Home Of The Free

No Longer Brave

Transportation Security Administration officials have announced two major changes:

Travelers may now carry through security checkpoints travel size toiletries ( 3 oz or less) that fit comfortably in ONE, Quart- SIZE, clear plastic, zip ­top bag. Pay attention and follow directions or that trip to Disney World can be cancelled!

After clearing security, travelers can now bring beverages and other items purchased in the secure boarding area, on-board the aircraft.

At the checkpoint travelers will be asked to remove the zip-top bag of liquids and place it in a bin or on the conveyor belt, x-raying separately will allow TSA security officers to more easily examine the declared items.

I suppose that if you've been on vacation and bought a jug of Maple Syrup; you're going to have to drink all but three ounces? This is what happens when billions of dollars are thrown to the wind to create these ridiculous alphabet agencies. Follow the money ­ a few are making billions off of this Mad Hatter's Tea Party! Transportation Security Screeners will now be called 'supervisors'; because important titles will make it appear that these recent GED graduates or former employees of Block Buster etc ­ know what they're doing; as they order folks around (who can afford to travel and they can't) pawing them, swabbing their briefcases and ordering wheelchair bound seniors to remove orthopedic shoes: as colostomy bags and heart medications and hip replacements are carefully gone over! Nursing mothers meantime are made to prove that its milk that has breasts hanging heavy and not nitroglycerin. Toddlers with sneakers or stuffed animals will be carefully scrutinized.

This man a WWII veteran ­ who supposedly 'fought for freedom', is subjected to the indignity of a rent-a-cop treating him like he's just come in from the mountains of Afghanistan! I DOUBT Barbara and George Bush (senior) would be treated like this! What has Congress done to stop this insanity of marking citizens as the 'enemy'? Nothing!

Wearing flip ­ flops, no matter, it has to be understood that all of this Tom foolery has NOTHING to do with shoes, old spice, hair gel, or mouth wash; and everything to do with ordering and controlling masses of people; who are basically at their mercy, (traveling) for the sake of behavior modification and forming obedient passive non-complaining drones.

Repeat after me" I feel so much safer, I don't mind strangers seeing me naked-and ordering me to throw my denture cream and bunion remover etc, in the waste can. Who knows what explosives could be hidden in a senior citizen's colostomy bag. The government knows best".

After you're searched and prodded, frisked, scanned, sniffed, and carefully watched; least you make some suspicious movement, you are then subjected to the body scanner, which will have these rent-a-cops radiating and undressing you ­in case all the groping, metal detectors missed something! Radiation ­ no need to fear, the government announces it as SAFE!

"Freedom's just another word".note that the Executive branch, the Supreme Court , visiting dignitaries, (including renowned diabolical dictators), the President's family, corporate executives etc; are not subjected to these Gestapo tactics. NO, these machines and rent-a-cops are not on our southern border. Only American's are subjected to this scrutiny. No matter what your thoughts are on immigration ­ it stands to reason that legions of 'terrorists' could simply walk in here while 93 year old seniors are being frisked!

The face and body language specialists (just rent-a-cops with ties and fancier badges) will be carefully observing you from the shadows; to check off things pertaining to your face or movements; that might show you for the liar, manipulator, and contemptible threat to humanity that you really are, and thus not fit to travel! You may be the unfortunate person who is just naturally petulant, harried, or (like Cheney) born with a perpetual sneer, which will have you pulled aside and interrogated! The message appears to be that one must remain placid and emotionless-and fearful!

It's really about conformity and compliance and has nothing to do with protecting the nation. Common sense will tell you that! PLEASE ­ toothpaste, hair gel, baby formula etc!

Why a terrorist would use an airport, when we have 6 million + cargo containers (unsearched) entering the country yearly beats me? This doesn't count the hundreds of thousands of trucks (recently passed by Congress) entering over the Mexican border! There is no feasible way to check what's on these semis! Meantime, passengers manhandled and searched; then get onto planes filled with tons of UNSEARCHED cargo under their feet! No it's not about security.

I suggest that these scanners ­searchers ­ prodders - and behavioral monitors be posted at the: White House, the Supreme Court, the Defense Dept, the State Department, Congress, Capitol hallways, and the local watering holes and board rooms; to catch the real threats to representative democracy. Hey, maybe we'll find that $2 trillion missing from the Defense Dept, or the paltry $9 billion that disappeared in Iraq (under Bremer). Maybe it's just paranoid me; but I think millions of containers from a country that has stolen all of our trade secrets; is a lot more suspicious than liquid wart remover, or a ninety-three year old Alzheimer patient, in orthopedic terrorist shoes! Hmm, now if we were politicians or corporate honchos, we could bypass this pawing and and fly in corporate privacy! But then, this is all just practice for the management of the global plantation.

"But I don't want to go among mad people, Alice remarked. 'Oh, you can't help that', said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad'. 'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. 'You must be' said the Cat 'or you wouldn't have come here'. Alice didn't think that proved it at all; however, she went on 'And how do you know that you're not mad?' 'To begin with, 'said the Cat, 'a dog's not mad. You grant that?' 'I suppose so', said Alice. 'Well, then', the Cat went on, 'you see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when its pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad'. Alice in Wonderland.

By Judith Moriarty