While this guy has the right to spew forth whatever homophobic and misogynistic crap he wants, he put a lot of people in danger. He was jamming up transmissions for everyone else.

The DHS, TSA, and CBP want to improve its tarnished image. After the criticism that has befallen the TSA since last fall when they mass-introduced full body scanners, it’s no surprise that they are now universally hated. The problem, however, is that the TSA can never improve their image as long as they continue to introduce draconian security measures followed by even more extreme responses when people object to being treated as manhandled cattle.

Last week, just after the DHS announced their desire to be more liked and understood, the world became privy to a video of a 6-year old girl enduring the TSA’s enhanced pat down. The enhanced pat down is very similar to sexual assault. This little girl broke down in tears once it was all over. How can the TSA even begin to justify this as something normal?

Men and women have complained numerous times that they feel sexually assaulted by the TSA procedures. The have expressed concerns that it is a form of retaliation from the TSA when they choose to opt out of the full body scanners.

The enhanced pat down consists of what you would expect of a pat down, but it goes much further. The TSA agent will feel inside your pants, down your underwear, squeeze your breasts, touch and move your testicles and feel around your labia. Women have also reported that TSA agents have even felt inside their vagina during and enhanced pat down.

There are also accounts of people reporting that TSA agents rarely change their gloves, leading to major health concerns. When passengers do request TSA officers to change their gloves, they are subjected to increased harassment from the officers. It should be obvious that, if a TSA officer comes in contact with a passenger that has an STD, it could easily be passed on to the next passenger if proper health and safety measures aren’t followed.

Congress is now beginning to call for investigations into the TSA’s methods. Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, said that he is mortified that his grandchildren might have to undergo an enhanced pat down. He is now pushing for legislation to change how the TSA operates.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Sunday he would be ticked off if one of his grandchildren got the kind of pat-down search a 6-year-old girl was subjected to earlier this month at an airport security checkpoint in New Orleans.

“I have nine grandchildren and I wouldn’t want my granddaughter treated like that,” LaHood said

Mr. LaHood might also remember that the TSA vowed in 2006 to never have pat downs for children. Since the TSA is run on policies and not laws or regulations, it’s free to change them whenever they wish, no matter how illogical and ill conceived they are.

When the TSA tells passengers that the full body scanners are safe, yet airline crews do not need to use them and reports state that the radiation levels are higher than reported, it is difficult to believe the TSA. Everything they do is security theater. It is frustrating and unnecessary. The full body scanners would not have prevented any threats. They also don’t appear capable of stopping weapons from passing beyond the security checkpoints.

If the TSA is sincere about improving their image, they need to immediately begin rolling back some of their more draconian practices. A first step would be to no longer treat passengers like criminals, particularly when they are vocal about TSA policies. Just because a person exercises their right to say they disagree with the policies, doesn’t mean they should be singled out for extra security measures or be considered terrorists. They also need to stop sexually assaulting passengers during enhanced pat downs and discontinue harassment of passengers who decide to opt out of the full body scanners.

We already have reinforced cockpit doors and the pilots are armed. We know that passengers will fight back. There is no need for the enhanced pat downs and full body scanners other than to provide a visual appearance of security theater. The TSA and DHS need to stop giving their standard answer of “we followed procedure and everything is fine,” when it clearly isn’t. They need to admit their mistakes, roll back many of the changes introduced in the past few years, and put real reform into place.

The TSA needs to admit that they don’t need to keep the skies safe from kleenex smugglers and should look closer at the suspected criminals and child pornographers within their midsts.

These few steps would go a long way in redeeming a modicum of respect back to the TSA. Until we return to sensible screening measures, don’t expect people to stop calling attention to the abuses of the TSA and be prepared for even fewer passengers than before.

In the mean time, take action to let the TSA know why you won’t fly and why you will continue to fight for your 4^th amendment rights. Write to Rep. Jon Mica and let him know that you agree the TSA should be abolished. Send letters to your representatives in Washington informing them that they need to take action as well or you won’t be voting for them in the next election.

