ASYLUM

* Idiocy

I keep writing these things, but forgetting to actually post them. Doh.

I was going to write about the asshole telemarketer that not only rang up and hassled me in the usual way, but, when I told him I was not interested, wanted to be removed from their lists, and was annoyed at their intrusion, proceeded to have a go at me and, when I hung up, rang back twice to keep having a go (yeah, congratulations on your use of the redial button, motherfucker; you are truly teh l33t phrax0r!). Needless to say I immediately contacted my telephone provider to have Steps Taken.

But then I read about the latest on the Menezes case — reported first in the Observer at the weekend, but only now breaking out all over — and I'm a lot more pissed off about that:

He wasn't wearing a heavy jacket. He used his card to get into the station. He didn't vault the barrier. And now police say there are no CCTV pictures to reveal the truth. So why did plainclothes officers shoot young Jean Charles de Menezes seven times in the head, thinking he posed a terror threat? — Observer article

The latest documents suggest Mr de Menezes had walked into Stockwell Tube station, picked up a free newspaper, walked through ticket barriers, had started to run when he saw a train arriving and was sitting down in a train when he was shot. — http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4157892.stm

The beeb also has a breakdown of the UnFacts. And apparently, the Brazillian government is sending their own team of investigators after the news that Scotland Yard initially tried to stall the inquiry.

It's all getting very messy and not making me any more confident about our security policies. These people seem to profoundly not "get" security.

Is it 2008 yet?

On the other hand, merely changing planes in America gets you in trouble these days, and if you're a 'furriner' — or if you're an American Citizen who hasn't yet 'proved his or her citizenship', ie been through customs — the government likes to think you have no rights at all ...

Foreign citizens who change planes at airports in the United States can legally be seized, detained without charges, deprived of access to a lawyer or the courts, and even denied basic necessities like food, lawyers for the government said in Brooklyn federal court yesterday. — New York Times article

Back on the underground, a couple of the more bizarre announcements I've recently heard over the intercom on my travels:

I'll get you next time! — train driver, presumably to a passenger who hopped on as the doors were closing

I'm not sure what's going on with the southbound train, ladies and gentlemen, but it does appear to be passenger-serviced — the friendly platform guard at Victoria