An open question: Does the new full body scanner -OR- enhanced pat down constitute an unreasonable breach of privacy?
This story is exploding all over the media and the blogosphere. But this is just the latest expansion of the intrusiveness of security screening at our airports. I travel by air a few times a year for work. Every time I go through security, I want to ask how long this is going to continue. I never do bother asking, though, because I know the answer: it’s never going away.
However, this is the first time that we’ve seen such an outcry against security procedures. It’s gone so far that Saturday Night Live ran a sketch mocking TSA this past weekend.
- Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was on MSNBC’s Morning Joe talking about highway safety, and the hosts asked him about using technology to disable cell phones in cars. LaHood said,
“Well, look, there’s a lot of technology out there now where they can disable phones, and we’re looking at that…. I think it will be done. I mean, I think the technology is there, and I think you’re going to see the technology become adaptable in automobiles…”
- The city of San Francisco has banned toys in Happy Meals, or rather, has prohibited the distribution of toys with meals targeted at kids unless they meet certain nutritional requirements. The San Francisco Chronicle said,
“But Mar, whose most recent high-profile legislative accomplishments put new limits on smoking and tobacco sales, isn’t planning to shelve the idea of using City Hall’s regulatory power to promote public health.”
- Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), during a Senate hearing, wished:
“There’s a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to Fox and to MSNBC, ‘Out. Off. End. Goodbye.’ … It would be a big favor to political discourse; to our ability to do our work here in Congress; and to the American people, to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and, more importantly, in their future.”
Why are there so many people in government who think they know better than we do about what is best for us?
From the Boston Herald, two stories about bad business communications.
The first story, Owner of closed South End food market blames customers, details the insults dished out by owner Mike Otto’s fiancee, Erin McLaughlin. Erin ran the store, and wrote this on the store’s website:
“Don Otto’s Market wants to say we had few customers that understood customer loyalty and its importance to our business…. If you came in only for baguettes, the occasional piece of cheese, the occasional dinner… you can not tell yourself you were a supporter of our market.
“In some parts of the world people are accustomed to spending a higher percentage of their income on food, but in America we suffer from sticker shock because of Wal-Mart and other discount vendors…. The reality is we pay for what we eat. Some are informed enough to know what that statement means. For those that don’t, I am not going to elaborate.”
The Herald spoke to Ms. McLaughlin, 28, who made this comment:
“People don’t understand their purchases make a difference, and that by buying something that wasn’t exactly what you want, it gets you closer to what you want. It’s an investment.”
Blame the customer. Ms. McLaughlin is probably an Obama voter — they seem to have the same communications strategy.
(Ms. McLaughlin’s angry screed has since been removed from what remains of the Don Otto’s website.)
The second story, ‘Rock Band’ maker on the block, explains that Viacom, the media giant that owns Paramount Pictures and MTV, is planning on selling off its Harmonix video game studio, located in Cambridge, MA. Harmonix, which created both the Guitar Hero and Rock Band game franchises as well as Dance Central (a launch title for the Xbox 360′s new Kinect motion detection/speech recognition device), is losing money.
However, the part of the story that caught my eye was this:
“The decision to exit the console gaming business reflects our strategy of focusing entirely on what we do best: make great branded entertainment content and deliver it through a variety of platforms,” Viacom’s statement said.
Gee, Rock Band doesn’t reflect “great branded entertainment content”? And doesn’t exiting the console gaming business reduce the variety of platforms through which you’re going to deliver said entertainment?
