This one has to take the cake, via ABC News reporter Jake Tapper's Political Punch blog:

Once again an Israeli journalist asked the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee how he’d help prevent a second Holocaust. "Senator can you assure Israel that there will be no second Holocaust despite Iran's threat to wipe us off the map?" he asked.

Obama demurred, saying that it wasn't appropriate to answer the question there.

"This is Yad Vashem!" the journalist responded.

Obama said he would answer the question at a later press availability.

Yad Vashem, by the way, is the memorial in Israel to the six million people slaughtered in The Holocaust.

Senator Obama thinks it isn't appropriate to address the possibility of a second Holocaust at the site dedicated to remembrance of the first one?  Huh?  He couldn't come up with something, despite having been asked the question TWICE?

Come on, Obama . . . couldn't you come up with something like "Well, I think it's important for everyone to, personally as well as politically, do everything they can to make sure another Holocaust doesn't happen."  Why couldn't he say that?  He has to go back and triangulate with his handlers and advisors before saying that another Holocaust would be a bad thing?  Really?

Via Gateway Pundit

It's here, something called Service Nation.  Under the flowery well-meaning rhetoric on this site is a truly Orwellian world where what is "voluntary" is mandatory.  Slavery is Freedom.

Jim Lindgren, posting at the Volokh Conspiracy, lays out the new road to serfdom:

Under the medieval system in much of Europe, serfs or peasants owed obligations of actual physical labor (beyond military service) to their political overseers. As English liberties grew, this obligation of physical labor was replaced by the right to pay taxes instead, with the chief exception being obligations of military service for males. Free men were increasingly free to choose their line of work and pay their political overseers with money, rather than owing an obligation of service to whatever physical tasks happened to be thought important or profitable to the upper and the political classes.

Service Nation is an organization devoted to stripping away this bulwark of Anglo-American liberty, hoping by the year 2020 to require every young American man and woman to be drafted into either military or community service. Their more immediate goals include passing a National Service Act in 2009 (which would probably not require universal service).

But they do not even discuss the Constitutional Amendment that ought to be required before they can mandate community service and take away the hard-won Anglo-American liberty from involuntary servitude. The Constitution gives the Federal Government the power to raise a military, which in the 18th century contemplated an obligation of male citizens to serve in the military. In my opinion, the Constitution does not give the Federal Government the power to compel community service.

Let’s hope that the Supreme Court would not permit Service Nation's move backwards to a more feudal relationship between ordinary people and the people who govern them. One senses that de Toqueville understood American values of volunteerism and freedom of association much better than the people behind Service Nation, an understanding that was also concerned about the tyranny of the majority.

If they can ask for one year of "voluntary" service, why not two?  Three?  Five?  Ten?  A lifetime?  After all, what's the difference, really?

Voluntary service is a good idea.  Compelling it, or providing government "incentives" to "voluntarily" serve, is headed towards a place from which it took a Civil War to free ourselves--quite literally.

Primates are Not Monkeys, and Monkeys are Not Primates!

Something ScienceDaily is confused on, with it's article Female monkeys more dominant in groups with relatively more males.

Lemurs are Not Monkeys. They are Primates.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

If you don't run a web site, this won't make much sense.  Actually, it doesn't make much sense to me, either.  Oh, well.

If you do run a web site though . . . here's something I saw on Winds of Change that seemed interesting.  It's billed "an experiment on blog diffusion."  So, I'm diffusing.  It's some wacky Harvard experiment, or something.  The fun is "beneath the fold" (or, click "read more.")

2:  Who's there?

1:  Barack Obama!

2:  That's Not Funny!

Ed.:  Actually, yes it is.

Related:  McCain, 71, nods off on 'Late Night with Conan'.

Both items noted, synchronistically adjacent to each other, on the, um, right wing ("we're CONSERVATIVES, dammit!") Free Republic.

I've spent an afternoon reading the July 2008 issue of Physics and Society--the one where, perhaps, the scientific community begins, ever so slowly, to inch away from jumping off of the political and economic cliff which is "anthropogenic global warming."

The paper by Lord Monckton (which, of course, the publication goes out of its way to say is not peer-reviewed) is of great interest, I think.  He raises a number of specific questions regarding the United Nations' IPCC political group's climate publications.  I've taken the liberty of copying the entire Discussion section of Monckton's paper, which you can read in the Read More section below.  I look forward to discussion, refutation, or validation of Monckton's observations (as opposed to arguments from authority focusing on his lack of a relevant Ph.D., that is.)

