"I was in such a hurry to make my flight that, when going through security, I forgot to empty my pockets. I know, the cardinal sin, right?
I had a Blackberry, my wallet, a belt, and several Chilean coins jingling around in my pants, and the X-ray machine dinged like a winning slot machine. Instinctively, I prepared myself for a verbal battle with some neanderthal who would try and put his hand down my pants. Except… it didn’t happen.
In my haste, I had almost forgotten that this was Chile, a civilized place that doesn’t go out of its way to demean citizens and residents at every available opportunity. No fondling, no fear and intimidation tactics, no surprise searches, no cash-sniffing dogs, no ‘secondary screening’, no stasi on the jet bridge.
Instead, the solo security attendant simply asked if I had anything in my pockets. I pulled out my Blackberry and showed it to him, and he waved me through. I was on my plane 2-minutes later.
A few days ago, I was having a conversation with our Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose; he was telling me about a similar experience traveling recently to Macau via hydrofoil from Hong Kong.
During his trip, he checked his luggage, got his boarding pass, went through immigration control… all the typical sort of international travel stuff, except for one thing: there were no X-ray machines or radiating body scanners at all, and there certainly weren’t any surly border guards to fondle passengers.
As I travel frequently and spend time in so many different countries, it’s becoming clear to me that there are essentially two categories in the world– police states that are running towards George Orwell’s view of the world in 1984, and countries where you can still feel like a free human being."
Simon Black of Sovereign Man, guest post on Zero Hedge.
Political cartoons and commentary have indicated that the terrorists have in fact already won, but that is not the case. It is those elites in positions of power and the socialists in our government who have won, in using the War On Terrorism to restrict and remove our freedoms.
ReplyDeleteJust as law enforcement and the courts have used the War On Drugs to remove the Fourth Amendment and condition us to accept the abuses of current-day law enforcement.
As the economy and the national debt worsen, will we be expected to save the government money by quartering troops in our homes next?
Probably only in the homes of us "wing nuts". Gotta keep us in line so we don't become too uppish, you know.
ReplyDeleteGood point. And why do I imagine they'd have orders to make it as much fun as a Michael Jackson sleep-over?
ReplyDeleteHey man, I thought you might like this animated avatar I made from the film "Gods and Generals." It's a little bit of my favourite scene in the film.
ReplyDeletehttp://southernnationalist.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/BonnieBlueFlag2.gif