perfidy

Kathy Kinsley has found a story about a store in New York that's selling replicas of the nails used to crucify Jesus in that Mel Gibson movie that I keep hearing so much about. Her comment? "People are strange."

Indeed. I wonder who it is who's doing the buying? Is it Christians? Hipsters? Fashionistas? Punk rock refugees on a day-trip up from St. Mark's Place?

When I was in high school there were two disturbing trends in t-shirts. First was the Garth Brooks concert T, usually in size XXL with a giant airbrushed Garth on the front, tucked in and bloused, and worn with sausage-skin-tight acidwash jeans.

That was bad enough. But the ones that really made my day were the "Lord's Gym" T-Shirts, worn by students who belonged to certain evangelical and millenarian Protestant sects. Ever seen those shirts? With a dramatic side-lit image of a muscular Jesus, blood streaming from his scalp where the thorns have dug in, his face drawn in a rictus of agony and supreme effort as he attempts a push-up under the weight of the giant cross on his back? What the fuck? Celebrating, even exulting in, the suffering of Jesus? I mean, that's sort of part of Christian theology, since Jesus suffered and died for everyone and all that, but... what the fuck? I thought that was a matter for solemn pondering.

Then again, I totally don't get modern "Christian" music, either.

I wonder if the same people who wear the Lord's Gym shirts are the same people that buy a fake Jesus-hanger.

As an addendum to my previous post, you just have to read this excerpt from the Reason article I referenced, on the antics of our sentinels of the sky, the air marshals:

The TSA has proven inept in the air as well as on the ground. It was determined to expand the number of air marshals quickly from a few hundred to more than 6,000. When most of the applicants failed the marksmanship test, the agency solved that problem by dropping the marksmanship test for new applicants. (The ability to shoot accurately in a plane cabin is widely considered a crucial part of a marshal’s job.) Some would-be marshals were hired even after they repeatedly shot flight attendants in mock hijack response exercises.

USA Today’s Blake Morrison noted a report that "one marshal was suspended after he left his gun in a lavatory aboard a United Airlines flight from Washington to Las Vegas in December. A passenger discovered the weapon." Another air marshal left his pistol on a Northwest flight from Detroit to Indianapolis; a cleaning crew discovered the weapon. Morrison noted: "At least 250 federal air marshals have left the top-secret program, and documents obtained by USA Today suggest officials are struggling to handle what two managers call a flood of resignations."

The Transportation Department responded to the USA Today exposé by sending Secretary Norman Mineta to an air marshal training facility, where he witnessed a training exercise in which marshals shot a would-be hijacker. Afterward Mineta commented, "I not only saw a remarkable demonstration of skill and marksmanship, but a degree of professionalism we are instilling throughout our aviation security system."

Eight days later, on August 31, 2002, Delta Flight 442 was proceeding from Atlanta to Philadelphia with 183 people on board when a disheveled passenger began rummaging in the overhead bin. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the trouble began when the man "made inappropriate comments to a female passenger a few rows behind him." Two plainclothes air marshals jumped up and tackled the guy, shoving him first to the back of the plane and then dragging him to the first class area.

Then the trip got interesting. One of the marshals returned to the front of the coach section, drew his Glock semiautomatic pistol, and started screaming and pointing his gun at passengers. Philadelphia Judge James Lineberger, a passenger on the flight, later told the Associated Press, "I assumed at that moment that there was going to be some sort of gun battle....There were individuals looking to see what they were pointing at, and [the air marshals] were yelling, ‘Get down, get out -- get your head out of the aisle.’" In a formal complaint to the TSA, Lineberger declared that "there was no apparent reason for holding all the passengers of the plane at gunpoint, and no explanation was given."

Lineberger was sitting diagonally across from the initial target of the marshals, yet did not notice any problem on the flight until the marshals went ballistic. Susan Johnson, a social worker from Mobile, Alabama, was also unaware of any disturbance until the air marshals seized the man. "It never made sense," she told the Inquirer. "This guy was not any physical threat that we could see. Maybe he said some things to them that made them concerned. He just appeared to us unstable, emotionally." According to Becky Johnson, a reporter who wrote a column about the episode for her Waynesville, North Carolina, newspaper, "They never, ever said who they were, that they were air marshals or whoever."

After the flight landed, the marshals nailed another terrorist suspect: a physician and retired U.S. Army major named Robert Rajcoomar. He was handcuffed and taken into custody because, as TSA spokesman David Steigman later explained it, he "had been observing too closely."

First they came for the caffeine-freaks. Then they came for the rubberneckers. How soon til they come for you?

Now the Transportation Safety Administration is fining airline passengers for getting lippy.

What kind of bureaucratic hellhole are we building ourselves? I already don't fly anywhere because of the cost and aggravation involved. And now we have to be unfailing polite to government workers who just broke our suitcase zipper as well?

Reason has a big story up this month about the TSA's repeated embarassments and failures. It's a terrible situation. Did you know that the name "Osama bin Laden" doesn't appear on the much-vaunted and secretive Passenger Watch List? Did you know that the names of some Catholic nuns do? Did you know that Air Marshals tend to be guys who couldn't cut it at the police academy? Did you know that the motto above the entrance to the TSA's air marshal training facility reads "Dominate. Intimidate. Control"?

Yeesh. Come home, Amtrak. All is forgiven.

That's what space.com is reporting, cautiously.

Opportunity rover sent back new images from Mars showing that small spheres previously found on the surface also exist below, in a trench the rover dug. Hints of salty water were also found in the trench, but much more analysis is needed to learn the true composition.

