March 2008

You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2008.

Cops look for whatever they can get on Facebook

March 23, 2008 in Politics | 2 comments

I’m not quite sure why who thought this story about busting underage drinkers would be positive for advertising the use of a police department’s resources, especially when coming across parts like this:

Because police didn’t have a specific address, officers had to search for the party. About 2 a.m., they found it in the 1100 block of Lockridge Avenue South.
“We had officers on patrol … going to specific neighborhoods,” McCarthy said.

Is there honestly nothing better to do than to track down and cite 33 people for Minor In Possession of alcohol (~$200 fine) on a Saturday night at closing time off in Cottage Grove? Clearly not, as evident by the party-goers thumbing their nose at the cops, refusing to let them in, and forcing them to get a search warrant before they would let them indoors.

As a life-time resident of the city of Minneapolis, refusing to let the police inside my house, while entirely within my legal rights, sounds completely foreign. The MPD are heavyweights, and they do not play around– it’s just got to be much easier to have the underage drinkers hide or scatter off into the night than to refuse entry to the police.

If your police force can’t instill the fear of God into some drunken teenagers, something is gravely wrong in your town. When you are searching out a house party full of kids instead of potential drunk drivers of legal drinking age, your priorities are misplaced.

Modern violent play has traditional roots

March 18, 2008 in Politics | No comments

While watching the first parts of the John Adams miniseries Sunday night, I was interested as one of his sons played with a set of toy British soldiers on their living room floor. He would toss a small wooden ball at the standing soldiers and knock them over, pretending to fire from a toy cannon. It was the 1770s equivalent of a video game such as Counter-Strike.

Children are developing members of society, and are the most vulnerable. They learn behavior from watching adults. Children quickly discover that misbehavior comes with consequence. When they play violent games, it is often in the black-and-white view of “good guys versus bad guys.” Whether the bad guys happen to be British soldiers, Indians, robbers, or terrorists depends on upon the time period in which they are living. And whichever side they choose to play on depends on which role in society they feel like trying out.

We are led to believe by assorted advocate groups that violence and gore had not been as widely publicized until the modern advances of television and computers and somehow didn’t exist, but the underlying violence has been there all along. Violence has always been inherent in American society, because violence is a primal urge as a human being. In order to eliminate the risk that children will grow desensitized, adults need to recognize and rationalize why exactly we find mock violence to be distasteful but still watch it.

After all, these video games and movies wouldn’t be made unless they were guaranteed to be bought. It’s not a matter of banning children from R-rated movies, forbidding them from buying or renting violent video games. It’s trickier than that.

Front row seats in security theater

March 11, 2008 in Politics | No comments

TSA are huge assholes. If you go into an airport expecting behavior a bit more tolerable, you will be disappointed. Prepare to be treated like shit while completely at their mercy. All you need to know about TSA is that they have badges embroidered onto their uniforms. Their authority is just thread, the airport equivalent of the person checking your receipt as you leave Sam’s Club. Nothing like a government job that pays retail slave wages!

After having worked nearly a year at the airport, I am unsurprised when I such stories as the one where TSA thinks a MacBook Air is suspicious or when they force a 14-year-old kid to open up his sterile, back-up feeding tube. Meanwhile, for 4 days straight I was able to go through security when I had accidentally left my pocketknife, a lighter (back when they were banned), and lotion in my purse. There is also the dreaded, rousing cry of “Bag check!” It is promptly canceled upon discovering it is a pilot’s or flight attendant’s luggage. You’d think there would be some concern about NWA employees getting disgruntled and turning to the dark side.

TSA sees fit to pull me aside and swab my purse after seeing my iPod, camera, cell phone, or even a roll of laundry quarters, “just to be sure.” I can keep my shoes on, but as an employee I still have a cloud of suspicion hanging over my head. What the hell was the point of the background check and the drug testing? I gave you my fingerprints for this? I don’t understand.