When Cambridge Professor Mary Beard went into the sewers, I was fascinated. It’s absolutely amazing that, because Herculaneum was covered in volcanic ash, its sewers were covered and the feces was still there. Archaeologists recovered 70 garbage bags full of shit that helps them know what the people ate.

I also learned, which I didn’t know before, that on one of the frescoes from a bar, one patron called the other a cocksucker. It’s amusing to know that cocksucker was used nearly 2000 years ago. Another says that, “Apolonaris had a good shit here.” I’m glad he did.

It is impossible to imagine what fear, terror, and feelings of helplessness these people must have went through on that fateful day. These people, however, have left behind rich archaeological evidence that we can learn from and realize that they weren’t so different from ourselves.

Revisiting Pompeii makes me want to return. I think Pompeii needs more than a one day trip there. Sure, Paul and I spent the entire day there, but we still want to go back because there is still so much to see and learn. I guess the archaeologist in me never got enough of it when we were there.

Yeah, I pirated it. Get over it. There’s no way of knowing if the show will ever make it to the USA and the BBC still has some great shows we never get to see.

This morning, I woke up to read an article on Ars Technica about the new pat downs that are coming to the nation’s airports. They intend to be extremely thorough. This, of course, is to embarrass people into sheepishly heading over to the full body scanners because they don’t want to be embarrassed. It is yet another piece of security theater designed to get you to step over to the backscatter line and do as you’re told. But just how creepy and thorough are they?

The new rules require agents to pay renewed attention to your crotch, and their hands won’t stop until they meet testicular resistance. (No word on quite how far they’ll go should you lack said testicles.)

Fortunately, I’m a woman, so they shouldn’t be finding any “resistance,” their cute keyword for testicles. They’re not going to find much on top either. Let’s just say, I’m not a Pamela Anderson type and I’d be lucky to hide a dollar in my bra. Anything bigger, say explosives or knives, and they’ll be obviously sticking out. So, what will they do with women?

I pointed out to the security officer that 50 percent of the American population has no balls (90 percent in Washington, D.C., where I live), so what is going to happen when the pat-down officer meets no resistance in the crotchal area of women? “If there’s no resistance, then there’s nothing there.”

“But what about people who hide weapons in their cavities? I asked. I actually said “vagina” again, just to see him blush. “We’re just not going there,” he reiterated.

If this man gets flushed at the word vagina, why does he have this job? If you act like a pre-pubescent boy when a word is mentioned, every woman on the planet is now going to come armed with words to make you uncomfortable and you won’t do the pat down correctly.

“TSA is in the process of implementing new pat-down procedures at checkpoints nationwide as one of our many layers of security to keep the traveling public safe. Pat-downs are one important tool to help TSA detect hidden and dangerous items such as explosives. Passengers should continue to expect an unpredictable mix of security layers that include explosives trace detection, advanced imaging technology, canine teams, among others.”

I asked him if he was looking forward to conducting the full-on pat-downs. “Nobody’s going to do it,” he said, “once they find out that we’re going to do.”

In other words, people, when faced with a choice, will inevitably choose the Dick-Measuring Device over molestation? “That’s what we’re hoping for. We’re trying to get everyone into the machine.” He called over a colleague. “Tell him what you call the back-scatter,” he said. “The Dick-Measuring Device,” I said. “That’s the truth,” the other officer responded.

So, not only are they pre-pubescent boys when it comes to women, they’re that way when looking at a penis through the backscatter machine too. I’m sure these highly trained operatives will be able to find hidden items easily.

I, for one, will not play their game. I’m not embarrassed easily. I will opt out of the machine. I will ask for a pat down. It won’t be any more effective than it is now. Pat down all my body parts you want. Not only am I concerned about the privacy issues of full body scanners, I do not believe they are entirely safe for your health. If a TSA agent wants to get his rocks off by patting me down, sobeit. I just hope he wears a gas mask as I’ll be sure to eat some beans and spicy food before I head to the airport. At least then he’ll remember me.

Our first asshat was a guard in the Body Worlds exhibit. Paul didn’t have the case to his camera with him in the museum so he had to carry the camera in his hand. You weren’t allowed to take photos in the exhibit, which is fine, but this idiot kept harassing Paul.

