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We all can agree that the TSA agents tend to be operating at just above your average McDonald’s employee. (Perhaps this is part of why the Jihadists hate us - their inability to get past such simpletons) If not here’s some more proof: TSA didn’t believe the MacBook Air was a laptop (and therefore must be a bomb). Really though, if you’re going to make a laptop bomb wouldn’t you go for the 12lb gaming rig instead of the super thin 3lb MBA? Perhaps this terrorist was saving the rest of the C4 for later?

I am equally amused at the whole “turn on your laptop to prove its not a bomb” theory. As the MacBook Air proves, you can fit a fully functional lappy into a small space. Put the MBA innards into a Dell 17 inch “desktop replacement” and you have room for a 10+ lb of plastique! Hello TSA! Am I the only one that sees this stuff?

I’m standing, watching my laptop on the table, listening to security clucking just behind me. “There’s no drive,” one says. “And no ports on the back. It has a couple of lines where the drive should be,” she continues.

A younger agent, joins the crew. I must now be occupying ten, perhaps twenty, percent of the security force. At this checkpoint anyway. There are three score more at the other five checkpoints. The new arrival looks at the printouts from x-ray, looks at my laptop sitting small and alone. He tells the others that it is a real laptop, not a “device”. That it has a solid-state drive instead of a hard disc. They don’t know what he means. He tries again, “Instead of a spinning disc, it keeps everything in flash memory.” Still no good. “Like the memory card in a digital camera.” He points to the x-ray, “Here. That’s what it uses instead of a hard drive.”

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Well Super Tuesday II has come and gone with not quite the fan fare of the first. Most predictions held with Hillary pulling out two vital wins in Texas and Ohio, but the real story is slightly below the surface of the the win column.

#1 McCain is still struggling to convince Republican voters that he’s their man. Take a look at how Huckabee faired in the big states: 30% in Ohio and almost 40% in Texas. That does bode well for the candidate that “locked up” the nomination weeks ago. While McCain may be gaining the independents he seems to be losing the at least a third of his base. And without his base its unlikely that he will have enough votes to unseat either Dem. Think it’s just Huckabee’s charm? Look closer. Romni, Thompson and Giuliani all pulled statistically significant numbers (>1%), some as high as 4%. These candidates are not only out of the race but all have endorsed McCain. Which would mean that McCain’s negatives are high enough to only pale in comparison to Hillary’s.

#2 The Primary structure is messed up. The Dem side is worse but both sides are bad. Can someone explain to me the significance of Ohio? Don’t get me wrong it’s a great normal state, but WHY does everyone care about it? Or more accurately, why does it get a disproportional number of delegates? Let’s look at the numbers: Texas population: 22.8M delegates: 39 dems, 69 repubs. Ohio population: 11.4M delegates: 128 dems, 79 repubs. (Tennessee population: 6M delegates: 66 dems, 46 repubs.) Didn’t we outlaw the concept that some people’s votes only count 2/3 or 3/4 of others? -shrug-

Internet televangelist Bill Keller on Oprah Winfrey: “…she is the queen of the new age witches.” She’s the prophetess of all the new age movement. “She’s making millions and millions of dollars selling the spiritual crack of our day…leading millions of souls to the flames of Hell.”

Well, alrighty then.

After writing the previous post, and thinking about Obama’s slogan (”Change we can believe in”) and the excitement it has drawn (especially among younger citizens), I was reminded of something G.K. Chesterton once said:

“Men invent new ideals because they dare not attempt old ideals. They look forward with enthusiasm, because they are afraid to look back.”