame. NASA, who put terrible pressure on Morton Thiokol to approve the launch, and management at Morton Thiokol, who ultimately yielded to that pressure.

When Thiokol redesigned the SRB joints, they had to perform several test firings as part of the normal process of proving the design to the government. I was part of a group of technicians who were hired on to assemble and instrument the test motors. Thiokol built a new test bay with a movable stucture around it, that could be heated and cooled to the provide the temperature exremes at which to test the motors. It also had a stand with hydraulic actuators that would connect to the external attach rings of the motors. The actuators would yank back and forth in different directions during test firings to simulate forces that occur during launch.

Of course to save energy costs, they ran the heated tests during the summer, and the cooled tests during the winter. We would have to go outside during the summer to cool down, and during the winter to warm up.

Control of the universities is consistant with the liberals strategy of manipulationg society by somehow pulling all of it under federal control. Remember how during the Clinton administration, the Feds were trying to make the case that if you had natural gas service to your house, you were engaging in "interstate commerce", and were subject to regulation by the Federal Government? This would allow them to apply apply all of the federal titles and acts to your personal residence. Luckily (since you never know what the judiciary will do these days) the courts decided that this was stretching the constituitional "regulation of interstate commerce" clause too far.

It is a military tradition to render a hand salute when encountering someone wearing the Medal of Honor. This is done irregardless of rank.

On the day after the election I am sure that I saw a posting on FreeRepublic about election workers marking ballots. There was a link to the Argus-Leader, a South Dakota newspaper, and the story contained quotes from the state election official about how this was improper. The explanation was that the voters had used a pencil to mark their ballots and the machines couldn't read them. The workers "helped" by marking over the pencil with dark ink. The state official said that by state law, a duplicate could be made to run through the machine, but the original must not be altered in any way.

And yes, it was reportedly happening at the pecincts that reported late and gave Johnson the win.

I have not seen anything since, which is strange as this is the most damning evidence that fraud was occuring. I have been searching for this story lately and have not been able to find it. Can anyone out there help? I am 100% sure that it exists.

Don't forget the single biggest factor in swaying the popular vote, the early call of Florida for Gore by the media. This suppressed not only the conservative voters in Florida, but across the nation, as it made it appear that Bush had been elinated.
It is my firm belief that Bush would have won the popular vote, and that one or more of the senate losses would have been reversed, making Jeffords defection moot, if not for that premature call.

http://www.spamhaiku.com/

New York Times headline: Storm hits Britain, women and minorities hardest hit.

Don't take this too personally, but this is a pet peeve of mine.

The expression can be, "the one and only", or "one of the few".

Excuse me.
Meant to say it's almost impossible NOT to accept some form of federal funding, and then they have their hooks in you.

Title IX applies to institutions that accept any sort of Federal funding, including student loans and research grants. This is almost impossible to do in this day and age.

That's why we named our Border Collie "Darby".

The minimum requirements for a sports car are: a two-seater open to the air.

Open to the air means convertible or roadster, a convertible having roll-up windows and a somehow putdownable top, while a roadster is anything with less protection, such as no top, or having removable side-curtains.

This means that Targa's, T-tops, sedans, coupes, vans, and SUV's are NOT sports cars. They can be sports coupes, sports sedans, sport utility vehicles, but they are sports cars only on the supercharged keyboards of advertising copy writers.

"they have concluded that the speed of light has slowed down over time"

When reported by the New York Times it becomes:

SPEED OF LIGHT SLOWS, WOMEN AND MINORITY MOST HURT

"This is a fundamental part of being a judicial officer . . . avoiding even the appearance of partiality at all times so that every litigant who appears in front of you is treated fairly and equally," said Angela Bradstreet, president of the Bar Association of San Francisco.

No, No, No, Angela! If we have learned anything from the Senate Judiciary Commitee hearings, it is that prospective judges must not appear impartial. They must express unconditional support for the liberal agenda or they are unfit.

He's morphing into W.C. Fields!