In The Wilds of Descanso

There are times, all too frequently, when I have to hang out somewhere out in the boonies with the coyotes and turkeys, away from home, and reassess my thinking. Attitude adjustment I suppose. I'm often in need of this lately. I base that on the premise that opportunity is before me and only I impede the embracing of such things in my life. Of course, thoughts tend to stray to more abstract matters and things further outside of my control.

Today, things seemed to me wrong in some way. All the things that make so little sense. And, as always, matters of rights and freedoms came to mind. That is probably because of the puzzling arguments I hear lately regarding airport security, among other odd official phenomena.

"If it makes me safe, I'm all for it" is one of the most common reactions to ever thorough searching. Then there is the corollary suggestion that flying is not a right and you suspend all rights when buying a ticket. I see conducting mutually voluntary commerce, sex, or other interactions as a right, not a privilege. Abuse rights and certainly you have to lose them so you don't deny the rights of the other person.

In fact it is really the job of the airline to decide what constitutes security but with our upside down tort system, this way lessens chance of lawsuit. Were an airline to conduct themselves prior to 9-11, and maybe after, the way TSA now does, they would surely be in court. What those who continually go with the idea that "if it makes the world safer I will offer my various body cavities for official review" do not understand or consider is that it does not make the world a safer place.

It would do absolutely nothing to promote safety to search me, take my pocket knife, or even my slingshot. That is because I am not one to bring down a plane on which I am a passenger. Now had I been flagged by family and security agencies abroad, had I not the proper documents to even travel to the US, and had these facts been ignored, so I was able to board a plane with a peter bomb stuffed in my underwear, then I'd pose a threat.

It would appear that the problem there was ignoring intelligence and reality to the point that one has to contemplate the possibility of a set up. The solution is not to treat all flyers as if they are terrorists or homicidal lunatics, but to act when a known problem arrives at the airport to board a flight. Another aspect of the solution is to accept that life is not safe, and you can never eliminate all of its many threats.

Assume that there was an in-home assault in your city, and you want to be safe. Are you then going to insist that everyone who comes to your door, whether friend family or meter reader, lay down with arms behind their backs so you can frisk them and maybe cuff them before they gain audience with you or you let them in? Just because that neighbor down the street, the little old lady who makes rhubarb pie, is known to you doesn't mean she isn't an aggressive home invader. Best to be safe, don't you think? Considering the number of flights and passengers, your odds of encountering a rhubarb bomb wielding neighbor are very close to those of encountering an exploding passenger.

Now, if there is a gang nearby, you are likely to automatically profile when one of its members bangs on your door. Not because of race but because of known insignia and gang identification. Would you feel guilty pulling out the 12 gauge to have handy as you determine the intent of the gang member? You didn't treat the accountant next door this way when she came by to see if you had plans for Thanksgiving. You really should have frisked her. Twice. ******

The reasoning we have come to accept is the same. But since people put this as in under Obama watch, many make excuses for it while others rebel but often for the wrong reasons. Chertoff put in the mandate to install the new imaging machines before he left his post and went to work for the outfit that sells them. That was during the Bush regime. We no longer have administrations. That died when we quit being a constitutional republic. We now have regimes. The fact that Obama hasn't canned this, and drastically reigned in Homeland security department does fall on him. Allowing that nazi of a nincompoop Janet Napolitano to run anything but away also falls squarely on the big O. But that is not the point.

Just curious why both George and Barack appointed nazi imbeciles to that post.

The point is that more than one writer in early to mid 20th century was absolutely right about how things would go. I believe Huxley was the one who said that people would willingly welcome a slave state, even demand it. Whoever said it was right. We've been undergoing a kind of martial law for some time. It has crept in very incrementally. Since no civilization of any size has ever managed to really secure individual freedom, it hasn't been that difficult to reverse the trend in the most promising of these so that we are running away from liberty rather than toward it. It is nauseatingly laughable to hear all the excuses given to gain public support of their own oppression. Everything from patriotism to equality to security. All bullshit.

Now I have to wonder about this Korea situation. Wars used to be good ways to pull out of economic woes. Considering we've been making pretend wars for years, maybe it doesn't work so well these days. I tend to doubt the idea that most wars are as represented or accidental.

Anyway, the whole setup seemed wrong when I was thinking about it. Something in the way of going about things is off. Can't quite put my finger on it. It is a vague indictment of civilization in general. Not the concept, but some common direction it took worldwide. And I don't mean that as far as inventing, producing and elevating the standard of living. Back to nature is fine, but most enjoyably done from a nice cabin in the woods with running water and a refrigerator, among other things. And getting there, and out, is better done in a car than on foot except as a lark. Having the choice is everything.

*****Just to clear the record, no accountant chick lives next door, nor did any come by my house, so the whole frisking thing was purely for hypothetical discussion. No one comes here. My Welcome mat says "Unwelcome, Get Lost"********
*********another lie. The mat says nothing at all