May be naked protesters would stop the TSA madness! Seriously this article also points out that the "War on Terror" has saved several orders of magnitude less lives than died in car accidents in the same time period. What is the really reason for all the law changes in the last 10 years in the US?

Airport security is difficult enough. Depending on the country, that might mean shoes off, belts off, metallic items out of pockets, computer laptop(s) out of bags, iPads out of bag (sometimes - they can't quite figure out if it qualifies as a computer yet), jackets off, sometimes sweaters off, going through the scanner or getting a patdown (using the back of the hands only of course), boarding pass in hand, passport in hand, stand on one leg and bark like a dog... well, you get the idea.

Recently, one fellow traveling through Portland, Oregon in the US Pacific Northwest had had enough.

When taken away for "extra security measures", he stripped down to his birthday suit and made a political statement that, while ignored by much of the mainstream media it seems, is highly worth giving some serious thought to.

In today's feature, Dale Sinner, in his International Man debut, does just that.

Naked man at the airport

Probably the last thing anyone expects to see at the airport is a fat, naked middle-aged man. But that's just what passengers saw a couple of weeks ago at the airport in Portland, Oregon as they waited to go through security screening for the hour-and-a-half flight to San Jose, California.

Transportation Security Administration agents called John Brennan, 50, aside for "extra security measures." That was the last straw. He complied by stripping naked.

He reportedly asked, "Do I have anything illegal? Am I good to go through now?"

He wasn't good to go through, though.

Authorities arrested him for indecent exposure, restricted, then later restored his right to fly in and out of the state, and offered to drop the indecent exposure charge in exchange for an undisclosed amount of time in community service.

Brennan said no and is going to court.

The TSA responded by announcing an investigation into his "disruption" of the security check line. Brennan says he is being harassed.

A lot of Internet buzz has been focused on seeing a "disgusting, fat middle-aged man naked in the airport." But is that really the issue?

Brennan says it's not - 4th Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure are. I'd agree.

I was once called out for TSA "special screening" before boarding a similar flight. It was both infuriating and dumb as hell.

Some years back I was going through security at SEATAC airport for a flight from Seattle to Sacramento and I got called out for special screening for wearing a Japanese "jimbei" - a kind of casual, light summer jacket.

I've seen Americans in jackets like that, especially in Seattle. I didn't think it was any big deal.

It wasn't any big deal to the woman doing the X-raying. She could see there was nothing in my pockets and told me I didn't have to take the "jimbei" off - just go on through.

That set the TSA jackboot on full alert.

He screamed at me.

He ordered me to take it off, ordered me not to move, then stood himself directly in front of me - his nose perhaps two inches in front of mine.

He stared into my eyes with the fury and intense scrutiny you might expect if someone had concealed weapons or knives. I never imagined my slightly funny jacket would set off such alarm.

He turned to look at my US drivers license, carefully examined both sides and commented that I had a funny name. "Yep," I said.

He found nothing to justify detaining me further. He then simply said, firmly, "You have a nice trip," and that was the end of it.

I felt abused.

I was in a hurry and the episode could have easily made me miss my flight, so I cooperated in the abuse. Most Americans do.

But as time goes by, more and more people like naked Mr. Brennan are getting fed up and venting. It's easy to understand the anger.

Some have stripped naked as if to say, "Is this what you want?"

Others have gotten furious, shouted, and ultimately gotten arrested for speaking out a little too loudly. A little more than a week ago, a mother and her 4-year old daughter were detained in a ridiculous spectacle of an out-of-control government.

What is going on?

People my age remember being taught to hate the Soviet Union by showing how Americans were free to travel without being stopped at "internal checkpoints" while those sad Russians -- under the boot of communist dictatorship -- were scrutinized at every turn.

Our Saturday afternoons were spent watching World War II movies about Nazi Germany where people lived in fear of the words, "Papers please!"

How lucky we were to be American. How times have changed.

One wonders how big the threat of terrorism really is to justify all this heavy-handed domestic security.

Maybe a look at the numbers will show how real the risks are.

According to the Global Terrorism Database, 30 Americans died in terror incidents within US borders during the period between 2002 and 2011.

OK, that's not many. What about abroad?

Since 2005, 158 Americans have been killed in terror attacks abroad -- roughly 16 per year. Those were mostly in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan.

That makes an American's chances of being killed in a terror attack worldwide about one in twenty million, on average, in any given year.

