or leave a message at 212-209-2800.
Again, that's 212-209-2800.
And you're listening to radio station WBAI in New York.
It's 7 o'clock on a Tuesday... Wednesday.
Time once again for Off The Hook.
And this is the music that you hear when you somehow forget to bring in the theme for Off The Hook.
It's just something that happened to be lying around.
Sorry, we seem to have misplaced it, but it'll be back again next week, we promise.
We also seem to have misplaced a number of people.
I think they misplaced themselves.
It being holiday and all that kind of thing, a lot of people have taken off for more pleasant areas, I guess.
So we have a skeleton crew here tonight, but hopefully we have all of our listeners still in attendance.
Emmanuel Goldstein here with you for this edition of Off The Hook.
Bernie S. joining me from down there in Philadelphia.
Good evening and happy Thanksgiving.
Same to you. And Jim is over on the other side of the studio there.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
And Redbird is here.
Happy Thanksgiving.
And that's it. That's everybody. That's everyone that we have here.
So we have a lot of material, a lot of things to discuss and debate and go over.
How are things down by you, Bernie?
It's a rainy evening, but there seems to be a lot of goodwill in the air.
People wishing each other a happy Thanksgiving.
And just a lot of people are thinking about what they should be thankful for.
And it's kind of hard these days to think about what one should be thankful for.
But you just have to try harder.
Yeah, I didn't notice that kind of cooperation at all.
People seem to be kind of cranky up here in Surly and that kind of thing.
Well, this is the city of brotherly love.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, what's up with the exploding cell phones? I'm hearing about this everywhere.
Phones exploding in people's hands, and that's going to make you cranky, all right?
That would ruin my day, I'll tell you.
Well, I think what it is is a lot of people are, as more and more cell phones are sold,
people are turning to cheaper third-party cell phone batteries,
which are typically kind of substandard.
And these lithium batteries, lithium-ion batteries,
have a tendency to change chemically and cause an electrical short internally,
which then generates lots of heat, which has nowhere to go but bang,
because these are sealed metal, tiny sealed metal canisters.
So down in Spring, Texas, a fourth grader, his cell phone blew up in his hand.
Fourth graders have cell phones?
Believe it or not.
What in God's name is going on? What does a fourth grader need a cell phone for?
Well, his mother said that he really needs a cell phone, but he's been afraid to go near the thing.
Fourth grader, really? What, he's like eight years old, he really needs a cell phone?
Well, I think parents want to give them to their kids just to keep track of them, maybe,
especially now that these location services are available from some carriers
where you can actually find out where your cell phone is.
But, you know, Bernie, for centuries, for millennia, in fact,
parents have been able to keep track of their kids without the help of electronics.
I agree.
I just think it's a microcosm of what's going on in society,
where we need to be tracked everywhere we go.
I mean, you know, I was eight years old once,
and I had no trouble getting around without having, you know,
pagers and cell phones and, you know, all kinds of GPS devices.
Life was easier. Life was easier, you know, you could hear your mother calling.
Yeah, it was simpler back then.
But we know what that led to, though.
What did it lead to?
You're here now.
This period of craziness is what it led to.
But anyway, if people want to avoid the exploding cell phone syndrome,
it would be a wise idea to purchase a battery made by the manufacturer of your cell phone,
not a third-party battery,
because some of the cheaper Chinese ones tend to have this problem.
But what if you have a Chinese phone, a cheap Chinese phone?
Well, that's a good point.
They are probably all on the cheaper,
what I mean is the cheaper Chinese third-party batteries,
like the batteries that are made by a company other than the manufacturer's cell phone.
But Kyocera, one of the biggest cell phone companies,
they've recalled thousands of phones.
And they make a lot of popular phones.
My girlfriend has a Kyocera cell phone.
But it hasn't been recalled as far as I know.
Okay.
Well, in other advances in humanity,
as I turn the TV off,
hunters, you hear about this?
Hunters soon, I can tell you,
may be able to sit at their computers and blast away at animals on a Texas ranch via the Internet.
That's a prospect that has state wildlife officials up in arms.
No pun intended, I hope.
A controversial website, www.live-shot.com,
already offers target practice with a .22 caliber rifle
and could soon let hunters shoot at deer, antelope, and wild pigs,
according to site creator John Underwood.
The idea, and this is the best part,
the idea came last year while viewing another website
on which cameras posted in the wild are used to snap photos of animals.