Two cool movies from NASA:

First, a red-blue-green ("true color") movie.

Next, an infrared-green-blue view.

Very neat to see the moon cross the Earth's disk, from 30 million miles away.

"Tropes" are

devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations. On the whole, tropes are not clichés. The word clichéd means "stereotyped and trite." In other words, dull and uninteresting.

When you sit down to watch a fiction TV show (or, heck, a reality TV show for that matter) or you sit down with a good book, what plot elements make you happy, satisfied, what do you like to experience in a good work of fiction?

As I'm an aspiring fiction writer (science fiction and, perhaps, fantasy fiction, specifically) I have a list of tropes which I'm looking at incorporating.  I have two, perhaps three main fiction universes under development and for which I'm trying to write stories.

The first is called the "Guider Universe."  It's a science fiction story, a huge space opera spanning the entirety of human civilized life on Earth, and beyond. 

The second is tentatively named "U.S.S. Deadaliens" where this regular guy gets abducted by your stereotypical little Gray aliens, but wakes up on their ship to find all of the little gray guys mysteriously dead and actually kinda stinky, and the ship a barely functioning wreck. 

The third is a fantasy, based in the great magical city of Arapan (which might be familiar to you who, twenty to thirty years ago, played D&D with yours truly).  It's actually the least developed of the three fictional world concepts of mine, so far.  And, as a twist, it might actually turn out to be somewhere in the Guider Universe.  Or, possibly, all three of the storylines might somehow wind up being in the same fictional universe.  You just never know.

Anyway, I was thinking about what tropes I want to include in my stories, and which ones I'd just as soon avoid.  I decided to throw it open to you, the three readers of Medary.com, for comment and discussion.

Here's my incomplete list of tropes I plan to work with:

• Faster-than-light interstellar starflight
• Life is common in the Universe
• Ancient technology--exotic future physics/science unknown to current human science
• Evolution of humanity towards something better
• Humanity as a young upstart race among older, more powerful races in the galaxy
• Integration of humans with computing technology
• Use of genetic and nano-technology to lengthen life and enhance abilities of humans, animals, and aliens
• Fully intelligent, self-aware machines
• Aliens among us today and have been on Earth throughout human history
• Big starships/starship fleet battles
• Little guys vs. amoral/evil governments/aliens/bad guys
  
• Pre-starflight humans living elsewhere in the galaxy, with or without knowledge of Earth as their real origin

And here's the list of tropes that I currently wish to avoid:

• Time travel
• Alternate dimensions
• "Luke, I Am Your Father"
• "Ascension" into energy beings -- it's been done, and while I may do something similar, I want to avoid the glowing cloud-of-light, Human turns to energy-being-in-front-of-the-gaping-group-of-heroes type of Stargate SG-1 thing.
• Productive sex between alien species
• Intergalactic travel--the Milky Way galaxy is big enough for now, thanks.
• Cliched dwarf-elf-wizard Tolkien/D&D rip-off fantasy
• Humorless, overly serious writing...be serious but lightheartedly so...don't be a downer...should feel good after finishing the piece, not worse for doing so.

Agree?  Disagree?  Like something else, more, or different from your fiction?  Let me know--send me your favorite tropes!  Use the following electronic mail address (you'll have to type it into your mail program, I'm not providing a link 'cause I don't want to make it too easy for spammers:

This is, by the way, my preferred address for medary.com-oriented correspondence . . . if you want an account to post articles or comments here, or if you think you have an account here, or if I've previously told you you have an account here but have forgotten what it or the password is, you can contact me via this address--or my personal address which, if you need to know it, you already should have it.  Or if not, drop me a line at the medary address and we'll get synched up.

Let the fun begin!

U.S. Supreme Court rules, in unequivocal language, that Dick Heller must be issued a gun permit by the District of Columbia:

Assuming he is not disqualified from exercising his Second Amendment rights, the District MUST PERMIT Heller to register his handgun and must issue him a license to carry it in the home.

(Emphasis added.)

District of Columbia, dutifully submitting to the authority of the U.S. Supreme Court, promptly denies a gun permit to Dick Heller.