He asked several times why Paul had a camera with him and if he was planning on taking pictures. Then he made sure to tell Paul three times in less than a minute that Paul couldn’t take photos. Yeah, we know, thanks. We’re not taking any. The guy kept following Paul around throughout the exhibit and kept mentioning that Paul shouldn’t be carrying his camera. Yeah, we got it. No pictures. We’re not 2. We understand the rules.

The second ass clown was a cop after the Rockies game. Now, I’m not totally familiar with downtown Denver. I’m also the only car in a five block radius after the game with Nebraska plates. Everyone else has Colorado plates. We know we need to get to Park Avenue West, which we finally see after we clear some trees. The light is red, so I put on my blinker and wait to move into the left lane so I can turn and we can get out of town.

A gentleman stops his car and motions for me to move into the lane in front of him. I wave a thank you to him and move into the lane. We turn the corner and a cop turns his lights and sirens on, forces me into a driveway and blocks me so I cannot continue driving. I’m thinking, “What the fuck?” Paul rolls down the passenger side window and I’m greeted with the biggest dick I’ve seen in a long time.

His head is bald. His face is red with anger and a vein is popping out of the right side of his mouth. He has a toothpick hanging out of the left side of his mouth. It bounces up and down as he spews forth his rage.

He screams at me, “Don’t you ever do that again.”

Puzzled, I look at him and say, “What?”

“You know what you did.” Apparently, I am angering him more by not knowing what I did. “If you ever cut off a car like that again, I’ll write you a ticket.”

“Okay,” I say, quite puzzled as I had not cut anyone off.

“I’m serious. You don’t drive like that. I swear to god I’ll write you a ticket if you ever cut anyone off like that again.”

“Okay,” I say, more emphatically. What I’m thinking is, “If you’re not going to write me a ticket then let me go,” but I refrain as this guy seems like he’s just waiting for a reason to jump out of his car and beat the shit out of me.

“I will write you a ticket next time. You wait in line like everyone else.” Whoah dude, I’m not in kindergarten. I didn’t break any laws and I’ve done this same maneuver a hundred times in five different countries. I want to offer him a Valium, but refrain from doing so as I don’t want him to kill me.

“Yeah, thank you, okay,” I say. I just want to go. Seriously, I didn’t cut anyone off. I didn’t break any laws, but officer red veiny face wants to beat a dead horse some more. “It’s just, I’m from out of town and I don’t quite understand how your roads work and this was one road we knew we needed to be on.”

“I don’t care where you’re from. We don’t drive like that here.” I would say that he said that with a sneer, but his eyes were bulging from his face and his nostrils were flaring in and out. I couldn’t make out a clear sneer from all the rage. If he didn’t kill me, his blood pressure was going to kill him.

I thought to myself, “Uh, okay dude. This isn’t the Old West. You’re not my mother. Have some compassion for people who are lost. You don’t have to be an ass about your explanation.”

“If I ever catch you driving like that again, I will right you a ticket.” By this point, I’m thinking, yeah, you know you have no authority to write me a ticket, you’re just a bitter, middle-aged man who has let a little power go to your head. If you really thought I broke the law, you’d have written me a ticket by now and been nice and not acted like a 5-year old that’s been told he can’t have candy for dinner.

“Thanks,” was all I said. What else could I say? His face was getting redder. He pointed at me more vehemently each time he spoke. His toothpick was bobbing up and down so fast I thought it might fly out of his mouth and poke Paul’s eye out.

“I mean it. Don’t do it again.” He rolled up his automatic window. His face still crimson with rage. I had hoped he would stay leaning out the window so his face would get caught in it, but to no avail. He sped off.

I said to Paul, “What a fucking dickhead.” Paul agreed, noting that I hadn’t done anything wrong. I took solace in that as Paul is the one who yells at me for doing 71 in a 65 and is usually quick to point out that he would never drive the way I do.

