WSJ today

People are so upset over the full body scans starting to be implemented at the airports. In Germany there was a protest, and mainly people are claiming the invasion of privacy.

Hey, I'm about as non-invasive as the next guy, but to be honest, I don't really care if they scan me at the airport. If they want to look under my clothes to get a good look at my big fat belly and my flaccid forearms and the hairy moles on my back, be my guest.

But beyond the fact that I no body issues (I'll admit, if I HAD a great body, I'd probably have issues!) I really think that a person's expectation of privacy should extend to what that person owns.

For example, I believe that officials should not be able to search your car without reasonable cause. OK.

But you own your car. You do not own the plane. You do not own the airport. You don't even own the seat for which you've purchased your ticket. Your $100.00 to $2000.00 has only RENTED that seat for a specific numnber of air miles between one location or another. You have NO "right" to privacy while you are on their plane.

"AH!" you say, "but I own my clothes!" As though you can outwit the great Verble Gherulous!

To which Verble responds, "Yes, and therefore, they should only ask you if they can see under your clothes. But if you refuse, then they have the right not to let you into their airport, or on their plane, and if you lose the money that you paid for that rented seat, then that is the price you pay for standing up for your right not to have somebody look at your flabby belly or the hairy moles on your back."

'Nuff said!

VG

Poem for January 11, 2010

[NOTE: every name mentioned in this poem will have been replaced in one year.

OK. Maybe in one generation . . . I’ll give them/myself that.]

everything is a collage.

our thoughts are not our thoughts, and the images that we perceive are no longer our images, they

are the images that we encounter in our google searches and the words that we speak

are not our words:they are only the words that we repeat from what we
read on twitterfall, and our sense

of

location, we do not

position ourselves to north/south/eastor/west, anymore,
we are only

where we see ourselves on our cellphone GPS/and
our friends, our real friends, we can only touch on

Facebook, and our only thoughts are the thoughts that we
write on our blogs, and we say

nothing

but what we speak into
our webcams to upload to YouTube,

nothing else is real but this.

We are now the

nothing real,

but this.