2008 Election - Redux

For those who have read one or more of my quondam postings in this venue, I expressed a number of hopes when the results came in that November 2 years ago.

Having just reread my comments, I think it is time to revisit them.

After almost two years my hopes have been drastically diminished. The candidate on the campaign trail did not morph into the leader he promised us.

Not that I think that we would have fared better under his opponent.

But it has been a disappointing two years.

We have not moved away from the police state toward which we were drifting under Bush-Cheney.

We have not disavowed the atrocities of torture committed during that administration.

We do NOT have a health care solution.

We do NOT have meaningful financial reform.

And as the events of another Gulf disaster unfolded, we learned that we also do not have an effective crisis response mechanism.

For two years we had an impotent legislative branch because the party in power was too terrified to advance their agenda forcefully in the face of the opposition's intransigence.

And so, appropriately enough, they lost that power.

Now we can look forward to two years of legislative gridlock - the GOP does not have the numbers to overturn a presidential veto, and the Dems do not have the numbers to accomplish what they might have done in the last two years had there been a force of will behind their rhetoric.

Since my crystal ball has become somewhat cloudy of late, I have no idea what the next two years will bring. But the hopes I had two years ago have dimmed, and I suspect that what we will see is two years of stagnation, continued high unemployment, and a continued eroding of the middle class without which no modern nation can hope to succeed in an increasingly competitive global landscape.

I hope I am wrong - but fear I am not.

Airport Security - 2011 Thanksgiving Edition

The antics of Homeland Security and the TSA never cease to amaze.

Some of you may remember that when all this wonderful "security" process started we were required to turn on our laptops at the checkpoint.

When the iconoclast that I am inquired as to the purpose of this exercise, I was informed very sternly that "we need to make sure it is not a bomb."

Something in my nature is perverse. I was at that time carrying a Mac Powerbook that had two batteries. So I pulled out one of those - while the computer was running - and asked the agent "and how do you know THIS little brick is not made of C4?"

I almost missed my flight. Never argue with stupidity and ignorance vested with authority.

So now we have the "body scan."

Will this scanner determine what might be in a body cavity? For years drug mules have placed their wares in body cavities to evade search. The answer to the rhetorical question is, of course, a resounding NO. Will the "intense" pat down find such items. Again, NO. And are we told the number of milliREMs that the scanners will expose us to. Again, NO.

So, driving home I heard the news that passengers throughout the country are being delayed and missing flights - in the name of a false security that will protect none of us.

When did this nation of individualistic anti-authoritarians become a nation of cowardly sheep?

How did we reach the point where we are willing to abdicate all of our rights for the sake of the illusion of safety?

I fear for our future.