Trying To Keep Happy In Texas While Protecting My Private Parts From The Probing TSA

You are looking out at my blurry Friday, November 19 view, this morning, at a chilly 7 degrees above freezing.

Snow is not in the immediate forecast.

If it does snow I will not be going cross country skiing. I stored my skis in an area of this place that is not temperature controlled. As a consequence the skis delaminated. They are now living in a landfill somewhere.

Yesterday one of my frequent commenters, Agent cd0103, commented on what Agent cd0103 perceived to be me being unhappy being in Texas.

I do not know what led Agent cd0103 to that conclusion. Maybe my basic attitude as expressed via my words? I don't know.

What I do know is I'm not being all that happy. But, it really is not Texas that is the cause.

What is currently making me cranky, beyond all the lack of common sense stuff I see going on in my current location, is the absurd amping up of the TSA's security pat down procedures.

After 9/11, when airport security turned absurd, I thought why does no one see this as a victory for the terrorists? And now the terrorists are causing total innocents to be violated in a way that usually results in criminal charges being filed. Or a priest being de-frocked.

On the way back here, from Seattle, in February of 2004, I had my one and only experience with an enhanced security check. I was getting on an earlier flight to Phoenix than I'd originally booked, so I could spend a 10 hour layover with my sister.

I got the early flight, but timing was tight. Going through security was a very long line. I did not see how I could possibly make it to the gate in time. And then suddenly I was pulled out of line by a security agent, very politely asking me to come with him.

What fresh hell is this, I thought.

He walked me right past the line. Then once we were through the security perimeter he wanded me and did a little pat downing. Nothing untoward that had me feeling violated. After less than a minute I was on my way to my gate.

I don't know why I lucked out like this. It was like someone said pull that guy out of line or he is not going to make his flight.

Last night I saw Larry King on CNN ask Vice-President Joe Biden what he thought of the new enhanced TSA private parts pat downs. Biden said he daily saw the Security Threat Assessments and believed the enhanced private parts pat downs were needed.

Fine. So, tell us, the easily duped American public, exactly what those supposed threats are that are having our private parts subjected to uwanted probing?

Agent cd0103 suggested I seek happiness elsewhere, if Texas impinges on me being happy. Well, it ain't Texas. I'd need to find another planet, a place where common sense reigns supreme. Or a nice South Pacific deserted island. With broadband Internet.

I have no idea what I am going to do with my cranky self today. But I am fairly certain I will not be too happy doing it.

Waterboarding & Strip Searches

I read somewhere recently that something like 40% of Americans think that waterboarding is an extreme sport and don't quite understand why there would be a fuss about using this extreme sport as a torture device to extract information from suspected terrorists or random taxi drivers erroneously taken into custody.

For those of you among that 40% who think waterboarding is just a day at the beach let me explain that waterboarding is a form of torture that consists of immobilizing a person on his or her back, with the head inclined downward, and pouring water over the face and into the breathing passages. Through forced suffocation and inhalation of water, the subject experiences the process of drowning in a controlled environment and is made to believe that death is imminent. In contrast to merely submerging the head face-forward, waterboarding almost immediately elicits the gag reflex. Although waterboarding can be performed in ways that leave no lasting physical damage, it carries the risks of extreme pain, damage to the lungs, brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation, injuries (including broken bones) due to struggling against restraints, and even death. The psychological effects on victims of waterboarding can last for years after the procedure.

Is there not a more humane way for Americans to extract information from suspected bad guys than to resort to Gestapo-like tactics that the Nazis would have been comfortable with? Isn't there a drug that can break down a person's defenses and get them telling the truth? It's like we are becoming something that is not what we like to think of as American.

And it's not just the torture of foreign bad guys, it's how we treat our own citizens as well. As in at what point in time did the practice of the strip search become the norm? Here in Texas you can get strip searched when arrested on a 6 year old arrest warrant for a $20 bounced check.

If I as a citizen forced someone to take off their clothes and then probed their body cavities this would be what is known as a crime, I believe it could even be considered rape. And yet it is considered okay when a jail employee orders you to strip and sticks his or her fingers where only your doctor or significant other should do any probing.

Why is an electronic means not used rather than the barbaric strip search? Would it not be easier just to walk a detainee through a security device like airports use? Come to think of it, even going through airport security has turned into sort of a minor strip search, what with having to take off your shoes and belt. My last time flying I wore really baggy comfortable pants and when the belt came off the pants almost did too. I think I was wearing boxers.