“You can’t trust anybody…”

I just got “nabbed” by America’s finest…the TSA. I forgot a bottle of water in my backpack. This water bottle has made the trip through numerous checkpoints, but always empty. This morning, I forgot to empty it.

Well…my water bottle became the proverbial “tip of the iceberg” for my TSA experience. Because I had a bottle of water, they “randomly” tested my bag for explosives…and it tested positive. Once the alarm was set off, one TSA “expert” patted me down while another did the “alarm positive” paperwork, while another checked through ONE of my bags thoroughly. (I have to ask – why didn’t they check BOTH bags of this suspected terrorist? After all, I WAS guilty of carrying a water bottle…)

I asked what types of things would cause a “false positive”. She said, “Heart medication or sometimes even hand cream.” I joked that I had heard a commentator say, “The LAST person that needs to be told they test positive is a heart patient.” (I though the implication was obvious…that the stress wouldn’t be good for a heart patient.) Her response? “Terrorists take heart medication too.”

Huh?! The BROKEN logic of that response is a good sign to me that she should be relieved of her role in screening passengers -- TODAY. Is it heart medication we are screening for here? I thought it was explosives we were guarding against, not prescription medication. Terrorists can have allergies too. Should we start screening for Claritin as well? (I confess…I had some in my bag. Arrest me now.)

The statement upset me was when she said, “You can’t trust anybody these days!” That statement is blatantly untrue. You can trust me. She stands at the checkpoint every day and sees evidence that the MAJORITY of the people passing through the airport can be trusted. (Except that you can’t trust certain conservative Christian guys to remember that they have a bottle of water in their backpack…)

TSA exists to protect the general traveling public against the VERY unlikely “bad guy” trying to get on the plane. I have traveled a lot, and I have never –to my knowledge – met anyone who turned out to be one of those bad guys. I would venture a guess that my “friend” at TSA this morning has never met one either. We can’t buy into the philosophy that “you can’t trust anybody”. If we do, the terrorist have won!

You’ve GOT to trust people. I am about to step onto a plane and TRUST a pilot I’ve never met, but I don’t plan to interview him or put him through a sobriety test. I left my vehicle in long-term parking in Washington, DC when I began this trip. I am trusting literally hundreds of people to leave it alone. And it works! You can trust MOST people for the basics in life. While I understand that TSA can’t just assume everybody is OK, I refuse buy into the philosophy that “you can’t trust anybody”.

Here is some interesting reading I found while I was writing this post.

Flat tire(s)

I was thinking the other day..."Boy, I haven't had a flat tire or a signficiant breakdown with the car in ages!"

When's the last time you had a flat? I can't recall a time in recent years where I had to stop on the side of the road and put on the spare tire. About 6 months ago, I had a flat in my parents' driveway and just fixed it right there and used their air compressor to pump it back up. Other than that, it has been a long time since I've had a flat!

On Saturday, we were in town and I noticed a distinct "thump-thump-thump" sound as we were driving. I stopped and checked my tires. One was low, but I couldn't find the source of the thump. I pulled into a restaurant parking lot and used my handy-dandy portable compressor to pump it back up and we were on our way. Later the thumping stopped too... Hmmm....

Sunday morning, I got up and looked out to see a FLAT tire on my truck! Changed the spare and we were on time for church. "Phew. Glad that is over with," I thought.

Monday, I took it to my mechanic/friend/cousin and he said he'd fix it that day. I went and did a couple more things in town and came out from one of the stores to find....guess what....? ANOTHER FLAT TIRE! This time, I saw the outline of the large head of a "cap nail" used for roofing. The nail was gone, but so was the air from my tire.

Haul out the trusty compressor again. Say a prayer of thanks that I am in a big parking lot that has a parts store just a few paces away. Hook up the compressor and go buy a kit to repair the hole. I was back on the road in about 20 minutes.

Because the spare was already on the truck, this could have been much worse! I could have been standing on the side of the road with no spare... I am thankful to God for his oversight and protection in my life. ...even if I did have two flats in two days! :-)

"Happy Holidays" means more than it used to...

I remember "back in the good ole' days" when you went to the Post Office to buy stamps and found that you had to choose between several Christmas designs. I went to the Post Office yesterday and found a whole new dilemna. There was a poster with SIX options for "Winter Holiday" stamps!

On closer inspection, I found that the first choice was....well, exactly that...a "Winter Holidays" collection. You know...gingerbread man, snowman, candy cane...just "winter" stuff. That one gets TOP BILLING. The lady in front of me was making her displeasure known to the guy in front of her..."So Christmas is SECOND now, is it?! We've got to get Christ back into Christmas!"

Well, needless to say, she got my attention. I look more closely at the poster... OK....what is on the menu this season? You've got your "Winter Holidays" collection, you've got your "Madonna and Child" stamp, you've got Hannukah stamps...the EVER popular KWANZA stamp and...what's that one? EID?? That writing looks Arabic.... Hmmm....

