A bright star went out last night.  And as is always the case when a star goes out, it’s light continues to shine on long afterwards.

But there is one less star now for me to point to, and to say, “there, that is the way”.

I hope my coworkers forgive me if I listen to Blackmore’s Night all day long.

New Year’s Nota Bene Q&A

A few answers to the common questions we get regarding our New Year’s parties:  (Oh, and if you some how missed the details, go to http://anyvite.com/p6buwdqcje to see the invite and to RSVP.)

When does it start? Usually around 7. Or whenever people show up.

How late does it go? Until the end. You know, whenever.

I have many other parties I’ve been invited to. Can I show up before/after the others? Sure! Party hopping is fine, and not unexpected.

Can I bring (other person)? Certainly! The more the merrier. Spouses, SOs, friends, and children are all welcome. But we take no responsibility for them, except the usual hosting responsibilities.

Can I bring (dish,drink,dessert) to share? We’d love it if you did. We’ve got a fairly large menu lined up, but don’t let that stop you from bringing something else along! (This is also a secret way to make sure there is at least one thing at the party that you will enjoy consuming…)

Do you have pets? I have allergies. Yes, we have two cats. They’ll be sequestered up in the bedroom, and we vacuum beforehand, but please medicate accordingly. If your allergies are mild, you might be able to skip the medication, which I suggest if you are thinking of consuming alcohol.

What happens if I am too tired/tipsy to drive home? We do have crash space. And lots of it. While we don’t expect anyone to get sloppy drunk, we do not want anyone to drive home if they feel they’ve had a bit more than usual, or if it just gets to be so far into the morning that you feel too impaired to drive, that’s okay. We’ll have a warm place for you to sleep.

I’ve heard you live on a busy street. Where should I park? The driveway holds about 6 cars, so if you are one of the early ones you can park there. If not, please park at the church lot three doors down. The 7th Day Adventists do have services on Saturday at 11, so you’ll probably want to be out of their parking lot by then.

I have a question not listed here. What do I do? Get in touch with us, we can answer pretty quickly.

Looking forward to seeing you at the party!

By the way TSA…

Spending millions of dollars to treat every one of the over 2 million people that fly in the US, including pilots and babies, as potential terrorists? Totally means that the terrorists have won. They’ve succeeded in turning American against American, so that we now treat each other as presumed criminals on a regular basis. Fear now rules over liberty. We now abuse our airline passengers more than any other country, including places like China that are notorious for their human rights abuses. The only real gains in this maneuver are to the companies that sell this equipment, and to those people who like seeing the US froth at the mouth with paranoia. I repeat: the terrorists have won.

I am fortunate enough that most of my family lives within easy driving distance, and I don’t need to fly that often. Others are not so lucky. But I did get to experience the new procedures first hand recently as we flew to Hawaii for 2 weeks. It is incredibly impractical to get to Hawaii through any other travel method. Logan has the new body scanners. I got to go through one. And because I was still wearing a pewter pendant necklace, they decided to go ahead and give me a pat-down too. I was annoyed, I was inconvenienced, I was mildly embarrassed. But most of all, I felt sorry for the poor sods who are required to administer these treatments, who are forced to look at things they don’t want to see every day – people they never want to see naked, including toddlers (does taking their image count as child pornography?), medical implants, unfortunate deformities, broken bones, etc. on a daily basis. I hope the TSA has hired counselors, and requires every screener to take the same oath of confidentiality that doctors do.

Freedoms and liberties mean being exposed to a certain amount of risk. I get that. I also understand that one of the things the government does for us is to help minimize those risks. But there’s a law of diminishing returns here, and I, for one, am ready to experience some personal risk in exchange for greater freedom.

UPDATES:

1) I will be posting copies of this to my elected representatives.

2) Part of this is inspired by the reporting and research done by Jeffrey Goldberg over at the Atlantic. I should acknowledge him as one of the tipping forces behind me speaking out, and one of those upon whom I’ve built some of my opinions. Here is a clip of him on the Colbert Report, rather a good bit. I wrote this post before seeing this clip, so it is interesting to see him also give a ‘terrorists have won’ perspective. Jeffrey has called for everyone traveling on the day before Thanksgiving to ‘Opt-Out’ (use that phrase specifically) of the scans and to submit to pat-downs, as a form of protest, tying up TSA resources on a massive scale. I appreciate what he is trying to do, but I am ambivalent about it. Choose for yourself what action to take.

3) Also, here is an article from Gizmodo on body scans that have already been leaked. I’ve not checked to see if I am one of them.

4) Some scanners are using radio waves (millimeter wave) . Some are using backscatter X-rays, and these could pose a health risk. Are the TSA and the FDA taking this into account? According to this Ars Technica article, so far the data has been brushed aside.

5) Toddlers are being put through scanners and subjected to pat-downs.

6) The Pilot’s Union is asking all pilots to reject scanning. Pilots are already exposed to large amounts of radiation as a normal part of their job (flying above some of the protective layers of the atmosphere). Further, as highlighted in the above Colbert video clip, we trust them to fly the planes, we can’t trust them with a pocketknife?

7) The experiences of one individual who refused both the imaging scan and the pat-down, but was willing to go through the still-in-use metal detector, and was in all other respects polite and compliant.