Daylight Saving Time

Original image from Primer Magazine

Simply put, we need to, as an entire nation, do away with Daylight Saving. While I understand it’s original purpose and it does allow summer nights to stay light past 8pm, the myriad of steps to go through the changes – even those that are automated – are too much. Settings on each device, phone and computer have updated without issue MOST of the time [alarms on an iPhone are this year's "ooops" moment]. In this day and age with modern electronics, and with all of the software algorithms and settings, it’s a lot to keep on top of.

Arizona and Hawaii seem to go on without the twice yearly change and I certainly think it’s time we did away with it.

Proactive, not Reactive

I was reading about an upcoming change at all US airports on Monday (that’s tomorrow) that bans all ink and toner printer cartridges. Let’s see… where have I seen these actions before…. hmmmm…..

Oh I remember. A shoe bomber gets on a plane and now we all have to remove our shoes and have them scanned. A London terrorist plot is failed due to liquid explosives and now we can only take 3 oz liquid containers that all fit into a quart size Ziplock bag. Not to mention nail clippers [which are now allowed], box cutters, screwdrivers and anything else that some bad guy used on a plane. All banned.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all about being protected and I certainly understand not wanting to enable the copycats that want their fame and recognition. But can’t we find a way to be more proactive about this? I mean, we’ve got some smart people out there that could find better and easier ways to offer protection for those of us that are just trying to get from one place to another without having to feel like we should have left everything but a t-shirt, jeans and boxers at home. I think enough of us are just wanting to see some smart decisions made, not just “another item on the banned list” memo because of recent acts. Then maybe the TSA will be taken a lot more seriously when it comes to airport security and safety.

GOP In The House

Original image found over on True News From ChangeNYC.org

So last week was election day. And the House side of Congress has now shifted to a Republican majority. The Tea Party cheered this victory. So what can we except? What should we expect?

From what history has told us about what we can expect, big business will continue to get bigger. Their tax cuts will continue to increase, yet job creation will be minimal. Mostly still being blamed on the economy. Wall Street and the banking industry will find themselves with less restrictions on how they can make money. Tax cuts for those that only know how to count in billions will make their comeback. And the stock market will get cautious and see it’s 40% percent climb in the last 23 months revert to a downward slide.

What should we expect? Big businesses should be using their extended tax cuts to hire more people, filling the jobs that they cut during the bad parts of the economy. The economy has improved, not a lot, but enough that these large corporations should be willing to beef up their staff as they make smarter decisions.

Fiscal responsibility should be the GOP’s number 1 task. But given how much money the publicly-silent Koch Brothers dumped into both winning and losing candidates – not to mention how much personal money was spent [Meg Whitman parting with some of her eBay nest egg], will this congress know how to manage the money? And how much of the payback will be to these multi-billionaires that are expecting something in return when it comes to passing bills or rolling back changes that affect their business?

I honestly would love to see this GOP-led congress make some changes. Instead of “Hate Obama” and riding the coattails of division, I want to see them turn this economy around in less than 2 years. It was one of their mantras during the campaign season, turning people against a Democratic-controlled Congress for not being able to. I say we should expect it from these guys. They were mad as hell and wanted to take their country back [err.. preferably forward]. C’mon GOP/Tea Party… prove all of us liberals wrong and you might gain some legitimate fans, not just a bunch of spelling-challenged mouth breathers to put you in office.

New Rules

It seems that every time someone decides to pull an act of religious extremism or wants to make their agenda known on an airplane, TSA reacts by adding new rules to follow. A shoe bomber hops a plane? Now we have to take our shoes off when going through security. Using liquid explosives? Now we can’t carry on more than a single bag of 3 oz. containers.

Reactive. It’s after the fact. Things are banned after they are discovered, which makes it seem more like grade school than technical intelligence.

What I want to see is proactive. You know. Where instead of waiting for each and every little act that these wackos do next, we find and implement a solution that will provide the best level of safety without forcing all of us travelers to change what we do and what we can or can’t take with us on the plane after each incident.

And what do you know… they have something like that. It’s called a full body scanner.

Ok, it’s not like what was in the movie “Total Recall”… at least not yet.

This is more like what we have.

This is what airport security should be using.

But My Privacy

But it seems there are a lot of people that don’t want the full body scanner for fear their privacy is being taken away. One such person is U.S. Rep Jason Chaffetz-R [pronounced Shove-its]. He created a TSA incident at Salt Lake International not too long ago, which prompted an investigation. And this is a guy who wants smaller government.

He felt violated by being asked to go through the full body scanner. And being frisked and felt up in the name of security is not? Please. Sure, some naughty bits can show up. That can be embarrassing. But having someone go through each and every intimate article of clothing is just as embarrassing, even more so. Nothing like someone physically fondling your thong panties or seeing your leather banana hammock in your suitcase to make you comfortable. At least with the scanner, it’s a quick view. If you are hiding something under your scrotum, you are going to get pulled. Otherwise, enjoy your flight.

Simply put, I would much rather have something that can catch most things before they happen then be subjected to constant changing rules that not only impact the travel of law-abiding individuals, but are a drain to the industry as a whole. Before too long, we’ll have more bankrupt airlines because people are choosing another form of travel.

C’mon, USA and the rest of the world. Let’s be smart about this. Implement full body scanners. That way, we can catch the freaks and what they are packing near their taints before they get on the plane. And avoid the constant unknown and unclear rules that change every time these freaks want their 15 minutes of fame or their 72 virgins that don’t exist.