As IF Times

link BAA backs call to end redundant airport security checks | World news | guardian.co.uk.

It’s starting to happen!  Not long after the report of the pilot who refused to be molested at airport security points, the Brits are bringing some sanity to the process as well.  Finally! 

After all this time some movement to curb the ridiculous tactics employed at airport security checkpoints is at hand.  The hamfisted methods used at US airports were emulated at airports throughout the world for the past 10 years.  This article brings a glimmer of hope that this will change.

While they screened 100% of the passengers to filter out 0.000001% that posed any danger to the public, they failed to guard against much more pressing and dangerous issues affecting fliers.  Far more dangerous to most travellers are the other fliers who are allowed on board with obvious illnesses such as hacking coughs.  Anyone who has ever had to suffer sitting next to a wheezing and hacking passenger for greater than 4 hours knows how terrorized and trapped they can feel. 

Same thing for body odors.  It is very traumatic and inhuman to be forced to sit next to someone with blatant disregard for personal hygiene.  You are essentially marinating in the sweet fragrance for hour after tortured hour.  Having the plane go down in a fiery ball may be considered merciful in comparison.

The third horror is to be seated next to someone who clearly requires the space of 2 seats to support their massive bodies.   There are few things less appealing in life than to sit nose to armpit with someone overflowing like lava into your seat space.  

If you happen to get all three of the above scenarios all rolled into one, well, that should  be grounds for some kind of compensatory damages from the airline and perhaps even a tax holiday for one year. 

If you asked  most people if they’d prefer to take their chances with more logical and less invasive screening with the slim likelihood of terror action or the chance to have the above 3 described experiences removed from possibility, I’d bet lots of money they’d vote for  the latter.   The only terror most people face is to look about the boarding area and pray that someone with any of these issues won’t be seated next to them.  It’s time to recognize that the only people who’ve really been terrorized all this time have been air travellers.  Time to end the terror.

link Voter reports problem with ballot machine | machine, screen, voter – Local – Sun Journal.

Of all of the advancements western civilization lays claim to, the process of democratic election of representatives is probably the most sacrosanct.  So important is this concept that the west often sends observers to emerging nations to oversee their elections to discourage corruption, nations that are usually far less civilized than the western experience.

As we recall, in Iraq, they resorted to the simple but effective method of dipping people’s fingers in ink wells to ensure non duplication of votes.  Crude certainly, but there were few lawyers and even fewer techies involved other than those hired to fill the ink wells.  As much as this was a pragmatic means of voting, it was more importantly a symbolic show that the idea of democracy was taking hold in the war torn nation. 

Over here in the west, it looks like we still haven’t quite got the process down as pat as in Iraq, for despite over 200 years of history, they still can’t seem to get the simple mechanics of voting down to a foolproof system.   Remember hanging chads during the 2004 elections? Now because we’re in the Internet age, some brilliant marketers have sold new and improved gizmos to elections officials to make the voting and counting process easier, faster and of course, planet friendly.  Presumably, the manufacturers of these devices went through some rigorous testing of these things before receiving approval for public use.  We would assume there were safeguards to protect against voter fraud, operator error and MOST IMPORTANTLY, to ensure accuracy of vote.  Surely, they must have employed chimpanzees to pull the switches to emulate even the dumbest of real life voters. 

The hard part of the democratic process is supposed to be the choices between good and incipient evil that are made BEFORE going into the voting place.  Once that decision is made, the mechanics of voting should be straightforward.  Kind of like choosing between a Mars bar and potato chips at the vending machine.  Maybe that’s what should happen.  The vending machine people should get in the voting machine business.  When you have successfully entered the appropriate vote, a little reward pops out, like a Mars bar as proof of successful voting.  As voting  machines have gone electronic, it is easy to be leery of the ensuing results as the incidences in the linked article allude.  Manipulating data electronically is easier than hiding boxes of votes.  We are aware of the data manipulation that has gone on at Google and Facebook.  If you push the button for Mars bar, you don’t want nuts.  Officials will quickly point out that these are isolated incidents, yada, yada, yada.  The fact that it happens at all at this mature point in the history of the democratic process is scandalous and shameful. 

They should simplify the process down to the level that would appeal to the most basic instincts of people.  Link the process to food.  Every voter that shows up gets some M&M’s which they can put into any number of openings in a board corresponding to a candidate.  The M&M’s are then counted and the winner is announced.  If the voters don’t care for any of the candidates, they can eat the M&M’s and the trip to the polling station was not a complete loss.  I’ll just wait here by the phone for the elections people to call me.  Meanwhile, buy stock in M&M’s.