We were looking at a beautiful white-tailed buck,
and my friend said,
if you just had a gun for that.
Oh, America, you got to love it.
A little light bulb went off in my head, the inventor said.
So this guy's going to offer animal hunting as soon as he gets a fast Internet connection.
That's the only thing holding him up right now, apparently,
because he has a remote ranch,
and I guess he's got to get DSL or something out there,
and he needs a fast connection to enable hunters to aim the rifle quickly at passing animals.
He said an attendant, this is also interesting,
would retrieve shot animals for the shooters.
I assume they'll deactivate the gun at that point
when the attendant goes out to get them,
and then they could have the heads preserved by a taxidermist.
They could also have the meat processed and shipped home
or donated to animal orphanages.
Animal orphanages?
I'm not even going to touch that last part,
but this whole thing about hunting is for sportsmen.
Doesn't this kind of take all the sportsmanship out of it?
You're sitting at home on your fat ass,
punching buttons and shooting animals states away,
and then having the meat sent to you in boxes?
How many of us have visited webcams before?
This is the same sort of thing.
This is a gun cam.
So pretty soon you'll be finding guns on the Internet
that you can just start blazing away at.
And I'll bet somebody is going to figure out a way to turn a webcam into a gun cam
and blast away some unsuspecting human beings remotely.
That's going to happen.
That could cause the Secret Service a real big enforcement hassle.
It really could.
Think about it.
If you actually use this against humans in some way,
traffic cameras or news cameras,
there's all kinds of things you could probably do with this technology.
The guy who had this idea, unfortunately,
he hasn't thought this through.
He's saying he's waiting for a high-speed connection.
He really shouldn't,
because with a bad connection,
the odds of them actually hitting an animal go down.
So consequently, he has more animals, more targets.
People will be frustrated and continue to shoot,
continue to pay for their ability to shoot at these animals.
I think people will just wait for the wild pigs to go to sleep,
and then they'll start shooting them.
But, you know, just think about this.
There's going to be some kind of a machine
somewhere in the middle of the forest
that just is shooting randomly,
based on some chucklehead someplace pressing buttons.
Well, imagine that you're lost in the woods,
and this device is left on.
It's going to be, I'm sure, a private preserve.
The gun will have degrees of restriction.
So somebody will be trespassing, and they'll be lost,
and they'll get shot by somebody in a different country because of it.
Well, in that case, if you get shot while trespassing,
that's fine by me.
That's fine by you.
This guy in Texas has a 330-acre private ranch,
and that's where he set this thing up.
But, you know, it's going to catch on like wildfire down in Texas
and other places like that,
and there are going to be more of these.
And you know what else, Bernie?
As long as I'm thinking about this really for the first time ever,
why not set these things up in schools?
Okay?
No, I'm serious.
That way, if a school shooting starts taking place,
you can take out the shooters
without having to send cops in to risk their lives.
And maybe have them in Burger Kings and, you know, drive-ins
and all kinds of things like that.
Hell, have them on street corners.
If you see somebody that, you know, is a wanted terrorist
or you see a gang fight starting, you just open fire.
Maybe you give a little buzzer warning first.
I'm sure law enforcement would want that, you know,
to be able to spread their enforcement power.
Sort of like RoboCop.
You know, a few years ago, maybe 20 years ago,
it would have been just as unbelievable to think of all the cameras
that are around spying on us now.
So, I don't know, gun enforcement from remote,
that definitely has possibilities.
All right, enough about that.
You know, briefly, though, this reminds me a lot of these
remote-controlled guns and bombs
that the CIA has been using to assassinate
suspected Al-Qaeda members.
In Afghanistan, they had that remote-controlled airplane
that they controlled from, you know,
probably hundreds or thousands of miles away
to, like, zoom in and drop a bomb on these people.
So it's really like virtual killing.
Even a class project in some high school in Montana
where they let the kids press the buttons to fire the bombs.
Terrific.
No, it's just something I made up.
But you could believe that.
You really could.
You believed that, didn't you?
No, to the point where this is plausible now.
This day and age, anything's possible.
I mean, you know, look at how the news has gone
in the last few weeks.
We have videos of U.S. Marines inside mosques
killing unarmed people and cursing.
One Marine, one mosque, one person.
On film, Jim, on film.
One Marine, one mosque, one wounded insurgent.
Hold on a second.
