Blackmoor Vituperative

All of us are like excited children when turned loose for a fun-filled day at an amusement park. The commotion of the enthusiastic crowd combines with mouthwatering scents of delicious snacks waiting to be gobbled up, and then mingles with flashing lights and pounding music from rides and attractions. Yet when an amusement park becomes abandoned and an eerie silence descends to blanket the decay, the atmosphere seems to twist and takes on a nightmarish vibe. Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, leaving Six Flags as another of its victims. Here are 69 uber-creepy urban exploration photographs as we tour the abandoned amusement park Six Flags New Orleans.

(from Uber Creepy Tour: Abandoned Six Flags New Orleans, Web Urbanist)

As reported in It was no joke at security gate, passenger Rebecca Solomon had a terrifying 20 seconds while passing through airport security:

After pulling her laptop out of her carry-on bag, sliding the items through the scanning machines, and walking through a detector, she went to collect her things.

A TSA worker was staring at her. He motioned her toward him.

Then he pulled a small, clear plastic bag from her carry-on – the sort of baggie that a pair of earrings might come in. Inside the bag was fine, white powder.

Of course, the bag was not hers, and neither was the white powder. She had never seen it before, and the TSA screener knew it:

Put yourself in her place and count out 20 seconds. Her heart pounded. She started to sweat. She panicked at having to explain something she couldn’t.

Now picture her expression as the TSA employee started to smile.

Just kidding, he said. He waved the baggie. It was his.

It really does not get much worse than this for the image of a government agency whose image was already among the worst in the country.

(from Are TSA policies a bad joke?, TechRepublic)

It is time to abolish the TSA. Well past time, in fact.

Dear Congress:

A few weeks ago, the Bakersfield, CA airport was closed because TSA agents became hysterical at the site of honey in a bottle. Just recently, a New York-to-Kentucky flight was diverted to Philadelphia because a Jewish passenger started to pray. Simply getting on an airplane has become a dehumanizing and all-too-often humiliating experience — and it serves no useful purpose.

This is ridiculous. None of this makes us safer. All it does is make airplane travel more tedious, more expensive — and more unlikely, if the traveler has any choice in the matter.

One or two well-publicized incidents do not change the fact that air travel is far, far, far safer than driving. More people die in car crashes in one month than have died in airplane crashes in the past decade (including the ones on September 11, 2001).

Please abolish the TSA, stop the wild-eyed fearmongering, and allow us to go back to traveling the “friendly skies”.

Kind regards,
An American Traveler

A gang of Somali pirates has kidnapped a British couple, who were sailing to Tanzania.

The Chandlers set off from the Seychelles for Tanzania on October 21 on their 38-foot-yacht, the Lynn Rival, according to their blog. A distress beacon was activated October 23, according to naval officials.

(from Briton says pirates holding him, wife, CNN)

Yet again, I wonder how — or if — the news media will compare/contrast these real pirates with the so-called “pirates” who buy the latest Miley Cyrus album and share it with their friends.

A reminder:

Sharing is not piracy
Copying is not piracy

As a computer guy and a gun owner, I thought this idea was brilliant: packing your laptop with a pistol in order to keep your laptop safe while traveling via airplane.

Of course, it is vital to know all of the rules and laws when one is transporting a firearm, on an airplane or anywhere else. So do your homework first.

Then again, gun ownership in the USA is rather like an intelligence test: if you own one (or more), and stay out of jail, you pass.

An example of real piracy:

Somali pirates hijack ship; 20 Americans aboard
Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship with 20 American crew members onboard, hundreds of miles from the nearest American military vessel in some of the most dangerous waters in the world.

The 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk. It was the sixth ship seized within a week, a rise that analysts attribute to a new strategy by Somali pirates who are operating far from the warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

The company confirmed that the U.S.-flagged vessel has 20 U.S. nationals onboard.

I wonder how — or if — the news media will compare/contrast these real pirates with the so-called “pirates” who buy the latest Hannah Montana song and share it with their friends.

A reminder:

Sharing is not piracy
Copying is not piracy

On a side note, Somalia has not had a functioning government in a couple of decades. Piracy is their most lucrative industry.

PointClickHome has a slideshow of unusual architectural projects that is pretty fun to look at.

A fun look at the cruise ship of tomorrow!

According to the BBC, Richard Gere aroused the ire of Indians when he kissed actor Shilpa Shetty on the cheek at a charity event.

An Indian court has issued an arrest warrant for Hollywood actor Richard Gere after he kissed Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty in public.

Gere, 57, kissed Shetty, 31, several times on the cheek at an Aids awareness event in Delhi earlier this month.

The court in Jaipur in Rajasthan state called it “an obscene act”, after a local lawyer filed a complaint.

It was not immediately clear how the warrant could affect Gere, who is a frequent visitor to India.

Shetty, who found fame outside India as the winner of Celebrity Big Brother in the UK, has also been asked to appear before the court.

Photographs of the clinch were splashed across front pages of newspapers in India.

Public displays of affection are still largely taboo in India, and protestors in Mumbai (Bombay) set fire to effigies of Gere following the incident.

(from BBC News, Gere faces Indian arrest warrant)

I think it’s sad that the culture that gave us the Khajuraho temples, which house some of the most beautiful erotic sculptures on Earth, is so uptight that they issue arrest warrants for public displays of affection.

The USA is pretty messed up, as far as our hypocritical neo-Puritan ways are concerned, but at least we aren’t that messed up.

I still haven’t put the photos from our vacation online. Probably this weekend.

Thinking about our photos, and our vacation in general, reminds me what a beautiful country we live in. Geographically, culturally, politically, economically… the USA really is a great place to live. That’s not to say that it’s perfect: there are certain laws and actions of our government officials that I think could use a great deal of improvement, but part of the beauty of the USA is that we can hope to peacefully change the things that need to be changed. And if we don’t, well, we get the government we deserve. That’s ultimately what makes the USA a great country. We’re responsible: it says it right there in the Preamble, “We the people”.

I often veer into extreme hyperbole in my online diatribes, just to vent some steam from time to time about things that bug me. But seriously, I think these are minor issues. They only loom large in that they are such deviations from what the USA should embody: freedom to speak our minds, to pursue our happiness, and so forth. And it’s such a huge contrast because, in general, we do have that extraordinary freedom, and a darn good standard of living. It’s good that we call our officials on the carpet when they step over the line, but we should also realize just how lucky we are to live here despite the unusual things that remind us that our country isn’t perfect.

It really is a great country.