Greg In The Desert

A map of the 50 states redrawn based on population has fascinated me. Mainly because the state of New Mexico gets obliterated into 4 other new states. It looks like Albuquerque and Rio Rancho get put into Llano Estacdo or “Staked Plains“.

It’s a suggestion by fakeisthenewreal.org to improve the electoral college system.

Rather than replacing a time honored system that, after all, has only broken down three times in over 200 years, the organization of the states should be altered. In 2000, the Census Bureau determined the United States population to be 281,421,906, distributed in 50 states and one federal district. The states ranged in population from to 493,782 (1) to 33,871,648 (2). This Electoral Reform Map redivides the territory of the United States into 50 bodies of equal size – 281,421,906 divided by 50 is 5,616,997. This map shows one possible way to redraw the fifty states (3).

The TIA, or was known as ‘Total Information Awareness’ was/is a plan my the Government to collect all information about anything and everything. They would cross reference it and put it in a big database. They then could look up anything and know everything about it, or most worrisome, about anyone.

The MIT Media Lab has come up with GIA, or Government Information Awareness. As this Slashdot article says, “The premise of GIA is that if the government has a right to know personal details about citizens, then citizens have a right to similar information about the government.”

I think the government is still working on TIA in some form or another.

I couldn’t agree more with Alton Brown when he says (June 10th, BTW).

“I?m just saying that people with authority should have to play by a set of rules…published rules. If as a nation we?re going to have to tolerate being probed, scanned, profiled and frisked before we can get on an airplane, so be it. But it seems to me that we deserve a little consistency. Otherwise we open ourselves up to a whole new brand of bully…bullies with badges…not to mention really nice omelet pans.”

(TSA = Transportation Security Administration)

In the year before September 11th, 2001 I was working away from home in California. I flew back and forth for 9 months and got quite familiar with the airport system. I was luck that my assignment was over just before those planes crashed into the towers. At the time I thought it a good idea to turn over security to the feds. I mean, they should be doing for the safety of the citizens instead of for the money (not that “for the money” is a bad thing). Having been through security since then I can think that it is nothing more than a joke. They have random searches of peoples shoes? Give me a break.