I suppose we Americans should not feel alone.
This is reported from the United Kingdom by the BBC.
Security staff employed illegally
The Home Office has admitted illegal immigrants have been mistakenly cleared for jobs as security staff.
Ministers have ordered new checks to be carried out on hundreds of thousands of people vetted by the Security Industry Authority over the past three years.
I want to laugh but it really isn't funny.
The Home Office says the SIA did not check applicants were entitled to work in the UK before granting licences.
According to the Sunday Mirror, illegal immigrants are working at airports, ports and the Metropolitan Police.
The newspaper claimed 5,000 illegal immigrants were estimated to have been employed in posts such as security guards and bouncers.
I bet they learned that from the U.S.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7089214.stm
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Muslim Profiling Effort
Is it any shock that the Los Angeles Police isn't spending a lot of effort looking into the Amish community?
LAPD defends Muslim mapping effort
The LAPD's plan to map Muslim communities in an effort to identify potential hotbeds of extremism departs from the way law enforcement has dealt with local anti-terrorism since 9/11 and prompted widespread skepticism Friday.
In a document reviewed Friday by The Times, the LAPD's Los Angeles Police Department's counter-terrorism bureau proposed using U.S. census data and other demographic information to pinpoint various Muslim communities and then reach out to them through social service agencies.
What possible argument can there be against this?
"We learned our lesson early on," one retired FBI counter-terrorism official said Friday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, questioned the logic of the mapping program, reasoning that the wholesale plotting of Muslim communities -- rather than zeroing in on suspected extremists -- could drain counter-terrorism resources and alienate Muslim residents at a time when they are crucial to law enforcement efforts.
I understand it may not be the best use of police recources and I expect that if it becomes evident the police department will stop.
"I realize that there are many concerns with a potential mapping project related to profiling, privacy and civil liberties," center Director Detlof von Winterfeldt said in a statement.
Oh no, the sky is falling.
"Anytime the administration talks about attacking Iran, anytime they start to float ideas like these, we are pushed more toward extremism," Mohammed Abdul Aleem, 49, of Culver City said. "Every time our president opens his mouth, there are more people joining Al Qaeda."To Aleem, the LAPD's plan to map out the city's Muslim community will do nothing more than "fuel the fire."
Sounds like a threat. Non-the-less doing nothing is not acceptable.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lapd10nov10,0,3960843.story?page=1&coll=la-home-center
LAPD defends Muslim mapping effort
The LAPD's plan to map Muslim communities in an effort to identify potential hotbeds of extremism departs from the way law enforcement has dealt with local anti-terrorism since 9/11 and prompted widespread skepticism Friday.
In a document reviewed Friday by The Times, the LAPD's Los Angeles Police Department's counter-terrorism bureau proposed using U.S. census data and other demographic information to pinpoint various Muslim communities and then reach out to them through social service agencies.
What possible argument can there be against this?
"We learned our lesson early on," one retired FBI counter-terrorism official said Friday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, questioned the logic of the mapping program, reasoning that the wholesale plotting of Muslim communities -- rather than zeroing in on suspected extremists -- could drain counter-terrorism resources and alienate Muslim residents at a time when they are crucial to law enforcement efforts.
I understand it may not be the best use of police recources and I expect that if it becomes evident the police department will stop.
"I realize that there are many concerns with a potential mapping project related to profiling, privacy and civil liberties," center Director Detlof von Winterfeldt said in a statement.
Oh no, the sky is falling.
"Anytime the administration talks about attacking Iran, anytime they start to float ideas like these, we are pushed more toward extremism," Mohammed Abdul Aleem, 49, of Culver City said. "Every time our president opens his mouth, there are more people joining Al Qaeda."To Aleem, the LAPD's plan to map out the city's Muslim community will do nothing more than "fuel the fire."
Sounds like a threat. Non-the-less doing nothing is not acceptable.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lapd10nov10,0,3960843.story?page=1&coll=la-home-center
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Huck Finn and Nigger Jim
Every once in a while, this happens.
Some illiterate gets his hackles up over the classic book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
HALTOM CITY -- The Birdville school district superintendent will apologize in writing to a student offended by a lesson on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and teachers will get cultural sensitivity training.
This is backwards!
17-year-old Ibrahim Mohamed, his parents and a coalition of activists offended by the teacher's repeated use of a racial slur that is in the text of the classic 1884 Mark Twain novel.
I am offended by ignorance and petty complaints.
The school district has removed the book from the Richland High School student's class and has allowed him to enroll in a different English class, but his parents say they will now go though a process of requesting that the book be removed from the district's curriculum.
Fine, now everybody can experience the joys of ignorance.
And while the group wanted the teacher to be required to do community outreach work with black and Muslim communities, school district officials cannot comment on what, if any, disciplinary measures might have been implemented, Thomas said.
http://www.star-telegram.com/407/story/287664.html
What a bunch of narrow minded pushy ass bastards.
Some illiterate gets his hackles up over the classic book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
HALTOM CITY -- The Birdville school district superintendent will apologize in writing to a student offended by a lesson on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and teachers will get cultural sensitivity training.
This is backwards!
17-year-old Ibrahim Mohamed, his parents and a coalition of activists offended by the teacher's repeated use of a racial slur that is in the text of the classic 1884 Mark Twain novel.
I am offended by ignorance and petty complaints.
The school district has removed the book from the Richland High School student's class and has allowed him to enroll in a different English class, but his parents say they will now go though a process of requesting that the book be removed from the district's curriculum.
Fine, now everybody can experience the joys of ignorance.
And while the group wanted the teacher to be required to do community outreach work with black and Muslim communities, school district officials cannot comment on what, if any, disciplinary measures might have been implemented, Thomas said.
http://www.star-telegram.com/407/story/287664.html
What a bunch of narrow minded pushy ass bastards.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Waterboarding
It is no secret that the use of torture to attain information today is a debated subject. The following commentary is far better than I can ever explain.
Waterboarding and Hiroshima
Did the Allies in World War II "lower themselves to the level of their enemies"?
Whatever side one takes here, the important point is that the debate fundamentally is about results. Note the difference with the current debate over waterboarding, where opponents argue that the technique is unconscionable and inadmissible under any circumstances, even in hypothetical cases where the alternative to waterboarding is terrorist attacks resulting in mass casualties among innocent civilians. According to this view, it is possible to wage war yet avoid the classic "choice of evils" dilemmas that confronted past statesmen such as Churchill and Roosevelt. Or, to put the argument more precisely, it is possible to avoid this choice if one is also prepared to pay for it in blood--if not in one's own, than in that of kith and kin and whoever else's life must be sacrificed to keep our consciences clear.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bstephens/?id=110010827
Waterboarding and Hiroshima
Did the Allies in World War II "lower themselves to the level of their enemies"?
Whatever side one takes here, the important point is that the debate fundamentally is about results. Note the difference with the current debate over waterboarding, where opponents argue that the technique is unconscionable and inadmissible under any circumstances, even in hypothetical cases where the alternative to waterboarding is terrorist attacks resulting in mass casualties among innocent civilians. According to this view, it is possible to wage war yet avoid the classic "choice of evils" dilemmas that confronted past statesmen such as Churchill and Roosevelt. Or, to put the argument more precisely, it is possible to avoid this choice if one is also prepared to pay for it in blood--if not in one's own, than in that of kith and kin and whoever else's life must be sacrificed to keep our consciences clear.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bstephens/?id=110010827
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