AMAZON CUSTOMER COMMENTS ON THE PLAYMOBIL TSA CHECKPOINT

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I was a little disappointed when I first bought this item, because the functionality is limited. My 5 year old son pointed out that the passenger’s shoes cannot be removed. Then, we placed a deadly fingernail file underneath the passenger’s scarf, and neither the detector doorway nor the security wand picked it up. My son said “that’s the worst security ever!”. But it turned out to be okay, because when the passenger got on the Playmobil B757 and tried to hijack it, she was mobbed by a couple of other heroic passengers, who only sustained minor injuries in the scuffle, which were treated at the Playmobil Hospital. The best thing about this product is that it teaches kids about the realities of living in a high-surveillance society. My son said he wants the Playmobil Neighborhood Surveillance System set for Christmas. I’ve heard that the CC TV cameras on that thing are pretty worthless in terms of quality and motion detection, so I think I’ll get him the Playmobil Abu-Gharib Interrogation Set instead (it comes with a cute little memo from George Bush). this)

Thank you, Playmobil, for allowing me to teach my 5-year old the importance of recognizing what a failing bureaucracy in a ever growing fascist state looks like. Sometimes it’s a hard lesson for kids to learn because not all pigs carry billy clubs and wear body armor. I applaud the people who created this toy for finally being hip to our changing times. Little children need to be aware that not all smiling faces and uniforms are friendly. I noticed that my child is now more interested in current events. Just the other day he asked me why we had to forfeit so much of our liberties and personal freedoms and I had to answer “Well, it’s because the terrorists have already won”. Yes, they have won. I also highly recommend the Playmobil “farm fencing” so you can take your escorted airline passenger away and fence him behind bars as if he were in Guantanamo Bay.

My family was planning a vacation to Europe, so I purchased this item to teach my twins about what to expect at the airport and hopefully, alleviate some of their anxiety. We also downloaded the actual TSA security checklist from the American Airlines website and then proceeded with our demonstration. . . Worst of all, since the suitcase did not actually open, the baggage inspector made a call to the FBI and ATF bomb squads which then segregated the family’s suitcase (which btw was the only suitcase they provided for our educational family experience) and according to the advanced TSA regulations, had to blow it up, (since they could not otherwise mutilate the luggage, break off the locks and put one of those nice little advisory stickers on it), which we had to simulate out in the backyard with a few M-80s and other fireworks. The girls started crying. They became so hysterical by the whole experience that we could not even get them in the car when the time came to actually take our trip, and so we had to cancel the whole thing at the last minute, losing over $7,000 in airfare and hotel charges that we could not recoup do to the last minute cancellations.

We’ve now spent an additional $3,000 to pay for the girls therapy and medication over the past year since this incident occurred, and the psychologists have told us that this will affect them for life, so much for their college fund and our retirement. Then, to top it all off, when we tried to use to Playmobil phone to call the company to ask for reimbursement, as you might expect, of course the damn thing didn’t even work; neither did our efforts to e-mail them using the computer screen on the baggage checkpoint; and our real-life efforts to contact them to obtain re-imbursement have also likewise been ignored.

Methane On Mars May Indicate Living Planet

Mars
Space
Riding with Robots writes “NASA is announcing today that the definitive detection of methane in the Martian atmosphere means the planet is still alive, at least geologically, and perhaps even biologically. ‘Methane is quickly destroyed in the Martian atmosphere in a variety of ways, so our discovery of substantial plumes of methane in the northern hemisphere of Mars indicates some ongoing process is releasing the gas,’ said one agency scientist. The gas was detected with observations made over over several Martian years with NASA telescopes at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Both biological and geological processes could explain the methane.”

Tapping the Earth For Home Heating and Cooling

suraj.sun recommends a CNet post giving details of a still little-known energy technology: the ground source heat pump or geo-exchange system. This is distinct from so-called geothermal energy, which taps the heat in the earth to provide energy. Geo-exchange is suitable in scale for small industry — the article describes one commercial re-development of an old mill into apartment and commercial space that put in a geo-exchange at about half the cost of traditional fossil fuel-based alternatives. Even some individual homeowners are opting for this green method of heating and cooling, at a premium in price of about 50 percent (but costs are very much per-project, largely because drilling is involved). “Rather than use underground heat, geothermal heat pumps attached to buildings capitalize on the steady temperature of the ground or deep water wells. In effect, they treat the Earth like a giant energy savings bank, depositing or withdrawing heat depending on the time of year. “

Quotes from Thomas Jefferson that apply to our lives today.

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***Was Thomas Jefferson a Prophet Too?

Thomas Jefferson in some cases could be called a prophet.

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe,
we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
Thomas Jefferson

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those
who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes.
A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
Thomas Jefferson

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the
government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense
of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results
from too much government.
Thomas Jefferson

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
Thomas Jefferson

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear
arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
Thomas Jefferson

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which
he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson

In light of the present financial crisis, it’s  interesting to read what Thomas
Jefferson said in 1802:

‘I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than
standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control
the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and
corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all
property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers
conquered.’

Barack Obama Selects the Dead for Inaugural Ball: “It Was Quite an Honor”


rolling stone- 1/15/09, 5:03 pm EST

Photo: Barnard/Getty

Just a week after confirming their first tour in five years, the reunited Dead are booked to rock the Mid-Atlantic Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C. on January 20th. “A DJ will open up — it’s a long, strange trip!,” Mickey Hart jokes to Rolling Stone (the DJ in question is celeb spinner DJ Cassidy). “[Barack Obama] picked us specifically,” he adds, “so it was quite an honor. There was a short list and we made the cut.” (For a peek into the President-Elect’s iPod, click here.)