I was pissed. Paul was annoyed. We both expressed what we’d have like to have said and done, but the fact is, cops  always go overboard. They let the little power they have go to their heads.  They rarely act within the law anymore and are only interested in their power trips and hurting people to make themselves feel better.   They are the same from Denver to New York City to London to Dublin to Rome to Paris.  If you ever want to ask me why I hate cops, this is one of many examples I can give you.

My choice for a donation would be DirectRelief International. One of my favorite sites on the internet, reddit, has partnered with them. Go give a couple of bucks now.

I’ve also uploaded photos from the Fiber Arts Fair and some new photos of D’Argo.

Oh, and today is my grandma’s 87th birthday!  YAY!

Today we went to the National Museum at the Collins Barracks.  You aren’t allowed to take photos in here, thought I don’t quite know why.  So this is what I wrote down that I learned and thought was interesting.

We got to see the different helmets of Irishmen in foreign armies, including the 69th Regiment, a US Army unit based in New York.

Irish soldiers serving in foreign armies are known as Wild Geese.

The 69th Regiment also fought in the American Civil War, including being part of the Army of the Potomac, besieging Petersburg, Virginia in 1864.

The 69th was amongst the first American troops to arrive on the western front in WWI.

For a small country, the Irish have certainly managed to be involved in nearly every battle campaign in the 20th century.  It seems as though they are now seen more as peacekeepers with other UN troops, but they certainly have gotten around the world.

The museum also has a 200ft Bantry Boat that originally belonged to the French Frigate, La Résolve.  It was part of a fleet that invaded Ireland in December, 1796 at Bantry Bay.  The La Résolve lost its masts and the Bantry Boat was sent out to find another ship to tow it to safety.  Instead it was captured.

There’s a giant room full of brass, European brass, bronze, silver, copper, and pewter stacked up on twelve foot high shelves.  There are also every day dishes, microscopes, and pocket watches.

In another room, there are Rigby dueling pistols and Thomas Read and Co. dueling swords.  I also learned that there are preserved records of the most common reasons for duels.  The most common from 1771-1810 were insult, women, politics and elections, legal matters, drinking, “playhouse,” gambling, religion, feud, and jostling.

In the area covering the Easter Rising, there is this quote from P.H. Pearse; “There are many things more horrible than bloodshed, slavery is one of them.”

I also got to see an astrolabe and an Armillary Sphere.  Too bad I couldn’t actually hold them.

There’s another area full of old coins.  It covers 1000 years of coins.  I could have spent all day here.

The second floor of the museum covers period furniture, which all looked ugly and uncomfortable.  On this floor is a large studio camera with a Ross lens.  It’s so big that it is bigger than me!

There is also a large clock that covers three floors.  It can actually be seen from outside.  It was made in 1849 and has weight-driven movement.

The neo-Celtic room was very boring.  Anything Celtic bores me.

The special exhibition on sacred art in Ireland had lots of chalises…..yawn…..

So, next, we traveled to the other side of town to the National Museum of Ireland Archaeology.  I must make an interesting side note.  In both museums, Paul commented, “Might as well check this out.  I want to get my money’s worth.”  Both museums were free.

Again, we come across more stuff with no information.  All we know is that it’s a skeleton of a human.  You have to walk five feet away from the skeleton to know that it is Baronstown West Man, County Kildare, dating from 200-400 AD, Early Iron Age.  The placing of signage is not intuitive at all here.

Clonycavan Man, County Meath, 392-201 BC, Early Iron Age only has his head, arms, and torso.  A peat harvesting machine destroyed the rest.  He had hairgel made of resin imported from France or Spain.

It’s pretty common to find bodies in bogs.  The bogs preserve the bodies quite well.  The only problem is that the Irish seem to have a knack for carelessly chopping up the body to bits before and attempts at preservation are made.

There’s a room about viking Ireland, which is nice.  It’s also got air conditioning to cool you off.  Yay for airco!

In the room with all iron and bronze bells, all I could think of was, “Needs more cowbell.”  I’m such a dork.

I also learned that the name, Collins, is purely Irish and it’s original form is Ó Coileáin.  It means descendant of Coileáin (‘whelp’).

