You’ll recall that last week, Our fearless Rulers held a flight for 90 minutes while summoning the FBI, cops, and “an explosive detection canine”—all because tourists aboard carried luggage with the “logo of a travel agency appearing similar to ISIS insignia.”
Well. Chris Durkin not only reads LRC, he’s as patriotic a serf as I. He therefore alerted me to a company out there that calls itself ISIS, and I duly publicize this obvious terrorist-wannabe per the ubiquitous advice, “See Something, Say Something.” Chris’ ISIS ought to know better, too: it exploits the “security” scam, or, as its homepage intones, it “provid[es] international security and intelligence services.” (For an extra hoot, catch the revolving montage’s shot of the old coots in suits with black bands obscuring their eyes, as if anything worse than 20 extra pounds menaces them.) At any rate, I hereby warn the TSA that another ISIS is on the loose. Let’s hope the agency’s crack ISIS-fighters can work with the NSA’s crack eavesdroppers to monitor these International Security and Intelligence Servants. That way, when said Servants next show up at an airport clutching their ISIS-emblazoned bags, the FBI, cops, and explosive detection canines will already be standing by. Yes, yes, I know, all you grateful passengers: Chris and I have probably shaved 15 or 20 minutes off the hour and a half this nonsense will delay your flight. You can show your appreciation by purchasing my two novels, Halestorm and Abducting Arnold. Both describe the actual perils our ancestors confronted as they fought for freedom, versus the faux ones the corporate police-state dreams up.
Second, the USSA has no monopoly on wusses: way too many curse Australia as well. We might suppose a country renowned for its outback, Crocodile Dundee and beer-guzzling mates is drowning in he-men, but alas, it’s as craven as ours. Rick B. sends this story about “a Melbourne man [who] was hauled off a Tiger Airways flight by federal police on Saturday after claims he was seen doodling and writing sentences in a notebook satirising the current terrorism threat.” A satirist, huh? No wonder the Aussie Warriors on Decency-sorry, Terror trembled in their jackboots. Satirists endanger them almost as badly as the truth does.
And finally, David Martin, a.k.a., DC Dave, contributes this poetic commentary on Amerika’s tragic state:
“O say does that star-spangled
Banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free
And the home of the brave?”
The question’s still a good one
But these days you have to wonder
Not about the symbol over
But the people under.
And Down Under, too.
8:38 am on September 22, 2014
