in the not-too-distant past, i listed to MPR every morning. was a member, even. and then this whole minor skirmish in the middle east happened, that that\’s ALL they started to talk about. my feelings about said skirmish are as such that i cannot listen to updates about it anymore. i acknowledge that this is the equivalent of sticking my head in the sand; i am ok with this. sometimes you just need to look out for yourself (and your blood pressure).
however, i still listen to talk radio each morning on the drive in, and news snippets find their way into that– even on KFAN. here are some fun ones from today:
+ a 46-year-old father in concord, california drove his blue honda sedan to work on tuesday. like most, he rolled up his windows, locked his doors, and went into work. unlike most, he had has 11-month-old son in the backseat. he had forgotten to drop his son off at daycare on the way in, forgotten the child was in the car. by the time his wife called and asked why their son was not at day care (3:30 that afternoon!), the boy was dead. this is disgusting. and yet it happens an average of 36 times a year in the u.s.
as a human being in our modern age, i know what it\’s like to have 30,000 different things running around in my head at one time. as such, as recently as last fall i\’ve driven down lyndale with a freshly purchased caribou coffee atop my car. you know why i did that? BECAUSE I WAS TOO FOCUSED ON MY KIDS. there is no excuse for a memory lapse as disgusting as this, and i can only hope that there is a particularly humid place in hell for these poor excuses for human beings.
+ MSP officials have been warned by the FAA to be on alert for terror \”dry runs\”: passengers smuggling ordinary items (including, of course, block cheese) onto planes that can be used to create explosive devices. an airport official was interviews and confirmed that, while there are no specific threats, that airport security screeners are \”stepping up their level of vigilance.\”
two problems here.
a) are there truly degrees of vigilance? i\’ve never understood that. i thought you either were or you weren\’t.
2) if there are degrees, are you saying that, say, a couple weeks ago when i flew to hartford, that screeners were only 75% vigilant? 50%? is that supposed to make me feel better??
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