COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Pandora's Cluster

69 comments:

  1. Well.

    What are we going to do about That?

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  2. Have another: cup of coffee, shot of tequila, a walk in the park, a roll in the hay, a Marlboro, and live this life fully because this is as good as it gets, and no one goes on to a better place.

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  3. The good news is, it's looking doubtful that anyone goes on to a "Worse" place, either. :)

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  4. We learn that the entire cluster of universes is one great recycling bin. I take some comfort in that.

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  5. Michele Bachmann cleaned Chris Wallace's clock on Fox this AM. Very impressive response to him asking her if she is a "flake"?

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  6. It is simply awe-inspiring to look at images from Hubble, or, even better, my own telescope, and witness the grandeur of this vast Universe with my own eyes, realizing that we are all, in a way connected – we are all made from stardust.

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  7. You know what the old folks say: "Ain't nothin' new under the Universe." :)

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  8. Watching your own child being born, grow up, learn and discover and stand tall against all the dust in the universe surely must inspire you that we are not JUST dust.

    And that unseen, unmeasurable quantity is what we call the divine spark.

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  9. Just passing by. Times have changed. Blogging is not what it used to be but real men don't twitter. Some here actually won't discuss certain issues as being too provocative, some talk too much and those that could not stand the truth moved on. Never forget, We're doing it for the children.

    Semper fi.

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  10. Blogger Deuce said...

    Have another: cup of coffee, shot of tequila, a walk in the park, a roll in the hay, a Marlboro, and live this life fully because this is as good as it gets, and no one goes on to a better place.

    Sun Jun 26, 09:11:00 AM EDT




    This is absolute nonsense unworthy of our host even at his worst about no mercy for the elk.

    That statement is worthy of rat only.


    Please please please will someone read their J Campbell around here please!

    My daughter totaled out our Mustang convertible couple nights ago rolled it over out at the farm and as luck would have it a couple neighbors happened by and helped her out. She is sleeping now but she did say she floated out of her body a little like one might take a fine silk handkerchief out of you pocket and wave it around then back in hemingway

    You are entirely wrong Deuce as the poets --the unacknowledged legislators of mankind ---emerson---have always said.

    dwr

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  11. No one stands tall against the universe. Many think they do. We are here for a moment, a moment to know and then swept back into the matter that neither knows nor cares.

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  12. You know what the old folks say: "Ain't nothin' new under the Universe." :)

    Sun Jun 26, 10:00:00 AM EDT



    Nonsense as well, it's always new all the time, it is creativity, it is life, it is to be enjoyed, and held sacred.

    dwr

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  13. Catherine Lavallee said...

    No one stands tall against the universe. Many think they do. We are here for a moment, a moment to know and then swept back into the matter that neither knows nor cares.

    Sun Jun 26, 10:11:00 AM EDT


    More nonsense. Go read your Kant.

    Time itself and space too and the other categories are of our own mind's making.

    What we are is beginners here and there is always something more.

    "The dove flies through the darkness which is the being of God always receding" greg of nyssa

    dwr

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  14. Catherine Lavallee said...
    No one stands tall against the universe. Many think they do. We are here for a moment, a moment to know and then swept back into the matter that neither knows nor cares.


    Catherine..

    I respectfully disagree...

    Standing tall against the dust is the duty of human kind.

    To create heaven on earth, no matter how brief, no matter if it is remembered...

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  15. .

    Bob, glad to hear your daughter is ok.

    Less so about the Mustang but that must have hurt too.

    .

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  16. I think the privilege in life is to have lived at all, not for something unknown and unprovable, but for goodness sake and the satisfaction of achieviing some level of understanding. Parting is always sad but part we must. Does anyone know why? I would prefer to believe with conviction or maybe from fear that the show goes on but the overwhelming evidence is that it does not, at least in any form that retains our awareness or input.

    Still and all, we are damn lucky with all the matter and star dust that is out there, which has no way of knowing that we exist, we at least, know that it exists. That is not such a bad deal.

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  17. To create heaven on earth, no matter how brief, no matter if it is remembered… That is what I believe. Maybe I share the faith on that point with the Jews.