Did you see all the bodies that were lying in that mosque?
More than one body.
The other people are allegedly alive.
Certainly more.
No, they were dead.
No, the other people in the Marine shooting
where he's up against the wall and the NBC guy
has the film of it.
The other two are alive, according to all the reports.
No, no, no.
Why was the guy saying he's faking being dead then?
That one guy was faking being dead.
Right, and everybody else was...
He killed the guy because he didn't think he should be alive.
Now, everybody else could be alive.
No, he killed the guy because other insurgents
had faked being dead and had activated booby traps
or pulled the guns.
I don't want to spend too much time on this,
but if you look at the video,
what are the other people doing who are lying on the ground
not moving?
Are they pretending to be dead?
The video is of poor quality.
I don't know about that.
I read an interview...
It's of perfect quality.
No, it's not like any TV movie.
It's shot by an NBC cameraman.
I've read interviews with the NBC cameraman.
He said the other guys were clearly alive,
not faking being dead.
The one in the corner, he was too far away to be sure,
but it looked like the Marine was right.
He was faking being dead.
It doesn't even make sense.
It does.
But this is something that we are not equipped
to even discuss with the limited information
we have at this moment.
Well, I don't need much information to see
what I see on video of some guy shooting an unarmed person.
I really don't want to spend a lot of time on this.
I'm making a point, though, that we've come a long way
in 20 years where we're actually inside mosques
killing unarmed people and using profanity, too,
which is something that's very offensive inside a mosque.
Well, at least that last bit I know is sarcasm.
No, I mean, it really is offensive.
You're shocked at Marines using profanity.
Yeah, well, again, I don't want to spend
very much time on this.
I'm just saying that we are living in a society
that would have been undreamed of 20 years ago.
So I can only imagine.
I'll bet, and I'm serious about this,
I'll bet these automatic remote-controlled guns
will be set up on streets where curfews are being enforced.
Anybody who steps out onto the street after a curfew,
maybe in Fallujah, maybe they'll set them up there,
gets shot, all right?
They broke the law.
They should have known it was coming.
It's not so far off, is it?
Well, that I agree.
It's not so far off.
All right.
Let's go to something a little bit less dangerous.
Amtrak.
Amtrak conductors have begun random checks
of passengers' IDs as a precaution
against terrorist attacks.
The onboard checks, which started at the beginning
of November, are part of a broader program
to improve security, according to Amtrak.
It's a ticket verification program,
which is not intended to determine a person's identity,
but to make sure the person who's traveling with the ticket
is the person whose name is on the ticket.
So I guess if you say you're Daffy Duck or something,
as long as you buy the ticket under that name
and have some sort of ID that says that you're that person,
they just have to match.
These checks have not resulted in any arrests,
according to Amtrak.
They're also requiring passengers to show identification
when buying a ticket at ticket counters
and to tag all luggage with the owner's address.
Of course, if you buy a ticket from a machine,
you just have to put in your credit card.
So if you have a fake name on a credit card,
as I do, and I get in trouble for this
so many times at borders,
you just have to have that name on your ticket
and have a credit card that matches that name.
That simple.
But, Emanuel, at the kiosks I found,
at the Amtrak ticket kiosks
where you're dealing with a machine,
you can type in any name you want to appear on that ticket.
Really?
I've done it.
You can type it?
I guess if you're buying tickets with somebody else,
I guess you could do that.
I was half-tempted a couple of years ago
when I was in New York to type in Osama bin Laden on my ticket,
but then I thought twice, and maybe it wouldn't be a good idea.
I would have done it.
I started typing the O, and I was like,
you know what, I'm going to change that
and spell my real name.
I bet if you actually type that,
an alarm goes off someplace inside that computer system.
It would be interesting to find out.
Well, you know, what you could always do,
at no risk to yourself,
is you could print out the ticket and simply not use it
and then claim to have found it
and turn it in as proof that Osama was planning
to go somewhere via Amtrak.
Yeah, and you bought a...
his ticket was purchased with your credit card.
Well, you just hope they don't probe that deeply.
I think they might.
Remember who we're dealing with here.
Entities like the TSA and their ilk.
Do you think this is really going to improve security on the trains?
Of course not.
I don't understand.
Of course not.
It's not improving security in the airplanes or, you know,
airports or trains or anywhere.
No, it's not.
