"The First Thanksgiving" (1914), by Jennie Augusta Brownscombe (1850-1936)
oil on canvas, Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Quote of the DayHe left us and we rejoiced; then an even more unbearable person came.
Arabic proverb
Feature Video: The History of Thanksgiving
TSA's Department of Propaganda Paid For By the Taxpayer?
Let me make myself clear: the federal government serves the people; the people do not serve the federal government. Except for Administration officials who are directly elected or confirmed by the Congress, the agencies should be policy-neutral; for example, we do not let active-duty military or civil service personnel to participate publicly in the political process because they have a vested interest in policy decisions.
I have no doubt that TSA personnel, whom have to follow what their supervisors require, sometimes have to deal with policy resistance, and no doubt personnel on the front line can find themselves experiencing the displeasure of the public (although ugly threats to arrest or fine people standing up for their unalienable rights are beneath contempt). One would expect government employees to act professionally, patiently and responsibly versus knee-jerk thuggish threats and intimidation. Of course, no one believes that the employees carrying out controversial procedures are responsible for them. (One would hope that TSA personnel would rather resign as a matter of conscience versus carry out a process blatantly unconstitutional, but unfortunately one would be mistaken.)
The target of my rant is a self-congratulatory blog post, under the title "Opt Out Turns Into Opt In" (still up as of late morning Thanksgiving). I don't mind the TSA alerting travelers and their destination contacts about any undue delays at the airport; this post, however, seems unduly provocative, rubbing in the fact that a rumored attempt to make the heaviest travel day of the year (Thanksgiving Eve) slow to a crawl by demanding more time-consuming safety procedures didn't occur. What's even more annoying and out of line is a long list of newspapers or media outlets reporting the same. It wasn't enough simply for TSA to report based on its own direct knowledge; they seemed to go out of their way to marginalize the pro-Constitution opposition.
It is not surprising that someone who bought his or her tickets weeks before the policy was revised didn't want to inconvenience other travelers or their own families. No faithful reader doubts where I stand on this issue; I've written multiple commentaries against the revised TSA policy. But I did not promote the opt-out in my posts. I think there are basically two ways to approach this issue: change policy through legislation (or a new President in 2012) and/or challenge the policy in the federal courts. [However, there are a number of reports (e.g., here) that suggest that the full-body scanners, in fact, were barely used in many airports yesterday.]
Would I make an issue of it at the airport? Probably not--it's not worth the aggravation. As a professor, I've sometimes had students ask the same procedural question multiple times during a lecture. I don't know why they didn't hear my original response--maybe they weren't paying attention or they came late to class. I just felt it was a lot easier to answer the question directly in 5 seconds or so than to read the student the riot act for 2 or 3 minutes of valuable lecture time. You would be surprised (maybe not) at how many people will simply respond to a specific question by saying they already answered that question, without additional comment.
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| Self-Serving Snapshot Posted on Federal Government Blog |
Are there ever guarantees in life? No. But there's something terribly wrong when people start getting paranoid about their fellow citizens at the airport and are willing to subjugate everybody else to a process that almost never results in a salient arrest. It brings up a point I mentioned before about my 8 years in teaching university classes and catching more students cheating than the rest of my colleagues put together. When I brought the students in, almost invariably the only thing they wanted to know is how I caught them. Their motivation was obvious: they would simply revise their schemes to work around my heuristics. Let me give an example: consider the fact that one of the salient facts that emerged in a past incident was that the terrorist had purchased a one-way ticket and hadn't checked luggage. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the terrorist group probably subsequently changed its tactics by ensuring the purchase of roundtrips and at least one piece of luggage checked.
Irish Austerity Measures: Will America Follow Suit?
In order to get EU/IEF funding of a massive, necessary failout, Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, widely expected to resign ahead of new elections in several weeks, has put together a blend of tax increases, budget cuts and other policies in an attempt to cut the deficit to with 3% of GDP, including:
- lower transfer payments (e.g., welfare, pensions, etc.)
- higher property taxes (property; widened income tax bands with lower bracket floors)
- higher excise taxes (sales, water, tuition and fees, etc.)
- government personnel cuts
- lowered minimum wage
All of these things, in fact, are policy items I would strongly recommend at the American federal level, with the exception (and this is something the progressives just don't get) being a steep cut in the highest business tax rate. Obama just can't understand why US companies want to invest internationally--why, it must be because of domestic tax breaks--not the fact that domestic corporate tax rates are higher than almost any other country than Japan (and we know how well that's working for them...)
Take Nancy Pelosi and entitlement reform. She won't budge on raising retirement ages. The fact is that lifetimes are lengthening, which means that more money will be paid out post-retirement. But workers and their employers only paid so much into social security, not enough to cover expected payouts. That extra money is essentially borrowed from younger generations. Is it fair for older generations raid from the lockbox for younger ones? I submit that it is not. We cannot continue to borrow from subsequent generations; that is unsustainable. We have to raise payroll taxes, lower payments, and/or raise retirement age. But the only thing Pelosi and the rest of the class warfare warriors want to discuss is having higher-income people pick up the tax burden (and/or losing their own pensions); in short, that is not a sustainable solution.
Political Humor
"A new study says that radiation from Wi-Fi is hurting trees. Environmentalists are calling it the worst assault on trees since George W. Bush and Sarah Palin became authors." - Jimmy Fallon
[Al Gore is having a bad year. First came ClimateGate. Then came the separation from his wife Tipper and the "sex crazed poodle" kerfuffle. Now the "Father of the Internet" is being held responsible for damage to the forests...]
"Ratings for the second episode of Palin’s TV show have gone way down, falling 40 percent. So I guess she and President Obama do have something in common after all." - Jimmy Kimmel
[No doubt Sarah Palin, who used to watch "Dallas", is looking for ideas to boost her ratings. I think they may have to move up the cliffhanger episode, "Who Shot Todd?" Dick Cheney, of course, is ruled out because of his health issues. Las Vegas oddsmakers are making Palin's former brother-in-law, state trooper Mike "Tase the Boy" Wooten, the prohibitive favorite.]
Some originals:
- President Obama pardoned the Thanksgiving turkey. I think the President gave him an unusual nickname: 'Marc Rich'. By sheer coincidence, the California Dems just received their biggest donation to date for the 2012 campaign.
- Sarah Palin demonstrated that Joe Biden has nothing on her when it comes to committing gaffes by saying on a Glenn Beck radio show that we need by our "traditional ally", North Korea. She quickly corrected herself, adding that she would stand by South Carolina and South Dakota against their northern adversaries.
TSA Bumper Sticker of the Day
Musical Interlude: Holiday Tunes. (Note: my ongoing series Instrumentals/One-Hit Wonders is going into hiatus, resuming after New Year's.)
Air Supply, "In the Eyes of a Child". Is it possible for Air Supply to sing a song I don't like? I love the video accompanying the song; the song brings out the wondrous promise of a child's birth, like glorious one of Christ Jesus.