By now, the TWO people in front of me were quite animated in our discussion of EID as a holiday. Trust me...in downtown Louisa, VA there won't be a particularly large demand for EID stamps. I won't mention the name of the USPS employee behind the counter who let me know they didn't like it either!

I did some research on EID and I learned that it is the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. ...and now, of course, it is a nationally celebrated "Winter Holiday" since the USPS deems it worthy of a stamp. In the year 2009, EID falls on September 21st. A "Winter Holiday??" In 2013, it will fall on the 8th of August. Hmmm...will it be a "Winter Holiday" stamp then?! How many Muslims will be buying EID stamps in December to celebrate the end of their fast that took place in August or September?! Could the USPS do anything more ludicrous? I guess maybe it makes sense to them....but it is totally lost on me.

I really can't wait until 2015 when EID falls on July 15th. I guess we'll have stamps with EID commemoration on them instead of flags, to celebrate the month of July. That red, white & blue, stripey....starry cloth thingy our ancestors died to honor will be totally out of vogue as a sign of old-school nationalism by then. We're far too inclusive to honor a nationalistic symbol that way any more!

(Edit: It dawned on me this morning that we have made the transition from "tolerance" to "inclusive". The USPS had to stretch to find a way include the Islamic community in this festive season, so they chose EID as their option.)

(I hope you can read my cynicism and still get my meaning. I am really bothered that the USPS is honoring a Muslim holiday on a stamp.)

RANT: TSA and Level Orange

Note: This blog post was originally written several weeks ago while I was on a plane, but the sentiment hasn’t changed much since I wrote it.

If you have ever talked to me about travel, you know that I don't really like the TSA much. Understand me, though - I am very happy to be secure. I do not want a repeat of the events of September 11, 2001! However, the aspect that frustrates me is the willingness our government has to pay whatever expense to set up this vast bureaucracy whether the policies are effective or not.

I am writing this on an Airtran flight from Richmond, VA to Atlanta, GA. At the "sleepy" little airport in Richmond, I showed my photo ID to prove that I was the person who was ticketed to fly on this flight. They I submitted all my articles I was carrying to be inspected and walked through a metal detector. OK. I think we're safe now.

When I got to my gate lounge, I noticed 3 TSA personnel standing around...waiting. "Oh now," I thought, "why are they here?" Well, everyone who was at that gate lounge had just walked through the same procedures I had undergone and were sufficiently screened 30 minutes earlier or they couldn't be there. Two of the agents checked all the IDs of people again as they got on the plane. One just stood and watched. I turned to a fellow traveller and said, "Your tax dollars at work!" :-)

If one security screening is not sufficient, will another make us any more secure? We have air marshals aboard most airline flights these days. Maybe we should have a TSA person on flights to check IDs enroute as well?

We are on Orange Alert in the United States, and have been since August 10, 2006 without any specific threats indicated to justify the heightened level of “alert”. In reality, I think we are not all that alert anyway. Remaining on such high levels of “alert” for extended periods tends to fatigue the system.

Does it occur to anyone else that maybe we have let fear rule the day, and in a small way the terrorist are winning? Again, I am glad that we haven't experienced any further attacks, and some have been thwarted. I just doubt that we have to surrender ALL of our freedoms to live in security. I for one would like to see us go back to at least Alert LEVEL YELLOW unless there is some actual threat that justifies the current heightened level of alert.

Postlogue: Funny reminder when I had dinner in the airport in Atlanta and was given a metal fork and a plastic knife. I feel more secure now since I can’t stab my steak with a metal knife. :-)

Encounter w/ a hacker...

I had a new, wierd experience yesterday. I was sitting at my computer chatting on Skype with a co-worker in Kenya when a friend in Japan popped up in a chat window to as a question. This is not new. I often have chat windows open with people from various countries chatting. The next one was the wierd one...

I had Facebook open as well, and a "friend" (my cousin) popped up in a chat window and asked if I could help her. "Sure." She said that she was stuck in W. Africa. Huh?! I have traveled around the globe a bit, but this cousin doesn't tend to show up in W. Africa on a regular basis. I figured she was playing a word, or maybe including me in her experience of some role-play game, and would explain soon. ...so I played along.

Next she says that she's been robbed and wants me to help her. Still chatting away with Japan and Kenya, I say, "Sure, what can I do for you." "Can you send me $700 to help get me out of here? STILL playing along, I said, "What do you need that for, booze and cigarettes?" She doesn't touch either, so I thought she'd see the humor and come to the table with some explanation.

"I already told you I was robbed and need the money to get home." And now, I started to pay more attention to the situation. I picked up the phone and called my cousin. Seeing my number on caller ID, she says, "Yeah, I know. I've been hacked." I told her I was chatting with the hacker and would keep him busy for a while, so he couldn't hurt anybody else.

