I have been following — as strictly an observer, thankfully — the controversy over airport body scanners and body searches. I don't know why anyone flies at all. The fear level has been gradually inched upward since the first hijackings of the sixties. It's astonishing to me what passengers put up with. I was especially amused/repelled by the reports of hand searching for weapons in rolls of body fat — the perfect storm of fear and fast food.
Do people not see that this whole process has become insane?
Now we're all supposed to be terrified of 'crotch bombers'. As soon as we get used to that, we'll be subjected to a wave of fear over 'ass bombers', and the airport security industry will be lobbying TSA to buy and use anal probes on everyone.
I haven't been on a commercial airline since about 2000. God willing, I'll never be on another one.
The citizens of an enlightened state, a Taoist master wrote, never leave the borders of their homeland. All of their needs are met right there.
This presumes, of course, that their needs are actually their needs, and not a lot of horseshit cranked up by the advertising and marketing people.
I live in a medium-sized city. Like most medium-sized cities, it's desperate to grow itself into a huge city, so it can get even more marketing-driven horseshit. Personally, I would prefer to live in an even smaller city. I don't care if there is no Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters or whatever. As long as it had plenty of trees and a couple of good coffee shops and restaurants, I could live in BF, Egypt.
And if it didn't have an airport, that would be fine, too.
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Yesterday morning a friend of mine brought me homemade tamales straight from Old Mexico that were still hot. After that I rode my bike in near perfect weather and then got a little sun. (On Nov 22!) I still have the "perfect tan" at Thanksgiving. After that I went to Raging Sage where I enjoyed the best coffee I have ever tasted anywhere on the planet. There was a group of aging Liberals there and I fell in with them to discuss Arizona's new Medical Marijauna Law. After that, I whipped by one of our four Trader Joe's for a little grocery shopping and then I ate some more tamales and relaxed outside with a view of the desert mountains. I have not only not left my new city for 18 months since the day I moved here, I have barely left my zip code. But, we do have all the upscale bullshit here too. Fancy, fancy stores (even a Tiffany's jewelry store) and very expensive grocery stores. They are segregated and I never have to see them which makes it really nice. I do not ever see myself going on a 'vacation' again. I am on permacation.
It's insane, it doesn't work, and I worry what comes next if people don't succeed in fighting this off. I am disturbed by all the people who think it's no big deal and think those of us who don't want to cooperate are whiny babies.
Lark
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