[geeks] Google Images Facial Recognition!

[Phil Stracchino]

Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
> On Thu, May 31, 2007 at 10:14:51PM -0400, Phil Stracchino wrote:
>> I actually don't think the majority of the American people are
>> frightened of terrorists.  Most of the ones I know of are angry and
>> determined.  But Congress is terrified, wetting its pants and trying to
>> hide in the corner.
> 
> You should be afraid, very afraid. But that should not stop you from
> going about your lives, doing things you do all the time.

No.  You should be ALERT and AWARE.  But not afraid.  Being afraid
doesn't help.  It just leads you to make stupid, ill-advised decisions,
and to panic and overreact.  If being afraid was productive, we'd want
our troops to fear our enemies, not our enemies to fear our troops.  If
fear actually prepared you better to do *anything* except run away,
there would be no point to terrorism at all.

> If random Mexican men, women and children started yelling "Viva Zapata"
> and blowing themselves up in crowds, you'd change your mind too.

No, actually, I don't think I would.  "Fear is the mind-killer."

As you yourself pointed out, "El-Al [...] have spent years figuring out
the difference between strange people and dangerous ones."  El Al is
alert and aware. Meanwhile, Congress is deathly afraid, hasn't even
figured out there IS a difference between "strange" and "dangerous", and
wastes its "security" dollar harassing women armed with hand cream (OH
NOES!!!1!), Muslims who pray in Furriner (imagine the odds of THAT!),
and physical security experts practicing with lock picks and test locks.

"Nobody move!  I have a LOCK PICK!  Fly this airplane to FORT KNOX!!!"


-- 
 It's not the years, it's the mileage.
 Phil Stracchino              phil.stracchino at speakeasy.net
 Renaissance Man, Unix generalist, Perl hacker, Free Stater
 Landline: 603-429-0220                Mobile: 603-320-5438