well, one hopes that the US Govt is going to do anything/something about this guy.  Look at him:  a baby face, complacent in his pride, totally aware that he is perfectly safe, because the US is filled with law abiding people, many of whom would LOVE to defend him in 'court.'   "Ongoing investigation".  Ridiculous.

And then there is that PFC, who very probably has been told by one and all, by his parents and his pre-school teachers, and everyone he has ever met, that he is a really nice guy, and wasn't it fun to just 'download' all those files, it was so easy. 

Assange hates the US and has found a great way to destroy it; the PFC is just 'having fun'  and very probably wonders why so many people are angry with him.   

the US government, like all Western governments, is asking if this is 'legal'.  That is, should the lawyers define the damage done by this baby faced Gollum. 

When we are talking about a country's strength, well, the lawyers are a problem, not to speak of 'ongoing investigations'.  It is time to declare Assange and Wikileaks a terrorist organization, which it IS. 

If not, this will be another marker on the US's path to weakness.

If the US Govt cannot get beyond an 'ongoing investigation' and put Assange in jail with Noriega for terrorism, well, it will prove to all of us, Americans and onlookers, that it is a very weak tiger. 

Another byproduct of secularization:  the Bible is a complex wonderful work, filled with amazing concepts and great words.   Now that few children even attend Sunday school, let alone read (or listen to) the Bible, the literacy rate is gliding towards the basement. 

At one time, the poems of Robert Service were best sellers, read by people at every level of society.  I have discovered that my nieces (now 30ish) could not understand most of the words in those poems.  BUT they can read the local newspaper.  Oh well. 

One of the first items to go is the Christian definition of marriage: ie, one man, one woman.  No other religion maintains this as basic to human relationships: one man, ONE woman. 

OK:  easy, "no fault" divorce.  gay marriage.  and soon, in Canada, polygamy. 

Ideas have consequences.  And Christianity has all sorts of unexpected advantages, which we are thoughtlessly throwing away.

It's all about political correctness.  In Canada, there is no shortage of money going to 'First Nations".  And where there is lots of oil money, there is lots of suicide, as well as murder and rape.  There is nothing to do on the reserves.  A carpet cleaner in SE Alaska told me that the whole village would come around and watch him clean carpets.  Fascinating.  Somebody DOING something!!!

But having FirstNation lands means there is lots of jobs for social workers and planners and policemen and government departments, all devoted to taking care of the FirstNation "culture."  Where I live, if a child has not been raped by his/her 12th birthday, there is something totally wrong with that child.  But there's lots of money in them thar "FirstNations" for an entire professional  cohort.

Duane, I am not at all familiar with BIT or even LASIK.  So define your terms.

I do know that all bureaucracies are incompetent at maintaining and upgrading and replacing any asset, let alone a machine that scans the human body again and again.  I know, I should just take the gummint at its word, and accept that these items are harmless.  However, I just don't.  Put me in the Flat Earth column.  

Back in the day, there were xrays throughout the land's shoe stores.  People were encouraged to make sure the shoe they wanted to purchase actually fit their feet.   Oooops.

And then, farther back, people loved that new green coloured wall paper, and decorated their homes with it... and kids got sick, because the green colour was possible because of an arsenic additive.  Ooooops. 

And today, there is recycling to save the planet because all the best scientists say the science is settled, and cap and trade will save California Pension Plans from going bankrupt...  Ooooppps.

Finally, there is socialized medicine, another bureaucratic success. 

a small story, but relevant I believe: in 1944/45, when the Jewish population was being herded to the trains which were to take them to Auschwitz, one of the actions taken by the guards was to feel into women's groins for evidence of hidden valuables.

The US government has taken these intrusive measures for the 'security' of airtravel because it is inherently authoritarian. People allow these actions because they are afraid to miss their trip, afraid to stand up to the people in uniform, afraid to face down Government Authority.

If the TSA had any respect for the American Constitution, it would find other methods to make air travel more secure. But note that it has concluded that there is no alternative but to treat American Citizens of all ages as if the Constitution was never signed by anyone, as if there was no dignity allowed to American Citizens anymore. And it seems the majority of the American population agrees that this is totally agreeable and reasonable.

As to the 'scanners', these are exceptionally complex, will be at work 24/7, and require recalibration every now and then. What could possibly go wrong?

