A bit of fraud in the Commonwealth

Were you among the many who signed a petition last fall, thinking you were adding your name to those supporting interstate wine sales, nursing home reform, on increased access to preschools?

Well, guess what? You may have been duped into signing the petition to overturn gay marriage!

This information comes to us from "Know thy Neighbor.org":

Fraud alert!

Thousands may have been frauded by out-of-state, buck-a-signature petition circulators.

What happened?

The following scenarios have been reported:

Scenario 1 - Citizens were told they were signing the wine petition when the anti-gay marriage petition was actually presented.

Scenario 2 - Citizens were first asked to sign the wine petition and then asked to sign again on a second page. The second page was actually the anti-gay marriage petition.

Scenario 3 - Citizens were told they were signing a petition to protect gay marriage when it was actually the anti-gay marriage petition.

Who did it?

Petition sponsors VoteOnMarriage.org hired Arno Political Consultants, a California company that has been questioned on using fraudulent tactics across the nation, to collect signatures for the anti-gay marriage petition. Arno bussed and flew in workers from around the country and paid them $1.50 for each signature they collected.

Workers allegedly made up to $1200 per day and would brag about how they were able to fraud gay people into signing a petition to take their own rights away.

What can I do if I am a fraud victim?

Verify that you are listed as a signer of the anti-gay marriage petition and follow the instructions provided with the list for fraud victims.

Folks, if you have the slightest inkling that you or someone you know may have been duped, you owe it to yourself to check out the website and see if your name is there. I checked all my family and friends, and it is with a great sigh of relief that I can report us all in the clear.

Short Memory at the TSA

You've probably heard that the TSA has lifted some restrictions on what you can and cannot carry on board an aircraft now. Pretty soon, scissors, small tools, and other sharp objects will be once again allowed in the cabin.

Presumably, this is so the TSA can focus on the "far larger threat" of explosive devices being smuggled aboard, either by passengers or in the cargo hold.

But is that really a threat? I didn't think it was credible, so I did some resarch. You'd think if this was a big deal, planes would be blasted out of the sky on a regular basis, right?

Well, you'd be wrong.

The last bombing of any kind happened in 1997 in Brazil.
The last American airliner to be felled by a bomb was over Lockerbie, Scotland back in 1988. The last one that was destroyed over the continental United States was in 1962.

Here's the full list of aircraft that have been destroyed in flight by a bomb:

04.11.1955 Air India Lockheed L-049, Great Natuna Island, Sarawak
11.01.1955 United Airlines Douglas DC-6B, Longmont, Colorado, USA
07.25.1957 Western Airlines Convair CV-240, Daggett, California, USA
01.06.1960 National Airlines Douglas DC-6B, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA
05.10.1961 Air France Lockheed L-1649A, In Amenas, Libya
05.22.1962 Continental Airlines Boeing 707-124, Unionville, Missouri, USA
07.08.1965 Canadian Pacific Airlines Douglas DC-6B, Dog Creek, B.C., Canada
11.22.1966 Aden Airways Douglas DC-3, Aden, Yemen
10.12.1967 British European Airways de Havilland DH-106 Comet, Rhodes, Greece
12.22.1969 Air Vietnam Douglas DC-6B, Nha Trang, Vietnam
02.21.1970 Swissair Convair CV-990, Zurich, Switzerland
04.21.1970 Philippine Airlines Hawker Siddeley HS-748, Manila, Philippines
11.21.1971 China Airlines Sud Aviation SE210 Caravelle, Penghu, Taiwan
01.26.1972 JAT Yugoslav Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, Hermsdorf, Czechoslovakia 06.15.1972 Cathay Pacific Airways Convair CV-880, Pleiku, Vietnam
03.19.1973 Vietnam Airlines Douglas C-54D, Ben Me Thuot, S. Vietnam
04.21.1973 Philippine Airlines Hawker Siddeley HS-748, Patabangan, Philippines
05.25.1973 Aeroflot Tupolev TU-104A, Chita, Siberia
12.18.1973 Pan American World Airways Boeing 707-321C, Rome, Italy
09.08.1974 Trans World Airlines Boeing 707-331B, Ionian Sea
01.01.1976 Middle East Airlines Boeing 720-023B, Al Qaysumah, Saudi Arabia
10.06.1976 Cubana de Aviacion McDonnell Douglas DC-8-43, Bridgetown, Barbados 10.13.1976 Indian Airlines Sud Aviation SE210 Caravelle, Bombay, India
12.21.1980 Transportes Aereos del Caribe Aérospatiale Caravelle, Rio Hacha, Colombia
09.23.1983 Gulf Air Boeing 737-2P6, Mina Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates
06.23.1985 Air India Boeing 747-237B, Atlantic Ocean - off Shannon, Ireland
04.02.1986 Trans World Airlines Boeing 727-231, Athens, Greece
05.03.1986 Air Lanka Lockheed L-1011-100, Colombo, Sri Lanka
11.29.1987 Korean Air Lines Boeing 707-3B5C, Andaman Sea
03.01.1988 Comair (South Africa) Embraer 110 Bandeirante, Johannesburg, South Africa 12.21.1988 Pan American World Airways Boeing 747-121, Lockerbie, Scotland
09.19.1989 Union des Transports Aeriens McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, Bilma, Niger
07.19.1994 Alas Chiricanas Embraer 110 Bandeirante, Colon, Panama
12.11.1994 Philippine Airlines Boeing 747-283B, Pacific Ocean
07.09.1997 TAM Brazil Fokker F-100, Suzano, Brazil

The raw data for this search, including accident details, number of persons killed, and aircraft registry information is available here. (Pay no mind to aircraft lost in BOMBay, or any BOMBardier on the list. )

And in the interest of "fair and balanced", here's a similar raw list for all aircraft that have been lost as a result of a hijacking.

And I need not remind you what happened the last time you could fly with boxcutters, right?