The Travails of The TSA

At this present moment, one can honestly say that members of Al qaeda would get more love from the American people – at least those who are frequent fliers - than those who are employed by the Transportation Security Administration (hereinafter the TSA). We have seen all the stories and disturbing images of little boys and girls being groped for the benefit of securing air transport and maintaining the peace of the friendly skies. But these are the times we are living in and these drastic and intrusive methods are what are needed to combat an enemy that will keep attacking. When I first came to this country as a boy, I would ponder how drugs made their way inside our prisons; yet, I know that this was a reality. My father, the police officer, explained to me the disgusting ways, one of which includes hiding drugs in orifices to feed the addict’s addiction - I mentioned this to underscore the  parallels of the terrorists’ resolve to carry out their perverted cause.  

No one I know believes that there is some perverted thrill that those who engage in these searches receive – they are simply doing their jobs until we can come up with a better solution to thwart the terrorists. It is easy to lose our resolve and become complacent; but do not forget how far these murderers would go to harm innocents. It was just over a couple years ago when a terrorist mother was willing to take her newly born child on a flight… filling the baby bottle, not with formula, but a liquid to ignite and bring the plane down over the Atlantic Ocean – this is what we are up again. Something also tells me that the authorities must know… that we are not privy to and that is why so far, notwithstanding the outcries, that the TSA is maintaining its resolve in carrying out these intrusive searches.

Politics have also intervened in the fight against terror. Case in point, when the former President Bush was fighting terror… by having the phone calls going to and from terrorist enclaves monitored, the biased media were up in arms… invoking Constitutional privacy rights, but now they are loudly quiet – I wonder if it is because there is a Democratic President at the helm? That is the danger of politicizing the fight against terrorism… I supported President Bush then and I wholeheartedly support President Obama now in our tireless efforts to combat and destroy the terrorist network.

I have seen an elderly gentleman who peed his pants due to an invasive search; I have seen the breast cancer survivor who had to surrender her prosthesis momentarily; and I have seen the little girls/boys being subjected to searches – that if these searches were not under the color of law, that the ones doing the searches would be brought up on pedophilia charges – but again, these are the times we are living in. Of course, we could also adopt the Israeli method of screening would-be passengers, but this would mean we would have to overcome the malignant cancer of political correctness that directly resulted in the killing of thirteen soldiers down at Fort Hood.  

There Is A Case Sometimes For Pre-emptive War

No policy undertaken by the past Bush Administration has caused more angst among the various pundits and public alike than “Preemptive War.” This concept is maligned because it is looked upon as the catalyst that got the United States involved in the unpopular Iraq war, and moreover, because it is a policy championed by the so called Neo-Cons, part of President Bush’s cabal who are now out of favor in Washington.

Notwithstanding the advocates of pre-emption, there is merit sometimes in employing such a policy in our Geo-Policies, all in all to serve the greater and long time good. We all need not do have walked the hollowed halls of Ivy League academia to have expertise in geo-politics like Bismarck, Richelieu, Churchill, or Kissinger, to understand pre-emption. In our everyday lives, we practice pre-emption: we exercise to prevent obesity, which could lead to Heart problems and other ailments; we visit our doctors periodically to make sure that we are healthy; we take vitamins to help fight off maladies; and we save our monies for a so called rainy day - all this we do to pre-empt something bad happening in our future.

Countries are like human beings who practice pre-emption… only that they do so for the collective. With that said, there are many countries which are justified to employ the strategy of pre-emptive war. How many times have we heard the vitriol coming out of Iran on how it wants to bring about the utter destruction of Israel - should the Israelis wait until Iran developed Nuclear weapons and are nuked… before they protect themselves by carrying out a preemptive strike? During the morning of May 04 2009, General David Petraeus, thinking of the merits pre-emption, warned the Pakistani government that it has two weeks to confront the Taliban; the fear then was that the Taliban was going to soon have access to the fifty or so nuclear weapons because there were Taliban sympathizers in the Pakistani army - Again, should we have waited until this occurred?

What should India do if these weapons end up in the hands of the Taliban, knowing the bloody history of wars between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir? Tonight, before I go to bed, I too will engage in some pre-emption of my own by brushing my teeth - my goal is to prevent bad breath, tooth decay, and gingivitis… what of countries facing nuclear annihilation with enemies who think their rewards are in Paradise… rooted in  perverse eschatological ideals?

