Recently, we ran a story covering some of the issues with flying safely, a real concern for those of us who live or visit Hawaii.

An excellent interview, well worth reading, with Israeli Airplane security expert Isaac Yeffet has just run here:

Among the highlights:

• American airport security is abysmal because it can’t think forward, only backwards. Thus we react to what happens but don’t plan for something to happen.
• Israeli secutiry agents who fail internal tests are fired the first time.
• Every passenger is personally interviewed before departure.
• Full body scanners are nearly useless, and therefore a great waste of money.

The biggest problem, of course, is that this fellow is not leading the TSA, and America is not implementing his, and Israel’s, proven techniques. And like most of the mess that is this country, there’s really not a damn thing thing any of us can do about it.

By Maui Curmudgeon

I think the only people disappointed in the new year will be those who expect things to be different than they were before. A quick scan of the news shows how inevitable the interminable sameness is:

1. In spite of new revelations on terror attacks on airplanes over the holidays, Republican Senator Jim Demint (South Carolina) refuses to let go forward the appointment of Errol Southers as TSA chief. That’s right, Demint won’t have the TSA have leadership at this crucial time. Why? Demint is afraid of unions, specifically afraid that TSA workers might someday unionize. Southers hasn’t promised to stop that, if it occurs. Demint puts US citizens at risk for a hypothetical. I love this double whammy evidence: not only does it show the Republicans for what they are – scum that doesn’t give a shit about anyone but themselves and their petty peeves – but also that Southerners continue the 100-year-long war against the working person.

Read the rest…

By Maui Curmudgeon

If you are coming or going to Hawaii, you’re experiencing the destruction of your personal rights every time – for no reason.

It’s that last bit that urks me. Hawaii being the only state in the Union you can’t drive to, the TSA gets to violate you before you get to experience your Hawaiian dream.

The recent frufru over the Somali terrorist on a Detroit plane from Amsterdam has sent the TSA into a tizzy once again. There are times when I begin to suspect the government of staging these embarrassing failures just to make the gullible American traveler pliant enough to accept the next level of invasive personal search. As I wrote the other day, we’re living in Joseph Stalin’s wet dream.

The latest thing now is a huge push to get complete body scanners into the airports so the TSA can see your genitalia – yes, genitalia, which is where explosives have been hiding. Since they were first discussed, these machines have been highly controversial. Rep. Jason Chaffetz has said, “I don’t think anybody needs to see my 8-year-old naked in order to secure [an] airplane.”
Read the rest…

By Maui Curmudgeon

Christmas weekend is being touted as the single most lucrative weekend for movies in history, with a box office take of $278 million.

• I always like to give this perspective: the single largest day for video gaming this year was nearly $400 million for the first day’s sales of Gears of War. The annual box office take this year is estimated to be $12 billion; the annual video games take will be around $40 billion.
• Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano admits the recent bombing attempt at Detroit shows a lapse of security. Duh. Why is it these bureaucrats remain so clueless? Anyone flying through U.S. airports this past year (I logged more than 12,000 miles domestically) could hear the majority of travelers griping about how worthless the process was to begin with.
• Read the rest…

By Maui Curmudgeon

Hey, just a quick one to note a great passage from a recent critique of Sarah Palin’s Book of Lies. This from uber-conservative Mary Matalin:

“Now, for a point of personal privilege. I have been and will continue to be an advocate of Sarah Palin and her principles. Had I been asked about how to use her publishing opportunity to maximum political benefit, I would have proffered to Palin the received wisdom of the unlikely duet of my mother and Lee Atwater: ‘Never burn bridges.’

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By Maui Curmudgeon

The insurance company United Health Group has come out with a listing of how healthy people in each state are, and as such lists go, this one is informative, and backs up much of what has been written on this site.

For the record, Hawaii ranks 4th out of 50. I was surprised but more so because of my interaction with health care on Maui, than anything else. After the past few years, where the morons who run Maui Memorial succeeded in keeping another hospital from being built, and where a head nurse circulated an email warning people to “fly or die,” that is, to fly to Oahu for treatment lest Maui Memorial kill you (something I have experienced first-hand).

The best that can be said, at least for Maui, is in spite of poor health care, Maui residents are healthier than the majority of U.S. citizens elsewhere.

Read the rest…

by Maui Curmudgeon

It’s OK that Tennessee is breeding idiots about as fast as any other state in the Blubber Belt, but it is definitely not fair that the state allows these jackasses to invade other states, and especially our beloved isle of Maui.

Pick any Harry Eagar drool of words in a Maui News edition, or in Harry’s blog, and you’ll find more denials of reality and common sense than you’d believe possible for one person to hold and still function in reality. How does this warped hillbilly put one foot in front of the other?

One recent spew of Harry’s garbage, which he entitled “Let Them Eat Sewage,” serves as ample proof. An example: “I have some problems with [Bjorn] Lomborg. For one, he believes, against evidence, that the globe is warming.”

Read the rest…

By Maui Curmudgeon

Part 1A, in a 4-part Series on Religion

Just as I embarked on a small four-part series on one of my favorite topics – religions – an Islamic psychopath, this one in an American uniform no less, murdered more than a dozen people at Fort Hood. To say the least, I was dispirited to find out this morning that he was still alive.

Our tolerance of people has been the death of some of us.

What is a disgruntled Muslim doing on a military base?

Is anyone falling for the “he was picked on because of his religion” whiny excuses coming from his family and other Muslims?

Read the rest…