Security Theater; TSA Edition

The Blue-Gloved Goons were getting set for some extra screening:

There were five of them, including one of them who was standing next to the door to the aircraft, just looking at people. When I saw them assembling, I meandered over to the check-in desk and asked if there was a problem. One of the gate agents opined that it was only the TSA justifying their manning levels.

Seriously. At that airport, they run everyone through the Rapie-scanner. All of the carry-on bags are X-rayed. For the extra bag check, the blue-gloved goons looked in the bags and kind of poked around. Unless someone had a gun lying right at the top or a big wad of C-4 all wired up, they weren't going to find anything.

It was nothing more than an act and everyone knew it. The body language of the TSA goons broadcasted that they knew that what they were doing was just for show.

The American Taliban Party

When I first read about these remarks by Congressman Paul Broun (R-GA)

All that stuff I was taught about evolution, embryology, Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell. It’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a savior. There’s a lot of scientific data that I found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth. I believe that the Earth is about 9,000 years old. I believe that it was created in six days as we know them.

I just sort of dismissed them as the rantings of an ignorant ideologue.

But this clown is a licensed physician. Frankly, if he comes near anyone with a syringe or anything sharper than a tongue depressor, that unfortunate patient would probably be justified in whacking him.

If you want to know one of the reasons why this nation faces a decline in science, technology and engineering, consider this: This asshat, along with Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin and several other anti-knowledge whackaloons, comprise the GOP side of the House Science and Technology Committee. They are of the opinion that if the science f any particular field doesn't fall neatly into line with their religious beliefs, then that science has to be wrong. "Scientific truthiness", if you will. Never mind the data, what matters is what feels right.

It would appear that, 412 years ago, these clowns would have cheered the immolation of Friar Bruno. I have no doubt that, if they had the power to force adherence to their beliefs, that they would not hesitate to do so.

This Is Not Good.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Turkey fired artillery into Syria for a fourth consecutive day on Saturday after another Syrian mortar shell landed on the Turkish side of the increasingly tense border.

The exchanges -- and Turkey's recent warnings to Syria that it would defend itself -- have raised fears of regional conflict. While stray shells and bullets from the Syrian conflict have often landed in Lebanon and Turkey, for the first time a Syrian mortar shell killed five Turkish civilians on Wednesday, prompting Turkey's response.

More worrisome than that is that Turkey is a member of NATO. Which means that if the Syrians continue to fuck with the Turks, then the Syrians will be, in effect, fucking with NATO.

Which means that Americans may be fighting there whether we like it or not.

I'll Have the "General Tsao's Deer", Extra Spicy, Please

Yum, yum!

WILLIAMSBURG, Ky. (WKYT) - A Chinese restaurant forced to shut its doors after getting caught with a dead deer in the kitchen. ... The restaurant owner tells the health department that he wasn't going to serve the road kill to customers, but instead to his family.

Ayup, I'll believe that, you betcha.

In New England, really frugal people will pick up fresh roadkill and butcher it.* If I remember correctly, Caspar Weinburger's wife was known for picking up fresh roadkill. But she wasn't running a restaurant.
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* In New York State, if you hit a deer and if there is any damage to your car, the deer is yours.

Bird Hunting

Because educating kids without a boat-load of commercials is somehow bad.

By the way, what genius came up with the Romney logo? It looks like it was squirted out of a toothpaste tube.

UPDATE:

Travel

This salvaged SBD is hanging over the entrance to Concourse A at Midway Airport.

On this trip, I had a choice. I could fly on two airlines that use contract feeders flying Embraer RJs or I could fly Southwest in their 737s. The 737s are far more comfortable for passengers and, if you want to carry on a bag, you can. The RJs have about as much room to store a bag as a Cessna 120. Maybe less.

But there is always a tradeoff, and that is is that SWA uses Midway as a hub, or, as I like to refer to it, USS Midway (CV-MDW). MDW has short runways for a jet airport, as in "really effing short". If you want to ride through a max-performance takeoff and landing in a 737, fly into MDW. When Northwest Airlines first flew jets out of MDW back in the `60s, they were so worried about the ability to stop them that they outfitted their airplanes with nosewheel brakes.

MDW is short enough that the pilots try to get as close to the end of the runway for takeoff without running off the end of the runway. I suspect that the "accelerate-stop" distances at MDW for shelling an engine on takeoff are kind of fictional. It is not unknown for westbound flights to have to depart with a planned fuel stop in some place like Omaha, because there is not enough runway for them to depart with a full load of passengers, bags and enough gas to get to their destination.

On landing, it's a max braking, max thrust-reversing and they turn off at either a thousand feet before the end or at the end.

I'm going to have limited online access for the next several days, so keep yourselves amused. Try not to break all of the furniture in the joint and please don't drink up all of my booze.

Some Days You Eat the Bacon Some Days the Bacon Eats You

Authorities are investigating how a farmer in the US state of Oregon was devoured by his pigs.

In the long-canceled HBO series "Deadwood", Al Swearengen's favorite method of disposing of his victims was to feed them to the pigs.

Turkey bacon or macon may not be as tasty, but at least those critters won't eat you if they get the chance.

The Neighbors Probably Hate This Guy

For he has a jet engine from a L-1011 in his backyard and he occaisionally fires it up.



Makes this guy look kind of tame.

American Slave Labor

I wish this was a joke, but it is not. Unicor, the Federal company that manufactures shit with prison labor and which used to be limited to making shit for other Federal agencies, is now starting to compete with American businesses.

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So it's not just Chinese companies that use prison labor. Now, American companies can and without having to get on a fourteen-hour flight to Shanghai.

Bangity

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a used Smith & Wesson Model 10. So did a friend. On Sunday, we took them to the range.

Really, we didn't expect much for sub-$300 revolvers that were probably carried by cops who may not have ever bothered to clean them.

But did they shoot! Off a rest, both guns fired groups, at 25', that would have been covered by a coffee mug. And this wasn't primo match ammo; I was shooting Winchester White Box stuff from Wal*Mart and he was shooting bulk reloads. We eventually moved to shooting at 25 yard targets, sometimes offhand, sometimes two-handed and, if we did our parts, those guns hit where we wanted them to.

We were both impressed. I might think of getting it tuned up a little to improve the double-action trigger pull.