Saturday 30 October 2010

yemeni crickets or sheiks on a plane

Although the message that these thwarted terror attacks is clear forboding for bogeymen of all sorts and a bit of erstwhile rallying for the American mid-term elections, it strikes me as suspect that such ink-jet fireworks were uncovered just days after the European aviation authorities expressed their indignation, led by Great Britian, wanting to put an end to the unnecessary kow-towing to US air travel rules, especially the ones that they have not yet applied to their own domestic flights.  While there are certainly forces out there that might restore to deguising a bomb as a printer cartridge--I like the French word, cartouche, much better as it makes me think of all the Ramesse and King Tut exhibitions that I have visited and the gift shops there offered to render one's name in phonetic hieroglyphs (in a pharonic cartouche) and  I would like to see graffiti in ancient Egyptian: Monkey, Eagle, Cat, All-Seeing Eye--it smacks too familar, like besmirching one's carry-on's, belt, underpants, essential fluids, and finally one's dignity.  While thousands more are deputized in the name of safety and security and more extensive and far-reaching bad-touches are offered as alternatives to naked body scans, passengers must realize that if for one second one was considered any less thorough than the other or any risk was present, no choice would be given, no passage offered.  US rules of engagement are merely innuring factors, performed by agents ignorant of their psychological and numbing effects.  Nothing negates determination as highly as the chance dissuasion, and disillusionment can be counter-acted through more direct means.