soapbox

Apparently, right before Christmas, the TSA will implement new rules regarding what’s safe to take on the airplane with you.

The responses from the politcal types were really classy, particular the bit from Rep. Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts, about how they “should not make it easier for future Mohamed Attas to arm themselves with razor-sharp objects and bring down a passenger plane.” I really wish they’d educate our fearless leaders a little better about such things; I’m pretty darned sure that with any array of non-sharp, less-than-inch-long tools and the fire extinguishing and food service equipment on the plane, that any half-ass committed and properly trained terrorist type could still pose a hell of a threat.

It suffices to say that the scissors ain’t the problem. Anyways, I thought the new info might be useful to all of us.

Everybody should check their mailbox for the newest issue of Vox. You might recognize the guys on the front. Way to go! It’s like they’re famous now or something.

Okay, so this won’t translate, but trust me it’s a good story: I was just driving home from the lab and parked along the green were two cop cars, pulled off side-to-side facing opposite directions, just like a speed trap on the freeway. Anyway, as I’m watching them (not much else going on, though the undergrads seem to be enjoying the end of classes) one of them hands a package through the window to the other cop. I have no idea what it was, but I really think it was a box of donuts. Maybe I just want it to be. dunno.

The point is that it was just a moment of pure perfection. They had captured the Platonic ideal of the po-po. I have a bunch of friends who are cops, and honestly they don’t eat many donuts, but the stereotype still persists and it was fun to see in action.