March 2004

The dancing banana visible in the sidebar’s colour shows the current Homeland Security terrorism alert state. Thanks to Victor is Dead and Supermum.

The Ranter welcomes two new blogs linking to us: The Hegemo’s Creative Class Warfare, and The Fudgie Project. The last one belongs to Jenny Paton, who is currently researching the blogging phenomenon and recently emailed questions to numerous bloggers. Thanks.

According to Haaretz, plans for British security assistance to the Palestinian Authority are already underway. “With grudging consent from the Americans, the British are now setting up two new operation control rooms, one in Ramallah and one in Gaza, for Palestinian security organizations. The money that Britain is spending is earmarked for the purchase of…

In our occasional series, When Aviation Security Attacks, we bring you this, the story of a man who: “discovered the weapon while unpacking in Israel after a visit to Germany, reports Israeli daily Haaretz. He immediately reported the find to the police only to be told that the weapon, which had been de-activated, was part…

An interesting document to say the least. For a start, there is that old Ranter issue concerning Geoff Hoon and his remarkably confident denials that anything had gone wrong at all. You may remember that he stated in Parliament that: “All the requisite numbers of boots and clothing and equipment were there and, having only…

An interesting article in Wired seems to agree rather with my last post, as well as giving me the priceless gift of a new word, “security theatre”, or official activity intended to convey a false impression of security. (Thanks due to Slugger O’Toole)..Mind you, it also bears out something I think I lost given the…

I’m beginning to think that the real strength of terrorism is the fact that its targets can be diversified faster than countermeasures. Whatever is hardened or checked or monitored, there will always be something else. Probably because the nature of terrorism is to use the social infrastructure as a weapon – trains are of course…

We have been invited to join the Social Democracy webring.

The Ranter welcomes two new blogrollers, Gregorian Rants, and Life in the Crescent. Thanks.

Why? Because it scares me. Because it endangers my mental health by inducing me to snarl and grrr at the babbling noisebox in my living room. Because it makes me feel fascism is coming soon. No, this is not the beginning of a counter-I Believe in the BBC campaign. It’s not the reporting or the…