Sorry for the delay
Sorry for the delay folks, I have been away from the internet for a few days. Up painting my sister’s dining room, cleaning her pool, and doing a few other random chores. Her pool was interesting as it was the first opportunity I have had to use my SCUBA gear in awhile. It is more fun scraping algae off the sides and bottom while underwater.
I awoke earlier this week and thought to myself, “Well, self, I guess it is time to turn NPR on and see what abomination we have done to ourselves today.” And sure enough, several “quiet, peaceful” folks in England had been arrested after deciding to blow up a bunch of airplanes filled with their fellow Great Brittan’s, and assorted tourists. Luckily for all concerned they were arrested beforehand instead of in a sweep afterwards.
I had a request to address this issue and how it may affect us. Frankly, except for the vast inconvenience to be experienced by flyers, it probably won’t. The system worked just the way it is supposed to work. Intel services in Pakistan and G.B. worked together after an arrest in PK triggered some alarms, interrogations were done and information was gathered leading to the detention of a bunch of suspects who were “allegedly” plotting evil deeds. It is good to see things work right.
Is it now safe to fly? Yes. Frankly it is safer today than it was last week because these fools are out of the system. Is it vastly annoying to fly? Yes and it will be so for awhile. Especially if you are going through London where you cannot take any carry on luggage at all. I would HATE being stuck on a trans-Atlantic flight without even a book. But that is what it looks like folks are stuck with for awhile. Here in the US we merely can’t carry liquids or gels on the plane. So no more taking a bottle of soda with you on the plane, you have to depend on the airline for that half a can of whatever.
Now there are a few people out there who will mutter and cry that this whole thing is a diversion to distract attention form some other event. I doubt it. There are whole groups of people who examine things like this for what if scenarios. But for most of us if we start down that road pretty soon we end up with a Sicilian assassin talking to a pirate about who knows what concerning Iocane powder. And down that road lies confusion and madness.
On other fronts, the Israeli Government is secretly celebrating that the UN finally got around to giving them an acceptable out to the Lebanese Tar Baby. All their talk of expanded land offensives was a pressure tool to get people moving faster. They did not want to get further involved. Hezbollah is equally happy because while they have been getting great headlines they have also been getting their asses kicked. They will be happy to get back to muttering dire threats without having to worry about bombs and artillery. The sad thing though is that this won’t solve anything. There is nothing in the UN agreement (and it would be ignored if there was) disarming Hezbollah. And as long as there is a militia force sitting near Israel with the stated intention of destroying said nation, then it is a foregone conclusion that there will be a repeat of the past month. It is just a matter of when. Next time it will be worse too because Hezbollah will be even more cocky and confident in it’s ability and the Israelis will not be going for a limited force air strike option. They will go full out crush, kill, and destroy. Lebanon is pretty much screwed unless its government (which includes Hezbollah) can find a way to rein Hezbollah in. And that won’t be easy.
I awoke earlier this week and thought to myself, “Well, self, I guess it is time to turn NPR on and see what abomination we have done to ourselves today.” And sure enough, several “quiet, peaceful” folks in England had been arrested after deciding to blow up a bunch of airplanes filled with their fellow Great Brittan’s, and assorted tourists. Luckily for all concerned they were arrested beforehand instead of in a sweep afterwards.
I had a request to address this issue and how it may affect us. Frankly, except for the vast inconvenience to be experienced by flyers, it probably won’t. The system worked just the way it is supposed to work. Intel services in Pakistan and G.B. worked together after an arrest in PK triggered some alarms, interrogations were done and information was gathered leading to the detention of a bunch of suspects who were “allegedly” plotting evil deeds. It is good to see things work right.
Is it now safe to fly? Yes. Frankly it is safer today than it was last week because these fools are out of the system. Is it vastly annoying to fly? Yes and it will be so for awhile. Especially if you are going through London where you cannot take any carry on luggage at all. I would HATE being stuck on a trans-Atlantic flight without even a book. But that is what it looks like folks are stuck with for awhile. Here in the US we merely can’t carry liquids or gels on the plane. So no more taking a bottle of soda with you on the plane, you have to depend on the airline for that half a can of whatever.
Now there are a few people out there who will mutter and cry that this whole thing is a diversion to distract attention form some other event. I doubt it. There are whole groups of people who examine things like this for what if scenarios. But for most of us if we start down that road pretty soon we end up with a Sicilian assassin talking to a pirate about who knows what concerning Iocane powder. And down that road lies confusion and madness.
On other fronts, the Israeli Government is secretly celebrating that the UN finally got around to giving them an acceptable out to the Lebanese Tar Baby. All their talk of expanded land offensives was a pressure tool to get people moving faster. They did not want to get further involved. Hezbollah is equally happy because while they have been getting great headlines they have also been getting their asses kicked. They will be happy to get back to muttering dire threats without having to worry about bombs and artillery. The sad thing though is that this won’t solve anything. There is nothing in the UN agreement (and it would be ignored if there was) disarming Hezbollah. And as long as there is a militia force sitting near Israel with the stated intention of destroying said nation, then it is a foregone conclusion that there will be a repeat of the past month. It is just a matter of when. Next time it will be worse too because Hezbollah will be even more cocky and confident in it’s ability and the Israelis will not be going for a limited force air strike option. They will go full out crush, kill, and destroy. Lebanon is pretty much screwed unless its government (which includes Hezbollah) can find a way to rein Hezbollah in. And that won’t be easy.
posted by exMI | 05:02
2 Comments:
I suppose in the world we live in being inconvenienced by not being able to carry anything onto a plane is a small price to pay for safety.
Its sad that the world has come to this. And how much worse will it all get?
The biggest hassle was being re-routed twice to makeup connections since planes were delayed due to security checks. Though I did have to argue to take some pound cake on the flight.
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