Ok, rather than complete the last travel blog quite yet--since I don't have the bandwidth to upload pictures...time for a rant.
Budapest time right about now it is 8ish. I got to the airport there at 5am, so I've been traveling 15 hours. So far, my time expenditure:
30 minutes - European security
12 hours, 30 minutes - travel
2 hours - dealing with entering the US
Think about that. And all the US did was put me in a line to look at my passport and that I have an air ticket to actually go to the US, then...look make me use a computer system which queued me to line up to...have my passport checked and permit me to undergo TSA searching where I had to stand in line again because there's some sort of terror threat.
I understand security--in Budapest, they checked my bag, caught the chemicals in the watercolor paint my daughter accidentally left in my backpack and the vitamin paste Guenter Doil gave me. In Budapest, they actually sampled the vitamin paste to make sure it couldn't be used as plastique or anything like that. Now look at the total time from entering security to reaching the gate--30 minutes.
Here near the US, they ran my backpack through--didn't question the chemicals in the paint, didn't catch the vitamin paste--but they noticed the water bottle 1-2ml too big for regulation. Out it went. I just figured that the small water bottles provided by airlines would fall under the guidelines set by the US government. Nope. So I was given the choice of pitching it or going back to the start of the TSA process (45 minutes earlier), drinking it, and going through the line again.
God bless America.
Of course--here's the question for you to consider. How many Congressmen go through this? How many Senators? Think the TSA gives 'men in uniform' an easy way through--you betcha! And while I'm tossing out my water, an old woman in a wheelchair is searched, lights up the metal detector like she's Strontium-90, and when she says they are replacement joints, they let her go on through because she's a little old lady. Yup.
Look--I understand rules and why there's a need for security. But here's a reality--when you make exceptions for pilots, crew members, active duty servicemen, old people, etc...why have the rules? If I'm going to knock a plane out of the sky--I'm convincing a soldier to do it for me (or one of those other categories).
Oh wait--did I mention the guy on the monitor got busy talking with a friend and a couple bags went through without being looked at--hey, they didn't set off the detector, they MUST be completely safe, right?
This happened the last time I went to Europe four years ago--customs drug-dog sniffed, bomb-dog sniffed my bags, opened them, etc--after I went through German security (and I get that with customs looking for people sneaking stuff in), but then--off to the 90 minute TSA line to make sure I'm not carrying something terrorists could use. If the Germans and US customs didn't catch it, what's the chance that the fat 65yr old guy is going to?
Here's the reality--on September 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden won. That's right--he won. Americans willingly gave up their freedom due to a fear of some other massive once-in-a-lifetime event. Most Americans accept NSA snooping on their email/phone conversations, many see nothing wrong with targeted IRS audits of people who actively oppose the Patriot Act or other security measures. Americans accept the sham protection of the TSA--which continually sees things (oops) get through like knives, pepper spray, etc. And they accept it--willingly, because 9/11 couple happen again.
Think how much gets justified by that in the name of 'protecting people'--we've fought a decade in Iraq (because there 'were' WMDs...yet we don't go into N.Korea or Iran where we damned well know they have WMD....hmmmm....), we have those other restrictions, we've got colleges owning Humvees for their police, a school district (LA) owning a battering ram, and something like a 1,000% increase in the number of cities with special ops squads, snipers, etc.
This country was founded by men who believed that the greatest enemy to liberty was the government they were creating, a government being designed to try and check the slide into authoritarianism and centralized power that history shows happens to every other republic at some point. They despised centralized power, they despised the idea of the government restricting liberties--life, liberty, pursuit of happiness--the three inalienable rights. See security mentioned? Nope. See 'paternalism' or 'central government' mentioned--nope. Liberty. And because too many people choose to be happy with Netflix or whatever--the slide continues.
I love the United States--it is the greatest country in the world, and the ideal that the Founding Fathers created is nobility in the highest. But traveling? It shows you the gross incompetence of the government, the centralization of power, and the stifling effects of bureaucracy on the greatness of America.
Want to take on China? Want to stay ahead of everyone? Get Washington DC out of regulations and bureaucracy. Agitate for ending gerrymandered districts, agitate, agitate, constantly agitate.
Rant over.
PS. Just to make sure this gets read by the right people: bomb, terror plot, Allah Akhbar, anthrax, poison, code, bin Laden, Allah....hope the gov't pension is worth it to sit there, read this, and do nothing about being part of oppression.
(Guess the rant wasn't over)
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