Drive-Bys

By the time I got through the Cheeseburgers Across America recipes I was drooling all over myself.

By the time I got through the 30 Inaugural Cheeseburger recipes, I was a wobbly-kneed mess.

If that site had "smell-o-vision," I'd be a babbling idiot by now.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!

Go visit the Cheese & Burger Society for your very own self and see what I mean. Your taste buds will love me and your arteries will hate me.
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Hold onto your hats:

The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority is seeking toll increases ranging from 35 to 90 cents for IPass users to fund a $12 billion capital plan.

Read this to mean that non-IPass users (suckers) will get hit with increases of 70 cents to $1.80.

Ouch.

Those are huge increases.
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Oooooo! Fried clams:

Howard Johnson lied. So did your neighborhood shrimp hut. A fried clam is not a skinny strip.

A fried clam has a gut.

True dat. And the same for fried oysters. And they both go down wonderfully with a squeeze of lemon and a dollop of tartar sauce. (No, not cocktail sauce. That's for shrimp or fried scallops, silly.)

Now I'm missing my Nana and summers on Cape Cod... and also the fish fries at the NCO Club at Pease AFB... and fried swordfish chunks from Newick's.

Just the thought of these fishy treats brings back memories of salt air, clam shacks, endless miles of beaches and jetties, searching for starfish, hermit crabs, sea shells and sea glass and the feel of sun-warmed sand between my toes.

*Sigh*

These are the tastes of summer to me.
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Cray to the Zee? It's not the one with all the lovely facial tattoos, actually:

A mixed-race woman who is due to marry a white supremacist murder suspect on Hitler's birthday has spoken out in support of her man.

Erica Herrera, who is half Hawaiian and half Hispanic, said despite prison inmate Curtis Allgier's frightening appearance - with tattoos of swastikas and the word 'skinhead' covering his face - he is 'kinder' and 'gentler' than he is publicly portrayed.

'He's a very sweet, loving…He's a really kind-hearted, good person,' she said, defending her plans to marry the man who faces the death penalty for murder.

See? I told you so!
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Giggle of the Day:

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Ear Worm of the Day:

One for the Road

Before I head off to Jimmy's for the game this afternoon, I'll be saying a little prayer:

The Bears Prayer
Our Papa, who art a Bear,
Hallowed be thy fame,
Thy championship come,
Thy play be run, at home as it is away,
Give us this day our Sunday win,
And forgive us our turnovers,
Though we pounce on those who turnover against us,
And lead us not into fourth and long,
But deliver us from Rodgers.
In the name of Ditka, Butkis, & the Holy Payton.
As it was in 1985 so it shall be in 2011,
Reign without end. BEARDOWN!!"

Go Bears!

Update: The first quarter sucked. The second quarter crawled. The third quarter dragged. The fourth quarter was exciting. Much as it pains me to say it, the Packers wanted it more. (And if Lovie's contract is renewed, I'll be certain that he's got incriminating pictures of the McCaskey family stashed somewhere safe. Why in the world didn't he make Hanie his second string quarterback, instead of third?)

Bus Fumes

My BlogDaddy may think it's funny, but here are today's two things that stand my hair on end with regard to the TSA:

This quote by a TSA agent on so called pat-downs, for those of you who still believe that it's innocuous and no big deal.

"You're not going to like it," a TSA agent told correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic. "Nobody's going to do it once they find out (what) we're going to do."

And the fact that TSA agents are now putting their hands down fliers' pants:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday that the agency has an "open ear" to any "adjustments" to security measures in place at the nation's airports, as some groups and individuals continued to call for a boycott of full-body scanning machines that they complain are invasive....

But, she said, "if there are adjustments we need to make to these procedures as we move forward, we have an open ear. We will listen."Sure. Listening costs nothing. But that doesn't mean she intends to change one freaking thing about the procedures, unless it's to make them even more invasive.

I'm with Michael Graham, who says:

Napolitano says it’s vital to our security, though nobody can point to a single attack foiled by this fondling. She insists this is a key part of their “layered” approach to air safety.

OK, fine, Janet. I’ll do it. Only, you go first.

I want you to zip over to Reagan National and, on live cable TV, go through the full body scan - with the images available for broadcast and our review. Since it’s no big deal and it’s all for security, I’m sure you won’t mind setting the suck-it-up example.

And after that, you can step over to the personal screening area for what you euphemistically call a “pat-down.” We’ll all watch as a female TSA employee does to you what she did to American grandmothers over this weekend.

I’ll do whatever the TSA says, and without complaint, as soon as I see Janet Napolitano do it. Until then, I’m fighting back.