There is no rhyme or reason to the layout of the museum either.  Ancient Egypt is down a narrow corridor that is easily missed.  The Irish need to get things better organized because backtracking over everything just pisses people off.

We spent out last evening with our good friend Annau, Leyla, and Leyla’s boyfriend, Monte.  It was really good to see them again.  It’s been several years since Paul and I saw Annau and Leyla.  Again, I wish it had been longer than a few hours, but I’ll take whatever time I can get with them.  It was a lot of fun.

Wednesday 10 June 2009

Checking out of the hotel was surprisingly easy.  Our final cost was €448 ($627) and it should have been €592 ($829).  the taxi driver was also very nice and we had a nice chat in the car on the way to the airport.  Then, we arrived at the airport.

In typical Irish fashion, nothing was signed.  USAirways had two lines, one for Chicago and one for Philly.  Both lines were all crushed together and no one knew if they were in the right line or not.  Finally, someone who knew their job separated everyone into the proper lines and the Chicago people started getting checked in.  Eventually, our line to Philly started moving too.

This process was quick, but not smooth.  There was very little room at the counters and you had to backtrack through the area where you were in line to get to the x-ray machines and security.  Next, we had to go to the VAT refund window.  The woman at the counter just up and left, leaving a sign that said she’d be back at 9:15am.  So, we stood in line for fifteen minutes.

The stupidest part was next.  You have to go through the US Passport Control in the basement of the airport.  They also eliminated the two lines that there should have been, one for US Citizens and one for foreigners.  So, we had to wait in line while all the foreigners had their fingerprints taken, slowing the line considerably.  Once through, we waited in the usual cattle holding area until we boarded our plane.

On the plane, there was a movie and some other videos.  However, you needed to pay $5 to rent headphones.  Why in the hell do we have to fly for seven hours with no entertainment?  If I had known, I could have bought a book.

Just before arriving in Philly, we had to watch a video about arriving at the airport.  In typical, craptacular fashion, the video was unhelpful.  Not only did the video keep cutting out, the audio was garbled and you couldn’t understand anything the people were saying.

Flying out of Philly wasn’t much fun either.  We left an hour late and, then, the flight attendant kept bitching that people shouldn’t get out of their seats to use the bathroom because there was turbulence.  Most of the people gave her dirty looks and went anyway.  One guy told her that, if she had listened to the pilot he said you could use the bathrooms if you need to, just try not to walk around too much because of the turbulence.  They started to get into it, but stopped when a free toilet opened up and he went in to use it.  The flight attendant just muttered to herself while I smiled at here.

There.  We’re home.  Ireland kind of sucks.  It’s got pretty scenery, but that’s about it.  It’s not much fun at all.  We did, however, go to see our friends and that part of the trip was a lot of fun.  Seeing friends is always fun and there’s never enough time to spend with them.

If you want, you can go look at the pictures from the trip and make fun of any spelling mistakes that I make.

Well, it’s early morning and we are just starting to get ready for our day.  Yesterday, we drove from County Clare into Dublin and that was a nightmare.  We were fine until we reached Dublin.  Because of road construction, everything in Dublin is a giant mess.  We managed to get through that okay, but the airport is also stupidly set up.  First, we couldn’t find a gas station to fill the tank.  As you know, if you don’t return the tank full, you get charged outrageous amounts to refill it.  We discovered after we returned the car that there was a gas station a few minutes away, however, we would have only discovered it if we were leaving the airport and we were arriving.  Stupid setup for an airport.

Also, there are three different places to go for your car rental.  They are all labeled he exact same way, making it difficult to figure out which spot you need to be at.  We ended up going to all three.  Of course, we asked where we should go and were directed to the wrong place.  We were happy to get rid of the car though as it is a giant pain to drive in Dublin.  Before we returned the car, we went to our hotel to drop our crap off.  We did this so that we did have to carry everything on the bus back to the hotel from the airport, especially since we would need to take two different buses.

