"Now the study is being done in public, using what the researchers say is a harmless chemical, already present in the city’s bouquet of gases." —Spoiler: the gas they're pushing out in the subway as a "terror test" is in the "perfluorocarbon family" but apparently that's all they'll tell us? Don't worry, your sterilization by "bouquet" will be painless. (By which I mean, your government-enforced sterility. Bloomberg's final revenge against the poors!)
Rogue ophthalmologist Rand Paul has been a disheveled weirdo for the entirety of his political career, because the apple does not fall far from the tree of liberty, but last night he won the hearts of many people on Twitter because he was up most of the night reading blogs aloud as part of a filibuster against Barack Obama's pick for the new CIA chief. (The last CIA chief resigned over sexting.)
The moral issue of drone assassins is very important, and there are obvious constitutional and police-state issues both domestically and internationally, but this is less a political shift than a technological evolution. Remotely controlled flying war machines [...]
The "it" it might kill could also mean "boatloads of Chinese immigrants." It looks like this thing has a 2 inch draught, so maybe it could even make it in the Rio Grande in the wet season. Used to make sure "bad people don't get in" (that's a technical term), in the words of its salesman, in this inexplicably long and needlessly dumb TV news clip from the 6th Annual Border Security Expo in sunny downtown Phoenix.
Thus continues our Horror Movie A Day Throughout October project! Our coverage will move from the shoddy to the sublime.
You've probably seen parts of this movie. And it's good that "Silent Night, Deadly Night" got at least some partial recognition. It was inevitable of course, the forces of nature wouldn't let something like SNDN 2 fade into obscurity. And by forces of nature I'm talking about internet nerds.
So at the end of the day yesterday, CIA honcho Leon Panetta, and Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that al Qaeda was basically ready to roll. Or are they? Let's take a look at what they said, so that we can be more and or less frightened.
Oh, right, the underpants bomber. Here's a theory: "Those who hate religion will see this as another instance of God's murderousness. But religion is only the smokescreen. The great atheist tyrannies of the last century recruited their foot soldiers in an identical manner-targeting partially educated, preferably pampered, but certainly crestfallen young men for whom the usual safety valves of dissoluteness have for some reason failed to open. We should remember this when we rail against the morals of the young. Next time we are honked at by a stretch-limoload of vomiting adolescents we should give a little prayer of thanks. As long as they're out on the town pissed [...]
"Travel in and of itself is not derogatory information." —That's your chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, talking about why Tamerlan Tsarnaev didn't get interviewed again after his trip to Russia. (He either was or was not one of the 745,000 people listed in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment.)
The government wants to turn your phone into a chemical weapons sniffer. Through the Department of Homeland Security's "Cell-All" program, all of America's proud citizens will be walking anthrax and biological terror detectors, which will be just about a thousand times more creepy than those ominous white boxes that you see chained up in the subway stations, hissing quietly. These machines also have cameras, so that, when they are set off, security agencies can decide whether it was a sarin gas attack or just a janitor with some ammonia. Which happens ALL THE TIME. Because, over the years, the BioWatch program has been responsible for dozens [...]
Unlike some American citizens who recently flew planes into federal buildings, Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber suspect, who was apprehended at JFK on his way to Dubai, which is a frightening brown place, is definitely a terrorist who uses terror to accomplish something (spreading terror). Shahzad purchased the Nissan Pathfinder of terror that caused the dramatic evacuation of Times Square when it did not blow up. The alleged terrorist has two children and lived in Connecticut.
I have had some issues with Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) in the past, but holy cow is he ever full of sense right here. When he says that all the arguments against trying Khalid Shaikh Mohammed on American soil make us look "frightened and scared" to the rest of the world he is absolutely correct. Unfortunately, all the people who are making those arguments are the same people who made a big point of bellowing about how they didn't care what the rest of the world thought about us during the whole Bush presidency. I can't imagine that they give a shit now that we look like GIANT [...]
"The marginal returns in terms of increased security from most new measures to check travelers eight years after 9/11 are likely to be less than their costs in terms of inconvenience, privacy and the fears of innocent Muslims." -Former deputy attorney general Philip Heymann on enhanced screening procedures. This is so sensible and correct that it will almost certainly make no difference.
Think horror always comes with axes and monsters and hockey masks? Think again. Not long ago, we brought you the the first five of the ten most gut-wrenching unintentional-horror films. Here, after a short hiatus for turkey and excessive vodka consumption, are our top five. Watch and be afraid.
But best of all, Brendan is running a Tumblr where he introduces us to a different airline hijacker every day! There are so many of them! Today's skyjacker is super-hot, if perhaps not very organized or bright. I wonder what ever happened [...]
So let's see, we convicted for war crimes all of seven people who have gone through Guantanamo. Now they're all going to get off, thanks to a ruling by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, on the grounds that none of the things they were doing were war crimes until after they did them. (Such as: being Osama bin Laden's gardener.) But at least we got Omar Ahmed Khadr, because he actually murdered someone! Oh, but but he's Canadian. So he's up for parole next year. He'll be just another friendly dude running a Tim Hortons a year from now.
In the latest of what seems like a real string of major developments in a war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, Mullah Abdul Kabir, said to be very influential in east Afghanistan, has been detained by the Pakistan government. Even though this reportedly took place several days ago, the American government says it still can't confirm this for sure-even though the Times (by way of the impeccable Dexter Filkins) asserts it directly. Weird, right?
Al-Qaeda lead singer Osama bin Laden's latest mixtape just dropped, and it sounds like he's looking to broaden his audience. In the message, which I had to read about several times just to make sure it wasn't some kind of joke or parody, bin Laden blamed Western industrialized nations for hunger, desertification and floods across the globe, and called for "drastic solutions" to global warming, and "not solutions that partially reduce the effect of climate change."
He also wants to boycott American products and has a huge problem with dollarization.
"We should stop dealings with the dollar and get rid of it as soon as possible," he [...]
Here is everything you need to know about what the new full-body scanners are going to show when you pass through airport security from here on out. Bascially, yes, amused TSA employees will indeed be able to see your dangly bits or pillowy parts. Step back a second, though, and pretend that you're someone from the distant past-say, 1998 or so-who is watching this video as a glimpse into the future. Would any of it even make sense?
