Being strong on security means exposing a problem and addressing it, not covering it up by punishing the messenger.

"The nail that sticks up gets hammered down." It's one of those phrases that embodies a principle that means different things in different situations, to different people. When a person exposes a problem, is the problem the problem, or is the person the problem? I believe that people of knowledge and ability are our greatest assets.

I think this is directly relevant to what we see unfolding before our eyes right now. On one hand, I have massive respect for the law enforcement agencies that tackle security problems. On the other, I fear their potential to be reactionary rather than mindful of purpose.

If we are to achieve real security, we can not simply opt for the path of least resistance. We must tackle problems rather than brush them under the rug, where they still exist, and can be found by others. As many on this system can attest, exposing security problems is like donning a big target; few are happy to see the messenger.

The manor in which information about a vital problem is exposed must be done ethically, but it is important to remember that ethical (or responsible) disclosure is an area that has no clear black and white distinctions. Many of the gray areas are defined by the means of the messenger. Do not lose sight of the big picture.

Being strong on security...

The girl approached me on a desolate stretch of Metropolitan Parkway, about halfway between the airport and the clustered lights of the downtown skyline. The night was unusually cold and she was shivering a little. She told me she was 15, but she didn’t look more than 12.

It was bad enough that the child was outside at all at midnight. The fact that she was turning tricks was heartbreaking. I explained that I was a reporter for The New York Times and asked if she would wait while I went to get someone to help her. She looked surprised. “I don’t need any help,” she said.

someone needs to introduce her pimp to Travis Bickle

Young, Cold and for Sale - New York Times

The 21st century may become to Islam what the 16th was to Christianity, for even in hard-line states like Iran you meet Martin Luthers who are pushing for an Islamic Reformation. One of the most surprising elements of this push for reform has to do with the emergence of a school called “feminist Islam.”

Looking for Islam’s Luthers - New York Times

Europe appears to be crossing an invisible line regarding its Muslim minorities: More people in the political mainstream are arguing that Islam cannot be reconciled with European values.

the article seems to articulate the spectre of that terrible stage and precursor to a larger conflagration the collapse of the center
this stage has been noted in the English and French Civil War/Revolutions - not that I believe things will escalate to that extent but it is certainly an indiction that certainly in Europe with our relatively large Muslim populations the level of violence is going to rise considerably before it starts to subside - I think it will be a relative level of violence rather than any sort an insurgancy

The collapse of the center is a dangerous sign - we need bridge builders not bridge demolishion. In this context Jack Straw's recent contribution is entirely negitive.

Dyab Abou Jahjah, a Lebanese-born activist in Belgium, said that for years Europeans had emphasized "citizenship and human rights," the notion that Muslim immigrants had the responsibility to obey the law but could otherwise live with their traditions.

"Then someone comes and says it's different than that," said Jahjah, who opposes assimilation. "You have to dump your culture and religion. It's a different deal now."

I also think it is wrong to "oppose assimilation" - we must ask what assimilation means - both sides must be prepared to compromise - we must find ways that communities can live side by side - some areas of my city are predominantly white European and some are predominantly Asian (I know in America you call people from South-East Asia or China Asian but in Britain if someone is referred to as Asian or as British-Asian then it means they are from or are 1st or 2nd generation desendants of people from the Asian sub-continent). There are probably few streets which aren't racially and culturally mixed at least to some extent.
We must hold the center through dialogue and compromise. Muslim women should no more be expected to reject the veil than male Hasidic Jews should be expected to cut off their locks. People must be free to express a distinctive cultural identity. Similarly Muslims can protest against the publication of the Danish cartoons but must understand that we have a free press and perceived insults to Islam must be tolerated. If a line is crossed and it becomes racist abuse then there are legal avenues which can be pursued. All communities have their red lines (issues about which they can not or will not compromise) which is natural but it is not wise for either community to be too rigid and declare too frequently "thus far and no further".

Moderate Europeans losing faith in Islam - muslims, europe, eu, islam - Europe - International Herald Tribune

A study by anti-trafficking charity the Poppy Project found that about 80% of prostitutes in London were foreign. The proportion in other towns and cities is also high. Among them, in every part of the UK, are trafficking victims.

The typical man who uses prostitutes is startlingly ordinary. He is: "Around 30 years of age, married, in full time employment, and with no criminal convictions," the Home Office suggests.
...
"We want it to be a topic of conversation," he says, adding that men need to realise that "slavery still exists".

BBC NEWS | UK | Beer, banter... and a brothel

Silas Simmons was handed a photograph and asked if he recognized anyone in it. He fixed his eyes on the sepia stares and moved his curled fingers over the glass and frame, soaking in the faces for more than 20 silent seconds.

It was a picture of the 1913 Homestead Grays, a primordial Pittsburgh-area baseball team that played before the Negro leagues were even born. His mind, Simmons said, needed time to connect the faces to positions to names. He was entitled to the delay; next month, he will turn 111 years old.

Baseball’s Oldest Old-Timer Opens a Window - New York Times

bposert wrote:
Great article on how Orwellian our government is becoming.

security directives and secret diktats

When a legal challenge was brought against an aviation security directive concerning passenger identification checks, a government lawyer expressed his confidence in the constitutionality of the secret law— even as he told a federal judge that the law itself could not be seen by the judiciary! Here is a telling excerpt from the court session:

Judge: What is the rule, if at all, concerning
identification?

Government Attorney: The identification
check, every passenger is requested
to produce identification. As I’ve
indicated, the statute provides one of
the purposes to check whether that
person is amongst those known to
pose a risk to aviation safety. The other
reason it’s used for purposes of the prescreening
system, is this a person—

Judge: I understand, you said all of
that. You were saying the rule is not
void for vagueness and we can move
on. I just want to know what the rule is
that isn’t void.

Government Attorney: If you are asking
me to disclose what’s in the security
directives, I can’t do it.
...
The possibility that Americans will now be held accountable for noncompliance with unknowable regulations is not the subject of heated debate in Congress. Indeed, it has not been debated at all.

i hadn't heard about this
has anybody read Kafka's The Trial recently? seems apposite

RE: Doublespeak and the War on Terrorism

As night falls in Beijing, yuppies descend upon the sassy Sanlitun Bar Street in Chaoyang District. Like a parade of dark angels, each one of them is dressed to kill. A mug of beer here costs about $4.

Chen Dan, 6, lives 30 minutes away, but has never heard of Sanlitun. That mug of beer would buy her a month's lunches, a week's bus fares and several days at the "school for children of migrant workers."

The story of Chen Dan is told by the Chinese author Huang Chuanhui in his book, "Where's My School Desk?" Like millions of other children scattered around Beijing and other Chinese cities, Chen Dan is a "floating child."

She lives with her grandparents, who migrated from Hebei province to work as janitors for the public toilets that litter Beijing. Their home is actually one of those toilets - a makeshift shed of broken bricks and discarded blankets piled at the back of the facility. They make about $40 a month.

There are an estimated 140 million such "rural migrants" working in China's cities as janitors, laborers, street vendors and at other jobs shunned by city dwellers. The children of this "floating population" are China's "floating children."

Chen Dan walks an hour each day to school. Except it is not so much a school as a makeshift childcare facility for migrant children, unregulated and unrecognized by the city government. During her breaks, she gathers old bottles for recycling to help pay for her schooling.

Still, she is lucky, because many migrant children in China get no schooling at all. Public schools in Beijing serve only local residents, so migrant workers who cannot enroll their children pay a hefty "education leasing fee" - often the equivalent of a year's earnings.

As a result, most "floating children" do not attend school, wasting their days playing in the dust with scant hope of someday climbing the social ladder.

At one point, some people, mostly retired rural teachers, took the initiative to organize informal classes for these children. These "schools for children of migrant workers" mushroomed throughout the cities. But because they have no legal status, they are often closed down by the city government.

So who should provide for the floating children? The problem is both fiscal and administrative.

On the fiscal side, China is unusual in its extensive decentralization of the provision of public services. In 2004, local governments were responsible for 72 percent of total public spending. Basic services like education and health care are almost entirely the financial responsibility of local governments.

The result is that local governments will only provide services to those who pay taxes directly to local coffers - legal, local residents.

Migrants have to pay additional fees to enroll their children in public schools because they are "leasing" a public service from a "... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

The 'floating children', adrift in China's cities - International Herald Tribune

Nine black children attending schools in northwestern Louisiana's Red River Parish were directed last week to the back of a school bus by a white driver who designated the front seats for white children, the mother of one of the children said.

"All nine children were assigned to two seats in the back of the bus and the older ones had to hold the smaller ones in their laps," Iva Richmond, mother of two of the children, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

No, never heard a no Rosa Parks. Nope.

*headdesk*
*sigh*
speechless
i want Rosa Parks to rest in peace and not spin in her grave
back of the bus wtf
even sarcasm eludes me
for shame America

Louisiana mom: School bus driver ordered blacks to back of bus

And if we are the ones not actively involved in electing those godly men and women and if people aren’t involved in helping godly men in getting elected than we’re going to have a nation of secular laws. That’s not what our founding fathers intended and that’s certainly isn’t what God intended.

Actually, that is exactly what they intended. The majority of the founding fathers are best described as deists, but more to the point, they were already fully aware of the issues of sectional fighting with the wars between England and France being in great part about religion, and they were all "Christian" of one sort or another. In Revolutionary America there were already multiple groups, and the only way they could see the government operating was if it were secular.

She does get one point right though, it does look like "Florida is the forerunner state." It was the first recent state where the actual election results were tossed out, and led the way for places like Ohio.

There's a God, and he's looking at what this nut job is doing, and wondering how He can arrange to have a ship fall on her. Like, ark size...

the only way they could see the government operating was if it were secular.

they knew their English and European history and its catalogue of religious warfare, suppression of religious minorities and intolerance
the architecture of the United States body politic was the radical application of individual liberty and reason
i don't think people like the quoted understand how radical the constitution was or its wider historical context specifically the religious turmoil of 17th and 18th centuries note the Spanish Inquisition, the English Civil War - John Locke - 1688 the Glorious Revolution and conflicts within England regarding the Established Church and the issue of Catholic Emancipation, the 30 years war

Katherine Harris