This time the TSA really does deserve our scorn

This New York Times article was sent to me by Virginia, my #1, and possibly only, reader (just kidding, Mom). It’s about Michael Hicks, an 8 year old whose name is on a TSA watch list. (Hey, TSA: Good job on improving the way that travelers’ names are checked against government watch lists.) He is scrutinized and subject to extra searches when he flies. Not his parents. Just him. They patted him down when he was 2 years old. Who could do that? How does that make any sense?

I laughed when I read the article, because it is ridiculous to think that any rational person could look at an 8 year old and suspect him of plotting some sort of aviation-related terrorism. But then I got serious; it’s awful when you think of what this child and his family have gone through. It’s even worse when you think that he’s been getting this treatment since the age of 2. I know what toddlers practice their own special brand of terror (my nephew’s nickname isn’t Satanski for nothing), but seriously? This just illustrates the complete lack of logic behind TSA policies, and shows why the TSA justifiably gets such a bad rap.

Also, I was terrified by the story of  Mario Labbé, an adult male with the same problem of having his name on a watch list. He was always questioned when he flew, and they always asked him the same thing. He got sick of it, and was able to fix the entire solution by changing his name. To François Mario Labbé. That’s it? That’s all it took? He changed his name just a little, and all the hassles ended? Although he shouldn’t have been on the list in the first place, I’d feel better knowing that it would take more than a trip to the municipal building for people whose travel plans raise justifiable concerns to evade heightened scrutiny. Where’s the followup? The intergovernmental agency cooperation?

The TSA was created in a hurry to allay people’s fears after 9/11, not out of careful strategy. I’m sure that a lot of TSA workers do want to help make air travel safe, but the system also seems to involve a worrying amount of pseduo-science (Only people with something to hide don’t look you in the eyes), racial profiling (Hey, you there, in the brown skin…), and plain retardedness (What were you planning to do with 101 ml of liquid, comrade??? The limit is 100!). For all that some justified people are pulled out of line or questioned further, it is inarguable that a lot falls through the cracks.

The TSA is probably not a good organization to work for. Their mission is vague, scary as all get out, and potentially dangerous. The Transportation Security Officer, which is the main point of TSA contact for many air travelers, is the poorest paying position in the organization. These factors naturally limit the pool of applicants, and thinking for a moment about who that leaves to work for the TSA explains a lot about people’s perceptions of TSA officers.  Kip Hawley, a former head of the TSA, famously called airport screening positions a dead end job. Yeah, no kidding.

Reading and thinking about the TSA is depressing the crap out of me, so I’ll stop now.

Eeeeeevil

Dating site BeautifulPeople.com just shoved a bunch of its members back into the rating process, after other “vigilant members” noticed that these people had gained weight. That seems pretty cold to me, but what does the site’s owner have to say?

“As a business, we mourn the loss of any member, but the fact remains that our members demand the high standard of beauty be upheld,” said site founder Robert Hintze. “Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded.”

Jesus. That’s cold. The professional first half of that quote left me completely unprepared for the part where he thought that using the term “fatties” was a good idea.

NIMBY-ism at its finest

Wow. Lawyer Andy Vickery hates homelessness so much, he’s suing a homeless shelter located in the church across the street from his office. His claim that he is suing because the shelter’s clients are disruptive, driving down property values, and are scaring off business would be easier to believe if he was only asking for the shelter to be shut down, or even for increased measures to control the homeless population who visit the shelter. The $250,000 that Vickery has requested makes him look ever so slightly like a greedy douchebag.

More on TSA Mom and Balloon Boy

Just a quick followup to yesterday’s post about Balloon Boy and TSA Mom. Stories about Falcon Heene’s ordeal seeming faked grew louder and louder as the weekend progressed. Gawker posted a weird interview with Robert Thomas, a student who helped the boy’s father, Richard Heene, with his balloon stuff earlier this year. It’s not definitive proof of a hoax on the part of the Heenes (as it’s billed), but it shows how much of a messed up famewhore Richard Heene. As I said yesterday, that’s nothing that couldn’t have been determined by his two appearances on the reality show Wife Swap. Just an hour ago, Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden, who earlier in the weekend said that this was not being considered a hoax, reversed that, and announced the following possible charges against the Heene parents:

Conspiracy
Contributing to the delinquency of a minor (Class 4 felony)
False reporting to authorities (Class 3 Misdemeanor)
Attempting to influence a public servant (Class 4 Felony)

Nic, the woman who wrote of being detained and having her child taken from her by the TSA, has posted a response to those who have questioned her story in light of the release of CCTV footage by the TSA. The post is entitled “My Apologies,” although it seems more defensive than apologetic. She maintains that the video does not show everything that happens, and that at some point, her son was separated from her by the TSA. She says that she doesn’t know why the video doesn’t show things that she stated happened, and I hate to speculate, but I have a theory, and it rhymes with frying….mmmm, frying. I am so hungry right now.

