Knowing how to solder does not make you a terrorist.

First off, I fucking hate the TSA. Americans, a group among which I do not count myself, have a constitutionally granted right to freedom of movement. The fucking TSA are stamping on the neck of that right. I just read this article on how a college student was nearly killed by the TSA. Any time a gun is drawn on you, you are nearly dead. All it takes is a little twitch, and BAM... No more hanging with your friends, no more playing with your pet, no more sex(yes, all three of those can, but probably shouldn't happen con-currently), no more anything. Why? Because you had a fancy name tag with lights on it. That's it, that's all it takes for some fuckwit, moron security agent to snuff out everything you ever were, are, or could become.

OMG!!! I can see wires, it must be a bomb.

Disclaimers: I do not fly. I will never fly, commercially that is. I have ideas about air travel which I will post later, if the fires of righteous indignation do not burn them out of me, or if I don't forget. I do solder. Poorly, mostly thanks to my 30 year old craftsman beast of a soldering gun, that, and my general ineptitude. Anyone wanna send me $80 for a nice, digital, temperature controlled, radio shack piece of shit which will likely fall apart in a year? I will not quote that fucking Ben Franklin quote. I'm sick and tired of hearing it, and seeing that people just don't give a shit.

This article is not what set me off on this little rant. The fact that it seems to be the rule rather than the exception, is what set me off. This, this, this, and dozens of similar items are what set me off. This one in particular got to me, mainly because I just cashed in a coffee can full of change for almost $200. Yes, I'm a cheap-ass, penny-pinching, hyphenated-bastard, but a million in loose change is still a million-fucking-dollars.

This is not a bomb. This is batteries and a fucking thermos.

Security. Oh, how I hate that word. There is no such thing as secure. Period. Unless you are god, and you are not, no matter how highly you think of yourself. There is no way to account for every single contigency, and trying to just makes you look more the fool. This Schneier guy has some pretty good articles about security. I like the one about Real vs Percieved security.

You're only going to get this reference if you watch to many fucking cartoons.

I work property management, and have to deal with "security" every day. For me security is a guy named Robert who drives around a bit, and locks the gates at night. That, and a bunch of cheap ass surveillance cameras around the swimming pools(cameras which rarely get checked, btw). Except, we can't refer to Robert as "security", we have to call him "patrol". Why do we have to call him that? Because our fucking lawyers told us too. See, having a security service appearently makes people feel secure, while having a patrol service only makes them feel patrolled. I know how I want to feel.

Keep it simple, stupid.

I do take basic "security" precautions at home, but I don't go overboard. I understand that I'm only human, and can't control everything.

Go outside, right now. No wait, finish reading this, and go out at night when the sky is clear. Lie on your back, and stare at the sky for ten minutes. Still feel like you can control everything?

My god, it's full of stars.

Take sensible, and resonable precautions. Am I the only one that understands this. Smoke detectors, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, and a modest "security" system (shout out to ZoneMinder) which I built myself, mainly just for the hell of it. I've mentioned this before, but I have way too much free time. I know some of you may think the security system may be overkill, but I do work property management after all, and not everyone likes me(boo hoo). A couple of highly visible cameras to keep a brick out of my window seems reasonable enough to me. Yes, bricks have been thrown through employees' windows before.

Find a problem, implement a simple, convienient solution. Easy, huh? Appearently not if you're the American government.

Harrasing millions of innocent travelers, arresting them, beating them, robbing them, killing them, that's not convienent, that's not reasonable. That's all I'm saying.

Give me convience or give me death. βeta, out.