I have to think the airline industry would balk at this, because surely they’d realize how many customers they would lose?
The ‘reassuring’ note from the bracelet’s manufacturer was almost comical. “Don’t worry! The shock function wouldn’t be turned on the whole time! The flight attendant would activate the bracelets in the event of a hijacking. I’m sure everyone feels happy about that thought, right? Right? And also the flight attendants will have laser wands to point at individual bracelets if, you know, someone gets difficult on a flight.”
Oh, well all right then, if the flight attendant gets to make the judgment call!
I have been thinking about this all day. Who do I vote for to make sure that not only does this NOT happen, but that our hard earned money STOPS paying for junk like this?
Seriously, can anyone be trusted anymore? (Present company excepted, of course!)
They better not be testing them on animals either. grrrrrr.
In response to Penny above me, I plan to hope (there’s a committal phrase: “plan to hope”) that the Democratic nominee will be more likely to engage our enemies in conversation and therefore less likely to depend on electroshock as a means of communication. But, like you, I certainly can’t be sure of that. This “post 9-11″ mentality has led to a lot of ugliness, and it has infected our political system so severely that it’s hard for me to plan to hope for much these days.
This does sound creepy, but I tend to believe the comment by S&Tspokesman that news & speculation has gone beyond reality. Maybe I’m being hopefully naive, but I do have a little more faith in people in general, even bureaucrats.
Not to sound cynical–cynicism is not my general tendency–but any lingering remnants of faith I might have had in our elected officials were dispelled when they voted to grant the telecoms immunity for wiretapping. “We the People” had made it clear we did not support that action, but they went ahead and did it anyway.
If the airplane shock bracelet thing never comes to pass, and I do have a hard time imagining that it possibly could, it will be because the airlines balk at the notion for fear of losing business–i.e., it will be money that drives the decision, not wisdom.
That document from Paul Ruwaldt in the Dept of Homeland Security isn’t “news & speculation.” He’s a govt official seriously considering the possibilities. After expressing serious interest in the bracelet’s “potential uses” in such situations as “prisoner transportation, detainee control and the military security forces” as well as “a use to improve air security, on passenger planes,” he writes: “…most of the organizing for this project will happen within the next month, so I hope budgets will be set shortly thereafter, and then I will have a better idea on what we can do. I believe, once the extent of the funding is known and the budgets allocated, funding for the bracelet concept with the localized emitter/interrogator/restraint situations, will happen…To make it clear, we are interested in the mobile read/write emitter concept in conjunction with the immobilizing security bracelet, and look forward to receiving a written proposal.”
That letter references a meeting in July 2006. I wonder if the “project” ever got funding?
“…to be placed on elected official immediately after inauguration, and to be worn by said official until they leave office. If elected official votes for some bonehead law, he or she will be jolted with electricity, causing temporary loss of consciousness…”
(A roundup post with links to my notes and reviews)
Hey, what happened to all those booklists you used to have in your sidebars at the old blog?
They're still accessible at melissawiley.typepad.com, where this blog lived from January 2005-March 2008. You can also find all my Lilting House posts there, or try the search bar here. All my previous Bonny Glen and Lilting House posts have been imported to this site.
Every day is complicated, messy, and full of friction. And every day has glorious or cozy moments worth celebrating. I seldom bother to chronicle the friction and the mess because writing time is fleeting and precious—and childhood even more so. I’d rather capture the small joys that I might forget—or take for granted—if I don’t take time to set them down in words.
(Excerpt from this post about Real Life, quoted here because I don't want anyone to be under the impression that things are always perfect around here! Heaven knows we are anything but. Perfect, frictionless, orderly? Nope. Happy? Most of the time!)
Be like the bird
Who, pausing in flight
On limb too slight,
Feels it give way beneath her,
Yet sings,
Knowing she has wings.
—Victor Hugo
Twitter Updates
“Exploration,” says John Stilgoe, author of Outside Lies Magic, “is a liberal art, because it is an art that liberates, that frees, that opens away from narrowness. And it is fun.”
Yes: it is so, so much fun, and that is why I write these posts all chattery with excitement over this or that connection the kids made today. (Or that I made myself!) I know I get carried away, but that’s the point, isn’t it, that way leading on to way has carried me away?
