As Defense, Intelligence Agencies Drown in Data, Technology Comes to the Rescue 

November 2014   http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2014/November/Pages/AsDefenseIntelligenceAgenciesDrowninData,TechnologyComestotheRescue.aspx

By Sandra I. Erwin 

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper has asked the government’s tech gurus and the private sector to “help us find the needles without having the haystacks.”

Clapper’s clarion call comes at a time of unprecedented demand for data-intensive products and services at all levels of the U.S. national security apparatus. The task of filtering and sorting through massive loads of data is only going to get bigger as the military and intelligence agencies collect more information than they can handle. There are more drones and satellites collecting video and imagery than ever before, and human analysts desperately need automated tools to find those needles in ever-expanding haystacks.

“Our next big investment is big data,” says Dawn Meyerriecks, deputy director of the CIA’s directorate of science and technology. The challenge for data scientists is “figuring out how we deal with high volume intelligence.”

Government agencies find that software tools that can parse huge loads of information into actionable information are becoming increasingly more sophisticated, but there are still many gaps to be filled.

As the United States steps up the fight against elusive extremist groups, the traditional methods of finding and tracking targets are inadequate. The amount of data being collected has made it nearly impossible to track and identify suspicious activities and potential security threats solely through human analytical processes.

The intelligence community sees its future in “activity based intelligence,” which is computer-assisted problem solving to help understand how enemy networks operate by following their movements and financial transactions.

The government’s gargantuan appetite for data has spurred an arms race within the tech industry. Much of the innovation these days comes from Silicon Valley, where there is a burgeoning crop of firms that are jumping in to fill big data needs.

“When the agencies first saw our software, they didn’t know software could do what our software did,” says Sean Varah, CEO of MotionDSP. The company’s image processing software initially was created to clean up grainy cell phone videos from the pre-iPhone days. U.S. military and intelligence analysts now use it in the war against the Islamic State. Agencies have rooms full of people who manually, frame by frame, clean up images that may be hard to see, or are clouded by bad weather or smoke. That typically takes weeks, says Varah, whereas the software improves the quality of the video in real time, he adds. “Operators are good. They can see things, but with our technology they can see it a lot faster.”

These technologies fall into the category of “computer vision,” a rapidly growing field that focuses on acquiring, processing, analyzing and understanding images in order to produce actionable information. This technology will explode in the coming years as sources of imagery multiply. Commercial companies like Google’s Skybox Imaging are going to make it easier and cheaper to obtain sophisticated satellite imagery that is now only available to governments.

“What do you do with all that imagery?” Varah asks. “You have to use computer vision technology to extract information.”

The good news about cutting-edge Silicon Valley info-tech products is that they are all privately funded, and the government can acquire them at a fraction of the cost of government-developed systems. “The government should evaluate the best in breed before they pay billions of dollars for contractors to write code from scratch,” Varah says.

The tech revolution is only just beginning. Giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and Adobe are pouring billions of dollars into computer vision and another emerging discipline called “deep learning.”

The goal is to teach a computer to see the way a human sees. Google and Amazon are betting big on drones, but they know the industry won’t take off until these drones can “see” and avoid hitting people when they deliver packages. The technology that lets a Google car drive around without a driver is also computer vision. “Private investment in computer vision is going to start pouring out new products,” Varah says.

Deep learning is another term for the use of artificial intelligence to solve problems and to find patterns in huge reams of imagery. “The technology in image recognition has gone from laughably bad to super human good,” says Paul Cohen, program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Most of the big data technology today is insufficient to tackle increasingly complex challenges, he says. At DARPA, Cohen oversees a program called “big mechanism,” which he describes as a “poke in the eye” to big data. “It’s based on the distinction between crunching numbers and understanding what the data is telling you.”

A big mechanism is a large, explanatory model of complicated systems. While the collection of big data is largely automated, the creation of big mechanisms remains a human endeavor that is made more difficult by the fragmentation and distribution of knowledge. DARPA believes that if the creation of models can be automated, it could change how science is done. The program now focuses on cancer biology but the overarching goal of the program is to develop technologies for a new kind of science that is based on models, not on raw data. The implications for military-focused applications are huge.