USA TODAY's Kevin Johnson reports that the District of Columbia refused this morning to register a handgun on behalf of the security guard whose legal challenge resulted in last month's landmark Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment.

Dick Heller was one of two applicants who were waiting at police headquarters when the doors opened to prospective gun owners at 7 a.m. ET. Officers wouldn't let him register a semi-automatic handgun because local laws still ban such weapons.

Wait, what?

What do you think "must permit Heller to register his handgun" is supposed to mean?  "Oh, sorry, Mr. Heller, not the handgun the Supreme Court was talking about . . . some OTHER handgun.  Yeah, that's the ticket!"

In case you're wondering, a "semi-automatic" weapon is one where a round is automatically chambered after the previous round is fired.  This is opposed to a single-fire weapon, where each round must be chambered (think of the ominous shink-shink of shotguns in an action movie) or a full-automatic weapon, where rounds are chambered and fired continuously when the trigger is pulled.  Most firearms in private use are semi-automatic.

A quick story, with the ring of truth, from the Mises Economics Blog:

While on an evening bike ride with my oldest son, we reminisced about one of the first government meetings we attended together -- an annexation hearing before our county commissioners. Looking back, we agreed that the meeting turned out to be an invaluable opportunity to witness government in action.

At the hearing, the attorney for the petitioner -- a single property owner seeking to be annexed by the local city -- presented first. The attorney stood at the podium holding a small folder. He began, "We present the completed application and forms as required by law. We believe that we have met all legal requirements. We therefore ask that you grant the petition as filed." He sat down.

Next, a long line formed to speak against the annexation. For the next hour, as the commissioners quietly watched, my son and I listened to folks demand a claim to the petitioner's property. Not one speaker questioned the legality of the petition. We left.

Days later, I read in the paper that the hearings were scheduled to continue for two weeks. In the end, the petition -- which everyone agreed was legal -- was denied.

This singular experience showed us that government is not based on laws, it is based on arbitrary power. And that ownership of property is a dead concept in these times of positive rights.

(Emphasis added.)

I'm reminded once again of the George Washington quote:

"Government is not reason, nor eloquence. It is force. And like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearsome master."

A quote which is not perhaps nearly as famous as it should be.  Elections are about who should be best entrusted to the gun of government force which is perpetually being held to your head.  Bear it in mind as you decide who you should vote for.

Pushing politics and religion aside, and pushing the science back to the front where it should be, The American Physical Society re-opens the question of anthropogenic global warming:

With this issue of Physics & Society, we kick off a debate concerning one of the main conclusions of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN body which, together with Al Gore, recently won the Nobel Prize for its work concerning climate change research. There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for the global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution. Since the correctness or fallacy of that conclusion has immense implications for public policy and for the future of the biosphere, we thought it appropriate to present a debate within the pages of P&S concerning that conclusion. This editor (JJM) invited several people to contribute articles that were either pro or con. Christopher  Monckton responded with this issue's article that argues against the correctness of the IPCC conclusion, and a pair from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, David Hafemeister and Peter Schwartz, responded with this issue's article in favor of the IPCC conclusion. We, the editors of P&S, invite reasoned rebuttals from the authors as well as further contributions from the physics community. Please contact me (jjmarque@sbcglobal.net) if you wish to jump into this fray with comments or articles that are scientific in nature. However, we will not publish articles that are political or polemical in nature. Stick to the science! (JJM)

This is exactly what SHOULD be happening--what should have been happening for the past decade.  Vigorous, acrimonious, honest scientific debate, bringing the most talented scientific minds on Earth to bear on the subject.  Not global politicians and bigwig-wannabe's jetting to exotic locations to plan the world's economy, but scientists going at it tooth and nail on Internet forums and in scientific journals, hammering out exactly what it is we know, what we don't know, what we think we know that is wrong, and what at the last, everyone . . . EVERYONE can agree is actually so.

The topic is too important to leave to the politicians.  We KNOW where the politicians' interest lie . . . in more money and power arrogated to themselves, and to hell with everyone else.  I'd rather trust in scientists who hold to a higher standard--objective truth, proved through the scientific method.