Meanwhile Opportunity's twin rover, Spirit, is about to dig a trench of its own in order to investigate soil that sticks to its wheels, suggesting the fine-grained material might be moist.
In a press conference today, officials said the soil at both locations could contain small amounts of water mixed with salt in a brine that can exist in liquid form at very low temperatures.

The scientists stressed that only miniscule amounts of water would be needed to create the brine.

Just like a penguin in bondage, boing! (Oh yeah, oh yeah!)
Over there on the wet side of the bed.

Kathy Kinsley points us to this amazing story from Europe: "Police free German bondage 'penguin.'" Fan-tastick.

A German bondage fetishist got so chained up he had to call police to remove his cuffs after he was reduced to waddling around helplessly like a "penguin".
Officers sent to his rescue in the Western city of Aachen told him he should use a specialised establishment rather than practice at home. . . .
On entering, they were confronted by the sight of a heavily-chained man shuffling towards them on his knees with his head bowed, dressed only in shiny black leather and white socks.

And while I'm at it, let me take the time to recommend "Roxy and Elsewhere" by Frank Zappa-- one of my top five favorite Zappa records (out of a total of close to 80), and the record on which the magesterial and stunning "Penguin in Bondage" appears.

Randy Barnett of the Volokh Conspiracy is writing about my personal favorite Amendment, the 9th (tied with the 10th). There seems to be a debate swirling among webloggers about its meaning and applicability to issues like hummasexashul marriage.

To refresh you, the Ninth reads:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Donald Sensing has an interesting solution to the "marriage problem" that just might make everybody happy. Except for the radicals on both sides, of course.

It's just about 2:30 in the morning and I've just wrapped up another 16 hour work day. That's typical in the world of small companies, these days. Cash is hard to come by; I can tell you that my personal productivity factor is way up (rising productivity means GDP gains without additional employment).

Naturally I need to be pissed about politics before I go to sleep, so here's the thought of the night:

Lower tax rates are given to capital gains income because (supposedly) the money saved is re-invested into the economy, creating more jobs and more wealth. When we lower capital tax rates, we raise taxes elsewhere to compensate; these higher taxes are applied to the working class, which is pretty much everyone making under $250,000 or so.

We have seen a dramatic rise in direct investment; the GOP trumpet continuously about the ever-growing number of shareholders.

So if everyday folks are getting into the investment game, which should we be raising their taxes and handing that money to the very richest amongst us? If Joe Everyman is investing, like he apparently is, I really don't see why we don't just let him keep a little more of his money. He's going to invest it anyways, just like Thaddeus Q. Gatesfeller the IIIrd. And I'll tell you another thing: Joe Everyman isn't going to cheat on his taxes, or spend huge sums on legal fees just trying to avoid paying taxes.

Seems to me that the tax cuts for the rich come at additional cost to everyone else. And they aren't designed to increase investment; that would have happened anyway, with direct investing and 401k plans. Because he has to pay higher taxes to subsidize the truly wealthy, our Joe just doesn't have much of a chance of ever developing much wealth on his own. After all, his real income has only risen by 4% in constant dollars since 1972. Thaddeus has seen his wealth rise in that time frame by over 500%. Yes, that's five hundred percent. Trickle-down is working for someone...

So why are we screwing over the finances of this country and most people who live in it?

Several interesting space tidbits:

• MSNBC is reporting that the shuttle will be grounded until at least 2005. This is both bad news and a potential opportunity. First, it means that space station personnel will need to use the Russian Soyuz to get to and from the station; and there will be no manned missions to do things like save the Hubble, or for anything else. The opportunity, which will almost certainly be passed up, is for NASA to move past the shuttle entirely, and begin a crash program to develop an efficient means of manned space flight, along several tracks:

  One, a stop gap, cheap but reliable capsule to be launched atop a disposable launcher like the Atlas - along the lines of OSP ideas. Two, restart the DCX program with exactly the same management philosophy as the original program. Build early, build often is the surest way to success. This could result in a real SSTO in a few years. And three, long range research into propulsion materials, and other technologies for new launchers in the future. Shuttle technology should be immediately converted to unmanned cargo uses, along the lines of the shuttle-c or other ideas outlined here. In my dreams.

• Also on MSNBC, this report that there's lots of debris floating around the ISS. And a good chunk of that debris might be parts of the space station. Who'd they get to build that thing anyway, Ryan homes?
• And finally, space.com informs us that the Russians are considering building a Soyuz 2.0. The new version would have twice the passenger capacity of the current, decades old design; and the crew section would be reusable. The Russian rocket company Energiya would need to design a new launcher, as the current Soyuz rocket would be insufficient to put the twice as heavy capsule into orbit. But hey, at least somebody's thinking ahead.

InstaPundit pre-interprets Kerry's 1971 testimony on the war; he listens to it so we don't have to!

Of course, maybe it's a good idea to just read the damn thing yourself, and form your own opinions. Note that Hewitt and Reynolds don't pull out any quotes or disagree with what Kerry said; they're crying little weasels because they don't like how he said it.

If someone can tell me who has more of a right to speak his mind about a conflict and the politics that drove it than a recently returned, wounded soldier, please speak up. If the GOP wants to make an issue out of this, they can contrast this heartfelt testimony with Bush's activities at that time: Vigorously not even bothering to show up for a flight physical, which disqualified him from flying, made him ineligible for deployment, and conveniently allowed him to sit out service.

I don't expect to hear anything from Bush about Viet Nam. He'll let the party hacks do the talking.