mUCH aDO aBOUT nOTHING

TSA Efforts Useless...


Regular readers of this blog know that I'm a avid listener of daytime talk radio.

I start my mornings listening to Neal Boortz on Atlanta's WSB AM 750 radio website, and then in the afternoon I either listen to Rush Linbaugh on Knoxville's Newstalk 98.7 radio  or stream it live on their website.

So any way...yesterday Neal brought up something which I think is very relevant when thinking and talking about the current bru-ha-ha about the new enhanced TSA "security" screenings at our nation's airports.

Let me ask you the same question Neal asked.

OK?

Name a single instance where, since it's inception in post 9/11/2001, that the TSA and their merry band of panhandling manhandling security screeners has actually caught anyone in the act of trying to board an airplane with anything resembling a real threat to the aircraft?

Yes, they've caused a bunch of people to dump bottles of water and packages of breast milk and containers of shampoo and perfume larger than 4 ounces, and no one can legally have a cigarette lighter on board a Boeing 737 any more, but as to stopping a real terrorist threat...

...has anyone seen a headline announcing the thwarting of a plot where wild eyed Muslims were collared by some former fast food restaurant employee wearing a TSA uniform?

Wait...let me Google this subject for a moment...

OK...here...look at the top results from 220,000 results returned from my search on Google...

All of that, but not ONE SINGLE NEWS STORY about someone working in a TSA checkpoint actually doing anything but annoying business travelers and pawing on Nuns and Grandmothers and three year old Toddlers.

This is all INSANITY, ladies and gentlemen.

Stupid, retarded, inbred, GOVERNMENT insanity, designed by the government to make "the traveling public"--people that get on an airplane once every one or two years--feel safe.

All at the expense of people like me that have to use our air transportation system as a tool to make a living, and in the process subject innocent AMERICANS to processes and behavior which could be and is considered criminal if I tried to force it on another citizen myself.

Forget about the "Bush Tax Cuts" expiring and Chucky Rangle's Tax returns, I say that the misbehavior and feckless, obtuse management policies of the TSA system and it's employees has to be addressed in a significant, meaningful manner between now and the end of 2010 else we all just as well get ready to act like we live in Germany in 1944.

I'm sorry, but I have to admit that if I am subjected to some of the crap I see on the blogs and on TV these days at an airport screening area...or if someone touches my girlfriend Pat in the manner I'm being led to believe is acceptable under the current policies...

you're going to have to take up a collection to acquire funding to bail me out of jail because I'm going to place a knee in the groin of a TSA employee...

call it a "knee jerk" reaction I guess. 

"Don't Touch My Junk"

Air Travel Revelations....


Picture Me...

Standing in an airport security line...







So now they are worried about my shoes and then my underwear and most recently me shipping some printer ink cartridges around, when all the time Andy and Barney had it right...

Alive...But Still Not Well...

Just Say NO (To Illness)


I think I'm in the process of proving some sort of weird concept of Mind over Matter stuff that really matters.

At least half the battle is mental, and the other half seems to be somewhat physical.

I assert here that when and if you think you are coming down with something which is contagious and yet isn't deadly...

just lay down and play dead for a while.

Then, in my past and present experience, the crap will ease up and just pass you by and go on to infect someone who will play the game of actually getting sick and wallowing around in misery.

To wit...I laid around at my own leisure in my bed and on the sofa for much of the past 24 hours, only exiting to check e-mail and fool around when I wanted to on the Internet, and after about 12 hours of rest I'm sort of feeling better and am able to fool around in the shop getting some work done and do some laundry and fiddle around with some other stuff I needed to to.

Of course it helps that it's been raining for the past day, keeping me from climbing up on the roof or wandering around in the yard, and the current forecast is for more rain until sometime Wednesday.

So if anyone needs me and I'm not sneaking around in front of the computer while this malady isn't looking trying to get a hold on my lungs and immune system,  just give me a call and if I'm awake (and coherant) I'll answer the phone.