Poor, poor, Conan O'brien

   I deliberately chose not to blog about the late night hosts wars that were raging months ago because what would have been the fun in doing so when everyone was giving their take and taking sides. With tempers cooled, due mostly to the new news circles, I have the latitude to give my take, and perhaps, from a different perspective. What I saw and heard from the many voices… including one of the principals involved, was how Jay Leno was being selfish and that he reneged on his promise to walk away and turn over the hosting to the new guard, Conan O’brien. I even saw Conan bitching on the program “Sixty Minutes” about how he was dealt a raw deal; poor Conan had to walk away from NBC with some 40 million dollars for his troubles.

    No one mentioned that, here we had two white guys (and a third, Letterman, taking sides) arguing over literal millions and griping about how terrible the situation was. With all due respect to Conan, this is a business driven by ratings…and are you telling me that NBC, out of much love for Leno and hatred for Conan, chose the former, absent the cold calculus of ratings…and moreover, giving Conan 40 million to walk away? What is it that I am missing? Why throw Conan under the bus when he is much younger than Jay Leno, and supposedly, can draw the very demos that the advertisers are coveting. The logical truth must be that Jay Leno was tracking better ratings, even among the coveted demos than Conan… resulting in the unceremoniously ending of the Conan O’brien show.

    All three late night hosts are funny in their own way, but their vocations underscore the lack of diversity in that genre. It is always funny to hear these Hollywood denizens opined on the popular issues…save for, of course, equality in the lucrative real estate of entertainment. It is true that one cannot legislate matters of the people’s choice for entertainment, but the interest of “fairness” became an issue among the three white late night hosts… when it really had to do with business. I mean that is what they tell most of the minorities who are seeking work in Hollywood. We feel your pain but the audience is just not there to develop a show around you or that theme, etc. But a late night host can walk away with some forty million and the sky was falling for him-what a life….

    You may want to know why is it that I left George Lopez (a minority) out of the mix - I did so because his show is but a suckling… of course, the grating irony is that this same poor Conan O’brien is now the lead in show for Lopez’s. This is what it must be like to become accustomed to heaven - incidentally, does anyone know the whereabouts of Arsenio Hall? 

Verily Prime

The United States Military Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

There are those who are gay or those who are well read will tell you that great military strategists, including Alexander The Great, were gay. Whether those who are gay readily provide this information to validate their lifestyle is of no consequence on the protracted debate we are now having on whether gays should openly serve in the United States military. It may be laughable to prevent someone who is willing to pay the ultimate price from serving his or her country over their personal lifestyle choice, but that is the reality. Perhaps, it is prudent to hear from someone like myself who is a heterosexual and who have served in the military - my take on the issue might be akin to many who have served and are now serving… and this is maybe the reason for the drawn out debate on the Army’s policy of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’

When I served in the Army in Germany, I was assigned to the Mechanize Infantry and at least three times a year, we had to go to the German forest for two long months of training. We would sleep in pup tents, two men assigned to said tent… with seldom any room, but for the sleeping bags, lighting, and your M-16 weapon. Now, that I have set this up, imagine my pup tent buddy being openly gay… think of the ribbing, think of the angst, that I would have to endure... even though it may be borne out of ignorance, it is still will be there - this is the culture that is causing the protracted debate and reluctance to do away with the United States Military policy of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ 

Close to a decade ago, I recalled reading where the Navy implemented a new experimental rule of having females station on the submarines - I am told that over half of the women were soon pregnant, shortly thereafter. No, I am not saying that those who are not gay and are in the pup tent with someone who is gay will be tempted to switch sides, but the former will start thinking and mistaking gestures, etc, from the latter… and this will cause consternation in the ranks. Let me be honest, I have a daughter and when she is of age and if she decides to join the Armed Forces, I will not want her to be in an infantry setting… like how I was… sharing a pup tent with a man.  

Is this fair to our gay brothers and sisters who want to serve their country- No! But that is the reality of the situation… void of logic and probably runs afoul of our Constitutional principles. I have always found it ironic that it was a Democrat President (Clinton) who enacted what is to many Liberals… so an egregious a policy to personal liberty. My take on this issue might be moot for now… in light of the seismic changes brought about by the recent Mid-Term Elections, where both houses of the legislative power in Washington, D.C. may leave the U.S. military policy of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ as is.  