And yet—and yet—I think we are at once ‘carried away’ and made more fully present in the now, more rooted, by these relationships between ideas about things past and future. The joy of connection makes me want to celebrate this moment, this brief encounter with wild-haired child and broad-trunked tree, bus going by, sign on church wall, Scottish warlord creeping over the tower wall and startling the English soldier’s wife who has just put her babe in arms to sleep by crooning that the Black Douglas won’t get him. Child, laughing, shouting “Dinna ye be sae sure aboot that!” across the courtyard outside the library. How can I not celebrate this freedom?
That is EXTREMELY creepy! Weirder than anything Orwell envisioned.
Posted on July 9th, 2008 at 8:32 amThat’s appalling. Who would bother flying, anymore?
I mean, would you voluntarily wear one of those things? Or allow one to be placed on your child?
(I am addressing the metaphorical ‘you’)
Posted on July 9th, 2008 at 11:19 amI for one most certainly would not. No way.
I have to think the airline industry would balk at this, because surely they’d realize how many customers they would lose?
The ‘reassuring’ note from the bracelet’s manufacturer was almost comical. “Don’t worry! The shock function wouldn’t be turned on the whole time! The flight attendant would activate the bracelets in the event of a hijacking. I’m sure everyone feels happy about that thought, right? Right? And also the flight attendants will have laser wands to point at individual bracelets if, you know, someone gets difficult on a flight.”
Oh, well all right then, if the flight attendant gets to make the judgment call!
Not.
Posted on July 9th, 2008 at 11:28 amI have been thinking about this all day. Who do I vote for to make sure that not only does this NOT happen, but that our hard earned money STOPS paying for junk like this?
Seriously, can anyone be trusted anymore? (Present company excepted, of course!)
They better not be testing them on animals either. grrrrrr.
Posted on July 9th, 2008 at 2:56 pmIn response to Penny above me, I plan to hope (there’s a committal phrase: “plan to hope”) that the Democratic nominee will be more likely to engage our enemies in conversation and therefore less likely to depend on electroshock as a means of communication. But, like you, I certainly can’t be sure of that. This “post 9-11″ mentality has led to a lot of ugliness, and it has infected our political system so severely that it’s hard for me to plan to hope for much these days.
Posted on July 9th, 2008 at 3:43 pmThis does sound creepy, but I tend to believe the comment by S&Tspokesman that news & speculation has gone beyond reality. Maybe I’m being hopefully naive, but I do have a little more faith in people in general, even bureaucrats.
Posted on July 9th, 2008 at 8:41 pmNot to sound cynical–cynicism is not my general tendency–but any lingering remnants of faith I might have had in our elected officials were dispelled when they voted to grant the telecoms immunity for wiretapping. “We the People” had made it clear we did not support that action, but they went ahead and did it anyway.
If the airplane shock bracelet thing never comes to pass, and I do have a hard time imagining that it possibly could, it will be because the airlines balk at the notion for fear of losing business–i.e., it will be money that drives the decision, not wisdom.
That document from Paul Ruwaldt in the Dept of Homeland Security isn’t “news & speculation.” He’s a govt official seriously considering the possibilities. After expressing serious interest in the bracelet’s “potential uses” in such situations as “prisoner transportation, detainee control and the military security forces” as well as “a use to improve air security, on passenger planes,” he writes: “…most of the organizing for this project will happen within the next month, so I hope budgets will be set shortly thereafter, and then I will have a better idea on what we can do. I believe, once the extent of the funding is known and the budgets allocated, funding for the bracelet concept with the localized emitter/interrogator/restraint situations, will happen…To make it clear, we are interested in the mobile read/write emitter concept in conjunction with the immobilizing security bracelet, and look forward to receiving a written proposal.”
That letter references a meeting in July 2006. I wonder if the “project” ever got funding?
Posted on July 10th, 2008 at 12:16 pmHey! Could we put those on elected officials?
I can see the instructions now…
“…to be placed on elected official immediately after inauguration, and to be worn by said official until they leave office. If elected official votes for some bonehead law, he or she will be jolted with electricity, causing temporary loss of consciousness…”
Think we could get them to approve that one?!?
Posted on July 10th, 2008 at 6:44 pmOne second thought, how do we know if they’re conscious?
I need to stop. I really need to stop.
Posted on July 10th, 2008 at 6:48 pm