Mad Feminist

Military-industrial corps turn to civilian market

A balloon launched by Raytheon at the Indy 500, on Memorial Day weekend, contains a surveillance system known as RAID (Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment).

According to http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/ "the system is kitted-out with 'electro-optic infrared, radar, flash and acoustic detectors' ".

Apparently there are already 300 such blimps operating in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s a goodly number, mass production probably no problem.

They like this system because, as one Raytheon person put it, "The airship is great because it doesn’t have that Big Brother feel, or create feelings of invasiveness," … .

Great. The ultimate stalker nightmare. Miniaturization is all, so it won’t be long before they mass market miniature systems for personal use.

I’m skipping lots of important details in this article, which was based on a Newsweek story (Kurt Soller, "Are You Being Watched? The blimp flying above your head may be watching your every move," Newsweek, June 11, 2009), but here I’m quoting in full:

“In this context, the public roll-out of RAID is all the more pressing for securocrats and the companies they serve since Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ‘plans to kill a program begun by the Bush administration that would use U.S. spy satellites for domestic security and law enforcement,’ the Associated Press reported June 22.

“That program, the National Applications Office (NAO) was first announced by the Bush regime in 2007 and was mired in controversy from the get-go. As Antifascist Calling reported last year, NAO would coordinate how domestic law enforcement and “disaster relief” agencies such as FEMA utilize GEOINT and imagery intelligence (IMINT) generated by U.S. spy satellites. But as with other heimat security schemes there was little in the way of oversight and zero concern for the rights of the American people.

“The intrusiveness of the program was so severe that even Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), the author of the despicable “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007″ (H.R. 1955) vowed to pull the plug. Chairwoman of the Homeland Security Committee’s Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment subcommittee, Harman introduced legislation earlier this month that would have shut down NAO immediately while prohibiting the agency from spending money on NAO or similar programs.”

I guess they think the ezy brezy blimp can slide by Congress.

This article is a keeper, because it gives essential details (which I have omitted here) and names the companies involved. We all may want to refer to it as time goes by.

Looks like the technology for total surveillance is here: gps positioning, embedded computer chips… . It’s a growth market and will not be denied.

I wake up humming #1

This morning I woke up humming "My Way", having heard late last night a version by one Nina Hagen who I guess I'm the only person around who never heard of her. It's a blast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO6HbzZPxvc&feature=related

So I watched it again. I found it on Bing, which seems to have more music clips than YouTube, so with that in mind, all the while humming My Way, I thought to look for the song Maggie (When You and I Were Young Maggie) and found this sweet gem by a Japanese group.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD7tXICzHOQ

Now I'm humming Maggie.

Back to reading political blogs now.

Labels: music

Poetry and music

News flash from inside brain: all poets must submit their poems in musical score format, along with dvd of them being sung.

I was humming Schubert's Ave Maria when this thought popped up, glorious melody line. Here's a YouTube clip I've got bookmarked, Pavarotti, live:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uYrmYXsujI

Lately, more YouTube music clips, less political blog reading.

Labels: music, poetry

Food irradiation

Well, well, or actually, not well at all: researchers fed rats on an all-food-irradiated diet and they got brain damage. Details:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/25/Irradiated-Food-Causes-Brain-Damage.aspx

Labels: Food

When we the people includes corporations, we humans come out a sorry second.

Labels: Corporations

Twisty calls it

The latest patriarchal excess to trigger Twisty's feminist rage is the new pink-bottled vodka. Just one quote here:

Femininity, in fact, can’t even be practiced without stuff (which is one way of debunking the argument that it is an inherited sex trait). It is simply not possible for a woman without makeup and deodorant and lingerie and kitten heels and diet pills and clothes without pockets and anti-wrinkle cream that promises “glowing skin” and self-help books explaining the best ways to suck up to men and jewelry and razors and tweezers and lemon-scented cleaning products and boxes of Lean Cuisine in the freezer — all stuff that must be bought — to be fully feminine.

Femininity — selling it, doing it, approving of it, pinking it, drinking it — is antifeminist, fool.

http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/

Labels: femininity, patriarchy, Twisty

Humans, the new underclass

Are we used to it now?