As for the most important question — can the band jam at the ball? — Hart is dubious: “It’s pretty tight, about an hour set. When you play these kinds of things you say, ‘How can I be of service?’ The entertainment committee makes it so that it fits into their huge schedule.”

Another pitfall of political rocking: a background check. “It gave me pause when I had to get a security clearance to play a gig!” Hart says. So did they get past the security scan? “Oh, yeah, we don’t look so bad on paper. It’s not as bad as you might think.”

The Dead partially reunited for a Deadheads for Obama gig in spring 2007, and drummer Bill Kreutzmann rejoined the group for a “Change Rocks” Obama fundraiser at Penn State in October. The tour that kicks off April 12th in Greensboro, North Carolina, features founding members Phil Lesh, Bob Weir as well as Hart and Kreutzmann, joined by keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and Allman Brothers Band/Gov’t Mule guitarist Warren Haynes.

Related Stories:

• Still Truckin’: The Dead Reunite in Pennsylvania
• The Dead Reunite for Obama at Scorching Penn State Benefit
• The Dead Announce First Tour in Five Years

51 PHARMACEUTICALS & OTHER COMPOUNDS FOUND IN DRINKING WATER

Rowan Harper, New Scientist – A comprehensive survey of the drinking water for more than 28 million Americans has detected the widespread but low-level presence of pharmaceuticals and hormonally active chemicals.

Little was known about people’s exposure to such compounds from drinking water, so Shane Snyder and colleagues at the Southern Nevada Water Authority in Las Vegas screened tap water from 19 US water utilities for 51 different compounds. . . The 11 most frequently detected compounds – all found at extremely low concentrations – were:

– Atenolol, a beta-blocker used to treat cardiovascular disease

– Atrazine, an organic herbicide banned in the European Union, but still used in the US, which has been implicated in the decline of fish stocks and in changes in animal behavior

– Carbamazepine, a mood-stabilizing drug used to treat bipolar disorder, amongst other things

– Estrone, an estrogen hormone secreted by the ovaries and blamed for causing gender-bending changes in fish

– Gemfibrozil, an anti-cholesterol drug

– Meprobamate, a tranquilizer widely used in psychiatric treatment

– Naproxen, a painkiller and anti-inflammatory linked to increases in asthma incidence

– Phenytoin, an anticonvulsant that has been used to treat epilepsy

– Sulfamethoxazole, an antibiotic used against the Streptococcus bacteria, which is responsible for tonsillitis and other diseases

– TCEP, a reducing agent used in molecular biology

– Trimethoprim, another antibiotic

The concentrations of pharmaceuticals in drinking water were millions of times lower than in a medical dose, and Snyder emphasizes that they pose no public health threat. He cautions, though, that “if a person has a unique health condition, or is concerned about particular contaminants in public water systems, I strongly recommend they consult their physician.”. . .

Abolish the Federal Reserve

Quote of the Day: “We got into this crisis because power was overly concentrated relative to knowledge. What has been going on for the past several months is more consolidation of power. This is bound to make things worse. Just as Nixon’s bureaucrats did not have the knowledge to go along with the power they took when they instituted wage and price controls, the Fed and the Treasury cannot possibly have knowledge that is proportional to the power they currently exercise in financial markets.” — Arnold Kling

Subject: End the FED

The stock market rises and then crashes. Housing prices soar and then plummet. The Federal Reserve causes these booms and busts by constantly expanding and contracting the supply of money and credit.

Credit expansion by the Federal Reserve increases the demand for producer assets and investment instruments. This causes bubbles in things like stocks and housing. When the Fed then contracts credit to avoid systemic price inflation the asset bubbles burst.

This is the history of the Federal Reserve — booms and busts, mixed with episodes of economic stagnation and high inflation like the 1970s.

Even before the Fed was created in 1913 government manipulation of money and credit caused repeated bubbles and contractions. One big source of this mischief was government imposed exchange ratios between gold, silver, and the U.S. dollar. When these hardwired exchange ratios didn’t match reality, problems ensued.

It’s important to recognize that economic perfection isn’t possible. Investors will always make mistakes. But we would expect these mistakes to be randomly distributed throughout the economy, and occur at different times. What causes a bunch of investment mistakes to cluster in particular sectors at a specific time, causing systemic problems?

Only government has the power to impose universal conditions on the economy, from the top down, causing investment mistakes to cluster, like they have in the housing market. The government can do this by passing laws and creating programs that favor one type of investment over others, causing a boom in those sectors.

But the Federal Reserve, with its monopoly control over the supply of money and credit, is an even more powerful mechanism for causing investment errors to cluster.

We need to get off the Federal Reserve roller coaster. We need to end centralized top-down control of the money supply and interest rates. We need a true free market in money and banking. We must abolish the Federal Reserve.

Congressman Ron Paul has a bill to accomplish this. It’s called the “Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act,” and a national coalition called “End the Fed” is working to bring attention to this bill.

Please use our quick and easy Educate the Powerful System to ask your elected representatives to co-sponsor the “Federal Reserve Abolition Act” when Congressman Paul re-introduces it in this Congress.

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DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

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