If I ever want something original to blog about, all I have to do is go to DailyKos and click on any random link -- and within seconds, usually, I find a nice fiskable bundle of half-truths and deceptions. (They don't call themselves the "reality-based community" for nothing, I suppose.) I don't really go to Kos for that reason, but inevitably what I find there prompts me to write here.

Often -- including this case -- there are several legitimate points and concerns buried within. But in the sound and fury the real points are lost: readers go away enraged and more paranoid, but with an exactly wrong understanding about what's happening and/or what to do about it.

(But that's the whole point, no?)

This hour's random concern begins with a litany of complaints about TSA (which is actually not even involved in this case -- but the readers aren't told that), and moves on to complain about a rather creepy (five-year-old) patent for on a device to be strapped to airline passengers, in order to administer shocks to them.

It seems that there's been insufficient progress in turning the public's flying experience into the fifth deepest pit in hell. We all know that the TSA is working hard -- you know, forcing women to remove nipple rings with pliers, breaking laptop computers and threatening anyone who complains, detaining and searching 5-year-olds, deliberately contaminating sterile medical equipment, pointing guns at deaf people, detaining babies until they die, all those wonderful things. But it's clearly not enough -- because none of it is capable of deliberately inflicting severe physical pain on ALL the passengers.

The legitimate complaint lurking here is that government agencies like TSA are at least ineffective, and more often are harmful and corrosive to liberty. The missing historical context is that the post-9/11 idea for a new security agency (which eventually became "Homeland Security") was initially strongly opposed by the Bush administration, but was forcefully advanced by the very politicians these "Kossaks" habitually support, who eventually prevailed.

So we have another case where the supporters of Big Powerful Government complain about what their leaders have wrought, without realizing: "Hey, this is something I probably inadvertently supported! Maybe we need less government control? Perhaps I should start supporting politicians who favor that." (I've made this point to numerous "liberal" friends and relatives who complain about the government. Seems to have zero impact.)

The second bit of misinformation being promulgated here is that DHS is looking into using these people-shocker-straps on airline passengers. But all ones has to do is read the linked correspondence (which apparently nobody did) to learn the DHS official is wondering about an entirely different use:

In our discussions, we have been interested in your Zoned Area Tactical System (ZATSS) as well as the reusable security bracelet idea you told me about. While I have limited information on this bracelet, I believe in combination with a mobile ZATSS system, the bracelet idea might have merit, particularly for the temporary restraint of illegal aliens.

That may be a questionable idea as well, but the take-away point here is that the readers have been told to contact their Congresscritters -- and their complaints will then easily discredited as unrelated to what's actually happening.

As usual, this is all heat and no light: The average reader will be increasingly paranoid, and believe the government is about to start strapping them into shock-wired airlines seats, but won't do a thing to stop the actual application of the technology, nor encourage readers to vote against the politicians who most favored the creation of this governmental monstrosity.

It simply re-enforces their shared conviction that, out of nothing more than sheer malice, Der Bushitler is doing everything he can to torture random citizens -- a concern which, like that for the homeless, will undoubtedly evaporate once their own candidate prevails.