Another major tech battle that defense and security agencies are fighting is the flood of data generated by social media. What used to be innocuous social media platforms are now bursting with potential threat intelligence that is of great value to the U.S. government.

The data in social media is very unstructured and the government needs tools to make sense of it, says Peg Grayson, president of MTN Government. The company’s social media predictive analytic tool integrates tweets and posts from other sites in real time, using a mathematical algorithm to scan keywords, sources and pictures.

The software integrates media feeds in a way that might provide some predictive information — such as the location of potential terrorists — when it’s combined with human intelligence, says Grayson. “This saves thousands of people’s time.”

The data deluge, meanwhile, is creating a market for storage and archiving. Analysts who collect imagery and video from drones and satellites in many cases are required to keep the data for years. These are exabytes of information that they may have to retrieve when military commanders, for example, want to compare drone feeds of a particular area over a certain period.

The government’s data storage needs are astronomical, says Brian Houston, vice president of engineering Hitachi Data Systems Federal, a company that develops optical storage systems. One exabyte could hold a hundred thousand times the printed material, or 500 to 3,000 times the content of the Library of Congress.

Photo: Example of software that increases the fidelity of video images (MotionDSP)

Programmer creates 800,000 books algorithmically, starts selling them on Amazon

• By Grant Brunner on December 14, 2012
• Patent on "Long Tail" for automated content authorship.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/143382-programmer-creates-800000-books-algorithmically-starts-selling-them-on-amazon

When we think about writing books, especially the technical kind, we think about a person or small group of people hunched over their keyboards typing away. There’s a good reason for that mental image: that’s how the majority of books are written. That’s not the way it has to be, though. Philip M. Parker, a marketing professor at INSEAD, has a patented system for algorithmically compiling data into book form. Thanks to Parker’s system, Amazon now has over 800,000 books for sale from his company. Other organizations pay for this service to compile data for their reports, so the system clearly has flexibility.
In a fascinating piece covering the news the sheer power of this system was revealed. Countless topics can be listed on sites like Amazon — everything you’d ever want to know. The funny part is that the books don’t even have to be written yet. Thanks to digital distribution and print-on-demand solutions, a whole new book can be generated on an incredibly obscure topic as soon as someone buys it. The system will be able to compile an entire book on the subject in the range of ten minutes to a few hours. It’s that simple.
This video below features Parker himself explaining how the process works, and why it’s useful. Because of his specialty in marketing, it’s easy to assume that these books are designed for spam-like purposes, but it does also have benefits to traditional writing outside of the amazing speed. Specifically, he points out that in the case of very rare diseases, it’s unlikely that any books would be written in the first place. Especially when you’re looking at statistics and data, having a computer compile and find potentially significant data is very useful. While the books won’t be particularly creative, they absolutely do have a place.
The technology isn’t just for books. Videos and games can be generated as well. When you’re focusing on areas like developing and distributing content all over the world in dozens of languages, traditional manpower isn’t exactly efficient. Humans just don’t have the ability to translate content to that many languages in a time and cost effective manner. Computers can knock that out during a long lunch. Using this system, it is possible to spread information to places that used to be impossible to reach. Computers won’t be replacing humans for writing the great American novel or entertaining the masses on TV, but it is obvious that computers will be an increasing fixture in the analysis and translation of content. This is a perfect complement to human creativity — not something for creatives, researchers, or consumers to fear.
Now read: Spaun, the most realistic artificial human brain yet
[Image credit: Willi Heidelbach]

THE LOCKHEED MARTIN FUSION STORY, E-CAT, AND SOME HIGH OCTANE SPECULATION

Posted on October 26, 2014 by Joseph P. Farrell • Filed Under: Alchemy, Cosmic War •http://gizadeathstar.com/2014/10/lockheed-martin-fusion-story-e-cat-high-octane-speculation/

