Time for Some Reverse Profiling

This post was inspired by my daughter's recent experience while flying to visit us with her 10 month old son.

We all want to be safe when we fly, and the TSA has implemented many measures to help us be safer.  While "profiling" would most likely further improve our safety, this approach is taboo.  The reason being that profiling is immediately equated with racial stereotyping.  For example, holding a person as suspicious due to them "looking like Islamic extremists" is wrong because it targets unfairly all of the innocent Muslims.

The more tolerable solution has been to treat everyone as a potential terrorist, making them strip and taking away their water bottles and sun screen.  Or, in my daughters case, baby formula.

The security officials informed my daughter that she could not bring baby formula since it exceeded the allowable amount of fluid.  She insisted that she needed food for her baby, so they said they could test it.  Somehow, it failed the test (I've heard of security detection equipment being designed to give false positives for some purpose I can't seem to recall).  Because of her failure to comply with procedures and due to the failed test, she had to submit to a "pat down".  The female security person courteously informed my daughter where she would be touching her and when it came to the area of her breasts, she said that she would use the backs of her hands (apparently to be less of a violation of decency).  Meanwhile, her infant son was crying, since he seemed to detect in his innocent state that what was happening was wrong.

I don't know in what kind of world a mother with her infant son would consider performing an act of terror.  I think it is about time we started "profiling" for people that no one in their right mind would consider a risk.  I call this "reverse profiling", since instead of trying to find dangerous people, we do the reverse and identify harmless people.  So I decided to create a list of people we don't need to partially strip, pat down or take away their fluids.  We don't need to rip crying babies from their mother's arms and no one needs to drop their pants revealing their collestomy bags.

My "reverse profiling":

1. Mother's with young children
2. Young children (anyone under 12 years old)
3. Anyone over 70 years of age
4. Handicapped (maybe we can give them an extra handicap placard to show to TSA)
5. People with terminal illness (Cancer patients, etc.)
6. Attractive women
7. Congressman

This select group of people seem to be the subject of embarrassing news reports of unseemly TSA gropings (try searching YouTube for "TSA").  The "groping" will still continue, but surely the TSA's public relations will improve as "pat downs" of average citizens proves less than newsworthy.  Maybe if this approach works, we can expand my list to include "frequent flying businessmen" and "middle-aged white guys going on a cruise".

Update Aug 31, 2012

It's nice to see that the TSA has been reading my blog.  Here are some signs I saw posted at the security line recently.  That takes care of items 2 and 3 above (Not sure why they skipped my #1 issue, Mother's).

Don't be this guy

Paul Dearinger was recently convicted and is going to jail.  Imagine the conversation between and his fellow inmates.
"Frank, what did you do to get in here?" - "I stole a car"
"Steve, what did you do?" - "I robbed a liquor store"
"Mike, what did you do?" - "I stabbed a guy"
"Paul, what did you do?"  - "I beat a puppy to death"

Federal Regulation D

Today there was a message on my answering machine from my bank with an "urgent" message.  I was worried that it might be fraudulent charges so I immediately called.  I was informed that I was getting close to violating Regulation D of the Federal Reserve board.  That sounded pretty serious to me.

Then the bank representative told me what Regulation D was: it limits the number of online transfers you can make between your accounts to 6 times a month.  I had already made 5 transfers and the month is only half over (I would explain why but it is no more your business than it is the Federal governments business).

I can't imagine what could possibly be wrong with making more than 6 online transfers.  Nor can I imaging why the Federal Reserve board thinks it's any of their business.  It's my money and my relationship with my bank.

It seems I've heard talk of the need for more financial regulation out of Washington DC.  No Thanks!

Alan Greenspan's "Age of Turbulence"

I just finished reading Alan Greenspan's book "The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World".  The first part of the book was more of a biography, which I found very interesting.  He played the saxophone in Big Bands before becoming a financial guru.  Then he had the amazing opportunity to either interact or work with Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., Bill Clinton and George Bush Jr.  It was nice to have his rather non-political insights into these men.

Following the biographical section was his take on various countries, then various economic issues: from Oil to global warming.  At times he gets a little too technical.

My impression is that Alan Greenspan is incredibly intelligent with a vast understanding of many economic issues, yet he is still a man with limitations.  He was probably the most trustworthy person to have the responsibility that he held, yet I question whether too much power was given to a single individual. 

The greatest argument for my opinion is that while the book was written in late 2007, he is forecasting where the economy might be in the year 2030, but was blind to the pending financial collapse.  He did mention the risk of credit default swaps, but claimed that the New York Federal Reserve Bank was taking care of it and he didn't expect it to be a problem.

Sometimes a person can be so brilliant, that by comparison to other mere mortals their judgement is clouded into thinking they have supreme, flawless judgement.  There is no way to know whether the U.S. economy is better or worse off having had Mr. Greenspan at the helm.  Either way, after reading this book I find that I respect him and agree with many of his views.

iPad Helps Autistic Kids

Sometimes technology can do amazing things

San Diego Boycotts Arizona Power

In a move of solidarity against Arizona's immigration policies, Southern Californians from the city of San Clemente down south of the border in Mexico boycotted imported electrical power from Arizona.  This boycott comes more than a year after the boycotts by Oakland and West Hollywood proved to be insignificant [1].  Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom praised the boycott saying that it achieved more than he dreamed of as mayor of San Francisco when he banned travel to Arizona by city employees.  Unfortunately, the boycott will prove to be short lived as Southern Californians realize that it is very difficult to function without electricity.
 

Benjamin Franklin on Beer

Benjamin Franklin worked at a printers shop in London. This excerpt is from his autobiography:

I drank only water; the other workmen, near fifty in number, were great drinkers of beer. On occasion I carried up and down stairs a large form of type in each hand, when others carried but one in both hands. They wondered to see, from this and several instances, that the Water-American, as they called me, was stronger than themselves, who drank strong beer! We had an ale-house boy, who attended always in the house to supply the workmen. My companion at the press drank every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast with his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint in the afternoon about six o'clock, and another pint when he had done his day's work. I thought it a detestable custom; but it was necessary, he supposed, to drink strong beer that he might be strong to labor. I endeavored to convince him that the bodily strength afforded by beer could only be in proportion to the grain or flour of the barley dissolved in the water of which it was made ; that there was more flour in a pennyworth of bread ; and therefore if he could eat that with a pint of water it would give him more strength than a quart of beer. He drank on, however, and had four or five shillings to pay out of his wages every Saturday night for that vile liquor, an expense I was free from. And thus these poor devils keep themselves always under.