What we discovered was that the roads are not all labeled.  Many of the larger roads do not have signposts, so you have to guess where you were.  It was during this frustrating time that we understood why the hotel gave directions such as, “you’ll pass a large church with a green roof” and, “turn left at the Beechcomber Pub.”  If you didn’t have landmarks where you need to turn, you’d easily get lost.

After we returned the car, we headed into the city centre.  We got off on O’Connell Street, which is the major street in Dublin.  We really wanted some fish and chips, but could not find any shops that were either open or selling fish and chips.  After walking around for an hour and seeing that it was nearly 7 o’clock, we decided we had to eat something.  We had eaten nearly 12 hours before and we were starving for just about anything.  Sadly, the only thing that was open was McDonald’s.  With great regret we ate their food.  We are determined to find proper food today though.  I didn’t come half way around the world to eat shit fast food every day.

I’ll write some more later today as it’s now 7:22am and we need to get outside and be tourists.

Sunday 7 June 2009

Today was a nice day out, even though it was partly cloudy.  We spent the day walking from site to site instead of taking the bus because the weather was much nicer than yesterday.

Our first stop was the corner of Grafton and Harry Streets to take a picture of the statue of Phil Lynott for my friend Greg.  He’s a huge Thin Lizzy fan.  Next, we went to see the Book of Kells.  What a gigantic ripoff!  Normally, I’m all for seeing old texts and manuscripts, but, for €9 ($12.62), it was totally not worth it.  I really felt ripped off and found it hard to enjoy any part of it.

We then went to St. Stephen’s Green and wandered around a bit before heading over to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  Johnathan Swift is buried there.  Paul kept commenting that there were holy relics just lying about that people could touch.  Apparently, you not supposed to touch the holy relics.  Shhh, don’t tell anyone that I did, or didn’t.  You weren’t there.  You can’t prove anything!

After St. Patrick’s, we walked uphill a few blocks to ChristChurch Cathedral.  It was okay for a church.  Strongbow is supposedly buried here too.  Sorry, churches just aren’t all that interesting to me.

On our way to Dublin Castle, which is another few, short blocks away, we got hungry so we stopped for some fish and chips.  Lunch itself was good, but the service was crap.  Yes, I’m used to the service in America and I know what to expect when traveling, after all, I’ve done enough of it, but this service was extra crap.

I prefer not to have to seat myself.  I can get past that, but, when you have to beg for everything, it really gets old quite quickly.  We waited 15 minutes for the waitress to just bring the menus.  Another ten to bring us our drinks.  20 minutes after that, we had to beg her to come back to take our order.  I was also tired and crabby, so that made me cranky too.

So, Dublin Castle was decent enough once we got there.  Again, I learned some cool things, which is never a bad thing.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t go and tour the Bank of Ireland.  Another missed opportunity for Ireland to make some money off the tourists and embrace their history.  The bank used to be the headquarters for the government.  So, we walked back to the bus stop and headed back to the hotel.  Fortunately, the best part of the day was about to begin.

Paul and I had dinner with his friend from school, Anthony, and Anthony’s wife, Adrianna, and their two boys, Alex and Justin.  Paul hadn’t seen Anthony in 14 years, so it was a really nice time.  We ate at the hotel’s restaurant, which is super expensive, but tasty.  After spending several hours with them, I was quite happy that I didn’t have to travel back to the hotel.  We just had to go up one floor and down a hallway.  I just wish we had more time to visit with them.  A few hours is, simply, not enough.

Monday 8 June 2009

Today was a light day for us in Dublin.  We went to the Jameson Distillery, which was okay, but far overpriced.  After that, we walked over to Dublin City Hall.  Paul and I enjoyed the little history museum in the basement.  At €4 ($5.61), it’s quite the bargain.  It’s probably the best deal in Dublin.  There’s a lot of reading though, so some people might think it really sucks.

We were also going to visit the Chester Beatty Library, but they wouldn’t let us keep our bags with us and the lockers that were available didn’t look trustworthy.  Instead, we went and had a nice lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, then went for a walk to the War Remembrance Memorial.

Paul and I made it an early evening today as we’re a bit tired and just want to relax a little for once on the trip.