So many of you sent articles regarding the Lockheed Martin fusion reactor story, that I am compelled to offer my usual high octane speculations, with my thanks to all of you who have been following this story so closely. One individual who emailed me, echoed my own intuitions, by stating that she thought the Lockheed announcement was dubious and suspicious, and with that I concur, which is the subject of today’s blog, and today’s high octane speculation. After all, it’s Sunday, and what better day to talk about fusion?
To get started, here is the story of Lockheed-Martin’s fusion reactor claims, as reported by MIT’s Technology Review:
Does Lockheed Martin Really Have a Breakthrough Fusion Machine?
Now, you’ll note that the subtitle of this article captures the essence of the problem: we have a claim, but as yet, no backup data or any real technical details, for the subtitle points out that “Lockheed Martin says it will have a small fusion reactor prototype in five years but offers no data.” Indeed, the second paragraph points out the difficulty, and subtly suggests – at least to my mind – what the target of Lockheed’s unusual announcement, and its timing, may really be:

“Nuclear fusion could produce far more energy, far more cleanly, than the fission reactions at the heart of today’s nuclear power plants. But there are huge obstacles and no hard evidence that Lockheed has overcome them. The so-far-insurmountable challenge is to confine hydrogen plasma at conditions under which the hydrogen nuclei fuse together at levels that release a useful amount of energy. In decades of research, nobody has yet produced more energy from fusion reaction experiments than was required to conduct the experiments in the first place.”

Nobody has produced fusion reactions that is, in hot fusion containment method experiments, unless, of course, you want to recall and believe the 1960’s claims of Philo Fransworth for his “Plasmator” and “Fusor” devices. Recall also the more recent claims – about which we blogged a few days ago –  of Sweden’s University of Uppsala and Italy’s University of Bologna study of Italian physicist and inventor, Dr. Andrea Rossi, and his E-Cat cold fusion reactor, a study which minced no words: there are nuclear reactions and processes occurring in Rossi’s device, which appear to be producing excess heat, at thermal energies far below those involved in the hot fusion process. And for Farnsworth fans, recall that his claims were to have produced sustained fusion reactions for small periods of time at hot fusion energies, in devices a little bigger than a common softball. Farnsworth made his announcement in the 1960s, and then his patents were quietly shuffled out of the limelight by their owner, IT&T, and they, and Farnsworth, were seldom heard from again.
This, in my opinion, constitutes the possible real reason for the Lockheed announcement, for the University of Bologna and University of Uppsala studies of Dr. Rossi’s device were released a short time before Lockheed upstaged their announcement. It was, in other words, a bit of clever distraction to get people to focus attention solely on the “big money hot fusion” approach, an approach which power elites can easily monitor, and away from the always controversial subject of Lattice Assisted Nuclear Reactions, or “cold fusion.” There is, however, a suggestive statement in the Lockheed announcement, and I hope you caught it(Farnsworth fans will have done so immediately):

“Tom McGuire, project lead of the Lockheed effort, said in an interview that the company has come up with a compact design, called a high beta fusion reactor, based on principles of so-called “magnetic mirror confinement.” This approach tries to contain plasma by reflecting particles from high-density magnetic fields to low-density ones.
“Lockheed said the test reactor is only two meters long by one meter wide, far smaller than existing research reactors. “In a smaller reactor you can iterate generations quicker, incorporate new knowledge, develop faster, and make riskier design choices. That is a much more powerful development paradigm and much less capital intensive,” McGuire said. If successful, the program could produce a reactor that might fit in a tractor-trailer and produce 100 megawatts of power, he said. “There are no guarantees that we can get there, but that possibility is there.”
“The small team developing the reactor at the company’s skunkworks in Palmdale, California, has done 200 firings with plasma, McGuire said, but has not shown any data on the results. However, he said of the plasma, “it looks like it’s doing what it’s supposed to do.” He added that with research partners Lockheed could develop a competed prototype within five years and a commercial application within a decade. The company is even talking about how fusion reactors could one day power ships and planes.”(Emphasis added)