The risk is far less domestically.

Chances are you are far more likely to die in a car accident, die in a bathtub drowning, or even get struck by lightning than being killed in a terrorist attack.

Authorities will say that shows how effective anti-terrorism efforts have been. But does that justify the estimated $1 trillion spent on anti-terrorism in the US since 9/11 (which doesn't count spending in Iraq and Afghanistan)?

One analyst calculated that all the foiled terror plots in the US over the past ten years would have resulted in a maximum 2,300 potential deaths or about 230 per year. If true, that means the US government has spent $400,000,000 for every potential person saved.

Raise your hand if you believe any government would spend that much to "keep you safe."

Consider these other recent efforts to keep you safe:

• The Department of Homeland Security just ordered 450 million rounds of special "hollow point" .40 caliber ammunition
• Protestors can now be held indefinitely without trial and without legal representation
• Unpaid taxes can prevent the issuance of a passport
• The TSA can now make random car stops
• Anyone taken to jail can now be strip-searched, even for unpaid traffic tickets

Sound like a bit of overkill to keep citizens safe against a 1 in 20,000,000 risk? Kind of leaves me wondering what the government has in mind.

It also leaves me wondering if we might not see a lot more reports of naked air passengers, 4-year olds under arrest and other authoritarian-inspired mayhem in coming days.

Papers, please.

Post your comments here.

Dale Gordon Sinner is a teacher and writer living in Chiba Prefecture, Japan.

From http://www.internationalman.com/global-perspectives/what-a-naked-computer-technician-says-about-airport-security

This entry was posted on May 10, 2012 at 11:23 PM and has received 739 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

The mind-body is a very powerful healing system, even more powerful according to current research than many drugs. And it is an effect that has been increasing in the last 20 years. More details on this in this article with exerts below

In a study last year, Harvard Medical School researcher Ted Kaptchuk devised a clever strategy for testing his volunteers' response to varying levels of therapeutic ritual. The study focused on irritable bowel syndrome, a painful disorder that costs more than $40 billion a year worldwide to treat. First the volunteers were placed randomly in one of three groups. One group was simply put on a waiting list; researchers know that some patients get better just because they sign up for a trial. Another group received placebo treatment from a clinician who declined to engage in small talk. Volunteers in the third group got the same sham treatment from a clinician who asked them questions about symptoms, outlined the causes of IBS, and displayed optimism about their condition.


Not surprisingly, the health of those in the third group improved most. In fact, just by participating in the trial, volunteers in this high-interaction group got as much relief as did people taking the two leading prescription drugs for IBS. And the benefits of their bogus treatment persisted for weeks afterward, contrary to the belief—widespread in the pharmaceutical industry—that the placebo response is short-lived.

It's not only trials of new drugs that are crossing the futility boundary. Some products that have been on the market for decades, like Prozac, are faltering in more recent follow-up tests. In many cases, these are the compounds that, in the late '90s, made Big Pharma more profitable than Big Oil. But if these same drugs were vetted now, the FDA might not approve some of them. Two comprehensive analyses of antidepressant trials have uncovered a dramatic increase in placebo response since the 1980s. One estimated that the so-called effect size (a measure of statistical significance) in placebo groups had nearly doubled over that time.

It's not that the old meds are getting weaker, drug developers say. It's as if the placebo effect is somehow getting stronger.

Benedetti has helped design a protocol for minimizing volunteers' expectations that he calls "open/hidden." In standard trials, the act of taking a pill or receiving an injection activates the placebo response. In open/hidden trials, drugs and placebos are given to some test subjects in the usual way and to others at random intervals through an IV line controlled by a concealed computer. Drugs that work only when the patient knows they're being administered are placebos themselves.

Ironically, Big Pharma's attempt to dominate the central nervous system has ended up revealing how powerful the brain really is. The placebo response doesn't care if the catalyst for healing is a triumph of pharmacology, a compassionate therapist, or a syringe of salt water. All it requires is a reasonable expectation of getting better. That's potent medicine.

