Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
— Susan Ertz
It’s one of those days that isn’t exactly rainy, but not exactly not rainy, either. Mists swirl between here and the hills. The pavement gleams. A raincoat might be a good idea during a dog walk. Or maybe not. (No unbrella, of course. People in the NorthWET don’t do umbrellas. We may own them, but when you see somebody actually using one, you know they’re foreigners.)
After a good, but semi-hectic week, I promised myself a sabbath day. I’m just now getting to the “drink wine” part. But I didn’t drive anywhere. Didn’t spend any money. Didn’t occupy myself with mindless activities. Just read a little. Relaxed. Played with the dogs. Sat in the garret room for a while, petting the cat who lives up there. And in the evening I made one of my favorite cold-weather comfort foods, chicken-cheddar soup topped with almonds.
Nice. Restful and renewing.
—–
Last week I went into information overload. There were so many things I wanted to blog about that my brain got too full organize any coherent blogitude. Sorry for the days of non-posting. But sometimes you got it and sometimes you don’t.
So many amazingly good things happened in the opposition to TSA porno-scanners and “enhanced” groping. Blogs are popping up. Michael Roberts, the bold pilot who refused both the porno-scan and the retaliatory grope-a-thon has started FedUpFlyers.org. There’s a National Opt Out Day set for the busiest travel day of the year. There are several lawsuits in the works. And (tip o’ hat to Pat) people are starting to resist — and they’re getting mega-clicks, attaboys, and promises of support.
Dozens of great articles appeared, like this one and this one. (Although I must correct the record a bit. The words attributed to me in that second piece were posted here by me, but they actually came from an anonymous frequent flyer who reads this blog. He deserves all the credit.)
We got some blunt confirmation of what TSA screeners think of us and our rights. And boy, is that making the rounds and opening some eyes. Can’t really know if the author is, as she claims, a former screener. But it rings true.
And the Boycott Flying Facebook page went in less than a week from having 20 “People who like this” to 652. Sure, that’s a small number when you consider all the millions of flyers. But the power of those little drops of water is growing — and growing fast.
—–
Alas, there was also some real sh*t in the news last week, also. The worst of it ran on LewRockwell.com and got mention in the trade press, but received scarcely a whiff of attention in the mainstream. As we long feared, microchips are soon to go into medications — right into the indifidual pills. No doubt we’ll soon hear how “good” this is for people — how it will encourage them not to forget to take their meds and so on. But in the long run, you know exactly where this will end up. Wonder how long it’ll be before the first SWAT raid on some poor slob whose transmitter reports that he’s not taking his mood-altering meds? Not to mention that nobody in Big Pharma seems to be asking just how healthy it can be for us to keep swallowing microchips.
Last week, too, financial pundits began to catch on to just how “cooked” the October jobs numbers really were — you know, the jolly good numbers that came out just before the election.
And while this thought won’t surprise anybody here, it’s nevertheless depressing when you realize that fraud and complicity with fraud are now so widespread in our institutions that they’ve become “the lifeblood of the status quo.”
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I wanted to blog all that last week, but I didn’t want to just toss it out as miscellany — especially not after tossing out a blip last Wednesday that turned out to be easily disproven. That missile story, you know. Sigh. Being wrong is an inborn hazard of rapido-blogging. It’s not the first time and probably won’t be the last time I post something that needs fact-checking. But … the good thing is, there’s usually somebody around to do exactly that. (In this case, tip o’ hat to DrillSgtK.)
On the microchips in pills: they probably won’t need a battery, because acids can provide an electrical current across two unlike electrodes (have you seen the lemon trick?)
That said, if the FDA requires that even the stickers used to label apples must be proven edible in case they’re ingested, why would these microchips not have to go through the same kind of testing?
And what happens when expose the pill bottle to an EM field?
I can understand using pill-sized sensor arrays to help with diagnosis, but putting chips in prescriptions is a whole ‘nother matter.
As for the TSA scanners: CAIR is pushing for a religious exemption for Muslims, especially women, because the scanners deprive them of their modesty. CAIR is even telling women to only allow for head-and-neck pat-downs: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/muslim-group-advises-women-wearing-hijab
This makes me wonder several things:
– Why are Muslims the only religious group I’ve heard of willing to speak out in defense of the dignity of their wives/daughters/sisters?
– If CAIR succeeds in winning a religious exemption for their women, how long before hijabs become popular among non-muslims who simply don’t want to be groped?
