Random Thanksgiving Thoughts

As I prepare to have my first Thanksgiving Turducken at a friend's house, I read a post from one of my elementary school friends that made me pause. Due to his rank in the military, today he has the unfortunate job of accompanying the chaplain and informing a family that their husband/father/son won't be coming home. Today of all days. This day's memory will stay with those people for the rest of their Thanksgivings.

Part of me is pleased that someone who takes the job seriously in given such a task. I remember my friend as a stand up guy and his service record confirms it. I am also happy that the notification isn't the other way around and someone is notifying my friend's family. As far as the other family goes, maybe the way to look at it is that hopefully there will be many family members at the widow's house (due to the holiday) and this group of family and friends will help them get through this difficult time - together.

On a different note, I was curious all week as to how effective the "opt-out" protest against the TSA's new scanning machines (link here) would be. Slate actually posted a decent article on their website about the lack of logic behind it. See, there are two facts that the organizers of this "protest" (I use the word loosely) forgot.

First, as Americans , we have the attention span of goldfish. If someone isn't reminding us every 30 seconds of something, we mentally move on to out lattes, social networking and electronic gadgets. We have a hard time committing to anything. Especially things that may inconvenience us. Which brings me to the second point...

As Americans we really dislike anything that causes us delay or inconvenience. If you've traveled overseas to smaller countries, you know that our need for instant service or satisfaction is frowned upon. In Caribbean countries they even tell you about "Caribbean time" to prepare you to wait a bit and relax. We don't do well considering our fast paced lives. So to think that travelers who are on a weekend off and on their way to visit family for the holiday would chance their flight being delayed or be the cause of a longer line because of this protest seemed silly to me. People just want to board the plane and safely land at their destination. Their thoughts are with the people they are going to visit and the meal they are going to enjoy. Protests are left for another day.

I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

You're Going To Get Shocked!

Once upon a time, our country used to run on the idea of pure capitalism. Let's face it -we consume more useless crap than any nation in the world because we have more disposable income than any other nation. For those of you that want to argue this point, see if the teenage kids in Serbia or Ethiopia are paying 300 USD to get the new Jordan Collezione sneaker on its release date and then we'll talk. It used to be that you could easily win an election with any platitude about the robust economy and our purchasing power. Since 9/11 our country feels like it's been run by something else - fear.

It seems we spent the years after 9/11 living in a haze like a kid who just got a wedgie and can't believe it happened to him. Living in NY, less than 1/2 an hour from Ground Zero I fully understand. Its felt like we have a big target painted on our backs and everyone walks around in a semi-conscious state. To date, I have yet to visit the construction site. It's just not something I like to remember.

It seems every week during the first few years, we received constant terror alerts. Some nationwide, but most only in NY. While the rest of the US changed their alert status to orange, NY was always in red. Some will even argue that the previous election was won on because of how they portrayed fear (if you remove the Florida ballot factor).

The past year, we have been led with the fear that we're running out of gas, when in reality there is plenty of gas to go around. If we could get OPEC to flood the market or stop these morons who predict oil futures from talking to anyone with purchasing power. They are creating the problem by predicting the problem.

Now, it seems we will soon be focused back on terror in the skies. I just read an article on Gadling (http://www.gadling.com/2008/07/07/update-dept-of-homeland-security-weighs-forcing-passengers-to/) highlighting a stun bracelet that the Department of Homeland Security is considering making us wear for air travel. Check the link out and click the my blog title to see the sales video attached to this product. Half way into the video, they actually had me believing it was a good idea to wear a bracelet. I felt safe and warm and fuzzy inside...

WTF? The basic concept is this:

1. Check in at airport counter
2. Receive bracelet with personal info linked to checked in bags- no bording pass needed
3. Big brother may now watch all your movements through the airport.
   

Yes, TSA and Homeland Security will now know that you visit the rest room 4 times before actually boarding the plane. All under the disguise of safety.

I don't know how I feel about this. While I like the idea of knowing that there is added protection, I don't like the idea of little miss Susie sunshine stewardess...I mean flight attendant...controlling the actual activation. What if she (or he) gets the wrong person? What if I swapped seats? I doubt the attendants are going to check the terrorist's ID to make sure they activate the correct bracelet. Or what if they simply activate a bunch of them and stun half the plane to control the threat. Then we all simply become collateral damage.

Besides, 200+ bracelets emitting an electric charge on a plane? I'm not even allowed to use my cell phone in flight and you want to bring mini stun guns on board? Didn't a small electrical spark bring down one of those TWA planes back in the day? ONE spark. Imagine several interfering with the wiring of the aircraft.

Feeling safe yet?