Shawn Lankton Online

This weekend I made a trip to Boston to visit my friend Jacques. The last time I made this trip I drove and spent a ton of money on gas and tolls. This time I decided to take the Chinatown Bus (The Fung Wah Bus to be specific). This was great, and a great deal. Instead of keeping my eyes on the road I was free to sleep and talk to my friend Naomi who I was traveling with… and the cost only $30 round trip (about the same as 1 tank of gas)… Super.

Once in Boston, we spent some time walking around the Downtown Crossing/Boston Common area. Boston, is such a nice city. Its got excitement and charm like a big city, but its so clean and comforting. The red bricks everywhere make it seem very friendly. We took a “tour” of the Harpoon Brewery, and then went to the North End for a very authentic Italian dinner.

That evening it was on to Cambridge where Jacques and I met a bunch of people and hung out in a middle-eastern style lounge called, “The Enormous Room.” Finally we watched some bad dancing by the locals at a bar that played all 80’s music. The last big event was the Harvard Museum of Natural History on Sunday morning.

Oh man… I like Dinosaurs. I might turn into a little kid again. Did you know the ancient “Giant Ground Sloth” from South America was as big as an elephant and has a skeleton that looks totally kick-ass? I really want to go to the New York Natural History Museum now.

Ok, we are led to believe that danger lurks around every turn and we should be living in constant fear of many things/people/groups that aim to destroy us and our way of life. “Therefore,” says the powers that be, “we need to erect ridiculous and often ludicrously complex security measures for everyone in order to protect ourselves from these villains.”

Ok, that sounds pretty good! I don’t like villains, so whatever we need to do to stop them seems reasonable. The problem is that I’m not convinced that our excessive security is stopping the bad guys. In fact I think its only annoying us non-villains.

At work I’m required to carry and ID badge. Ok, that’s fine. If I forget my ID badge at my desk when I go out to my car, I’m not permitted back into the building without filing out a form and wearing a Visitor badge. Now, the guard knows me, and saw me leave. So after wasting both of our time can we say that anyone is safer? No. If I were a criminal I think I would just wait to follow someone else in and bypass the guard altogether. “Policy,” you say! “*#%@s Policy!”

Policy only serves to annoy those who choose to follow it, and you can bet that criminals won’t! In this case what are we doing? We’re lulling ourselves into a false sense of security by submitting to these inconvenient policies that protect no one.

Another experience was at the airport. We all know now that terrorists want to use liquids and gels in their vile schemes (but only if they’re more than 3oz)! Sure, whatever you say… It’s policy after all. I pack my bags and head to the airport. I take some toiletries and some Indian food I prepared. I get to the end of the line and they inspect my toiletries and food. “Oh no! This is a big problem,” exclaims the woman. My deodorant was actually 3.25 oz… oops. So she takes it. What she didn’t take was my 16oz Tupperware of Indian food.Now you tell me, is it easier to make a bomb look and smell exactly like a stick of 3.25oz partially used Old Spice deodorant OR look and smell exactly like a one pound tub of home-made Indian food?

So what happened here? Clearly the TSA woman should have taken my food as well. However, this mistake is the norm! ‘Airport security person’ is not a great job. These people aren’t “vigilantly looking for terrorists,” they’re casually looking for scissors, pocket knives, nail files, and toiletries and bottles of water over 3oz. That’s all they find, so that’s all they look for. I’m quite sure that if terrorists decided to try to sneak 100 ‘curry-and-vegetable-bombs’ onto planes next 9/11 that 90 of them would succeed. So once again, we’ve protected no-one and annoyed everyone!

When will the insanity end?

Right now I’m in Paris… that’s right. In… Paris. This city is beautiful. It has the hustle and bustle of New York (sometimes) with the beauty of old Europe. Everything looks picturesque, so its hard to turn off the camera! Right now, I’m in a small internet cafe and its 23h34 Paris time. (That’s 11:30 pm folks) I’ll have to post something huge when I get back, but right now, I’ll give the abstract.

Alicia and I arrived, saw a museum and a garden, and then met up wiht some (Parisian) friends to see the Latin Quarter’s bar scene. The next day we went to the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triumph, and to a beautiful church called Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart). Today we saw Notre Dame and the Louvre, and tomorrow we’ll go see Versailles. Yikes! Its been a crepe eating, picture taking, french speaking whirlwind adventure so far, and I hope to have some even funnier/more exciting stories before its all done.

Au revoir!