Is There a Predator Drone Near Gainesville?

[autorank]

Military historian and author Brian Downing buries the Koran burners in Florida:

The Elmer Gantry of Florida has a congregation of fifty. It used to be a hundred, but half of them have quit in the last year or so. Fifty! If PT Barnum’s circus only pulled in fifty, he’d haul down the tents and head down the road to the next town. Or else he’d come up with a publicity stunt to pack ‘em in. An elephant stampede, with the strongman or Tom Thumb saving the day! Elephant stampedes are harder to organize than, oh say, book burnings.

Wait! I don’t need the Cartwrights riding at me to see a bonanza. I’ll start my own church. Yes, The First Church of Mencken.© I’ll get publicity by burning books. How about starting with Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense”? No one seems to be familiar with it anymore. I’ll have over fifty in the FCM in no time. As one of the charlatans Huck and Jim encountered on their raft trip down the Mississippi said, “If that don’t fetch ‘em then I don’t know Arkansas.”

snip

And of course our enemies in the benighted parts of the globe are illiterate hayseeds without any comprehension of the greater world, blinded by religious dogma and intolerant of those who don’t share their world skew.

MORE: http://agonist.org/brian_downing/20100908/is_there_a_predator_drone_near_gainesville_or_if_that_don_t_fetch_em_then_i_don_t_know_florida

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Looks like a homeless person, and should be taken just as seriously as

the press usually takes homeless people.

[autorank]

6. Ah, but covering the homeless would be helpful

This is destructive so they can't resist. It's their nature.

[and-justice-for-all]

2. I do not know where Palin is this weekk.nt

[Me.]

4. She & Beckenstein Will Be In Alaska On Saturday

Being paid $272 and 73, respectively, by the suckers who want to hear the two 'patriots' speak.

[autorank]

7. Reading Vanity Faire;)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h3XJ6YqzSDnv0ILbj-AAS124AELAD9I41HKO2

[nashville_brook]

3. funny you should ask -- a bit further downstate in FL is the home of civilian drone use: Palm Bay

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/business/worldbusiness/27iht-drone.4.11474996.html

Spy drones in demand by U.S. police departments, but approval pending

Getting clearance for the police and other civilian agencies to fly cannot come soon enough for Billy Robinson, chief executive of Cyber Defense Systems, a small start-up company in St. Petersburg, Florida. His company makes an eight-pound kite-sized drone that was flown for a time by the police in Palm Bay, Florida, and in other towns, before the Federal Aviation Administration stepped in.

"We've had interest from dozens of law enforcement agencies," Robinson said. "They are preventing a bunch of small companies such as ours from becoming profitable," he said, referring to the agency.

Some privacy advocates, however, say rules and ordinances need to be drafted to protect civil liberties during surveillance operations.

"There's been controversies all around about putting up surveillance cameras in public areas," said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida.

"Technological developments can be used by law enforcement in a way that enhances public safety," he said. "But every enhanced technology also contains a threat of further erosion of privacy."

[autorank]

8. Yeah

They'll sell it as saving money in hard times, safer for the police but, ya know, FISA was just for overseas
calls then they brought it home, big time;)

:hi:

[truedelphi]

20. Each day of the week, every week of the year, we get closer and closer to

The reality expressed in the movie "Idiocracy."

In the beginning of that flick, one guy's own vehicle is targeted by the robot police. But he enjoys seeing things blow up so much he cannot stop himself from going and joining the crowd watching the car explode.

<sigh>

[Me.]

5. A Sad Sack Of A Human

Who thinks he's God.

[autorank]

9. The kingdom of heaven is within you

...but not him;)

[Me.]

11. He's Not Even On The Doorstep

[autorank]

13. Yep, and it's not a gated community!

[Me.]

16. He Should Be In A 'Gated' Community

if you, of all people, catch my drift

[autorank]

19. ;)

[stevedeshazer]

10. If this wasn't such a sad and twisted affair, I'd be rolling on the floor laughing

Instead, I'm angry beyond belief.

Thanks for that. Good read.

[autorank]

12. Hey Steve

Yep, it takes effort to laugh but it's worth it. Can't do much else lately.

:hi:

[Hugabear]

14. Guess he was envious of Westboro Baptist getting all the attention

n/t

[autorank]

15. That's what a lot of this is about

ATTENTION. I was surprised to read how small his congregation is.

The one good thing this is doing is making the Ground Zero bigots look like, well, ground zero bigots.

[lib2DaBone]

17. This whole thing looks like a Karl Rove Terry Schiavo Publicity Stunt...

Do you think someone is paying this guy to do this? (I don't think he is smart enough to conjure up this baloon-boy stunt on his own.) Painted sign on the trailer, firewood, etc.

And how did this thing go so viral in the media so quick? I suspect Faux News or Glen Beck are hiding in the bushes somewhere near this church.

[autorank]

18. 50 members of the congregation

It's some sort of scam. No doubt.

[truedelphi]

21. Sadly, congregations like the one in Florida

are also here in California.

Fifty people at a time all across small hamlets in America and pretty soon it adds up.

I am very glad I am not a Muslim teenager attempting to fit in at some local high school.

[autorank]

24. California has it all n/t

[truedelphi]

22. Proud to be rec four. n/t

[autorank]

23. You're about rec 20 n/t

[truedelphi]

27. this morning it is back up to five, after being at five right as

I rec'ced it yesterday late afternoon..

Damn computer glitch here at DU!

[Joe Chi Minh]

25. That's notTerry jones. It's Michael Palin.... and he's having us all on!

The clue's in the name.

[truedelphi]

26. And they won't be burning those Korans - they will just be

Defrosting them.

[Hubert Flottz]

28. Hard to believe only fifty...

and that in a state where the rattlesnakes get the biggest?