It's not just for restaurants anymore: airport parking in San Jose.
Yeah, I might be getting scarce here in a bit... going to get myself groped and anally probed by the Department of Vaterland Security, oh joy, just for the privilege of traveling from point A to point B at faster speeds than Nike sneakers can get me. Get to show my internal passport a.k.a. "driver's license" four times for the privilege of traveling in a narrow vibrating tube, get to have all my goods searched without a warrant (and anything expensive stolen) for this privilege, etc. Just like travelling in the good ole' USSR, when you needed your internal passport to go anywhere and always had people in bad uniforms grumping to see your papers anytime you tried to do anything more adventurous than walk from your apartment block to the grocer's. Let's see, who won the Cold War again? Oh yeah, that's right, there's no longer a need for the Soviet Union when Soviet America is up and going, yessiree!
-- Badtux the Sovok Penguin
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ReplyDeleteI get to fly around other parts of the world, and that shows me how oppressive American flying is. Nowhere else in the world that I've been, including countries with a history of terrorist attacks, is as bad (although Heathrow comes close.)
ReplyDeleteOnly in America do you have to go through the shoe removal. (As an aside, think of what a shitstorm you'd run into if you threw your shoe at one of the Heimat Seicherheit goons at a U.S. airport. I wouldn't have the guts. The thought of that gives me a deeper appreciation for the balls of al-Zaidi for doing it to Booosh.) In America, you are declared to be a potential enemy of the state just because you chose to fly on an airplane. Message: we hate you, you fucking airline customer.
In other countries, you're scrutinised, but in a non-hostile way. I regularly get the explosives check in Australia. I don't know why, because I'm a middle-aged Anglo guy without wild hair or freaky clothes. I assume it's because my blog-whingeing has gotten me put on some government shit-list. But when the Aussies wipe my shoes and such, they're low-key.
In the U.S., even the routine screeners often have a nasty edge. And when you enter the U.S. on a flight from overseas, it's like "WHY ARE YOU COMING HERE?!? STATE YOUR BUSINESS! GIVE US A REASON WHY WE SHOULDN'T PUT YOUR ASS ON THE NEXT PLANE BACK WHERE YOU CAME FROM!"
It's the mark of a frightened country, Tux. It might seem like hostility, but it's done out of fear, not strength.