“It used to be that D.C. architecture consisted of graceful Georgetown mansions, neoclassical federal buildings — and, of course, the monuments. When the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts was founded in 1910 to guide Washington’s architectural development, it reviewed designs such as those of the Lincoln Memorial and the Federal Triangle. Over the seven years I’ve served on the commission, however, an increasing amount of time is spent discussing security-improvement projects: screening facilities, hardened gatehouses, Delta barriers, perimeter fences, and seemingly endless rows of bollards. We used to mock an earlier generation that peppered the U.S. capital with Civil War generals on horseback; now I wonder what future generations will make of our architectural legacy of crash-resistant walls and blast-proof glass.”
— Wittold Rybczynski, Meyerson professor of urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania.
Read more:
“The Blast-Proof City,” Wittold Rybczynski, Foreign Policy
“We Built DC Into an Urban Fortress After 9/11. And January 6 Proved It Was Penetrable.” Jane Recker, Washingtonian
“I Came, Eyesore, I Conquered,” Witold Rybczynski, Slate
Celebrity golf cheat and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump outlined his anti-terror plans Monday, calling for “Extreme Vetting” to root out people with evil minds before they can enter the United States. Would-be travelers and immigrants would have to pass a test (devised at Trump University, no doubt) to find out if they have bad thoughts or beliefs. That would work because people never change their minds or lie.
Since recent acts of terror have been committed by U.S. citizens, to make this policy effective we’ll all need to undergo “Extreme Vetting.” The values test outlined by Mr. Trump requires recognition of gay rights, but we don’t know if that means Mike Pence will be deported.
More:
“Donald Trump Proposes Ideological Test for Entry to the United States,” Christina Wilkie and Elise Foley, Huffington Post
“Trump proposes ‘extreme vetting’ test for immigrants who may support Isis,”Dan Roberts, The Guardian
Last Friday evening in Paris, 80,000 people watched France play Germany in a friendly soccer match at the Stade de France. Spectators included French President François Hollande and his guests, relatives of people who died in a German plane crash in the French Alps in March. 15 minutes into the game, President Hollande left to take a phone call and learned that a loud noise outside the stadium was caused when a man, stopped as he tried to enter the packed Stade de France, exploded his suicide vest. M. Hollande consulted the Interior Minister and a sports official and decided to keep the news from other spectators, avoiding panic and mass injuries. Elsewhere in Paris, as the game continued, over a hundred people were shot to death as they sat in cafes and restaurants and at a concert.
By the second half most spectators had learned about the terror attacks through social media, and players on both teams were informed at end of the match and asked to remain in the heavily guarded stadium instead of venturing onto the streets. Mattresses were found, and players and coaches slept at the Stade de France until a team bus arrived for Germany’s Die Mannschaft at about 2 AM.
On April 16th, 21-year-old Dylann Roof was allowed to purchase a 45 caliber Glock handgun from retailer Shooter’s Choice of West Columbia SC, despite his arrest, indictment, and his pending trial for felony possession of a narcotic prescription drug. Why was this sale permitted? The FBI is taking the blame for an incomplete background check, but the purchase went through because of the gentleman pictured above, former Congressman George W. Gekas, who represented Pennsylvania’s 17th District for 20 years.
When the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was on the House floor in 1993, Rep. Gekas (R, PA-17) introduced Amendment 390, requiring a technologically impossible “instant background check” and, if the FBI couldn’t clear the purchaser within five days (later 3 days) then the sale could go through. This “Gekas Loophole” or “default proceed sale” provision was added, the bill passed, and President Clinton signed it into law.
Today, explains the New York Times‘ Michael S. Schmidt:
“Many major gun retailers, like Walmart, will not sell a weapon if they do not have an answer from the F.B.I., because of the fear of public criticism if the gun is used in a crime. The marginal sale of one gun means little to the bottom line of a large dealer, which is not the case for smaller stores like the one that sold Mr. Roof his gun.”
Many air travelers have been concerned about airport scanning machines. Not about radiation the gizmos might emit, but because they think that TSA personnel can see them naked. As if anyone would want to see them naked.
Apparently TSA can’t fight this fear, so it’s removing those “invasive,” “naked image” scanners and replacing them with less “explicit” models. The whole scanner charade is “security theater,” anyway. The only reason airports have those things is because TSA is part of Homeland Security and that agency’s ex-boss shills for a scanner company.
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