Attention whoredom as the natural progression of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy

Remember in the 80s and 90s, when the topic of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy made the rounds of all the talk shows once or twice a year? You’d have the mothers (it was always mothers) who were just sick over what they’d done to their children, and poor Timmy and Samantha, who were hurt and bewildered that mommy could have hurt them like that. Sally Jesse/Ricki/Oprah/Phil etc. listened and tsked, the audience booed, the moms begged for forgiveness and vowed that they’d changed, and at the end of the hour, all again was right with the world.

But now I feel that the 24-hour cable news cycle and the interwebs have exponentially increased the audience for attention whore parents and simultaneously upped the ante at what has to be done to get sympathy and attention. Now, thankfully, the parents aren’t actually injuring or sickening their children. The sympathy comes from having something awful happen to your children, with no messy poison or beatings required. So there’s that. When I think of Richard Heene (father of Falcon Heene, AKA Balloon Boy) and Nic (no relation, seriously!) from My Bottle’s Up, I wonder if we’re seeing the confluence of Generation Me, people’s desire for fame at any cost, a 24-hour news cycle where not enough things that are deemed interesting happen to justify the depth of coverage, and an Internet audience that is always willing to respond to every real or purported outrage with blog and Twitter posts (I resemble that remark).

I was at work when the Balloon Boy saga began, and read about it quite by accident during routine visits to several news sites. My coworker and I kept refreshing the story on the NY Times’s site; it was the site’s central story, and every twenty minutes or so, a bolded Update: designation would provide more detail. At that point, little was happening, and the updates mostly involved where the balloon was spotted, until the news came that the balloon had landed and was empty. The whole thing was so horrifying, and we were genuinely worried about Falcon Heene. I kept following the story when I got home, although I drew the line at actually watching any of the annoying tv talking heads discuss something they knew nothing about. I just kept refreshing my browser until I read the resolution. I laughed like a loon when I found out that the kid was safe at home the whole time. My reaction was composed of equal parts relief, amusement, and disbelief. Why wouldn’t they have checked the house thoroughly?? My amusement became even greater when it started to look for all the world like the whole thing was engineered by people who knew that the little boy had never even been on the balloon. The world had been duped, and willingly so. The breathless attention paid to the Heenes is rather sick, when you think about it. If the child really had been in the balloon, and something awful had happened to him, what good would have resulted from the insane amount of attention the family was receiving?

TSA Mom was only brought to my attention this morning. I read her account of what happened, and thought, “Wow, that sucks. What is wrong with the TSA?” I’d been at that very airport earlier that morning, and had worn a metal headband that set off the machine. I took it off, walked through again, collected my belongings, and went on to my gate with no problem. I did find it convenient that somebody with such a huge web audience and reputation would have something like that happen, but didn’t necessarily want to speculate on whether what she said was true. Bad things can happen to anybody, even those with a steady blog readership.

The Metafilter thread about this was filled with comments that harshly criticized the TSA, and others that expressed mild or not-so-mild doubt as to the veracity of Nic’s account. I could definitely see where they would find room to doubt her story, but I felt bad just dismissing it out of hand, and erred in my (obviously erroneous) belief that nobody would make up such an awful story. The TSA, sick of the internet trouncing it was receiving over its reported behavior, actually posted the CCTV feed of somebody who they identify as Nic and her son going through security. They are detained in the box for about 2 minutes, but at no point is she separated from her son.

The Heenes were on ABC’s wife swap, so that kind of shows that they’ll do anything to get on tv, but I feel so sorry for Falcon, who doesn’t seem to possess his parents’ desire for limelight. If they do end up getting that reality show, the first item of business will obviously be to recast the youngest child.

As for Nic, I still find it insane that anybody would make up anything like this. I guess she didn’t expect the TSA to take the step of posting the video of her going through security. Maybe she didn’t mean to garner all of this attention, and thought they’d never hear of her claims. Maybe she just thought she’d brazen it out. After all, right now she’s about to go on a vacation and therefore won’t be around the internet much for the next 10 days or so. How convenient!

