It’s all in the numbers: U.S. No Fly list tops 1 million, we got a 100 hits today and this is post 200

The US no fly list has hit 1 million records.

The American Civil Liberties Union is publicizing this ridiculous number via Reuters here.

"America's new million-record watch list is a perfect symbol for what's wrong with this administration's approach to security: it's unfair, out-of-control, a waste of resources (and) treats the rights of the innocent as an afterthought,"

Worked with a guy in the US who found himself on the No Fly list one day in Seattle trying to board a flight to Toronto. They basically called him aside told him he was on the list and handed him a form.

The form was simple, you are on the list, we can't tell you why you are on the list, it is against Federal law to tell anyone that you are on the list and here’s a number to call.

He spent an hour and half on the phone and finally got a human voice who told him he would have to apply for a different form over the web.

If his information checked out he would be sent another form that he should carry with him when traveling, which he did for the next nine months. His name was Larry Johnson.

Not the football player, the baseball player or the basketball player. Neither was he the Larry Johnson, ex-CIA operative, that was spouting off about the Plame scandal on CNN, 3 months before.

Meanwhile the US Government Accountability Office said. "The list is very effective. In fact it's one of the most effective counterterrorism tools that our country has"

And the scary thing about that statement is that it is, probably true.

Now for the really strange shit.

We've always focussed on quantity over quality around here at JAWL. No offense intended to the 20 or so regulars who show up each day. We really appreciate the visitors we receive and believe they are the finest quality found on the intertubes. 

We are just not as fussy about the quality of our posts. Consistency over content, quantity over quality. Our motto has always been, if you want quality go to the blogs listed on the sidebar.

Anyway today over a 100 people showed up, because someone linked one of our posts to something called reddit.com. Have no idea what that is, nor could I find where we were listed on the damn thing. It looks like some kind of aggregator for people that are too lazy to go find bloggers that they like reading.

Nobody stayed around for that long, although they certainly were polite (I think they were mostly foreigners) with no one tracking dirt on the rugs and all. But somehow it has left us with this hollow feeling.

The idea was to grow slowly on the premise that as the posts got better, more people would start dropping by regularly. You know first 20 then 50 and then finally 100 regulars every day.

This reddit thing has sort of taken the fun out of our first 1oo. The thought was that we would get there together. Now we feel somewhat cheapened by the whole experience.

Anyway tomorrow it's back to obscurity.

This was our 200th post together.