Sunday, December 27, 2009

And This Will Do What?

Flying home from holiday visiting was a big pain in the ass.

A blizzard in Chicago, fog and rain in Newark, and the idiot in Detroit who set his penis on fire trying to blow up a jet made for a very hectic day.

Took almost 9 hours to get from Rochester to Newark.

Watching the parrotheads and hysteria mongers on TV this morning (CNN has this on the screen: SINGLE ACT OR PART OF A LARGER PLAN?), I keep wanting to headbutt somebody through my TV.

I know it's the media's job to create and hype fear (after all, it's good for both the news business and many of the businesses the corporate conglomerates that own these media outlets run) and it's obviously also good for the politicians both in and out of power (when was the last time you saw a HEALTH CARE REFORM SUCKS story? How long before Cheney emerges from the bunker he dwells in and appears on TV to say I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!! BOMB YEMEN!!!!!!!).

But let's be honest here - none of these security measures that the "terrorist experts" on TV want put in place, nor the measures the administration has put in place already, will keep people 100% safe.

Nor will expanding the WoT to Yemen as Holy Joe Lieberman called for on FOX News this morning.

There is no way to keep one or two crazy people from getting on an airplane and setting their penises on fire trying to blow it up. Doesn't matter how much security you add, how many pat-downs you do, how often you make people bend over and grab their ankles before you allow them on a plane - when you are a corporate power like the United States and you create the kinds of enemies we create by allowing the corporations and the corporate whores that rule us to exploit people all over the world, this kind of stuff will continue to happen.

But you sure can make life hell by adding ridiculous restrictions at airports, on trains and in other public places that do little to keep people safe while continuing to stoke fear in the general public by running hysterical stories like SINGLE ACT OR PART OF A LARGER PLAN? or I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!! BOMB YEMEN!!!!!!!

But maybe that's the point - maybe the idiots who rule us want it this way - keep us on edge, fearful of losing our jobs during the week and our lives when we fly on vacation, so that whatever they want to do they can with little scrutiny or criticism.

Dunno, just feels like the WoT crap will be back in full force after this incident and it's a completely useless exercise unless the idea is to distract Americans from other stuff like why do they have to work longer and harder to make less or why don't they have decent affordable health care that isn't a total giveaway to the health insurance industry or why aren't all the hedge fund managers in jail for fraud?

One last thing: I do think it's interesting that this attack came after President Obushma doubled down on the war in Afghanistan.

Just doesn't seem like the war on Iraq, the war in Afghanistan or the war in Yemen that neo-cons will undoubtedly be drooling for in the coming months is stemming the spread of radicals who want to set their penises on fire trying to bring down airplanes.

Maybe we should try something else?

2 comments:

  1. There was a time when only smugglers got on planes with condoms full of powder between their legs. I guess this makes it easier to expose them as well.

    You have to figure that Al-Qaeda loves every new restriction and every new hassle that Americans impose on themselves.

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  2. I completely agree - every new restriction, all the hype and fear - exactly what Al Qaeda ants. While I am not a huge fan of this president, I have to admit that he has been pretty silent about this, not hyping it the way Bush/Cheney would have. Nonetheless, why are spedning all these resources on Afghanistan when the current Al Qaeda problems seems to have moved on to other countries and our current strategy to combat them isn't working as well as we think it is.

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