The biggest train tragedy that was caused by terrorists
were the things in...
we were at Barcelona in Spain recently,
and, you know, these people left bombs there
and then got off the train for the most part.
They weren't on the train with them.
So I don't see how having an ID with your ticket
is going to change that from happening.
Well, they lose the luxury of anonymity, I guess,
if they do want to blow themselves up,
which, you know, in the end you find out who they were anyway.
So it's baffling to me.
We got a number of pieces of email
concerning people upset at being searched on airplanes,
or not on airplanes, but in airports.
This particular letter, this is a great title,
the TSA took my email away.
I love it.
I have a TSA experience for you.
I was traveling home from Ohio
and left my check-in luggage with the TSA.
It's hand inspected since they don't have the equipment
at a small airport like this.
While visiting, during my stay,
I printed email and received certain personal information.
I put the personal information in a separate envelope
and together with the email
put it on the outside pocket of my check-in luggage.
When I unpacked,
neither the email nor the envelope were there.
What else could it be
except that the inspector had taken it
and failed to replace the email and envelope
in the outside pocket of the check-in.
Very scary.
Signed, Holly.
Another piece of email here.
I love the show.
Listen online.
I had a nightmare trying to enter
that fair city of yours at election time.
My girlfriend and I recently visited
the fine city of New York,
October 30th through November 8th.
At this end in Manchester in the United Kingdom,
the security was minimal to say the least.
Brief metal detector and we were away.
On the plane,
we were handed our white customs form
and green visa waiver form.
Being security conscious,
I was concerned about filling this in,
but hey, if I want to enter the U.S.,
this is the norm, right?
Upon arrival at the U.S. in Newark,
we were penned into long barricaded lines
and forced to wait
on an available U.S. customs officer to process us.
We arrived at the desk
and the lady asked for our completed forms.
We then had our photos taken
and our index finger on each hand printed.
Lo and behold,
my new machine readable passport
would not machine read.
This must have raised suspicion
as we were scrutinized by the lady on the desk.
I asked why all this was necessary,
why it was necessary twice,
and the lady just blindly ignored me
like I was speaking a foreign language.
Well, you were, you're from England.
We proceeded through customs to collect our bags.
After this, we were met
by another set of security checks.
Keep in mind, this is after you arrive in the country.
You're not going to blow up a plane at this point.
My boarding card must have flagged suspicion at this point
as we were grilled by security staff.
After 24 hours of being awake
and 18 hours of traveling,
we were split up and searched by more staff
with rubber gloves,
which basically, when tired,
is annoying and uncomfortable
considering I had a latex outfit in my bag
for the Halloween parade
and some back issues of 2600 for reading on the plane.
They rummaged through all our belongings,
asking strange, cross-examining questions,
and these are always good.
You should always keep track of the questions that you're asked
because sometimes they're real doozies.
How do you know each other was one of them.
How much money exactly are you each carrying?
And even, if you're a university student,
how are you funding this trip?
Next, our bags were left alone.
Our shoes were searched
and I was even asked to remove my belt
and roll down the waistband of my trousers.
After about 10 more minutes of this treatment,
our bags, still open and losing their contents,
were placed on the floor and we were allowed to go.
My trousers were falling down,
I had no shoes on and my bag was everywhere.
This was highly embarrassing
and not the nicest welcome to the United States,
especially since they're our allies.
If this is the treatment we got,
and some more Brits who were split up
and taken to interview rooms,
I feel so sorry for anyone of Asian or Eastern origin.
This was a complete joke and was very intrusive.
I am now on record in the US,
which I don't like.
Signed, Jod's Class.
Thanks very much for writing in
with that little nightmare story.
But it's not so unusual, is it?
Sadly, no.
All right.
And there is this story that was in several news agencies
over the past couple of days.
Actually, this came out yesterday.
Let's go read a little bit of it.
But it really brings home
some of what's going on out there.
Shocked by what she perceived
as far too intimate a security check,
Melanie Higley burst into tears.
First, the wand was placed
too aggressively between her legs.
Then the airport screener
at Dallas-Fort Worth International
groped her, she said.
Hysterical, she protested
that she was being abused.
The screener's response?
She was just doing her job.
Higley was then ordered
to take off her tennis shoes,
which she did,
and she threw them at the screener.
I was sweating.
I was crying.
I was a mess, said Higley of Jupiter.
Let me perhaps explain.
Jupiter, Florida?
