I’ve heard it all now, courtesy of Teh Stupid Administration:
A Texas woman who said she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane called Thursday for an apology by federal security agents and a civil rights investigation. — msnbc.com Travel News from AP
Of course, it happened at an airport in Texas. What can one expect, considering where the current Leader of the Great Free WorldTM claims residency on his hat ranch?
Link to article here.
nor is a country. The stupidity bell is tolling.
The Guardian’s Ian Traynor in Brussels has a good article on the stupidity of government bureaucracy in the current U.S. administration. To wit (or, perhaps without any wit whatsoever), the U.S. is looking for the following from European countries:
While I can’t disagree with the last, the previous, and other conditions not mentioned, are a tad draconian, perfectly in keeping with the present U.S. administration’s goal of bullying everyone into submission. Now such bullying has moved beyond their own country and Iraq to the remainder of the modern world.
I don’t envy the European nations their conundrum, but here’s a thought: Why not tell America to kiss their collective asses and go fish?
Link to the Guardian article here.
The New York Times Opinion page has an excellent article by Patrick Smith entitled ‘The Airport Security Follies’:
The changes put in place following the September 11th catastrophe have been drastic, and largely of two kinds: those practical and effective, and those irrational, wasteful and pointless. — Patrick Smith, New York Times
Link to article here.
Patrick Smith writes a weekly article for Salon.com’s Ask the Pilot series.
Can anyone be this stupid?
Need more? Go here.
It’s happening more often. The stupidity of The Greatest Country In The World is being aptly demonstrated to all comers, even those from Iceland. Here’s the latest version:
During the last twenty-four hours I have probably experienced the greatest humiliation to which I have ever been subjected. During these last twenty-four hours I have been handcuffed and chained, denied the chance to sleep, been without food and drink and been confined to a place without anyone knowing my whereabouts, imprisoned. — Eva Ósk Arnardóttir, detained by Homeland Security at JFK
Link to story here.
Apparently, the woman had a previous visa infraction involving a three-week overstay in 1995, but she had been admitted uneventfully since then.
Considering the vast number of illegals that are allowed to be in the country, and that are allowed to wander around freely, I find it surprising that someone on a holiday would be subject to such intense confinement. I would guess that an airport security check is an easy bust for Homeland Security, although I’m not certain that the ensuing publicity is doing much to cement relations with Iceland.
Perhaps her real crime was being too white.
They always get their man.
This time, they killed him.
Robert Dziekanski was tasered and died when four RCMP officers were called in to the Vancouver International Airport arrivals area to subdue an unruly individual. He had spent 10 hours there after arriving on his flight, unable to speak English, and seemingly without any airport officials offering assistance of any kind. He was waiting for his mother to pick him up.
Once the officers arrived, Dziekanski put up his hands and turned around, and was tasered, pinned to the ground by four Mounties, and handcuffed. Unfortunately for the horsemen*, the man lost consciousness and died. It appears that they then stood around twiddling their thumbs and refusing him any medical attention whatsoever.
Also unfortunately for the four horsemen, the incident was video-taped by a bystander. It indicates that Dziekanski was never placed under arrest, as well as a host of other infractions perpetrated on him by the officers.
Then too, until the video came to light, the RCMP had a variety of stories prepared and published in the press to paint Mr. Dziekanski in a negative light – all for naught, as was demonstrated by the video.
Not to be outdone by all the bad publicity, Tom Smith of Taser International is interviewed, and comes up with, “Tasers don’t kill people. Tasered people just up and die of other causes.” I paraphrase, of course.
Most pathetic of all is the picture of four able-bodied, trained (they are trained, right?) members of the RCMP standing around with their fingers up their asses waiting for a medical team to arrive, while a man dies in front of them.
Are these guys dummies, clueless, or just plain stupid? It’s my opinion that they’re some of the stupidest sons of bitches to ever join the Mounties.
* Slang for members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
(updated below)
Has anyone seen the Grey Power automobile insurance commercials recently showing on Canadian television? A smarmy male introduces an incompetent screaming ninny (usually female, but more recently male) who is behind the wheel of a vehicle by saying, “You don’t drive like her (sic).”
What he means to say is this: “You don’t drive like she does.”
Well, all right, I admit that I don’t know what the announcer really means to say, since he can’t speak English. He appears to be babbling some form of grade-school fractured english, most notably spoken by those of us who cut a lot of classes and who thought we were the brainiacs.
I queried Grey Power on the use of “their” English, and here’s what I received in return (paraphrased for simplicity, of course):
English teachers are not in agreement on the subject.
English and its usage is constantly changing.
At least that was grammatically correct.
If appealing to the lowest common grammatical denominator is good for business, then I say more power to Grey Power! As for me, I’ll continue to amuse myself with a company and its advertiser who doesn’t know how to use English, and to question how their written agreements might be drawn up.
“If you drive like him/her does, and never aks us no questions, they’ll be shure to have no claims, EVAR! Shut up.”
After all, English is in a constant state of flux.
UPDATE: Complain about those insipid, vapid, and idiotic commercials by Grey Power and its mother company, Trafalgar, here:
Or better yet, write them a letter.
Trafalgar Insurance Company of Canada
700 University Avenue, Suite 1500
Toronto, Ontario M5G 0A1
Toll free: (866) 464-2424
Local: (416) 227-6740