These people sicken me, because every time something like this happens, I grow a little more cynical and distrustful of people.

Say it ain’t so, Philly

I really like Philadelphia. Despite its obnoxious baseball team (who the Mets beat today in dramatic fashion [finally]), it has a lot of good things to recommend it. It’s walkable, pretty, and since the murder rate is so high (but now falling!), it’s nice that the cabs are plentiful and relatively cheap. Plus, I have good friends who live nearby, which clearly adds to the awesomeness that is Philly. At one point, I’d even considered moving there and getting a job at one of the city’s library branches. Which is why the news that the entire city/regional Free Library of Philadelphia system will close on October 2, unless the state legislature approves funding, is both so shocking and frightening.  I’ve heard of branches closing or hours being cut back, but I’ve never heard about such a large library system considering closing down altogether. This is both nuts and scary. In this time of increased economic hardship, libraries are playing a vital role in their communities.

Should this happen, I wish the best of luck to all who lose their jobs because of this, and the worst of it to the politicians responsible.

Wait for it…

I have taken an insane number of pictures here in California, and will upload them to my various services (Facabook, Flickr, etc.) on Thursday. My hotel charges for internet, so technically it is available, but since I think it’s a disgrace for such a nice hotel to charge for something as basic as internet connectivity, I absolutely refuse to pay for it. It’s a good thing I can tether my phone to my computer, right? I feel so smart every time I connect. Still, that connection isn’t really fast enough to transmit large files, so I’ll wait until I get home.

Stupid hackers!

The Gawker Media blogs are back up. Word on the street – and by on the street, I mean Gawker – is that hackers trying to block access to Consumerist (which isn’t even a Gawker Media blog anymore, but is still hosted on the company’s servers) effectively prevented people from accessing anything. Although I missed checking these sites while I was at work yesterday, I feel even worse for the many Gawker Media bloggers, who I believe still get paid on a page view model. This cannot be good for them. Bummer all around.

Sounds like some shady company is trying to prevent people from learning of their suckitude.

So…Mohegan Sun

First, let me start by saying that I generally like casinos. I don’t gamble much; $20 is usually the most I’ll spend in a casino, and I try to stop if I’m up even a little. But I think that casinos make for fun people-watching, and try really hard to make you not want to leave. This was not the experience that I had at Mohegan Sun. The arena was awesome, although I am still mystified that I ended up in the second-to-last row, since I got my ticket in a presale. It was non-smoking, which was great, and a huge difference from the rest of the casino. That place was nasty! Ugh. It smelled terrible, and even though there were supposed to be designated smoking areas, people lit up everywhere except for the food court and the non-smoking gaming area. Even at the food court, you could not completely escape the stench of other people’s cigarettes. Aside from the four hours that I spent in the arena, I was only at Mohegan Sun for another hour, yet when I left, I smelled like an ashtray. It was gross. I had to air out my clothes overnight.

I find the Atlantic City casinos to be vastly superior in their regulation of where people can smoke. I don’t feel as nasty when I leave the casinos there. I can’t remember enough about Vegas casinos to say whether they were smoky, but I don’t remember feeling nauseated by them.

My feelings about Mohegan Sun were definitely tied into the fact that I’m a non-smoker with little to no interest in gambling. I think that if I smoked, or if I were more used to being around cigarette smoke, I would have noticed or minded less how bad I ended up smelling. Or, if I was used to gambling, I’d probably be more accustomed to smelling smoke.

A day without Gawker

I visit various Gawker Media blogs multiple times during the day on weekdays, and usually at least once every weekend. This morning, upon starting my workday, I fired up my personal and work email accounts, the interlibrary loans window, Metafilter, Jezebel, and Gawker.  Those last two didn’t work. I gave it ten minutes, and tried again. Same deal. I googled Jezebel.com and saw the beginning of a post  from yesterday that mentioned technical difficulties. So I waited a couple of hours, and checked again. Still not working. I remember that this once happened before and I was able to find a backdoor link to Gawker, but that’s been years and now I don’t remember how I found that link (possibly Jossip, but since that site is now dead, that’s no help to me).

It’s kind of sad how much I missed these blogs. It’s not just the gossip or the ridiculous content; I actually like the people who post on threads and appreciate learning about things I would otherwise not know.

Right now it is 3 pm EDT, and these web sites, as well as Lifehacker and Gizmodo, are still not working. I never realized how much time I spent checking these blogs until I couldn’t look at them.

Bummer.