edafe.org » fear

Seeing terror risk, US asks journals to cut flu study facts

edafe — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 17:16:47 +0000

“Ever since the tightening of security after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, scientists have worried that a scientific development would pit the need for safety against the need to share information. Now, it seems, that day has come.” Denise Grady and William Broad report on moves by the US government to effectively censor influenza research.
www.nytimes.com

Airport security — this house believes that changes made to airport security since 9/11 have done more harm than good

edafe — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:15:04 +0000

“Spending billions to force the terrorists to alter their plans in one particular way does not make us safer. It is far more cost-effective to concentrate our defences in ways that work regardless of tactic and target: intelligence, investigation and emergency response.” Bruce Schneier debates the former head of the Transportation Security Administration, Kip Hawley, on airport security. This is from the first of Schneier’s three statements on the topic.
www.economist.com 20 March, 23 March, 28 March

How doctors die

edafe — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 23:02:44 +0000

“Doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little.” Meanwhile, Ken Murray is determined to go gentle into that good night.
zocalopublicsquare.org

For 10 years, we’ve lied to ourselves to avoid asking the one real question

edafe — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 20:20:31 +0000

“When the Israeli Prime Minister gets even the US Congress to grovel to him, the American people are not going to be told the answer to the most important and ‘sensitive’ question”. For Robert Fisk, large gaps remain in our knowledge surrounding events since 9/11.
www.independent.co.uk

Passagierselektion macht es Terroristen leicht

edafe — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 18:57:23 +0000

In German

“Natürlich müssen wir uns darum bemühen, die Kontrollen an den Flughäfen effektiver zu machen. Profiling nach Herkunft und Religionszugehörigkeit aber ist eine schlechte Idee, die das Fliegen weder bequemer noch sicherer macht.” Peter Neumann believes that the use of passenger profiling would actually have detrimental effects on aviation security.
www.spiegel.de

Is aviation security mostly for show?

edafe — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:29:09 +0000

“Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism is not a transcendent threat. A terrorist attack cannot possibly destroy a country’s way of life; it’s only our reaction to that attack that can do that kind of damage.” In the wake of last week’s failed bombing of an airplane over Detroit, Bruce Schneier asks us to leverage the inherent strengths of our democracies.
edition.cnn.com

How constant beatings have caught up with campaigner Peter Tatchell

edafe — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:18:57 +0000

“Only Peter Tatchell could be so enraged by something that is meant to calm him down. But as he grapples with the complicated security locks on his front door to let me out, it strikes me that perhaps the rest of us are lucky that he cares enough to carry on fighting, whatever the cause.” Elizabeth Day talks to Peter Tatchell, a man deserving of some respect.
www.guardian.co.uk

After Iraq, it’s not just North Korea that wants a bomb

edafe — Sun, 31 May 2009 14:36:32 +0000

“The idea that there is something irrational in North Korea’s attempt to acquire nuclear weapons is clearly absurd. This is, after all, a state that has been targeted for regime change by the US ever since the end of the cold war, included as one of the select group of three in George Bush’s axis of evil in 2002, and whose Clinton administration guarantee of ‘no hostile intent’ was explicitly withdrawn by his successor.” Seumas Milne identifies the single greatest driver of nuclear proliferation.
www.guardian.co.uk

Why they might miss Dubya when he’s gone

edafe — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:14:51 +0000

“Like it or not, I fear it will not only be the cartoonists and impressionists who will miss the easy target in the White House when he has gone”, writes Mick Hume on the day George W Bush leaves office.
spiked-online.com

There’s probably no god.Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.

edafe — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:54:02 +0000

“The Atheist Bus Campaign began when Ariane Sherine wrote an article in June 2008 about Christian adverts running on London buses. These ads featured the URL of a website which said non–Christians would burn in hell for all eternity. Ariane suggested that atheists reading her article could each donate £5 to fund a reassuring counter–advert.”
www.atheistbus.org.uk

Update: Christian religious groups are about to respond with ads stating that “there definitely is a god”.

Welcome to the Police Academy state

edafe — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:47:26 +0000

“Sir Ian Blair captured the febrile nature of this climate, giddy on nightmares, when he said that de Menezes was killed in the ‘fog of war’. Given that this fog engulfed those giving the orders, little wonder officers stopped behaving rationally.” Tim Black reflects on what the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes tells us about the institutions of the British state.
spiked-online.com

Privatsphäre ist wie Sauerstoff

edafe — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 19:37:02 +0000

In German

“Der politische Stand ist eine Symbiose mit der Medienindustrie eingegangen, die aus finanziellen Gründen den Terrorismus in einem Maße ausschlachtet, das objektiv nicht zu rechtfertigen ist.” Privacy is like oxygen, argues Pär Ström. You’ll miss it when it’s gone…
www.bundestag.de

What the terrorists want

edafe — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 19:02:25 +0000

“Defense against terrorism is to refuse to be terrorized. Our job is to recognize that terrorism is just one of the risks we face. And our job is to fight politicians who use fear as an excuse to take away our liberties and promote security theater that wastes money and doesn’t make us any safer.” Bruce Schneier is not about to give in. Are you?
www.schneier.com

Fireworks in Washington, despair around the World

edafe — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 11:04:08 +0000

“The president and his speechwriters have yet to confront the tension between their rhetoric about freedom, which is universally popular, and their practice of projecting US firepower, which is resented in equal measure.” Former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook on the day George Bush began his second term in office.
www.guardian.co.uk

Robin Cook is Dead

Robin Cook, one of few political figures to command my lasting respect, has suddenly died on August 6, 2005. If you are only ever going to read one political statement made to the House of Commons, read Robin Cooks’s resignation speech from 18 March, 2003.

A minute of silence

edafe — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 21:53:47 +0000

Last week I got caught up in the traffic jam that followed the killing of an innocent man at Stockwell tube station. Today, I passed the same spot again. This time I stopped.

Remembering Jean Charles de Menezes one week after he was shot and killed by police at Stockwell tube station in London. What did the ubiquitous CCTV cameras record that morning?

Update: Reports are now emerging that Jean Charles de Menezes had already been restrained by an officer when he was shot in the head seven times.

Power of Nightmares re-awakened

edafe — Sun, 08 May 2005 20:10:23 +0000

“The Power of Nightmares – first screened in Autumn 2004 and repeated this week on BBC2 – questions whether the threat of terrorism to the West is a politically driven fantasy and if al-Qaeda really is an organised network.” Read producer Adam Curtis’s responses to comments from viewers around the world.
news.bbc.co.uk

More sorry than safe

edafe — Sat, 05 Mar 2005 20:25:13 +0000

“If everything we did had to be absolutely safe, risk-free, proven to have no adverse outcomes for anyone or anything, we’d never get anywhere.” Professor Sir Colin Berry talks to Brendan O’Neill on why the precautionary principle is making life more dangerous for all of us.
www.spiked-online.com

The Power and the Glory

edafe — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 19:35:10 +0000

“Divine ordination is a very dangerous idea, especially when combined with military power. With God’s approval, you need no human standard of morality.” Howard Zinn expands on the myths of American exeptionalism.
www.bostonreview.net

Fotoshow: Nein zum Krieg

edafe — Mon, 20 Sep 2004 19:35:48 +0000

In German

In February 2003 millions around the world were united in protest against going to war in Iraq. Take a look at this gallery of pictures taken during that period.
www.geo.de

People protesting against going to war with Iraq in Hamburg, February 2002.