Two prayers....

God's will be done and may He have mercy upon us all.

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A Catholic who follows Rome & the Magisterium. I'm against gay "marriage", abortion, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, human cloning. Altar girls, Communion in the hand, Eucharistic Ministers and "Protestant" music in the Church doesn't bother me at all. A proud American retired submarine sailor. Our borders should be secured with a 10 ft. high fence topped by concertina wire with minefields out to 20 yards on both sides and an additional 10 yards filled with warning signs outside of that Let's get energy independent NOW! Back Israel to the max, stop appeasing followers of the Pedophile Prophet. Pro 2nd Amendment, pro death penalty, Repeal all hate crime legislation. Back the police unless you'd rather call a hippie when everything hits the fan. Get government out of dealing with education, childhood obesity and the enviornment. Stop using the military for sociological experiments and if we're in a war don't micromanage their every move. Kill your television, limit time on the computer and pick up a book. God's will be done and may He have mercy upon us all.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

"Minority Report" in real life...

Found this at The Blaze:

Straight out of Minority Report a new Homeland Security program would subject Americans to pre-crime interrogations and physiological scans to detect people who are intending to commit a terrorist act at sports stadiums, malls, airports and other public places has moved closer to being implemented after the FAST program passed its first round of testing at an undisclosed location in northeast US.

The system uses a computer program that studies physiological indicators of a person, such as heart rate and the steadiness of a person’s gaze, and then uses the data to make a judgment on whether that individual has “malintent”.

(End of story. My comments follow.)

Actually the inference to the method of crime prevention in "Minority Report" is wrong. In that movie the authorities relied on the precognitive abilities of three adolescents, not a computer program checking biological indicators.

Regardless, the main thrust of the brief article is correct. We've already got jerks at the TSA treating anyone out of the slightly ordinary as guilty until proven innocent (unless of course theres a muslim involved). How much more arrogant will they become when a supposedly infallible machine singles some poor schmuck out? Newsflash: Machines are piss poor indicators of criminal intent and/or culpability. As an example, polygraphs are NOT allowed as evidence in a trial.

Speaking of polygraphs and their inclination to error, I recall an incident that happened while I was still on active duty. Someone had compromised an advancement exam, in the course of the investigation they gave a number of test takers a lie detector test. One of my guys was fingered, flunked the polygraph and had to be interviewed by Naval Investigative Service (NIS, now known as NCIS).

If anyone was absolutely, positively innocent it was my man "George". He was that sort of guy. But there was no way, no how I was trusting him to the tender mercies of NIS. To say they had a reputation for browbeating intimidation is an understatement.

So down to their office he and I went. The agent who interviewed him was taken aback when I followed "George" through the door. Evidently he didn't expect him to have backup from the command. Turned out I had to wait outside, but "George" was in and out so fast they could have used a revolving door on that room. He was grateful for my presence and from what I've been told it probably made the difference between a quick Q&A session or a long time spent being grilled hard for no damned good reason.

But who wants to bet the TSA schmuck manning a piece of the latest & greatest technology is going to believe anyone it singles out might actually be innocent?

Excuse me now, the wife bought me a copy of Orwell's "1984". For some reason I feel the need to refresh my memory of it.

6 comments:

ignorant redneck said...

Excuse me, I have to puke, after seeing what the Fascistic and Oppressive Obama Administration has done to the constitution i swore to protect and Defend.

Anthony S. Layne said...

I was never happy with even the idea of a Department of Homeland Security ... "Homeland" just reminded me too much of Vaterland or Rodina. The idea that my liberty may very soon depend on a machine guessing that my intent is not hostile isn't a happy thought at all. DSH needs to be de-funded and taken apart right now, before a "progressive" SCOTUS makes the Bill of Rights "politically correct".

Bill said...

Aside from the huge(once more) infringement on our rights,any test is pretty ridiculous and beatable.Anybody that's the least bit crazy enough to kill people to get their 72 virgins can easily delude any test. I mean, good grief, I passed all the psychological tests to be given a job in law enforcement!

Subvet said...

IR, I can identify. Pass the bucket.

Subvet said...

Anthony, I've also sensed an Orwellian taint to the name. Kind of like "Ministry of Truth".

Subvet said...

Bill, amen to that. The innocent will be persecuted, the guilty will succeed and we'll see a further erosion of liberty in response to it all.

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