And then, there are these 'scanners' which apparently unable to see anything that is inside the body.

These are very complex items that will be in operation 24/7 by your really competent TSA, and of course, throughout the world, all the bureaucracies will want some to play with. What could possibly go wrong????

to continue, my mother was NOT a "sadsack", nor was my father. They built a true partnership, and loved each other throughout their lives.

My mother focused on her childrens' education, and homeschooled a couple of us when we lived away from a city. She defended us when the education system hurt us. She worked hard at dressing us in a neat manner, so that teachers would not treat us with scorn (the year she couldn't afford to buy us new shoes was the year the great education establishment decided we were 'below average'. ) In the meantime, my father worked, when necessary, in minus 40 degrees; and the mark of a good job was one with plenty of overtime. He stayed up all night when it was so cold the fuel oil was in danger of freezing.

And they paid their debts.

Things are different today. Now, a wife is EXPECTED to work at a paying job or her 'husband' thinks she is 'not pulling her weight'. And when bankruptcy looms, it never occurs to anyone that they should spend the next number of years, paying off their debts.

When I was young, our family was very poor, and had to travel from job to job living in a trailer (yep, back then, trailers MOVED AROUND). Things were rough. My mother had a collection of Hummel figurines. I had saved my money and bought her one for $7 (the little chimney sweep). She loved them. They were the only breakable frivolities that survived from the bankruptcy, and they were carefully wrapped and put away whenever we moved.

And she stayed at home, sewed our clothes, cleaned the house, and made no attempt to find a job (she was a registered nurse) because she knew that her husband, my father, had to be the one to get us out of the mess he had made himself. It was a matter of his pride. Mom read books to us in the evening, like David Copperfield and Tale of 2 Cities.

That was the way things went in those bygone days. The family she raised is a close one and every one of us has been successful in the world.

I've started reading Stanley Kurtz' book, "Radical in Chief". He delineates in extreme detail Obama's continuing association with Mid Western fronts for socialist experiments.

But I can't help thinking that it is useful to ask who was using whom? I mean, if you are a good looking Black guy, with great educational credentials, and with a deep desire for power, how would you connect with the Machine in Chicago? I think the web of lefty organizations were just the ticket for Obama. And I think he will throw the lot under his bus, if he is able. Think. If you are surrounded by people who see you only as a Black guy who can "clean up good", and has good table manners, well, I don't think loyalty would be at the top of your priorities as you ascend the steps to the Presidency.

And I agree with Dinesh D'Souza that what really turns on our Barack is the anti colonial battle, the one being fought by the Anglo Saxon oppressor against the Third World.

And this is a true story: in talking to an active local First Nation leader, I suggested that perhaps Canada could just take 10 years' budget of the Federal Indian Department, and divide the money among every Native alive on a given date. I figured at the time that this would total some $100,000 per person. Underage people would receive their share upon reaching 21 years. And hey, the reserves could be surveyed and each family receive free and clear the house and lot on which they are living at the time. And then: they would be Citizens, of Canada. No more 'aboriginal status', no more special treatment.

The woman's response? "But who would look after the children?" Really.

But you can't seem to kill the Welfare" either: it provides so many great paying jobs to so many people.

When I have suggested that perhaps a solution would be to just cut off the welfare, the reaction is, "they'll all die in the nearest ditch!" So the horror goes on, and the offices fill up with social workers doing 'good'. And the politicians on the one hand feel good about doing so much 'good' (another school!! another project! more work for social science majors!!!); and on the other, cynicism that 'hey, we have plenty of money, and who cares what is happening to the slum people anyway, so long as they vote for Meeee!!!'.

Wonderful last line: it was murdered.

I have seen the same process regarding the area's Indians/Natives/FirstNations: and believe me, it took only one generation to turn a competent sober people, able to build their own homes, and raise their own children, into welfare bums, alcoholics, and drug addicts. My theory has been that it is a lot nicer to just shoot to kill these people, than put them on welfare. At least when you shoot at someone, they have a chance to hide behind the nearest rock. When welfare comes, though, there is no way out.

The basic problem here is that university Education Departments are the intellectual slums of higher education (and I am sort of quoting TSowell here). They produce the people in charge of public school systems throughout the western world. It should not be surprising, therefore, that so many silly, idiotic and wicked actions are performed by these 'teachers' against the students in their power.