Not that NBC, ABC, and CBS have covered any of Bush's recent overseas trips with the fervor and intensity that they intend to cover St. Obama's Pilgrimage to the Land of Luther, and hence to the Levant and beyond  (Washington Post article):

The three network anchors will travel to Europe and the Middle East next week for Barack Obama's trip, adding their high-wattage spotlight to what is already shaping up as a major media extravaganza.

Lured by an offer of interviews with the Democratic presidential candidate, Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric will make the overseas trek, meaning that the NBC, ABC and CBS evening newscasts will originate from stops along the route and undoubtedly give it big play.

John McCain has taken three foreign trips in the past four months, all unaccompanied by a single network anchor.

No bias there.  Nope, none at all.  Simply covering newsworthy news.  Yepper.  Yeppity-doo.

Via almost everybody in the Righiesphere.

 A large, well-designed study in Israel comes in with the results, via ScienceDaily:

Although participants actually decreased their total daily calories consumed by a similar amount, net weight loss from the low-fat diet after two years was only 6.5 lbs. (2.9 kg) compared to 10 lbs. (4.4 kg) on the Mediterranean diet, and 10.3 lbs. (4.7 kg) on the low-carbohydrate diet. "These weight reduction rates are comparable to results from physician-prescribed weight loss medications," explains Dr. Iris Shai, the lead researcher.

The low-fat diet reduced the total cholesterol to HDL ratio by only 12 percent, while the low-carbohydrate diet improved the same ratio by 20 percent. Lipids improved the most in the low-carbohydrate, with a 20% increase in the HDL ("good") cholesterol and, 14% decrease in triglycerides. In all three diets, inflammatory and liver function biomarkers was equally improved. However, among diabetic participants, the standard low-fat diet actually increased the fasting glucose levels by 12mg/dL, while the Mediterranean diet induced a decrease in fasting glucose levels by 33mg/dL.

Let's see . . . highest weight loss, best lipid (cholesterol) results . . . what more can you ask for?

Low carb diets are the way to go, it would certainly seem.  Somebody get the USDA and the American Heart Association on the line.

(And yeah, I see quite a few similarities between the low fat fetish of the nutrition industry and the global warming extremism of . . . well . . . a lot of folks.  Both are, I believe, fundamentally political viewpoints masquerading as scientific positions and are hence defended with arguments from authority instead of scientific inquiry.  More science, less religion, please.)

The Great Ape Trust in Iowa is taking in simian actors.   ScienceBlog:

The first of the new residents, 3-year-old Rocky and his 19-year-old mother Katy, arrived safely at Great Ape Trust on Saturday, July 12, from the Los Angeles area, where they had been privately owned by Steve Martin’s Working Wildlife, co-owned by Steve and Donna Martin. Their company specializes in providing trained animals for entertainment and advertising.

Wild and crazy?  Excuuuuuuuse me!

Iraq is quickly becoming the last war . . . i.e. a war that objective, on-site observers like Michael Yon increasingly believe we have won.

Afghanistan, on the other hand, due in large part because of Pakistan's frail political system, begins to slip back.

So, let's see . . . today, Obama gives a speech about Iraq (Iraq mentioned 53 times; Afghanistan; 15)  McCain, about Afghanistan (Iraq mentioned 21 times, Afghanistan 33).

Quiz:  Which one said this?

What’s missing in our debate about Iraq – what has been missing since before the war began – is a discussion of the strategic consequences of Iraq and its dominance of our foreign policy.

Actually, there has been a thorough and continuing discussion in many circles about the strategic consequences of Iraq.  Obama and his leftist fellows are the ones who have been absent from this discussion, holding to an inflexible position of immediate withdrawal regardless of the strategic consequences of that action.

The New Yorker creates a cartoon lampooning what it thinks are the stereotypes on the right about Barack Obama.

The right, for the most part, snickers over the clumsy smear attempt by the lefty magazine.

The left goes apesh*t over the contemptable depiction of St. Obama.

Who's got a humor deficit here?

Or that's apparently what the Kansas City Star wants you to think with their laughable headline:

Bond now a McCain chieftain

No, you don't really need to click on the link--there's really not much of a story there, anyway. 

Let's play Flip the Bias, shall we?

McCaskill now an Obama matriarch

Nice, isn't it?  Sheesh.

