Free Talk Live

Airport security in America is a sham—“security theater” designed to make travelers feel better and catch stupid terrorists. Smart ones can get through security with fake boarding passes and all manner of prohibited items—as our correspondent did with ease.

A “Memorandum of Agreement” struck last week between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Security Agency (NSA) promises to increase Pentagon control over America’s telecommunications and electronic infrastructure.

Social Security will pay out more than it takes in this year — a tipping point that wasn't expected for six years. What does this mean for retirees, and the federal government?

One might expect the lady in charge of the US Federal Government's Homeland Security department—the person leading US "cyber security" policy—to have an inbox full of briefings, encrypted strategies, and plans for keeping America safe from "Terrorists." But, she doesn't. In fact, Janet Napolitano, in her own words, doesn't use email "at all."

At the heart of Apple's security architecture is the Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm (AES), a data-scrambling system published in 1998 and adopted as a U.S. government standard in 2001. The algorithm is so strong that no computer imaginable for the foreseeable future—even a quantum computer—would be able to crack a truly random 256-bit AES key. The National Security Agency has approved AES-256 for storing top-secret data. Now if they would provide a way to turn off the tracking function....

NPR was up in arms a while back about Croatia's dozen or so presidential-security bureaucracies. But how much have they questioned the 1271 government-security bureaucracies in America?

Egypt’s infamous state security apparatus, notorious for spying on political activists and torturing dissidents, has renamed itself “homeland security,” presumably in homage to its American namesake, which has also been used as a tool of political repression.

Its pretty obvious that if the US president did not have the amount of security he does cushioning him from the consequences of the decisions he makes then he’d be a great deal more cautious when it comes to the decisions he makes. Same comes for the British Prime Minister & many other heads of state. But its with the US president where the issue of security always seems a bigger deal & of course it’s US presidents (past & present) who embroil the US military in wars around the globe which have cost the US taxpayer far more then the direct cost of the US presidents security entourage.

Tyner was simultaneously thrown out of San Diego International Airport on Saturday morning for refusing to submit to a security check and threatened with a lawsuit and a $10,000 fine if he left.