| Air scare tactics under attack
Greene's article, published in July 2006, rips apart the theory that it is possible to take liquid explosives aboard an aircraft and mix them up into a bomb. Greene acknowledged to Smith that he "would not hesitate to allow that liquid explosives can pose a danger" but added "the idea that confiscating someone's toothpaste is going to keep us safe is too ridiculous to entertain". And then there is the question of just how you could set up the necessary laboratory in an aircraft toilet to mix the potent cocktail of chemicals – the mind boggles. The cost of security But it's worse than that, because government and airlines' policy is simply hypocritical. As Smith rightly points out, at "every concourse checkpoint you'll see a bin or barrel brimming with contraband containers taken from passengers for having exceeded the volume limit.
Mickey Kaus
But machines do a whole lot these days--they track your musical tastes, follow your movements, raise or lower your credit ratings. Now a robot can conceivably do a lot to me, at least in the paranoid part of my imagination activated when I get an unsolicited call. At best, it's probably generating a list to sell someone! I don't want it know my real innermost thoughts, including my political thoughts, especially my un-PC political thoughts. These days, I'd be much more paranoid about pushing a button that say "I'm voting against beloved minority candidate X" than telling a live operator the same thing. Sorry, Rasmussen! The traditional truth-revealing advantage of robo-calling may be the artifact of a transitional era in info-technology. That means the classic "Bradley Effect"--whites telling pollsters they're going to vote for the black candidate but then doing something else on Election Day--could apply to both human and robotic pollsters.
Foreclosure filings continue to climb
Foreclosure sale filings in La Crosse County rose 18 percent in 2007, a trend that appears to be continuing in the new year with 50 foreclosure sales slated for the first three months, according to the La Crosse County Sheriff's Department.The county scheduled 130 foreclosure sales in 2007, compared with 106 in 2006. The county has averaged 110 scheduled sales annually in the past five years, according to the sheriff's department's process service division.
The county already has held 18 foreclosure sales this month, and more are scheduled, said Kathy Scott, who helps coordinate the sales for the sheriff's department.The sheriff's department has 50 foreclosure auctions on the calendar through March, compared with 34 auctions on the docket in the first quarter of 2007, the sheriff's department reported.Scheduling a sale does not mean an auction will be held, Scott added.
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