The Growing Clarion Cries Of Wolves

It is a well known story we are privy to – The Boy Who Cried Wolf - imparted to us… with the underlying lesson to be had that we must be certain when there is indeed danger. I have read snippets of Newsweek Magazine articles, which says we have overreacted to the tragedy of 911; I have recently seen and read articles in the New York Times, which have relegated those of us who opposed the Ground Zero mosque as being Islamaphobes, bigots, or intolerant – it has even been mentioned here on this site; if you oppose gay marriage, you are now a bigot; and if you speak out against President Obama due to your misgivings about some of his policies, even if you voted for him, or is a registered Democrat, you are now called a racist - though, in this latter case, this is done more subtly.

All these types of spurious cries of seeing wolves are becoming part and parcel of our discourse for those who speak in absolutes… maybe because it is becoming a lucrative cottage industry. Indeed, there are those who are Islamaphobes, bigots, and who are intolerant… who doesn’t want the mosque to be erected - but everyone? And if we oppose gay marriage, we are now bigots… when many of our traditional Christian tenets proscribed that behavior? Another aspect of this phenomenon is that Blacks only make up about 17% of the general population, which means that many whites, many of whom are Independents and Republicans, must have voted for President Obama – so if some of them are criticizing the President now are racists?  

Many of us who are crying wolf cannot see the trees for the forest. Let us take the recent mosque debates… many who opposed it do so is out of respect for those who lost loved one on that tragic day… and it may not be rationale, but there it is. It is no different than when I may want to use colorful language, but because I see my brother or sister with his or her children… I refrain from doing so. In essence, many of us have refused to engage in certain conversations or rights that are within our Constitutional right, but we fore go them because doing so would have offended some of our brothers and sisters.

Take for example: if I know that there are those who are trying their best to diet, and I knew about it, I wouldn’t bring out the juicy burger just to entice them… causing them to falter; If I am having an ecumenical get-together, I would not serve my Muslim brothers or sisters Polk nor would I even have it in close proximity… so not to offend them, even though I myself might be fond of swine. All these actions many of us might refrain from… though they are our Constitutional right to do so. The spurious and bogus cries of all these wolves are just what they are – the clarion tyranny of the minority.   

The Secular Messiah Is Crucified Due Mostly To His Arrogance

Some two years to go, we saw and witnessed the epochal history and the beauty about America… in that the loftiest of dreams can be had and are possible with the election to the Presidency of these United States, President Obama. Many of us, whether you support President Obama or not, were happy, if not fully embracing his political ideology… respecting the import of the historical moment of his ascendancy. Many of us though got carried away with Obama’s Presidency by comparing him literally to the Christ (Jesse Jackson Junior) due mostly to Obama’s empty eloquent rhetoric. I do not know when I started calling President Obama the ‘secular messiah,’ (see old the blogs from Verily Prime) and though I wished I had coined that phrase, it was an apt description of the man.

I recalled when President Obama won – in a fit of petulant arrogance… unbecoming of the office – Obama said to Eric Cantor that only he was preventing the proverbial villagers with their brooms/pitch folks from burning Cantor and the Republicans in a pyre. In addition, Rahm Emanuel told many Republicans that he would ‘take it easy’ on them during the Mid-term Elections – apparently, Rahm was looking through a flawed crystal ball owned by Miss Cleo. All these incidents earned the President Obama ‘the secular messiah’ mantle – and even yesterday, President Obama, with the Republican landslide House victory, was still ambivalent about the message that was sent to him.

Once again, President Obama can save his presidency from the comparison to that of the god-awful Carter Presidency, but he must emulate President Reagan and Clinton who salvaged their respective presidencies by abandoning the loons on the far, far left. President Obama must bear in mind that we no longer want to hear it was Bush’s faults, because said faults are why he was elected. There are those out there are saying that it is racism why President Obama’s policies are being rejected… forgetting that many Whites put him in office. Take a look in the mirror, President Obama… this is a lesson that should have been learned when Democrats lost Ted Kennedy’s seat… and hopefully now, it will sink in now. Long time ago, for me, President Obama’s speeches came off like partaking in Chinese food: eloquent, but empty; give us substance for the jobs promised to be manifested.  

Take heart President Obama, the real Messiah came into Jerusalem on the back of an ass and was greeted with palm trees and throngs shouting, “Hosanna in the highest…” and was crucified three days later before He took the keys to life and death and walked out the grave.

-Verily Prime