Why Racial Profiling Isn't Always a Bad Thing

Racial profiling has sort of ducked under the media radar again, but for a while, it was all over the news, in terms of crime fighting/prevention in Toronto, as well as the American war on terror. The concept of associating stereotypes to people based on their skin colour, religion, or any other physical characteristics seems to piss off a lot of people, especially those targeted. Young black men don't want to be pulled over by the police just because they are driving a fancy car. Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent don't want to have to face extra scrutiny at the airport. And their request for fairness seems, well, fair enough. We're a society that's supposed to be colour-blind when it comes to race.

However, call it "affirmative action" and suddenly, the people who are being stereotyped and profiled are suddenly onboard. Affirmative action is attaching a stereotype to a group of people based on their physical characteristics (e.g. that blacks are disadvantaged when it comes to higher education or getting jobs), and then targetting those people based on that assumption. They only difference is that the people that are being targeted are benefitting from the stereotype.

So, if you think affirmative action is a good thing, then racial profiling isn't always a bad thing.

Blog upgrade

fuck decaf is powered by blogger, and hosted by me. This morning, I've upgraded the blog to use the new non-beta blogger tools. Expect an update on the contributor help page as I learn the system. >What happens when team blogs switch to the new version of Blogger? Things you should know: If you have other blogger.com blogs, then this one will not be accessible to you until you also upgrade your account. What a nice viral touch to promote an upgrade. If you can't or won't switch, ask me for a new invitation, and I will reissue. Use a different username or email address please. Happy new blog!

U.S. warns about Canadian spy coins

MSNBC.com

Money talks, but can it also follow your movements?

In a U.S. government warning high on the creepiness scale, the Defense Department cautioned its American contractors over what it described as a new espionage threat: Canadian coins with tiny radio frequency transmitters hidden inside.

The government said the mysterious coins were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors traveled through Canada.

read more

alternate earth?

Back in the early nineties when the net consisted mainly of usenet news, ftp and email, I came across a plan in a news group.

Or rather a project. The group was writing, in secrecy, an alternate future, news clippings and press releases of events two years in their future. They intended to release these assorted tales onto the net in real time giving them a two year moving window to construct the alternate information, an alternate memesphere.

I wasn't a contributor despite the temptation that such a time waster was to a grad student. And so, I was not in on the secrets. I lost track of the group, and never knew if they'd kept the project going.

That was perhaps 15 or even 17 years ago, and I'm left now with a puzzle. Did they in fact carry out the plan? Have false and alternative story lines been released over that time?

Does anyone know the source? Or seen traces of this project?

I'm just curious if we are in fact living on an alternate earth without realising it.

C

Beppe Grillo says it best.

http://www.beppegrillo.it/eng/2007/01/saddam.html

"Saddam has been hanged. Condemned by the Iraqi people. But no one believes it. The hands of the executioner were Iraqi, but the executioner was Bush. Saddam should have been condemned to life in prison.
He should have grown old in prison. Lost his haughtiness. With the execution, he was gifted a dignity that he did not have. A made-in-Texas greatness.
Now Saddam is a martyr and in his death we need to remember the war with Iran financed by the USA. The good Saddam, ally of the West against Khomeini. The Saddam who was secular and supporting the West.
Then he set up on his own and this was an intolerable insult to American democracy. That of the 2 million prisoners and arms of death. And of the control of the Persian Gulf.
If Saddam was a criminal, then so are a few Heads of State with seats in the United Nations. Why Saddam and them not? Oil."