Smaller reactors? Magnetic mirror confinement? If this sounds similar to the principles employed by Farnsworth, that’s because, in its basic outline, it is, and Farnsworth of course did it (or at least claimed to have done it), in much smaller devices than the big fusion projects. And for those who have followed the origins of such notions about fusion, it also recalls the processes suggested by Dr. Ronald Richter, even earlier, in Argentina. Richter of course, suffered public derision and denunciation, all the while the USAF was secretly interviewing him (suspiciously, after America’s Ivy and Castle series of hydrogen bomb tests), and Farnsworth was shuffled off the stage while a wall of silence descended over him and Richter ever afterward, until Pons and Fleischmann broke the story of their claims. So in other words, viewed a certain way, perhaps Lockheed is really admitting that their ideas merely went deeply black.
What is interesting to contemplate in all this is the wider context, for consider, we’ve seen now over the past few years the release of a bewildering array of technologies and stories, from 3-D printing, which I have argued is one of the first steps on the technology tree to a kind of “Star Trek replicator”, to the use of that technology already to examine things on one planet(Mars), and 3-D print them on another (Earth). We’ve seen the stated goal of DARPA to make the USA “Warp capable” in 100 years, and more recently, stories about the successful tests of “tractor beams.” Add fusion power and… well, you get the picture: it appears that the power elite, while busily slow-burning the old financial system (to borrow the analytical hypothesis of former HUD Assistant Secretary Catherine Austin Fitts), are also slowly and deliberately releasing stories of new technologies. In this case, however, the release appears to have been timed to draw attention away from the pesky subject of cold fusion, which is a shame, for it might be that when Rossi’s approach, and that of Lockheed (if it would bother to share some hard data), might show common areas, and perhaps fruitful new avenues for experimentation.

Suspicious Canada Shooting Triggers ‘Minority Report’ Pre-Crime Plans for ‘Preventive Arrests’

Posted on October 25, 2014 by Melissa Melton

On Wednesday, just two days after a “radicalized” man ran over two Canadian soldiers in a mall parking lot, a gunmen opened fire at Canada’s National War Memorial and at Parliament Hill, killing one soldier and wounding a security guard. He was later killed by an armed guard.
Within less than two days, rhetoric has risen unusually high for Canada in the wake of what have been called “terror attacks,” bringing terrorism home along with fresh demands for new police powers.
This time, the new powers would include ‘preventive arrests,’ potentially taking the country down the slippery slope of guilty-until-proven innocent authoritarian policies.
Via CBC News:

Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney is giving more indications of how the government intends to strengthen Canada’s security laws in the wake of Wednesday’s attack in Ottawa on Parliament Hill.
The minister told Radio-Canada on Friday that the government is eyeing the thresholds established in Canadian law for the preventive arrests of people thought to be contemplating attacks that may be linked to terrorism. Officials are considering how to make it easier to press charges against so-called lone-wolf attackers.
“The challenges are the thresholds — the thresholds that will allow either preventive arrest, or charges that lead to sentences, or more simple operations,” Blaney said in French. “So what the prime minister has asked is for us to review in accelerated manner the different mechanisms that are offered to police to ensure everyone’s security.”

There is even talk now of ramping up Canada’s hate speech laws.
A bill was already in the works prior to the shootings to strengthen the Canadian Security Intelligence Services’ (CSIS) powers; Prime Minister Stephen Harper had already announced changes including his belief police powers needed to be increased.

“In recent weeks, I’ve been saying that our laws and police powers need to be strengthened in the area of surveillance, detention and arrest,” he said as MPs returned one day after a gunman killed a soldier and made his way into Centre Block on the Parliament Hill. (CBC News)

That makes this shooting very convenient for Harper’s agenda; now in the wake of this week’s shooting, Harper has stated that work will be “expedited”.
Questions already abound as to where suspect Michael Zehaf-Bibeau even got his Winchester 30-30 rifle he used in the shooting. Due to his criminal record, Zehaf-Bibeau was already prohibited from owning a gun; in fact, Canadian courts had already issued the man a standard lifetime gun ban due to a violent conviction. Even without that ban, however, this guy couldn’t have obtained the gun in any legal way.
If anything, first and foremost it just proves that gun control doesn’t work. Regardless, in Canada there is no right by law to bear arms. “Canadians, unlike Americans, do not have a constitutional right to bear arms,” the Canadian Supreme Court ruled in 1993.
As Tony Cartalucci of Land Destroyer Report notes, the same plot had been scripted by the FBI just a month prior:

In mid-September A Rochester man, Mufid A. Elfgeeh, was accused by the FBI of attempting to provide material support to ISIS (undercover FBI agents), attempting to kill US soldiers, and possession of firearms and silencers (provided to him by the FBI). The FBI’s own official press release stated (emphasis added):
According to court records, Elfgeeh attempted to provide material support to ISIS in the form of personnel, namely three individuals, two of whom were cooperating with the FBI. Elfgeeh attempted to assist all three individuals in traveling to Syria to join and fight on behalf of ISIS. Elfgeeh also plotted to shoot and kill members of the United States military who had returned from Iraq. As part of the plan to kill soldiers, Elfgeeh purchased two handguns equipped with firearm silencers and ammunition from a confidential source. The handguns were made inoperable by the FBI before the confidential source gave them to Elfgeeh.
It was warned that only an inoperable firearm stood between Elfgeeh’s arrest and his successful execution of deadly plans hatched by him and his undercover FBI handlers. This script, written by the FBI to entrap Elfgeeh, would be followed almost to the letter in live attacks subsequently carried out in Canada resulting in the death of two Canadian soldiers.

Cartalucci goes on to point out another troubling detail. Like so many other heavily publicized terror attacks, Zehaf-Bibeau was already under both Canadian and U.S. government surveillance prior to the event, with the suspected shooter listed as a “high-risk traveler” who had his passport revoked prior to the shooting:

It is very likely that the recent attacks in Canada involved at least one “informant” working for the FBI. Because the FBI uses confidential informants to handle suspects, if a plot is switched “live,” the informant will be implicated as an accomplice and the FBI’s covert role will remain uncompromised…
With both suspects having been on both US and Canadian watch lists – it is very likely undercover agents were involved in either one or both cases. While many possibilities exist, Western security agencies should be among the first suspects considered as potential collaborators…

And of course —

Conveniently, both suspects are now dead and little chance remains of ascertaining the truth of who they were in contact with and how they carried out their deadly attacks.

Canada’s domestic terror threat level was quietly elevated just days before by CSIS intelligence, issuing a medium-level ‘could occur’ threat advisory for the first time since 2010. Unlike the often hyped and exaggerated public threat assessments in the U.S., this was an internal determination among the intelligence agencies, and signals likely prior knowledge.
So what did they know and when did they really know it?
Also, as in many highly publicized shootings with government ties, initially police reported multiple shooters. In the end, the story changed, naming Zehaf-Bibeau as the only shooter.
Former public safety minister Stockwell Day told CBC News, “There are always limitations, and this is what we have to realize in a free and democratic society. Any time you increase your security, you decrease your freedom somewhere.” [emphasis added]
And there you have it.
Terrorism — monitored and enabled by undercover informants — used as a catalyst to break down civil liberties and accumulate more state power.
Melissa Melton is a writer, researcher, and analyst for The Daily Sheeple and a co-creator of Truthstream Media with Aaron Dykes, a site that offers teleprompter-free, unscripted analysis of The Matrix we find ourselves living in. Melissa also co-founded Nutritional Anarchy with Daisy Luther of The Organic Prepper, a site focused on resistance through food self-sufficiency. Wake the flock up!

F*ck Feminists Who Pimp Little Girls to Promote an Agenda ~ hehe is there any~thin fucking worse than an fucking feminists Lol mother fuckers r the most bitter , MEAN ,sour puss looking douches ... right up there wit an fruit ...scorned  Lol  them mothers  r ...mean !  man :o  hehe  fucking trolls .................

