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TSA & Travel

/ Alec

I’ve been on the road a good bit these last few weeks. This week it was Houston, Baltimore, and NYC. The TSA is a classic government bureaucracy that continues to expand. This week I heard about no batteries in checked luggage.  Ok, let me get this correct Dell can ship hundreds of laptops in cargo on a flight but I can’t pack an extra battery?

I read this great NYT Blog on the TSA and got fired up again. I see all the time TSA personnel taking liquid from parents with children. The apple juice for the 3 year old is not going to endanger the plane and If you think it really is why are you throwing it in the garbage?

Plus the rules and instructions differ from airport to airport. With some of the smaller ones being the worst. As a business traveler I rarely get a second screening but if you are a Sikh in the Kalamazoo airport your going to get patted down again. Is this America? Why aren’t we speaking up against these mind numbing agencies taking over our daily lives?

It is simply theater for the American public. You can send a package and it won’t be checked on an airplane but watch out for the apple juice carrying kids.

Why do we have to take off our shoes? Because of Richard Reid, back in 2001… Or to sell more equipment to the TSA?

Why can’t we take liquid on a plane? Because of an inaccurate British report in 2006 that has been proved unfounded.

Do we care? Or have we been ground down to no long question? I say we start posting videos on You Tube of the TSA and the crazy things we see as travlers. Ohh, sorry we can’t do that as it is a security risk.

Tunes Update…

/ Alec

I got itunes gift cards for Christmas and at last I had  a chance to spend them  to buy:

Joshua James: The Sun Is Always Brighter

Anya Marina: Miss Halfway

P.S. I Love You (Music from the Motion Picture)

Dropkick Murphys: The Meanest of Times

Kenny Wayne Shepherd: The Legends EP, Vol. 1: Kenny Wayne Shepherd (Live)

Regina Spektor: Live In California 2006 – EP

Nightmares On Wax: In a Space Outta Sound

Tis Christmas…

/ Alec

First and foremost Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours. I don’t send cards but for those of you that did I appreciate the licking of stamps and the execution on some very nice card concepts. The best by far was Rebecca’s which I’ll have to scan in but it depicted her two gorgeous kids surrounded by empty liquor bottles with the tag line, “May the spirits of the season surround you”. Brought tears to her mother in laws eyes and not in a good way if you know what I mean. Pure genius.

Had dinner down in Hanover, NH with the family. It was tough to see my Gram who is fading fast. Alzheimer’s in many ways is the cruelest of diseases. She is the last living grandparent I have and I’m fortunate to have many fantastic memories of her that I’ll get to keep.

Top 3:

  1. Getting caught by her eating my second piece of blueberry pie on the ferry to Prince Edward Island.
  2. I spent many summers here in VT as I child and she would take me to the state house where she would advocate as a citizen on various issues of the day. I learned a lot from watching her but mostly that you need to show up and be heard.
  3. Walking. Grammy Ruth loved to walk. Every night after dinner. Through the neighborhood where she knew and said hello to everyone by name and as we went around she would ask me questions like, Who are you going to vote for in the presidential election? Which for an eight or nine year old meant a lot as no one else cared much about my 2 cents. But Grammy Ruth always did and always took the time to ask.