Jupiter is in Florida.
I know people from Jupiter.
And also from Jupiter, Florida.
We call them Jovians, in fact.
She was heading to Palm Beach
International with her family
that September day.
I've never been touched like that
before by another woman.
Scores of women and some men
say they have suffered
similar humiliation during
a pat-down standard procedure
since September 22nd.
Since September 22nd?
In secondary screenings
at airport checkpoints.
Was there another incident
in September 22nd?
Or did they just start
a new policy this year?
Tell you in a minute.
Keep going.
Do you know, Bernie?
I don't know.
As far as I know,
they've been doing this
for a while.
Yeah, I don't know
about September 22nd.
Anyway, maybe that's
September 11th,
and it's just a typo.
Many protest that it is
an unnecessary invasion
of privacy.
The security process
is going too far.
People should be outraged,
fuming, doing something
to change this,
said Rhonda Gainier,
a New York attorney,
who said she was given
a breast exam while flying
out of Tampa in October.
It's like we have
no rights anymore.
The Transportation Security
Administration, TSA,
said the procedure
is crucial to security.
Less than a month earlier,
two Russian airliners
exploded, and authorities
think two women hit
explosives under their clothing.
The TSA requires
female screeners
pat down women,
male screeners check men.
The back of the hand
must be used on breasts,
genitals, and buttocks,
and passengers can request
it be done out of public view.
Now I remember
when I went to California.
I mentioned this, in fact.
The guy was saying to me,
I'm using the back of my hand.
Like, I couldn't see
that for myself,
but apparently he has
to notify people that
he's using the back of his hand,
because that somehow
makes it a whole lot better.
About 10-15% of passengers
are selected for
secondary screenings,
chosen for a number of reasons.
Now this is interesting,
because they're actually
reporting what we
mentioned last week.
The airlines are required
to randomly select
a certain number of passengers
for close room inspection.
The carrier will stamp
the code SSSS on the ticket
of a passenger selected
for this process.
Passengers who wear
loose clothing are more
apt to receive a pat down,
as are travelers who
set off metal detector alarms
or exhibit suspicious behavior,
such as protesting
when asked to
take off their shoes.
So do that,
and you're even more
of a suspect.
The thing that gets me, though,
is I had S's printed
on my boarding pass both times,
both there and on the way back.
So that doesn't seem
very random to me.
All right.
Most passengers understand
the TSA must balance
passenger privacy
against the threat of terrorism,
but that's according to the TSA.
That's their perspective there.
There may be a few instances
where screeners
took the procedure
a little too far, they say,
but the screeners
are still adjusting
to this new process as well.
No consolation, though,
to Higley,
an American Airlines flight attendant.
Yeah, she's a flight attendant
who on September 29th
was returning from vacation
in Lake Tahoe
with her husband
and two-year-old son
one week after
the tougher rules
went into effect.
I guess it did go into effect
this year.
She was four months pregnant.
It was her 39th birthday,
and the family had to catch
a connecting flight in Dallas.
A screener asked Higley
to step aside for a pat-down
and an additional check
with the wand.
She put that thing
in between my legs
like you wouldn't believe,
Higley said.
It was very offensive.
Higley, who was not wearing
any metal,
said the wand beeped
as it passed over
the small of her back.
She grabbed my rear end
in an offensive way.
I spun around
and said,
don't touch me again.
I was really starting
to get offended.
Just the same, Higley said,
the screener reached over
and cupped my right breast.
At this point,
I'm starting to shake.
I'm starting to cry.
I'm going to hit you.
Her husband,
an airline pilot,
tried to join her
in her protest,
but he could only look on
because he wasn't allowed
near where she was
being searched.
You know,
I got mixed feelings about this
because in a way,
I think everybody
should go through this.
Everybody should go through
the same humiliation.
Airline pilots,
stewardesses,
elected officials,
old people,
young people,
black people,
white people,
everybody.
Everybody should be subjected
to the exact same treatment
because, you know,
a well-dressed terrorist
is going to walk
past the screeners
who think
the only kind of terrorist
is wearing loose clothing
or has long hair.
So, if you really think
that this is a valid method
of finding a terrorist,
then by all means,
subject the 85-year-old nun
to the same treatment
that you would
to the Arab-looking guy.
You know,
I mean,
is that not fair?
It makes sense to me.
Jim,
you look aghast.