Posted on October 26, 2014 by Daisy Luther

Yeah, I said it. Right there in the headline. I figure if grown women can encourage children to drop f-bombs on video for their “cause” then it’s only reasonable to respond to them in a language they can understand. (I deeply apologize to readers who are offended by this, but please bear with me – there’s a reason for it.)
Are you offended? I’m offended too. And horrified. And irate. And yearning to take those little girls back to my house and just let them be little girls, for crying out loud.  While these children should be having tea parties, catching lightning bugs, and playing on the swingset, they’ve been pimped out to make a point.
Radical feminism has plumbed new depths with a video exploiting little girls in order to make their point.
Warning: Profanity from children

Potty-Mouthed Princesses Drop F-Bombs for Feminism by FCKH8.com

Things like this are the reason that many women have spoken out against feminism recently.
How can anyone possibly think it is acceptable to coach children (who would never have come up with this type of profanity on their own) to swear, to immortalize it on video, and make it go viral?
Lest I sound like a complete prude, I’ll admit, I’ve dropped some four-letter words in my life. However, it is entirely different from encouraging a child to say them and rewarding them when they do so.
Here are a few quotes, literally, out of the mouths of babes:

“What the f*ck? I’m not some pretty f*cking, helpless princess in distress. I’m pretty f*cking powerful and ready for success.”
“So what is more offensive? A little girl saying f*ck or the f*cking unequal and sexist way society treats girls and women?”
“Women make 23% less than men for the exact same f*cking work. I shouldn’t need a penis to get paid.”
“One out of five women will be sexually assaulted or raped by a man. Stop telling girls how to dress and start teaching boys not to f*cking rape.”

This is not how you empower women. This is not how you turn a little girl into a strong woman. In what world could one possibly think that dressing up a child, coaching them to swear, and filling them with anger is a way to make things better? Since when did whining about life not being fair ever make you a stronger, more deserving person? If you don’t like your life, your job, your relationship…it’s your responsibility to do something about it. You don’t just cry, cuss, and demand a new set of rules.
You want strong girls?
Then take my advice. Advice that comes from a single mom raising two girls whose father has passed away. So really, REALLY single. A mom who ran an automotive repair shop for years, working with a bunch of awesome guys in a male-dominated industry, without any special treatment, bonus vagina-based incentives, or affirmative action. A mom who had that job because she simply worked hard, treated others with respect, and earned it. A mom with intelligent, independent, competent, and kind daughters.
Empower your girls by teaching them how to take control of their own lives

• Teach them not to be victims.
• Teach them not to be ashamed of being who they are, whether they are frilly pink-clad princesses or sports-jersey wearing tomboys.
• Teach them to change their own tires instead of needing someone to do it for them.
• Teach them to use weapons.
• Teach them to defend themselves, both physically and with words.
• Teach them that men and boys are not the enemy.
• Teach them to take active personal responsibility for their lives, instead of looking for a man to blame.
• Teach them that equality is different – radically different – from superiority.
• Teach them that they don’t need to be rescued.
• Teach them they don’t need a “movement” to take control of their own lives, they simply need to do it.
• Teach them to abhor special treatment based on their gender.
• Teach them not to play the blame game, but to pull up their socks and push harder for what they want.
• Teach them to make wise choices to keep themselves safe.
• Teach them to earn respect and equality, instead of having it legislated.

This video is not about feminism, it’s about sexism, the very thing they purport to be against. It’s anger. It’s a cry for attention. It’s a plea from women who actually don’t measure up, demanding special treatment.  These are the type of women who cannot understand the feeling of victory you get when you earn something fair and square. Women who want a separate set of rules that skews the game. Where the HELL is the victory in that? How can you call it equality when you haven’t earned it, but had the results skewed by some kind of government mandated vagina handicap points system?
Well, I have some foul language of my own.
F*ck all of you so-called feminists who exploit children. You don’t know the first thing about being strong, independent women.
Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor.  Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca

Land Of The Free – 1 In 3 Americans Are On File With The FBI In The U.S. Police State   ~ hehe i guess i am on the "go fuck yerself"  ( any of u's nazi fuck's spy's ) LIST Lol  Oops :o

October 25, 2014 | By Guest Post | Government, Government Control, Tyranny & Police State

