Yearly Archives: 2005

wanted: mayor

Politics

Whew! That caught me by surprise. How was I to know that the “mayor of San Diego resigning”:http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/11485487.htm would be national news?

My favorite part:

_”Councilman Michael Zucchet, the city’s deputy mayor, will become acting mayor. Zucchet, who faces a federal trial next month for allegedly accepting bribes from the owner of a strip club, defended the mayor as an honorable man whose resignation took courage.”_

I’m relieved to know the city will be in good hands.

Family Vacation?

Fun

We should all go to Kernie’s Family Park in Germany, mostly because it’s built on the site of an abandoned (never used) nuclear power station. Where else can you free-climb a cooling tower? The site is in German and Dutch only. Sorry.

An actual quote: Hey Kids, eine echt unglaubliche Geschichte!

Happy Earth Day!

Environment

Well, it’s Friday, April 22nd that is the official Earth Day, but I figure it’s good to celebrate the whole week. So here are some friendly tips on better environmental living.

I still have trouble with #22, though. I suck at getting it right the first time . . .

because reading is fundamental(ist)

Government

The blogosphere is (justifiably) all a-twitter because Ross Mayfield was told that “air passengers are only allowed a maximum of two books on flights”:http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2005/04/books_banned_on.html starting April 14.

The problem isn’t a matter of 2 (or 4) books, of course. That’s just one silly example. The real issue is this note on the “Transportation Security Administration”:http://www.tsa.gov/public/interapp/editorial/editorial_1012.xml site:

_To ensure everyone’s security the screener may determine that an item not on this chart is prohibited._

Note that there’s no mention of how to challenge (or even report) a mistaken declaration, either at the time or after the fact. So, if the _ahem_ well-trained and capable TSA staff decide that your knitting needles or eyeglass screwdriver are _verboten_ (which they “aren’t”:http://www.tsa.gov/public/interweb/assetlibrary/Prohibited_English_4-1-2005_v2.pdf), then you have no recourse but to give them up. (Chant with me, everyone: “unreasonable… searches… and seizures…”:http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment04/)