This is,
you know,
I'm thinking,
you know,
how can I reconcile,
although I can.
I can hold opposite ideas
in my head quite easily.
I can hold opposite ideas
in my head
quite easily.
But I was going to say,
how can I reconcile
being a Republican
with the thought that,
you know,
if I saw this sort of thing
to,
you know,
someone I was with,
I would probably assault
and kill the screener.
You would kill the screener.
Okay.
Well,
you'd definitely be checked out.
I tend to go too far
too easily.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've noticed.
But, you know,
I guess the person
you're traveling with
would appreciate the concern.
Oh, boy.
Well, you know,
it's not all limited
to the United States.
We always say that.
Britain's Tony Blair
put tackling crime
and terrorism
at the heart
of his re-election bid
on Tuesday,
drawing accusations
of scaremongering
among those,
like those leveled
at his ally,
U.S. President George W. Bush.
Outlining legislative plans
for the next
parliamentary session,
expected to be curtailed
by a vote in May,
which is going to be
a very interesting vote,
the Prime Minister
unveiled measures
to keep Britain's streets
safer
for the next
parliamentary session.
The Prime Minister
unveiled measures
to keep Britain's streets
safer
and protect the country
from terror attacks.
The Queen Elizabeth
has gotten involved
in this.
My government recognizes
that we live in a time
of global uncertainty
with an increased threat
from international terrorism
and organized crime,
said Queen Elizabeth
as she read Blair's
proposals to Parliament
in an elaborate ceremony.
Get this,
the government plans
to introduce
identification cards,
yes,
identification cards
for everybody in England,
and set up a British version
of the FBI,
which will be known,
and I'm not kidding here,
the Serious Organized
Crime Agency.
Serious Organized
Crime Agency.
And that spells out
Soca!
It's a rude,
it's a rude,
rude, rude,
rude,
it's a rude,
it's a rude,
rude,
it's a strike,
attacking about all night.
Sorry,
I just wanted an excuse
to play Soca music,
to play Soca music,
but the thing is,
you know,
they could make this
a lot more fun for everybody.
You have this playing
in the background,
you know,
whenever an investigation
is going on,
it just becomes
a more festive atmosphere.
Huh?
Who can object
to being searched
or questioned
or having your privacy invaded
when you have this festive
carnival atmosphere?
Well,
maybe a few.
Anyway,
so yeah,
Soca,
the Serious Organized
Crime Agency,
that's a good start
with those letters,
but...
I have a little more
on that.
Yeah,
go ahead.
Yeah,
I have a quote,
am I on?
I have a quote from Blair.
With terrorism,
illegal immigration,
and organized crime
operating with so much
greater sophistication,
identity cards,
in my judgment,
are long overdue.
Now,
I want to point out
a couple of things.
First,
52 years ago,
1952,
Great Britain gave up
on national identity cards.
Right after World War II,
I mean,
they realized what's bad
about identity cards,
and they gave it up.
But no,
they're back.
But Jim,
how did they realize it?
How did they realize
that it was bad?
I don't know.
I wish I knew.
I would imagine the people
had something to say about it.
And when the people speak up
and say something,
you know,
the government has to listen.
Look what's happening
in Ukraine right now.
You have a similar situation
to what happened
in the United States,
albeit, you know,
a little bit different,
but you had a situation
where exit polls
showed something different
than the actual
official results.
Here we go.
Well, you know,
I'm not saying
that we have the same kind
of voter fraud.
We do have voter fraud.
It definitely exists.
My point is, though,
that people tend to care more.
They tend to get out
on the streets
and get a little more involved.
And it's because of that
that it's being taken
more seriously.
In this country,
we just say,
yeah, whatever.
We'll have Bush
for another four years.
We're not going to really focus
on the suspicious things.
Well, back to
British identity cards.
There have been some protesters
who brandished a rubber stamp
in the form of
a supermarket barcode
calling the government's plans
for a database
where, quote,
the moral equivalent
of barcoding
the entire population.
And one of the things
I find scary
about this British proposal
is that they are going
to accompany
the national ID card
with a national database,
which will include
names, addresses,
and biometrics,
including computerized
fingerprint records.
Well, I'm surprised
that only a few people
are speaking out
against this.
I suspect
that's going to change.
And I think, you know,
the people of England,
they respect privacy
and they respect
the right to vote,
and they respect
privacy enough
to not let this happen.
