On a more serious note for a moment …
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Naomi Wolf discusses the consistent ten points in the progression of fascism in totalitarian societies. This is really worth watching … all 45+ minutes of it.
Now on a seemingly less serious note …
Stephen Colbert (can I have your children? PLEASE?!) interviews her:
There's also this one: (similar to her speech, but ap ersonal interviwe about it) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0LvtQAQ6sc
She even talks about customs having left notes in her bags when she didn't even know they'd been searched. o.O
15th March 2008 at 3:08 am | permalink |@zef: I gotta say, that was the one part of the presentation that didn't impress me. I've had TSA notes left in my luggage on every transatlantic flight I've taken since a year after 9/11 … on the way over, AND on the way home.
15th March 2008 at 3:11 am | permalink |Stephen Colbert is the MAN!
16th March 2008 at 5:15 am | permalink |Top video is no longer available. TSA has to leave those notes IIRC. I never had a note though.
I wonder how the right winger nutters are liking her book. I was planning on getting it.
16th March 2008 at 7:10 am | permalink |Hmmm, I've taken loads of transatlantic flights post 9/11 and never got a note from the TSA. Do they just put them in there for you guys?
What did it say? Did it offer 30% off at GAP if you inform on a friend or neighbour?
16th March 2008 at 8:09 am | permalink |@phil: YES he fucking IS!
@larry: Really? Shit, I'll have to try and find another link for it. [added: checked it, and it seems to be working fine now. at least as fine as ANY video works on dialup. hehe]
@uk_guy: OK, I'm going to climb upstairs and find the last note I got, and type it out …
16th March 2008 at 3:13 pm | permalink |Security
Administration
NOTICE OF
BAGGAGE INSPECTION
To protect you and your fellow passengers, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is required by law* to inspect all checked baggage. As part of the process, some bags are opened and physically inspected. Your bag was among those selected for physical inspection.
During the inspection, your bag and its contents may have been searched for prohibited items. At the completion of the inspection, the contents were returned to your bag.
If the TSA security officer was unable to open your bag for inspection because it was locked, the officer may have been forced to break the locks on your bag. TSA sincerely regrets having to do this, however TSA is not liable for damage to your locks resulting from this necessary security precaution.
For packing tips and suggestions on how to secure your baggage during your next trip, please visit:
We appreciate your understanding and cooperation. If you have questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to contact the TSA Contact Center:
Email:TSA-ContactCenter@dhs.gov
*Section 110(b) of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001,
49 U.S.C. 44901(c)-(e)
Rev. 8-1-224
16th March 2008 at 3:22 pm | permalink |
She mentioned that history has shown that impeachment is not enough. I am curious what examples she would give (I'm not being sarcastic, I would like to know).
She is subtle, but comes off very much like an extremist. I don't think attempting to try a president and/or others for treason is the best way to get results, but that doesn't mean it would hurt my fealings to see an impeachment trial in the news.
Suspension of natural human rights is not something that should be possible in the American framework and I am shamed that we have fallen backwards.
I don't pretend to be more knowledgable than Naomi, but in my personal context we are approaching a situation more akin to the fall of ancient Rome than the rise of a fascist regime.
Rome started to collapse as a gradual process somewhere around the year 400. Some of their majors problems that they had that we share are as follows:
1. Devaluation of the coinage. Technically this happens for different reasons, because they had a monetary system based on a gold standard which we don't use and they lost value by giving gold away to Barbarian's, but we had a 6.5% inflation rate last year, which puts us in the same boat I would imagine.
2. General economic problems…not being self sufficient as a country. Technically this refers only to western rome, but when their interests in Africa were cut off, western Rome was bound to implode. This draws a sharp parallel with our oil interests and use of labor in other countries.
3. Christianity had recently become part of both defacto and dejure governmental policy…need I say more?
I don't think we are going to be overrun by Barbians or the Huns, so I'm not sure where I was going with this point though, lol.
16th March 2008 at 10:17 pm | permalink |@autodidact: We might not be overrun by Barbarians or Huns, but the prospect of basically being bought outright by China isn't unimaginable.
16th March 2008 at 10:51 pm | permalink |Thanks for posting the letter. In the long line of identical black luggage on wheels, I mine must have been passed over for inspection. Can't say I'm disappointed.
@autodidact: It is interesting to compare current events with the fall of Rome. While it's clear Ms Wolf is very well read in the comparisons she is making, it would be interesting to have someone as well read in the fall of empires give a similar talk.
For what it's worth, the fall if the British Empire was, IMHO, inevitable once the cost (money/resource/lives) of WWII started adding up.
While no one would argue that fighting the nazis was the wrong thing to do, it's my understanding that the full horror of what was going on in Germany wasn't known in 1939 (when the UK declared war on Germany).
If fact the official reason was because a short time before the invasion of Poland, the UK signed a pact to come to Poland's aid, if it were invaded. This, was of course, bullshit, because at the end of the war Poland was left under the control of Stalin and the USSR. I always feel guilty and embarrassed that we didn't keep our work to Poland on this matter.
So where was I going with this point? Oh remember, costly wars bring down superpowers, at least sometimes.
17th March 2008 at 1:07 pm | permalink |I'm going to have to pause my reading of mind numbing programming books and buy that book today.
And it's correct, I generally get a TSA note every time. Of course I look a little shady…
18th March 2008 at 9:55 am | permalink |@uk_guy: Well, if it's a costly war that's going to bring down the US, we're doing a damn good job of it so far. heh
@aaron: See, I never thought I looked shady, but maybe traveling with a duffel bag or large backpack is automatically shady? heh
18th March 2008 at 12:34 pm | permalink |