Clueless Travelers

Tuesday we flew home from a conference in Las Vegas. Curbside check-in was a breeze and only a few minutes later our IDs had been checked and we were in the process of going through the security check. (I'd like to point out that the TSA folks were exceptionally courteous and efficient - a rare combination.) I politely invited a lady to move ahead of me in the line since Lourie was behind her, thus allowing us to stay together. Boy, was that a mistake! Despite the fact that she had on NO excessive accessories (large belt, jewelry, etc) that needed to be put through x-ray, had no laptop or other large electronic device that needed to be removed from her luggage and was wearing slip-on shoes she was the SLOWEST person I have seen in the security line in ages. As she removed each shoe it was given a careful examination with commentary on the flaws she discovered along with lamentations over the lack of quality in their construction. This was all done while standing in one spot - heaven forbid we slide our belongings towards the X-ray machine in the process and make some degree of progress! Then she had to remove her hat (with even more commentary) and finally made it through the metal detector. In the epoch that it took her to remove two shoes and a hat I removed my laptop and placed it in a bin, put my wallet and Blackberry in my bag, removed my shoes (cross-trainers, not slip-ons) and had everything on the belt, ready to pass through x-ray. I was reasonably confident that by the time I passed through the metal detector she would have slipped on her shoes, plopped on her hat, grabbed her suitcase and gone on about her business. WRONG. She was standing with her suitcase blocking the exit from the X-ray machine, slowly collecting her shoes and hat, then carefully putting them back on. I grabbed my bag, laptop and shoes and moved around her to the "dressing" area. I was re/un-packed with shoes tied by the time she managed to sashay past. Despite all the written and verbal instruction provided by TSA this poor lady was so clueless that it must certainly be painful! I'm certain that if they had an "experienced traveler" line she would have made that choice.

Children's Movie Warning!

I received this in email the other day.  It represents precisely what I consider the lobotomization of society.  Don’t bother to actually educate yourself on the topic, merely regurgitate whatever other people tell you. 

Subject: children’s movie warning Be prepared for this one:Received the followed post from another loop. This is  important since the marketing for this movie has already started. It looks a lot like “Narnia” but is so far from it. BEWARE! There will be a new Children’s movie out in December called THE GOLDEN COMPASS. It is written by Phillip Pullman, a proud athiest who belongs to secular humanist societies. He hates C. S. Lewis’s Chronical’s of Narnia and has written a trilogy to show the other side. The movie has been dumbed down to fool kids and their parents in the hope that they will buy his trilogy where in the end the children kill God and everyone can do as they please. Nicole Kidman stars in the movie so it will probably be advertised a lot.This is just a friendly warning that you sure won’t hear on the regular TV.Pullman, a prominent British atheist, has acknowledged that this is in fact his goal. He has claimed that “it is my goal to go after Christianity, I want God to be dead in my works. I want to undermine Christianity”

While the overall content of the message is accurate the quote at the bottom is a bit strong compared to what I’ve found attributed to Pullman.  Of course many people will make a big stink if the content isn’t strictly “biblical” in nature (you can fill a library, and many are, with books that have gathered similar criticism over the years.)  My opinion is that knowledge and understanding can’t be achieved in a vacuum – how can you ever really understand a two-sided concept if you are only ever given one side of the story?

Does “hot” have much meaning without understanding the concept of “cold?” Frankly I never gave a moment’s thought in the first book that amounted to “hey, they aren’t very Christian here.”  It’s a work of fiction and is clearly not an accurate representation of our world.  Bears that talk that wear armor ought to be enough for most people to figure it out, but I guess others need it spelled out in simpler terms. The theme of the first book is a little girl exhibiting great courage and common sense to right a wrong that she eventually discovers is being perpetrated by her absentee father.  In the meantime she learns a lot of other things that are difficult to accept for anyone, but she deals with it.

Along the road she learns about the dangers of stereotypes and the importance of cooperation, honesty and loyalty.

Yep, a direct ticket to hell, this one is.

I can’t comment on the second book since I’ve only managed to read the first couple of chapters so far.  When I finish it I’ll certainly let you know it follows the map to spiritual demise. 

Oh, and did I mention that in the universe described by the book humans all have a little critter of some form that runs around with them?   They’re called daemons and they’re connected to their people telepathically.  Yep, that’s something you see on the street every day, surely this alone will result in the collapse of civilization as we know it!

In short, I’m sure we could find all kinds of things to object to if we wanted to distance ourselves from specific components of society.  What if we only wanted to read authors who were vegans?   The same “moral” argument could just as easily be made on that front.  Harry Potter got the same hype and negative press, people just need to get over themselves and quit trying to come across as pseudo-intellectuals.  That should be left to the pseudo-professional-pseudo-intellectuals, like yours truly.  If they haven’t even bothered to read the book I have no interest in entertaining further discussion with them.

That would be tantamount to asking  a nun or a monk for advice about sex.

No, they’re not bible stories.  Most things aren’t.

See you at the movie, I’ll be the one with the jumbo popcorn.

Hang Up and Drive!

As I was driving my son to school this morning we came to an intersection with a traffic signal, a car was stopped in our lane of traffic.

The light was green.

 The driver was chatting away on her cell phone, completely oblivious to the fact that a whole world existed outside of her vehicle.

 I gave a polite “toot” on my horn.

 No reponse.

I gave a prolonged, obnoxious blast on my horn.

She woke up, lurched forward, then stopped again.

The light had turned yellow, so obviously she had to stop and wait for a green light.

Doh!