Your tinfoil hat is waiting, ma'am

Regarding civil liberties here at home, Gus has put it better than I could today.  It's kind of a relief to see someone else complaining about it.  Most people I mention this stuff to just say "as long as it makes us safer."  Well, guess what?  It doesn't.

Making various things illegal only makes them illegal.  Clearly, criminals don't care about the law -- that's what makes them criminals!  There have been some really misguided people calling for better gun control laws lately.  There are no good gun control laws, people.  They only put more restrictions on law-abiding citizens.  What are these assholes thinking?  "If we make *this* law, suddenly convicted felons won't own guns."  Yeah, right.  What idiot would go through the registration process if he were planning on committing a felony with a gun?  What convicted felon would attempt to legally acquire a gun?  Nevermind the irony that *none* of the terrorist acts committed against the United States were committed using something as complex as a gun.

I'm also disgusted with the airlines (except SWA).  Still.  I hope United goes out of business.  No one deserves it more than a company that holds their customers in such contempt.  Aside from that, they do not understand their core mission -- transport people from place to place with a minimum of fuss and the most security possible.

What is the most security possible?  Checking all the bags for dangerous things, but who's going to try to hijack a plane with nail clippers?  It's impossible to remove all sharp objects from the cabin of the plane.  Furthermore, as everyone's views of hijacking have been changed drastically by the events of September 11, I think one would have to be incredibly stupid to try a hijacking.  We need to be looking at the next likely target -- the baggage area.

At this point, the airlines are "randomly" hand searching bags.  They drag all your stuff out in front of everyone else, but frankly, you could hide some explosives in, say, a vitamin bottle (some of which are quite capacious).  They don't even open that stuff.  Why not have bomb-sniffing dogs or bomb-sniffing robots check *all* the damn luggage?  Everyone knows the hijackers paid cash, bought one-way tickets and sat in first class.  No "evildoer" is going to try that one again.

A colleague here at ConglomCo travels for business and pointed out something I hadn't thought of -- these lines are an extra special nightmare if you are traveling alone.  You can't get other chores done (like finding food before your flight) because you'll lose your place in line.  You have to stand there for an hour and you can't leave to go to the bathroom, lest you lose your place.

Furthermore, and this has nothing to do with flying alone, but apparently, a lot more people are missing connections these days.  If you are changing terminals, you have to clear carry-on security again, which is no small things these days, what with the menace of nail clippers haunting us.  You can still get a ceramic knife on the plane if you put it in, say, your boot.  But wait!  It's illegal to bring a ceramic knife on a plane, so clearly, no potential hijacker would risk it!

The result of all this whining?  We're driving at Thanksgiving.  I'd rather spend 14 hours in a car than feel invaded, inconvenienced and uncomfortable and no more safe than before.  I'm not actually afraid of flying because I think my chances up there are probably better than down here, but hell if I'll support the idiocy of the FAA.

If you think I'm ranting now, you should hear my opinions regarding the general alert warning this week or about my experiences with live365 and trying to put up a broadcast on there.  I guess I can save these for another day.  Chances are, they'll be overshadowed by something else before I next write.  I suspect the government's "stimulus" package might be my next target.