Quote of the Day
What a father says to his children is not heard by the world; but it will be heard by posterity.
Jean Paul Richter
The TSA and PilotLeaks: Some Comments
I realize some readers may think I'm beating a dead horse by mocking the TSA over the full body scan/pat-down procedure. Whereas the issue of privacy is salient, there are a number of issues, including the intrinsic unmanageable nature of a huge bureaucracy. No one seems to understand how a tip on a potential terrorist at a US embassy managed to fall through the cracks of the system, not even making the no-fly list. Apparently there was a typo. Many people would have stopped at that and simply cursed at the administrative assistant or other person whom made the error. But that's not good enough; I've written posts explaining that systems should be designed with human error in mind. Let's just say, if the suspect was aware of the delicate nature of the id system, he could have slightly altered his name and/or any aliases.
I've worked with enough bureaucracies (private- or public-sector). I've mentioned in a prior post that at a federal installation I had hundreds of megabytes of functionally unusable Oracle log files going back over 4 years, but it proved impossible to find someone authorized to allow me to purge these files (to make the space available for other data). I also tried to get a database replication server moved to another location to control risk; the government had simply demanded functionality of setups from prior contractors, even though the placement of servers defeated the purpose for replicated servers. These are hardly items taken of context. To give another example, Oracle had released a newer version of the application server I had been tasked to install as part of an upgrade and would have minimal impact on the application upgrade. But I was denied permission to install it on a sandbox server without explicit permission of the Navy project manager (then on an extended vacation). (My rationale was obvious: it would eliminate the need for a second upgrade later.)
The more subtle point I'm trying to get across is that most people tend to look at surface details, not the big picture that GHW Bush famously called the "vision thing". So when the issue was brought up about the full body scan technology and the implicit full nude images, and whether that was an acceptable price to pay for safety on the airlines, two-thirds or more of Americans expressed support for the policy. This was, at best, a dubious and misleading result. First, most Americans don't realize that the reliability of this method to detect chemicals (i.e., the underwear bomber) is questionable, it is relatively easy to deploy image obfuscation technology, say, to mask private areas. Moreover, the risks of the vast majority of Americans are near-zero, and random searches would have a deterrent effect and free up resources to do behaviorally-based screens.
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out some of the "big picture" issues, from a customer perspective: in a world where most people would be charged with a crime for touching someone's private areas or taking intimate pictures or videos without consent, it was sheer administrative arrogance not to anticipate resistance. Arguments that air travel is a privilege and not a right are frivolous: for example, as a consultant, I have, on occasion, had to make flight arrangements across the country with as little as 4 hours notice.
Most importantly, these screenings lead to a false sense of security. For example, it isn't even necessary to do something explicitly to put flight safety into question. Negligence during maintenance periods can also be a factor.
But the ABC News report (cited above) points out, one airline pilot, irritated about the fact that pilots are subject to the same rules (let's face it: a pilot doesn't have to result to bombs to down an aircraft--all he has to do is a lousy job flying the plane), points out an inconvenient truth: many airport employees do not go through a similar security but have swipe card access to vulnerable areas. The airline pilot decided to rant by publishing a few relevant Youtube videos (since pulled). I do not know the content of those videos, but it doesn't a lot of imagination to realize that swipe cards could be stolen or otherwise obtained by unauthorized personnel and items could be brought into sensitive areas without going through the same screening process.
The government did what was predictable: "shoot the messenger"; the pilot in this case had been previously deputized, and now the bureaucracy no longer trusted him because of his going outside of authorized processes and sent lots of officers to collect his weapon. (Folks, your tax dollars at work...) Here's the point: swipe card access is NOT a new issue. Now isn't it amazing that some female terrorists in the former Soviet Union can hide bombs in their undergarments and virtually overnight, all American women are suddenly screened as if they were potential suicide bombers; the underwear bomber tries to ignite a chemical weapon, and all of a sudden people are being patted down near or on their private areas; a zealot tries to ignite a shoe bomb, and right away, all American travelers have to have their shoes checked. But some airport employees are "more equal" than others and don't undergo the same screening; why is it, nearly 9.5 years after 9/11, we haven't tightened security procedures around airport employees? Is it going to take a tragedy by a rogue employee or a terrorist getting possession of a swipe card before the TSA addresses this mother of all security issues?
EPA Bent on Trying to Enforce Climate Change Policies by Administrative Fiat: Thumbs DOWN!
I don't intend to keep knocking Charles Krauthammer on his optimistic judgment concerning post-midterm Obama snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. But over the past week, the Obama Administration has announced unilateral policy changes which, in fact, did not clear a heavily Democratic Congress: there was the so-called net neutrality policy, where the FCC decided, by a partisan vote, 3-2, to initiate regulation on the Internet, and now there's this long-rumored threat of the EPA to start regulating greenhouse gas emissions, which certainly has been even more contentious in the wake of Climategate (a scandal that revealed manipulation of the academic review process to promote advocacy of related public policy and to suppress criticisms of the research).
This is an administration which is proactively and aggressively stretching the limits of Executive Power at the expense of the Legislative Branch. (We haven't forgotten the health care reform law, which in my judgment clearly violates both the Ninth Amendment (individual mandate) and Tenth Amendments (state regulation of insurance) to the US Constitution.) What a lousy "Christmas present" to the American people... I am intrigued by news reports suggesting the new GOP-controlled House will open the session with a reading of the US Constitution.
Political Humor
Apparently, it took a team of people four days to put up the Obamas' Christmas tree. It kept leaning too far to the right. - Jay Leno
[First, Jay, Obama had to find a company willing to put the purchase on the government's tab. Second, Obama had to rename it a "holiday tree" to get it past the progressive censors. Finally, the real reason the tree kept leaning? It was all those ornaments. One word: EARMARKS.]
A town in Germany is having financial problems, so they passed a tax on hookers. Talk about balancing the budget on the backs of the people... - Jay Leno
[Well, you know, in a tough economy, instead of hiring a professional, folks will just do it themselves and save some money.]
Musical Interlude: Holiday Tunes
Trans-Siberian Orchestra, "Christmas Canon Rock". I have a large Christmas album/CD collection, but this song and Faith Hill's "Where Are You, Christmas" (which I embedded in a post almost 13 months ago) were the first Christmas tunes I downloaded commercially and are in heavy rotation on my Christmas music iTunes playlist. [For the official video, click here (right-click/open in new...). Embedding is disabled.] The observant reader will notice there are a couple of versions of "Christmas Canon" from TSO; this one, as the name implies, has more of a rock arrangement, prominently featuring a woman's lead vocal.
[For the utterly charming official video of Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Christmas Eve / Sarajevo" (Carol of the Bells/God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen), click here.]