I credit my apparent rapid recovery/limited affliction to the use of one the newer over the counter pharmaceutical products...

Something called "Zicam."

We stopped at the CVS pharmacy on the way to Staples yesterday afternoon and bought some more of their spray product.

That stuff works...in my considered Redneck opinion.

You should give it a try if you haven't given it an opportunity to save you from stuff like I find drifting around waiting for an opening to my head and chest every winter.

That said...Later Y'all...

Where's My Zicam?

Interfacing With The Public Yields Creeping Crud...


Well, I'm pleased to report that I'm back home this morning, happy to sleep in my own bed for a few hours,  but at the same time having to start to admit to myself that I must have caught some sort of respiratory crap during our journey.

I woke up yesterday morning with a scratchy throat and a little head and chest congestion and spending the next 12 hours in denial hasn't caused the symptoms to go away.

I've been squirting Zicam up my nose and eating Tylenol along with a healthy dose of alcohol hoping to stave off further deterioration of my mental faculties and physical condition because I have a darn busy week ahead catching up on stuff and replying to some proposal requests that came in as a result of my Atlanta adventure.

When I'm sick I pretty much have the option of staying home and hibernating until I'm at least past the contagious stage of any given malady, but unfortunately most of the "general pubic public enjoys running around sneezing and snotting on everyone they come in contact with and sending their crumb crunching rug rats to daycare and school to spread the love infections around the population.

That's probably the single greatest benefit to being unemployed self employed is the ability to voluntarily avoid contact with the usual seasonal stuff like colds, typhoid and tuberculosis, and possibly the latest strain of Bovine, Equestrian, Porcine, or Chicken Flue/Fever and of course the West Nile Virus.

(Speaking of West Nile...can anyone tell me what the heck is going on over on the eastern Side of the Nile River which makes them immune to stuff like the Egyptians are suffering from on the opposite bank of the river?)

Let me know if you can find out because it bothers me...but I digress...

Of course instead of staying home and avoiding the various plagues out there I have to go out and wander around to places like Home Depot and Staples and Kroger at least every few days (not to mention the bars and restaurants) and risk infection in spite of my occupational advantage(s).

Maybe I should learn my lesson, but then again I'm hard headed.
So any way, time to shuffle some more paper and take a nap and see if I can shake this bug.

Y'all have a LOVELY day now...If you will...

Back Home In Knoxtown

Suffering From Hotlanta Traffic Trauma


After 5 nights spent in the "Atlanta Metropolitan Area" I have to say this...

"Good God but we're glad to be home to the Turbo Pup Compound here on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.

Not that I didn't some Forensic Injuneering done and we had a good time with Pat's family, but still...

After living in downtown and northwest Atlanta for 27 years and being absent full time since 2003, the seven years in between being a resident and happy non-resident have taken their toll in further exasperating my patience with the traffic and crowding and general hub-bub that goes on there day and night.

I'm not sure I'd move back there if someone offered me a job paying six figures, because what good would the money be if I have a heart attack every day like some sort of mutant caucasion version of Fred Sanford?

"It's the BIG one 'Lizabeth..." 

So any way, we did business and ate real good and visited, and I even got to go to an Atlanta Thrashers/Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game for free and caught a Thrashers T-shirt that they were shooting out of air cannons into the crowd.

But then negotiating the swarm of people exiting the stadium and sitting in the parking deck waiting for the traffic to start moving at a snails pace took a chunk out of my soul and spirit.

I just can't handle the crowds and traffic congestion any more at my ever greying, ever balding age.

So we blasted through downtown Atlanta in the middle of the day today and cruised into the driveway and unloaded the car and sorted the mail and now it's time to go have a couple of stiff drinks and some dinner.

I promise to get back into the Blogging mode this week because I have a bunch of crap on my mind, and until then...

Regards Y'all...