I chatted with him (while still mainly focusing on my discussion with my co-worker in Africa) for 20 or 30 minutes, keeping him busy explaining to me how to use Western Union...etc...and allaying my "fears" of sending money that I am not sure will get to my cousin. After a while, HE started to get suspicious, so I told him I knew for most of our chat that he was not legit. Then he started to brag about his abilities as a hacker.

When I asked him if he ever felt guilty, he started using foul language and turned on me. "I am a good harker. Your account is next. If you are harked two day be suprised!" At this point, I changed my password to something like, "Mickey Mouse Loves Minne4 Mouse and lives at 123 Elm St., New York N3w 40rk!!" and told him to hack away!

I was really tired at the end of the day...partly because of adreneline and partly because I worry if he really knows where Mickey Mouse lives! Enquiring minds want to know!

This morning, I went to Facebook....to see if I am still there....and the chat window popped up:

Harker: "Hi Greg, are you there?"
Greg: "I am here. Are you there?"
Harker: "OK"
Harker: "What are you saying about this account"

.......SILENCE......Offline.

Umm...I thought this was a non-smoking flight!

Well, I had a new experience at the airport last Sunday. An evacuation. That sounds all dramatic and everything, but I guess it was considered that.

All passengers were onboard and the entry door was closed. The captain was making announcements about flight time and such as they were cranking up the A/C. I have flown a LOT of times and I am kind of used to the smell of fuel as the Auxillary Power Unit is first cranked up. I am used to a bit of steam vapor coming in the plane as the temperature begins to cool down. This was not that simple. It was smoke.

It started as a trickle and I figured it would clear up pretty quickly, but it just kept getting worse. Soon the pilot came over the PA system and asked people to calmly leave the plane. "Leave all your belongings and simply calmly exit the plane, please." For the most part, everyone was calm and didn't get too irate as they realized they were now in for a significant delay.

The airline offered a free round trip ticket to anyone who would volunteer to take the same flight the next day. Many of the less patient people jumped on that....then I heard one of them complaining, "What do they expect us to do, spend the night in the airport?!" I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "They don't expect you to do anything except show up for your re-scheduled flight tomorrow! Get a grip dude, they just gave you a free round-trip ticket!"

I actually enjoyed the comaraderie that began to develop among some of the more patient passengers as we stood and talked about our options. The staff handled it really well and no tempers seemed to suffer significantly. (Even when I asked if I could arrange to get a Non-smoking seat on the next flight!) The crew cleared the smoke from the plane, allowed everybody to get their belongings off the plane and then tested the systems to see if maybe we could go after all. No such luck.

We spent 6 hours in the airport and finally the "12:00 noon departure" actually happened around 6 p.m. and we got to Orlando in very good time. The pilot made up as much as he could on the way down and made the 2 hour flight in less than an hour and a half. I only missed one of my scheduled meetings and was able to reschedule that one for another slot the next day, so all in all, I was out 6 hours and gained a $75 credit for my next flight with the airline. ...and I got some reading done in the interim. :-)

When I got back home, Brenda said my parents had seen my flight discussed on the evening news. I guess there wasn't a lot of news in Richmond that day! The "story" is here. In what I consider to be an ironic twist, while there were no injuries, it was a flight attendant that had to be taken off the plane in a stretcher by emergency because of breathing difficulty. I thought she looked a bit on the panic-stricken side when I left the plane.

God's way is.....HUH?!

(I will not begin with lame excuses or apologies for not writing more. We moved in on September 11th, 2008 and are still working to get settled, but enjoying it. )

Well, yesterday was "Decision Day 2008" for the citizens of the USA. Time to elect a new President. Apparently there were more people who turned out to vote this year than at any time prior, and the percentage of registered voters was higher than virtually any time this century. Apparently some people felt a sense of urgency in the air!

My parents went to vote in our little country polling place and had to wait an hour and a half to get to the voting booth. That was another first. In the past...well...you'd have to get into a deep conversation with the staff in order to have a reason to stay so long. It wouldn't be so odd to get in a deep conversation with the staff because they were always friends and/or relationships....remember I said "rural" and I meant "RURAL"! :-) Some friends in Florida said they had to wait over two hours to vote. Apparently Florida, embarassed about the "hanging chads" of a certain prior election, Florida now has ballots that you fill in and put into a scanner to be electronically read. If you can't figure out how to use a punch ballot, surely you won't be able to run a scanner! hehehe That seemed to be the issue causing such a long wait for my friends. People couldn't get the scanner to accept their ballots.

(As for us rednecks in Virginia...well...how much can you mess up a touchscreen? I'll have to admit that while I was there, they had a slight fiasco when somebody walked away without pushing the "enter" button to tally their vote...)

At any rate...I was headed down the road yesterday and next door to a polling place, I saw the sign at the top of this post. "Gods way is americas way!" I am not quite sure what the message means, but I am assuming it had something to do with the author's preferred candidate. ...hmm...which candidate DIDN'T have God on his side? I thought they both tried to drag him into their camp... Hmm....maybe time will tell. It usually does.

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...we now return you to your regularly scheduled entertainment....