Pouring Jet Fuel on the Bonfire

Seems I'm not the only one who's had a bad experience with the TSA's new procedures, as this little poll over at the Washington Post has stirred up a shit storm in the comments.

Question: Have you ever been subjected to an airport security 'pat down'?


They're having a free-for-all in the comments section, as well they should. (Be sure to read 'em all.)

In fact, people everywhere are getting pissed and demanding that heads (or even departments) roll.

If that doesn't get your Irish up, then perhaps this will:



(A tip of the cap to Amy Alkon.)

This is ridiculous and totally beyond the pale.

Here's the problem: Good parents like my pal LL are starting to say things like this:

If any man or woman put their hands in my children’s crotches because of a perceived security risk, I absolutely would reign fire and destruction upon those muthafuckers.

Mark my words.

Try it, however, and you'll find yourself under arrest, facing jail time and at least a $10,000 fine.

For those of you who think giving up your right to privacy is a small price to pay, a superior mind to yours replies:

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Ben Franklin

As for me, I may just have to rethink the not driving thing, and soon.

Bus Fumes

You know, I really wish they'd stop calling them "pat downs" -- because they're not. From Dictionary.reference.com:

pat-down   
[pat-doun] Show IPA
–noun
an act or instance of passing the hands over the body of a clothed person to detect concealed weapons, drugs, etc.; frisking.

In reality, from recent personal experience, TSA agents don't just pass their hands over your body -- they grope you, and hard in the manner of Dictionary.reference.com's definition #6:

Slang . an act or instance of sexually fondling another person.

I also take issue with TSA's promise of privacy and that no pictures will be taken:

The U.S. Marshals Service recently admitted saving some 35,000 images from a machine at a federal courthouse in Florida. TSA says that will never happen. Human experience says, oh, yes, it will.

Here's all the proof I need that your parts can and may be exposed to the rest of the world: this CNN article photo. This quick Bing image search. Repeated photos from the scanners on Drudge Report banners. This quick google image search. Also, this Fox News report that shows images of not only the scanned image, but also identifiable images of the person scanned:

Sure, the TSA assures us that the image-saving capability "will be turned off" in these scanners, but they don't say when, and they don't say what has been or will be done with the gazillion images already saved.

Then there's this YouTube video describing the "pat down" for an "opt out":

Even if you agree to the scan, you still aren't out of the woods. I didn't opt out, and still got the so-called pat down, thanks to my bra's underwires.* The young lady in the video at least got groped in private. I got my breasts squeezed and twisted in full view of every single person in the security area -- and no, nobody offered to take me off into private to do it.

(Please don't tell me it's okay because I submitted. I had no choice. Neither did anyone else in line that morning, as we were all forced through the scanners or to submit to a pat-down if we wanted to fly that day.)

I'm a mature adult who's seen a lot, and still this was a humiliating experience for me. Imagine, then, if it's your grandmother or wife or teenager or tween or very young child who's always been told never to let a stranger touch them inappropriately. Whether its the public chest mauling or the full body scan or the private full body feel-up, it's wrong on just about every level.

Furthermore, the new procedures really slowed the security line down at O'Hare. Don't be even a little late for a flight, or these new procedures will likely make you miss your flight. And be prepared for gridlock at airport security if you're traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Neither of these forms of screening should be used until or unless there's a suspicion that a passenger may be carrying contraband of some sort. It should not be the primary screening method unless it's used for all airline passengers -- including the Head of Homeland Security, the President, the First Lady and the First Children. The TSA has gone way too far.

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*The least the TSA could do is educate their screeners as to what an underwire looks like and why it's not a threat to national security.

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Update: I've heard a lot of discussion on talk radio about this subject today, and a lot of people who experienced the old "pat down" with the back of the hands that came if you made the metal detector beep more than once or had a medical note due to surgical pins, rods, plates or replacement joints saying that TSA agents were "respectful" and that "it's not that bad" and that they were given a choice for their pat down to happen publicly or privately.

Trust me, things have changed. I can't wait to hear about your next experience with the TSA. That was then. This is now, and it's different.

Also, I just heard a United Airline employee assert that NONE of the airline food service truck personnel or bag handlers have to go through security of any type at O'Hare "because they're TSA employees." But pilots and flight attendants do have to submit to those indignities.

There's no logical reason why this is so.

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Update II:

If this photo from today's (11/15/10) Drudge Report doesn't convince you of the outrageousness of the TSA's procedures, nothing else will:



(And for those people who insist that they do the full feel-ups in private, this disproves it.)

Hey, Big Sis! How's that discreet thing supposed to work again?