By: Michael Krieger | Liberty Blitzkrieg -

The sickening transformation of these United States into an authoritarian police state with an incarceration rate that would make Joseph Stalin blush, has been a key theme of my writing since well before the launch of Liberty Blitzkrieg. One of the posts that shocked and disturbed readers most, was published a little over a year ago titled: American Police Make an Arrest Every 2 Seconds in 2012. In the event you never read it, I suggest taking a look before tackling the rest of this piece.
Fast forward to fall 2014, and the Wall Street Journal has a powerful article about how children in schools systems across the U.S. are being arrested or turned over to police custody for doing things that children have always done since the beginning of time. Things such as wearing too much perfume, sharing a classmates’ chicken nuggets, throwing an eraser or chewing gum.
As a result of our insane societal obsession with authority and disproportionate punishment, the WSJ reports that “nearly one out of every three American adults are on file in the FBI’s master criminal database.” 
USA! USA!
From the Wall Street Journal:

A generation ago, schoolchildren caught fighting in the corridors, sassing a teacher or skipping class might have ended up in detention. Today, there’s a good chance they will end up in police custody.
In Texas, a student got a misdemeanor ticket for wearing too much perfume. In Wisconsin, a teen was charged with theft after sharing the chicken nuggets from a classmate’s meal—the classmate was on lunch assistance and sharing it meant the teen had violated the law, authorities said. In Florida, a student conducted a science experiment before the authorization of her teacher; when it went awry she received a felony weapons charge.
Over the past 20 years, prompted by changing police tactics and a zero-tolerance attitude toward small crimes, authorities have made more than a quarter of a billion arrests, the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates. Nearly one out of every three American adults are on file in the FBI’s master criminal database.

Did you catch that too? “Zero-tolerance attitude toward small crimes.” Indeed, the big criminals go to Wall Street, crash the economy and then receive trillions in taxpayer bailouts. Or they get a top job in the Obama Administration, such as Jedi-master of cronyism, Tim Geithner, being chosen as Treasury Secretary.
Back to the WSJ…

At school, talking back or disrupting class can be called disorderly conduct, and a fight can lead to assault and battery charges, said Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of the Advancement Project, a national civil-rights group examining discipline procedures around the country. 

If these rules were in place in my day, I would have been arrested about 150 times.

“We’re not talking about criminal behavior,” said Texas State Sen. John Whitmire, the Democratic chair of the senate’s Criminal Justice Committee, who helped pass a new law last year that limits how police officers can ticket students. “I’m talking about school disciplinary issues, throwing an eraser, chewing gum, too much perfume, unbelievable violations” that were resulting in misdemeanor charges.
According to the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, 260,000 students were reported, or “referred” in the official language, to law enforcement by schools in 2012, the most-recent available data. 
The number of school police officers rose 55% to about 19,000 in the 10 years to 2007, the last year for which numbers were available, according to a 2013 study from the Congressional Research Service.
The schools crackdown has had its intended effect. Victims’ surveys compiled by the Education Department show that there is a lower rate of violent crime committed in schools, falling to 52 incidents per 100,000 students in 2012 from 181 incidents per 100,000 in 1992.Supporters say that alone proves the worth of aggressive policing.

Well yeah, and pigs in a pen are easily controlled too, but are these the types of children we want to raise?
And what about the downside, such as:

Brushes with the criminal justice system go hand in hand with other negative factors. A study last year of Chicago public schools by a University of Texas and a Harvard researcher found the high-school graduation rate for children with arrest records was 26%, compared with 64% for those without. The study estimated about one-quarter of the juveniles arrested in Chicago annually were arrested in school.
A science experiment that went awry turned into a 17-month battle for Kiera Wilmot and her mother as they tried to clear the honor student’s arrest record. According to the police report, she was on school grounds outside the classroom trying out an experiment that hadn’t been authorized by her teacher. Ms. Wilmot, now 18, said she put a piece of aluminum inside a bottle with two ounces of toilet cleaner to see what would happen. The teen’s mother said she was trying to simulate a volcanic eruption.
“It popped,” blowing the top off the bottle, she said. She was handcuffed by the school-resource office, escorted out of the Bartow, Fla., school and taken to a juvenile facility where she was charged with possessing or discharging firearms or weapons at school and making, throwing, possessing, projecting, placing or discharging a destructive device.

Think about what sorts of lessons we are teaching talented students about experimenting and being creative. A modern Benjamin Franklin would most likely be rotting away in solitary right now.
So as we militarize the police, we police the schools. See the direction this is all headed in?
Keep chanting muppets.
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger