Although this is already covered by SlashDot (and they have a just a little more coverage than I do), Bruce Schneier has an excellent article up on his blog called The War on the Unexpected.

If you’ve seen anything in the news coverage, you’ve seen this picture: the picture of Israeli girls signing artillery shells that will be sent into Lebanon.

I’m sure you’ll be highly surprised to find out that this was all set up by some reporters who were on the scene. adloyada.typepad.com reports on How to demonize Israel.

As this article points out, the terrorists have won.

For those who simply don’t have time, a summation of the article:

The government is now outlawing the purchase of basic chemicals and chemistry equipment without a permit. In Texas you don’t need to register your handgun (I agree with that) but you do need to register your chemistry glassware.

No joke.

Also, it has been decided that various children’s chemistry kits can no longer contain basic elements like sulphur because some boogyman somewhere might do something bad with it. So, instead the chemicals are replaced by rubber balls and suggestions of experiments you can do with them instead. Like learning physics will somehow replace the missing chemistry knowledge.

This is insane. How are kids supposed to learn this stuff? I knew more about basic chemistry than my classmates in 9th grade precisely because I was able to buy chemistry kits with real chemicals in them. And please don’t tell me they’ll learn it in school – the schools are worse now than when I was a kid, and they were a pathetic joke then.

For the first time in my life I am seriously contemplating voting democrat just to try to get the republicans into a stalemate solution. This sort of nonsense is what I expected out of the democrats – nanny-state nonsense about “someone might get hurt”. Maybe if we vote in some gridlock we can slow them down.

Sidenote:

I just put in an order for some sulphur from United Nuclear, a company that was raided and held at gunpoint because they have the temerity to sell chemicals. See their page on what you can do to help – if they lose, chemistry sets will essentially be illegal in the USA.

An excellent Op Ed from the Boston Globe.

If someone at the Boston Globe gets it then there is hope after all.

The Gilmore v. Gonzales is in, and I can’t say I’m happy with the results.

I also can’t say I’m surprised at the results.

You can follow the link to get all of the particulars, but in a nutshell I glean these things:

1. There are “secret laws” in the United States.
2. No, you can’t see them.
3. You are free to travel in the United States.
4. However, if you wish you use any kind of transportation you will be showing your ID.
5. But… you’re free to walk. So, if you are traveling from New York to Los Angeles make sure you’ve got some free time.

Now, the upside is that the ruling has proved that there is a way to not show your ID; you can “elect” to be heavily searched. That’s for airports; I wonder if that applies to bus & train stations.

I fully understand and appreciate the need to make sure any aircraft is safe. However, the surest way to do that is to be certain that no one brings anything onboard that allows the takeover or destruction of the vessel. Keep in mind that the killers on Sept 11th had valid IDs with them.

But, I’m most disturbed about the “secret law” aspect of this. Is this a slippery slope? If so, how far down are we on that slope?