– I have a particular necklace that, when worn with a plain black turtleneck and matching slacks, causes random strangers on the street to stop me and ask if I’m a nun. If I wore that to the airport and discretely inquired, could I get a religious exemption as well?
Lets try to do a bit of doublethink here, shall we?
One would normally assume that the government stooges at TSA want toe airlines to prosper so their jobs would be safe.
I submit that the ones in charge see the airlines as a symbol of American prowess (commercial, technical, or military, take your pick) and hating America as they do, they deliberately cripple the airlines by driving their customers away.
When I was doing some testing for the army we would take an internal temperature and vitals monitor/transmitter. It was 1/4 the size of a nitro pill (which is about 1/8th an inch long, about 3 mm) so it was put in a pill to swallow. While gosh darn cool, you could not take it if you had abdominal surgery, ever, to include having your appendix out. So I wonder what they say about that now.
Boycott Flying on Facebook is currently up to 880 “Likers”. And it keeps going up, minute by minute! Many, many thanks to you Claire, for being one of the few MAJOR freedom writers to help promote it. The cool thing about Boycott Flying (unlike some other sites) is that most of us there are hard-core – we will NOT be trading one form of sexual assault (naked body scanning) for another (groping by TSA pervs). We’re boycotting the ENTIRE airport “experience – not just one nasty aspect of it. We want NO part of any of it, until sanity returns!
I won’t be flying again until the day I’m offered a complimentary box of frangible ammunition for my sidearm when I buy a ticket.
The one useful thing I did this weekend was get a copy of “V for Vendetta”, after my curiousity was piqued by a former posting. One of the best comic-book-to-screen conversions I’ve ever seen.
I wonder if, say, a tape head demagnetizer is enough to destroy a imbedded chip? Or maybe just wind yourself a big coil and drive it with 120VAC(like the old shop magnetizer/demagnetizer I used two jobs ago). Put the entire bottle in the coil,turn it on. Less heating than a microwave,less chance of damage to the product, more practical for things that won’t fit in the microwave. If it’s essentially the size of a grain of rice, wouldn’t it just sort of pass on through? I would image the range would be very short-a few yards,maybe. Couldn’t be a milliwatt or two transmitter that size..
Off topic: Disagree on the V for Vendetta opinion, on many levels. I re-read the (only graphic novel I own) recently, then chased it with the movie. I enjoy the movie, but as a cinematic re-interpretation it’s an almost complete failure. Not “Starship Troopers” bad, y’know, not deliberate vandalism. But not very good.
On topic: What MamaLiberty said. Freeze in the dark, airlines!
Joel, you’re just wrong, that’s all. 😉 Well, about V for Vendetta. But I’m with both you and MamaLiberty on the complementary boxes of frangible ammo for airline passengers!
Scott, glad you liked the movie. I watch it once or twice a year and never tire of it. I know a lot of people like the novel better because it’s explicitly anarchist while the movie only hints at that. But I thought the filmmakers did an excellent job of drawing sense, clarity, and focus out of the book’s messy plot.
Mark … fantastic work on Boycott Flying. I see the “likers” now number over 1,000!
“chicken-cheddar soup topped with almonds”
Recipe?
lwoots,
I wondered if somebody would ask. 🙂 Here’s the quick and easy version (the one I usually make):
In a large kettle:
* Start with 5-6 cups of water
* Add 1 cube or teaspoon of chicken bouillon
As water boils add:
* 1 small chopped onion
* 1 cup chopped celery
* 1 cup chopped carrots
* 1 cup chopped broccoli
As veggies begin to soften add:
* 1 can (12.5 oz) chicken breast meat
* 1 can (10.75 oz) Campbell’s condensed cream of chicken soup
* 1/2 cup milk
* 8 or more oz. of grated cheddar cheese or a mixture of grated cheddar and Velveeta (keep adding cheese until the soup is creamy and cheesy enough for your taste)
Continue heating briefly then serve with a topping of chopped or slivered almonds. Mmmmm, good!
Okay, I know somebody’s going to laugh at the Velveeta; but it really does make a smoother soup than cheddar alone. There’s a version that doesn’t use the canned items. But boy, when you just want a quick, tasty warmer-upper without a lot of fuss, this version is the way to go.
Thanks for asking. 🙂
This and other recipes can be found here:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/101%2b-things-to-cook-til-the-revolution/1352057
It’s good for gift-giving.
Pat — oh yeah! I shouldn’t have forgotten about that! It’s a wonderful book. And Thunder’s cover photo with the Twinkies on it always makes me laugh. Thank you for being instrumental in creating it. I can recommend that book to anybody who likes good cooking.