And now a few comments on air travel:

I suppose this is as good a time as any to complain about the changes in air security. The papers here will show something every other week or so about someone on a do-not-fly list being found after take off and the plane being re-routed or sent back; or that there's still problems with the screening procedures at the x-ray machines; or that the new procedures irritate, humiliate, demean and delay the passengers; or whatever else is interesting enough to fill column space on a slow news day.

Really, what has the point of all this been? While people like Cat Stevens and Ted Kennedy have been tagged as flight risks, has anything really happened to make air travel safer? Well, I haven't heard of anything exploding recently, which is generally a good thing. But I haven't been mauled by an illegally imported tiger, poisoned by smuggled foodstuffs or sucker-punched by a leprechaun with a fake passport either, so it'd be just a bit specious to attribute all of this extra safety to government intervention.

To be honest, we have such luminaries as the Department of Excuses to Thrust Big Holes In Your Civil Liberties claiming that the challenge is ongoing and they are still trying their best:

I think we [still] have to recognize the scope of what homeland security means as it relates to securing our homeland.
Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Admiral James Loy

So at least they've acknowledged that the goal they've set is big, nay, Orwellian in scope.
And by "Orwellian" I am referring to the his immense size: over 375 pounds at the time of his death.

Wait, no. That was Orson Welles.

The point was, before I got distracted thinking about how cool the voice of Unicron was in "Transformers: The Movie", that trying to protect everything about America from everyone everywhere is impossible. And while I'm sure there are ways to reduce the number of bombs that get onto airplanes, treating everyone who wants to enter the country like a criminal suspect isn't likely to be really helpful. But it does serve to make my travel experience a lot more tiresome and frustrating.

As a positive, however, it does let some 21 year old rent-a-cop feel like a big man when he can order me to wait for a pat down because they don't like the look of the toys I�ve got in my carry-on bag. So I guess that's good for someone's self-esteem.

And in all honesty, those toys were kind of offensive. Otherwise they just wouldn't have made good souvenirs. But I'll get to that next time when we resume our story.