Yeah, I rip on Barry a lot, mainly because I think evidence currently available indicates he's either an classic unprincipled Chicago machine win-at-all-costs politician, or a truly dangerous cult-of-personality hardcore leftist (I vacillate between those two positions).  But if he'd pull his leftie head out of his butt and say things like this more often, I might lighten up a bit (quote from the Kansas City Star):

"If we're serious about reclaiming that dream, we have to do more in our own lives, our own families and our own communities," Obama said. "That starts with providing the guidance our children need, turning off the TV and putting away the video games; attending those parent-teacher conferences, helping our children with their homework and setting a good example."

He added: "I know some say I've been too tough on folks about this responsibility stuff. But I'm not going to stop talking about it. Because I believe that in the end, it doesn't matter how much money we invest in our communities, or how many 10-point plans we propose, or how many government programs we launch - none of it will make any difference if we don't seize more responsibility in our own lives."

Even I could vote for a Chicago pol who sounds this way often enough.  But it's still McCain, or even Barr, before I'd go for Obi-Wan right now.

South Dakota State University's women's basketball team leads all women's college basketball teams, from all divisions, in team grade point average again in 2007-08, as compiled by the WBCA:

NCAA Division I
South Dakota State is making quite a name for itself on the WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll as the Jackrabbits secured the top spot amongst NCAA Division I institutions for the third consecutive season. In addition to compiling the top GPA in their division, Aaron Johnston's team also claims the top overall team GPA amongst all divisions which is yet another distinction they have captured for the third year in a row. Aside from its classroom successes, South Dakota State also enjoyed another great year on the court as the Jackrabbits advanced to the Women's NIT before falling in the first round to Creighton.

"The women on our team have made our entire university and community very proud," said Johnston. "They have truly committed themselves to success in the classroom, on the court and in the community. Being recognized for the top GPA the third consecutive year is a tremendous accomplishment for our student-athletes."

That's three straight #1 finishes for the Jackrabbits.

Try to top that, Tennessee!

There's already enough unease in certain circles about Obama's neo-fascist tendencies without him going and saying scary crap like this:

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set," he said. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded."

So . . . Obama wants . . . a domestic army, not subject to posse comitatus?  Brownshirts?  What, exactly?  The people picking up the pieces after the Civil War didn't think that would be such a good idea.

Or this is, perhaps, another "inartful" statement by the master of oratory?  I'm not sure which is scarier . . . an Obama that actually means what he says, or an Obama as President who can't get out of his own rhetorical way.  When you're dealing with foreign leaders who don't necessarily have the best interests of Americans at heart, can you afford to be "inartful?"

The political left is fond of denouncing the "fascism" of the political right.  Do you suppose they will notice, creeping up on them, putting an arm around them and saying soothing and uplifting words, telling them to Hope for Change, the very thing that they most fear, but with a smiley face?

Via the Baltimore Sun's blogs through lonewacko.com and Protein Wisdom.

Michael Benson writes in the Washington Post:

Although NASA officials will never quite say so, their current attitude seems to be that the station is essentially a high-maintenance distraction, even a mistake. Their plan is to finish assembling the thing ASAP and hand the keys over to the Russians, Canadians, Europeans and Japanese, with minimal continuing U.S. involvement. This should happen by the shuttle's mandatory retirement in 2010. Meanwhile, we're still writing a lot of high-denomination checks and preparing the two remaining shuttles for risky flights to finish something we then plan to be largely rid of. This seems absurd. I have an alternative proposal:

Send the ISS somewhere.

Hat tip:  Instapundit

From the Butterflies and Wheels philosophy blog (a possible candidate for a new must-read blog), via Reason Online:

The alternatives, the French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut suggests, are simple: ‘Either people have rights or they have uniforms; either they can legitimately free themselves from oppression… or else their culture has the last word.’

A right means nothing if it applies only to the group, not the individual.  There is no such thing as a "group right."  No such thing as "civil rights."  Only individual rights are true rights.

Culture is by its nature oppressive.  Culture requires conformity--any culture.  The words "black culture," "white culture," "American culture," "Chinese culture," and "Islamic culture" all bring to mind different things.  Call them stereotypes if you want, but what is a culture but a collection of behaviors that are unique and distinctive to a particular group?  Within any particular culture, certain behaviors are encouraged, others are discouraged, and some are taboo.

The problem, of course, is that things that one culture encourages, another culture discourages, or even declares taboo.  Eating dog meat.  Chopping off the heads of your enemies.  That kind of thing.