And if they do
let it happen,
they've got nobody
to blame but themselves.
I have a couple stories
about tracking.
Well, tell us one.
Maybe if we're good,
we'll listen to another one.
Oh, all right.
All right.
The one that bothered me most
was about this thing
that seems to be sweeping
schools in Texas.
They're issuing
all these students
a little RFID,
radio frequency
identification card,
that they pass over
a reader
and a computer
and they send
it to the school
and they get a
notification
from a reader
in their school bus
when they get on
and when they get off.
A reader
at the door
of their schoolhouse
when they go in
and when they go out.
Readers within the school
when they go to gym,
when they go to lunch,
when they go to their lockers.
So this is supposedly
to ensure that
they don't get kidnapped.
It can also ensure
that they're supposed to,
you know,
that they're in the places
they're supposed to be in.
Possibly.
How many kidnappings
have occurred
in this school district
you're talking about?
As far as I can tell,
there have been
none mentioned
in this article.
And that's proof
that it works.
Yes.
Well,
even though
that it's full of glitches
and it can't tell
where people are
and even though
it's only been instituted
for a couple of months.
I think that,
you know,
kids are probably
smart enough
to get around
this system too.
Figure out ways to...
Yeah,
they've talked about
loaning them
from one kid to another.
Mm-hmm.
They've mentioned
that they also
take attendance with this
and there are kids
who have not attended
school all year
who are getting straight A's.
Yeah,
and, you know,
just because someone
swipes a card
does not mean
that that's the actual person.
That's why you need the cameras
and eventually the guns.
Well, you know,
repeat offenders
just simply do not
listen to reason.
All right.
We have a bunch of letters,
as always.
Our email address,
oth at 2600.com.
We're going to look
at a couple of them.
And we'll be taking
phone calls
212-209-2900.
By the way,
we're back on
Wall Street this week.
Thanks to everybody
who helped us out
last week
when we were over
at Sirius,
which was quite an adventure.
We all moved up there
to Midtown.
And the station
has been bobbing around
Manhattan,
or actually around
the whole tri-state area.
Well, New York
metropolitan area, anyway.
We were in Brooklyn
for a while.
We were uptown.
We were in Midtown.
And now we're back here
on Wall Street.
The whole problem
was caused by
some kind of fire
underground
and it took Verizon
many, many, many days
to restore
the phone service
that we needed
to get to the transmitter.
So we had to
use our ingenuity.
And that's one thing
people at the A.I. have.
So thanks, everybody,
for making that possible.
And it really was an adventure
seeing how Sirius
actually looks.
I mean, boy,
hundreds of radio stations.
Not really radio stations,
kind of like music boxes
that are just
programming different channels.
And we were sort of
one of them,
even though we weren't
on their particular system.
It was an eye-opener.
Anyway, hey there, guys.
Do you have any pictures
of Iraqi payphones
for the magazine?
I'm currently stationed
at Al-Basra International Airport,
which has one payphone.
It's also the only one
I've seen in Iraq
since I've been here,
signed Will.
Well, Will, by all means,
send it in.
We'd like to see
an Iraqi payphone.
And I assume it's
an Iraqi payphone
and not simply a payphone
that was planted there
by the United States.
I wouldn't wander around
too much looking for payphones,
though.
It's probably
pretty dangerous
to do that.
But if you see a picture
and you won't get into
too much trouble
taking a picture of it,
please do so
and send it to us.
You can either send it
to us digitally
or send it to us
via U.S. mail.
We'll give out
the address
in just a little bit.
A bunch of people
wrote in to tell us
what FOUO meant
because we were asking
about that last week
when we were reading something.
I'm sure you've either heard,
remembered,
or looked it up,
but FOUO is an acronym
which means
for official use only.
Great info page
on www.wasc.gov.
Thank you.
Bye.
by
by
found
found
to
Kor or
to
find
the
here
♪ It's just suntan lotion and a cast of dancing wise ♪
♪ Waiting for the end of the world ♪
♪ Waiting for the end of the world ♪
♪ Waiting for the end of the world ♪
♪ Dear Lord, I sincerely hope you're coming ♪
♪ Cause you really started something new ♪
♪♪
♪ And then I flied, the groom, the congregation, and the priest ♪
♪ All got onto the train when we were three stations east, yeah ♪
♪♪
♪ Hiding from a scandal in the national press, yeah ♪
♪♪
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