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This entry was posted on May 10, 2012 at 10:19 PM and has received 1596 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Here is an article explaining the process of how the Euro may collapse as Germany refuses to spend any more bailing out Spain. If the Euro does fall apart British and American banks will probably collapse due to their large exposure to Euro debt. And there is a large chance of sovereign default not just in Spain, Greece, Ireland but also in France, UK and USA. That will mean a combination of high inflation, spending cuts (health care, pensions etc) , confiscation of private pensions, extended bank closures

No one knows the timing of this - it is rather like being on the deck of the Titantic just after it hit the iceberg. For the first hour or so to the passengers all seemed fine. It was only the boat's builder who recognized that the ship was fatally hit and would sink. At first very few people wanted to take the inconvenience of getting in a lifeboat. But if you recall the movie at the end the ship started to shift suddenly and then there were not enough life boats for everyone and there was a panic.

The same thing happened in the Argentinean financial collapse in 2001 - at first very few people took action to get some money out of Argentinean banks or move it abroad. By the time it was clear to most people that there was a problem it was too late to save their bank account and pensions.... and you were not allowed to withdraw cash or move it abroad. I have talked with several Argentineans and read blogs and books about this and the few people there who were both aware and took action did much better than those who did not. And I don't just mean financially better, I mean emotionally better too because there were a lot of mental health problems, alcohol/drug abuse and suicides there in 2002 in the masses of people who felt betrayed and helpless.

I recommend taking some small steps for a "financial insurance plan" that I described in my previous blog post now while all appears relatively fine. If I am wrong and the boat stay afloat no harm done. It it does sink it will be sudden and messy and you will be very glad that you took action.

If Spain's Problems Are Solved... Why Are They Putting Together "Plan B"? 

The following is an excerpt from my latest client letter explaining why Spain is such a big deal and why when it defaults it's game over for the EU.

1. Going forward  the Easy Money props are going to be removed from beneath the market.
2. Sovereign defaults are coming. Whether it's through hyperinflation, reneging on promised future social welfare / pension/ healthcare spending, or outright messy defaults (or various combinations of these) we will see most of the Western world defaulting on its debts in the coming years.

How soon all of this unfolds remains to be seen. The Multi-­Trillion Dollar Question is whether the markets realize that Central Banks are virtually powerless sooner rather than later.

By the look of things, it's coming relatively soon. Spain, which is now at the forefront of the Great Western Debt Default Collapse, has opted to seek funding from the mega-bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) rather than going directly to the ECB or the IMF.

The reasons for this are clear: the IMF doesn't have the funds (nor will it as the US won't fund a European bailout during a Presidential election year). And the ECB is now backed into a political corner with Germany.

However, as Spain has discovered, even ESM funding doesn't come without strings attached:

Germany Rejects Spain Banks Tapping Bailout Fund, Meister Says

Spain's rating downgrade at Standard & Poor's doesn't alter Germany's stance that banks can't have direct access to Europe's financial backstops, a senior lawmaker from Chancellor Angela Merkel's party said.

"The German position is absolutely strict," Michael Meister, the deputy caucus chairman of Merkel's Christian Democrats, said in a phone interview in Berlin. "And since such aid programs require unanimity, there's not going to be any change. All sorts of people can try to set things in motion, but Germany won't vote for it."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-27/germany-rejects-spain-banks-tapping-bailout-fund-meister-says.html

The ESM funding idea is really just Spain playing for time (the ESM doesn't actually have the funds to bail Spain out). But the fact that Germany is now making the ESM a political issue indicates the degree to which political relationships are breaking down in the EU. And once the political relationships break down... so will the Euro.

Indeed, Germany has no choice. If it decides to prop up Spain it will receive a ratings downgrade (something which France is about to experience anyway). Europe with a downgraded Germany is not a pretty sight.

Moreover, Germany's decision to prop up the Euro is finally beginning to arouse furor from the German population. In particular, the below story which reveals that Germany has in fact put German taxpayers on the hook for over €2 trillion in back-door EU rescue measures could be the proverbial tipping point that sends German voters over the edge.

German tempers boil over back-door euro rescues

Professor Hans-Werner Sinn, head of Germany's IFO Institute, said German taxpayers are facing a dangerous rise in credit risk from a plethora of bail-out schemes. "The euro-system is near explosion," he told Austria's Economics Academy on Thursday.

Dr Sinn said Germany is on the hook for much of the €2.1 trillion (£1.72 trillion) in rescue measures for EMU debtors- often by the backdoor- that will saddle Germans with ruinous losses one day.

Read more an here

This entry was posted on May 10, 2012 at 4:03 PM and has received 1223 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.