No Fly Zone
Flying isn’t fun any more. It hasn’t been fun since the days of being able to show up to the airport 30 minutes before take off and being assured a seat went the way of the dodo. At the time of September 11th, I was a consultant and flew on a weekly basis. I enjoyed it. I’d leave my house about an hour before my flight and I’d stroll onto the plane just as they were announcing boarding. After that, I’d have to leave 2 hours yearly and early just to feel safe about getting on the plane on time. Then a few months later, that idiot with the explosives in his shoes made people think that this was an actual threat and we were stuck with having to take our shoes off, too. The first time I was told to take my shoes off was the time I realized that I had to get a new job. There was no way I was going to be able to have a job that required I take my shoes off at the airport.
And now that some of the population is slowly regaining its sanity, you’d think it’d be better. You’d think that with more people realizing the government is only looking to control us with fear, not protect us, perhaps we wouldn’t let them get away with making us take our shoes off. You’d think that you would hear fewer interviews about these ridiculous hoops we have to jump through end in the phrase, “I don’t mind having to bend over and have my prostate examined because it makes me feel safer.” Well, you’d be wrong. It’s worse.
I read an article last week about the “No-Fly List”, one of The Village Idiot’s “indispensable tools” in the war on terror along with everyone’s favorite affront on the Bill of Rights, the Patriot Act, and illegal phone taps of private US citizens compliments of the NSA. Turns out no one has any clue as to how many names are on the list because absolutely no part of the list is accessible by the public. And if you happen to share the name of someone on the list, you don’t fly, period. And don’t find out you’re on the list until you actually show up to the airport. And to get clearance to fly, you have to contact the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and they’ll give you a letter saying you are probably OK to fly, BUT every time you go to the airport, you’re basically going to have to go through a monstrous hassle, with or without the letter. Why? Because there’s absolutely no way to have a name removed from the list.
I know what you’re thinking: “My name is Whitey Whitebread. There’s no way my name is on the list.” WRONG AGAIN!!! There are tens of thousands of requests currently filed with the NTSB from people looking to have their names cleared and the great majority of them are people with names no more ethnic than John Stevens. Babies are being turned away on an almost daily basis because their parents didn’t have the foresight to make sure the name they chose for their new born wasn’t on the list (not that they could have seen the list even if they did have the foresight).
I can’t even imagine if I was a consultant and it was my job to fly and my name were on the list. Basically, the government would be preventing me from doing my job because they’re too dumb or lazy or power-crazy or blind to know the difference between the dozens of Paul Brittons out there. But who would I be mad at? I mean, this is blatantly illegal. I can’t even imagine the argument saying that it isn’t. But are you mad at the Village Idiot and his minions for wielding that kind of power and using to excess? Are you mad at the Congressfolk that gave them these powers? Or are you mad at the Sheep that run around saying they like being treated like criminals because it makes them feel safe?
As much as I hate the Village Idiot and the Congressfolk right now, I’d have to blame the Sheep. THEY’RE the ones that voted these criminals back into power. THEY’RE the ones too stupid to recognize that you’re far less safe today than you were the morning of 9/11/01 as a direct result of the Village Idiot’s policies. THEY’RE the ones that are willing to allow these wretched freaks to completely demolish the principles our freedoms were built upon (and this is the fucking insanely ironic part of it all) IN THE NAME OF DEFENDING OUR FREEDOMS! The fact of the matter is, these Sheep are so ignorant, you could say you’re doing just about anything in the name of their safety and they’d get on board and believe you.
So flying isn’t fun any more because we have to tread through the dung of millions of sheep just to get to the airplane. The No-Fly List is just a symptom of a greater illness. But it all stinks. And I hope that enough people wake up in time to realize it before the next elections. It’s getting to the point where those of us who’ve been smelling that shit for 4 years now can barely breathe.
And now that some of the population is slowly regaining its sanity, you’d think it’d be better. You’d think that with more people realizing the government is only looking to control us with fear, not protect us, perhaps we wouldn’t let them get away with making us take our shoes off. You’d think that you would hear fewer interviews about these ridiculous hoops we have to jump through end in the phrase, “I don’t mind having to bend over and have my prostate examined because it makes me feel safer.” Well, you’d be wrong. It’s worse.
I read an article last week about the “No-Fly List”, one of The Village Idiot’s “indispensable tools” in the war on terror along with everyone’s favorite affront on the Bill of Rights, the Patriot Act, and illegal phone taps of private US citizens compliments of the NSA. Turns out no one has any clue as to how many names are on the list because absolutely no part of the list is accessible by the public. And if you happen to share the name of someone on the list, you don’t fly, period. And don’t find out you’re on the list until you actually show up to the airport. And to get clearance to fly, you have to contact the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and they’ll give you a letter saying you are probably OK to fly, BUT every time you go to the airport, you’re basically going to have to go through a monstrous hassle, with or without the letter. Why? Because there’s absolutely no way to have a name removed from the list.
I know what you’re thinking: “My name is Whitey Whitebread. There’s no way my name is on the list.” WRONG AGAIN!!! There are tens of thousands of requests currently filed with the NTSB from people looking to have their names cleared and the great majority of them are people with names no more ethnic than John Stevens. Babies are being turned away on an almost daily basis because their parents didn’t have the foresight to make sure the name they chose for their new born wasn’t on the list (not that they could have seen the list even if they did have the foresight).
I can’t even imagine if I was a consultant and it was my job to fly and my name were on the list. Basically, the government would be preventing me from doing my job because they’re too dumb or lazy or power-crazy or blind to know the difference between the dozens of Paul Brittons out there. But who would I be mad at? I mean, this is blatantly illegal. I can’t even imagine the argument saying that it isn’t. But are you mad at the Village Idiot and his minions for wielding that kind of power and using to excess? Are you mad at the Congressfolk that gave them these powers? Or are you mad at the Sheep that run around saying they like being treated like criminals because it makes them feel safe?
As much as I hate the Village Idiot and the Congressfolk right now, I’d have to blame the Sheep. THEY’RE the ones that voted these criminals back into power. THEY’RE the ones too stupid to recognize that you’re far less safe today than you were the morning of 9/11/01 as a direct result of the Village Idiot’s policies. THEY’RE the ones that are willing to allow these wretched freaks to completely demolish the principles our freedoms were built upon (and this is the fucking insanely ironic part of it all) IN THE NAME OF DEFENDING OUR FREEDOMS! The fact of the matter is, these Sheep are so ignorant, you could say you’re doing just about anything in the name of their safety and they’d get on board and believe you.
So flying isn’t fun any more because we have to tread through the dung of millions of sheep just to get to the airplane. The No-Fly List is just a symptom of a greater illness. But it all stinks. And I hope that enough people wake up in time to realize it before the next elections. It’s getting to the point where those of us who’ve been smelling that shit for 4 years now can barely breathe.
posted by RauluaP at 12:35 PM
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