So, then, how can an individual be "multicultural?"  (Unless, of course, that individual belongs to the "multicultural culture."  Left as a thought exercise to the reader are the contradictions inherent in a "multicultural culture.")

Can a person hold two cultures to be equally "valid" without, at some point, choosing between the cultural dictates of one or the other?  If you kind of like pork chops, but don't eat pork because you're respecting Islam, are you being multicultural, or are you submitting to one culture's taboos over another culture's permissions?

Snookums claims that I sometimes have "intellectual" tendencies.  I guess she's right.

She's generally immune to the gizmo-faddism that afflicts me and most men that I know, but I showed her this article on Gizmodo and she said she wanted it.

Photo credit:  Amazon via Gizmodo

Sean Fallon writes at Gizmodo:

. . . this weird Progressive International Microwavable S’Mores Maker claims to make 2 perfect s'mores in 30 seconds flat because the little "arms" keep the marshmallows from expanding to much. I still think you need a fire to make perfect s'mores, not some gadget that looks like a melted Mr. Potato Head—but if you insist on throwing your money away, the PIMSM can be had for $6.95. [Amazon via Unclutterer via Technabob]

That's my Snookums . . . practical and a cheap date.  What guy could ask for more?

That's all that the Democrats have for an energy policy.  Quoted in The Hill (via PowerLine):

Exactly when Democrats will change their present course and bring an energy bill to the floor remains uncertain.
“Right now, our strategy on gas prices is ‘Drive small cars and wait for the wind,’ ” said a Democratic aide.

Enjoy your $6 a gallon gasoline, coming soon to a gas station near you courtesy the Democratic Party of the United States.

And no, McCain isn't much better, either, although some Republicans are trying to push increasing the supply.  Drill here, drill now.

Dog is off the menu for the Olympics in China, reports a news organization which shall not be named.

No namee, no linkee, so sorree.

I haven't been doing much sports blogging lately.  So, to celebrate the birth of a new NCAA Division I conference (actually, it's probably closer to say the conception of an un-viable tissue mass which might one day emerge to become a baby D-I conference), I give you one of the members of the newly, um, conceived Great West Conference:

The U-Dot S-Dot D-Dot Ki-Yoteees

It is, I think, unusual to find a Division I team for which the pronunciation of the mascot needs to be defined in documents like conference press releases (PDF).

Iran shoots off three, no four, no FIVE missiles.  AT ONCE!

Photo credit:  Little Green Footballs

Bow down, infidels, to the superior Photoshopping ummah of the Islamic Republic!  Bow down!

I think someone's been watching YouTube a bit too much.

Cato-At-Liberty, via Coyote Blog:

The Left’s approach to health-care cost containment is to give more health coverage to more people with more ailments, all the while making everyone pay less.

That really sums it up pretty well--in fact, it pretty well summarizes why socialism, in any form, wherever it's tried, no matter how well-intentioned, doesn't work.

Sounds good at first, but doesn't work.

One danger of telling Snookums that you're done buying cool stuff (MacBook Pro; Casio EX-F1 camera, articles and reviews forthcoming someday) is that you turn around and somebody comes out with some new cool thing.

This time:  Belkin with their wireless HDMI box.  Perfect for extending the reach of my DirecTV box(es) to the bedroom HDTV.  I want.

 

The long, miserable history of Homeland Security at the airports continues . . . just why exactly is Homeland Security confiscating U.S. citizen's laptops at airports when the citizens are returning from overseas trips?

New York Times:

There have been widespread reports of the government searching — and often seizing — laptops, BlackBerrys, iPhones and other portable electronic devices at airports. It is not clear how often these searches occur, and the government will not say. The Association of Corporate Travel Executives says that of 100 people who responded to a survey it conducted this year, 7 said they had had a laptop or other electronic device seized.

Having done my share of overseas flying, it's my considered opinion that Homeland Security is a government agency that's completely out of control.  If the Judiciary continues to allow this level of intrusive searches and seizures, and the President won't rein them in a bit, it'll have to be Congress.  Yeah, that Congress with the 9% approval rating.

I won't hold my breath.  But I may just have to travel with an extra hard drive, so I could just dump a full disk image to it and give to the airport security bozos in order to be on my merry way.  Sheesh.

via BoingBoing.