People Eating ...

Yeah, everyone knows the standard joking alternate expansion of PETA:  People Eating Tasty Animals.  But I was thinking about PETA and its actual positions and policies, and realized that there is another alternative expansion that actually reflects their core philosophies much better — and, frankly, more honestly — than their own canonical name does.

People for the Extermination of Tainted Animals.

Think about it.  PETA spokesdroids talk a good and noble-sounding talk in media interviews, but their actual policies as demonstrated by their actions basically amount to ethnic cleansing for animals.  Their stated goal is the extinction, in the current generation, of all animals that have been tainted by contact with humans.  All pets, all domesticated animals, any animal bred for scientific or medical purposes, any animal farmed for meat, milk, furs, fiber — they're all on PETA's extermination list.  For their own good and the greater good, of course.  (It's always for the greater good, isn't it?)

I'm sure it would be quite redundant to mention the obvious historical analogies with regard to humans.

Just as a thought experiment, in seven words:  How untainted is untainted enough to live?  How many species of animal life are there on this planet that have not been affected in SOME way by contact with humans?

More security theater

Via Bruce Schneier:

Since 2007, the U.S. State Department has been issuing high-tech "e-passports," which contain computer chips carrying biometric data to prevent forgery.  Unfortunately, according to a March report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), getting one of these supersecure passports under false pretenses isn't particularly difficult for anyone with even basic forgery skills.

A GAO investigator managed to obtain four genuine U.S. passports using fake names and fraudulent documents.  In one case, he used the Social Security number of a man who had died in 1965.  In another, he used the Social Security number of a fictitious 5-year-old child created for a previous investigation, along with an ID showing that he was 53 years old.  The investigator then used one of the fake passports to buy a plane ticket, obtain a boarding pass, and make it through a security checkpoint at a major U.S. airport.  (When presented with the results of the GAO investigation, the State Department agreed that there was a "major vulnerability" in the passport issuance process and agreed to study the matter.)