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  18. Not to be argumentative, but why i it that something written has a superior claim to knowledge?

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  19. I’m kind of stunned this morning. We are all New Yorkers! It hasn’t really sunk in yet. I didn’t really believe that it would happen. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that I wouldn’t allow myself to believe it would happen, because I’ve had my hopes dashed before. So, I knocked down a couple of rum-and-Cokes last night and went to bed before the vote.

    Imagine my surprise this morning. And then my next thought was, “Oh, crap! I have no idea how to plan a wedding!”. It’s not a life skill that I ever thought I’d need.

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  20. You must have had a good sleep. The bill was passed Friday. Let us know the link for your wedding registry.

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  21. Thanks Q. Couldn't care less about the Mustang (I looked the fool in it anyway :)) I care everything about my daughter who is sleeping well right now. Besides I must now buy a new car!

    "A human spirit once created cannot cease to exist" James Joyce

    "Mother of God!!" said Stephan Daedalus on the beach, when he first saw true beauty in that young woman.

    He found too that his truer father was not his biological dad but BLOOM heh! a Jewish older man he met in some bar.

    All there is Deuce I believe is books and conversation, and it is all metaphor, the mind's creativity which is ours from "something" !~ another metaphor.

    But experience is real, and so is love.

    "Death is different than anyone supposed, and luckier"

    walt whitman

    dwr

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  22. Perhaps something made from elk?

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  23. Yeah, I write all kinds of goofy shit. Kant ain't got nothin' on me.

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  24. Metaphor is the mind's way of making some sense of its own becoming.


    There isn't anything else. Math isn't gonna do it. The mind wants love, and will create it

    I'm thinking of introducing to the bar an old girlfriend of mine who has been married four times and wrote me the other day, getting me in trouble with my Methodist wife!

    I'm thinking she and Quirk might hit it off. We did talk all bout art
    and her husband just had a quadruple by pass surgery.

    We talked all about our respective daughters and she is knock dead beautiful.

    Quirk?

    dwr

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  25. yeah, Quirk; a little "cyber-romance." :)


    Bob, did anyone ever tell you you're an idiot?

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  26. Oh, btw, glad your daughter's okay.

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  27. Quirk don't ever listen to Rufus The Dufus.

    She is a man killer i'll tell you that and beautiful beyond desire and Las Vegas is just culturally speaking a suburb of Detroit.

    If it don't work out ship her off to Rufus but i'm not paying the handling fee and there will be one too

    dwr

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  28. She done put one man in the hospital with a quadruple bypass.

    I believe you better keep her.

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  29. speaking of dust...

    Some good news about global warming...



    On the occasion of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, marked on 17 June, a UN report entitled Desertification Challenge in Egypt revealed that Egypt ranked first in the rate of desertification. Egypt is facing a serious challenge in its swift loss of agricultural lands. According to the report, Egypt is losing its fertile lands faster than any other country. The report reveals that Egypt is losing 3.5 feddans of its agricultural lands every hour, the equivalent of 30,000 feddans per year due to urban spread- out and construction. This is an unprecedented record in the global rate of deforestation. (One feddan equals 4200.83 metre square, also 0.42 hectares).

    The report, authored by Ismail Abdel-Galil, the national coordinator for the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, stated that during the past three months -- after the 25 January Revolution -- the loss of fertile land has escalated to five feddans per hour due to the state of chaos and lack of security. "Egypt is losing thousands of fertile feddans formed through the accumulation of the River Nile's alluvium throughout the past thousands of years. This is almost impossible to be repaired due to the decline in land reclamations policies adopted by the government," stated Abdel-Galil.

    According to the report, the reduction of agricultural lands increases the food gap, thus leading to importing more food and agricultural products. This provides decision- makers with a hint about the likely increase in the import bill.

    The UN report also pointed out that this month there were 158,000 transgression cases on agricultural lands compared to 128,000 cases last month.


    Maybe the lesson here is instead of spending 3 BILLION a year (that's 3 thousand million dollars) on a bloated military, they could learn to plant trees and create forests and micro climates?

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  30. WiO---Rufua the Dufus is right on this. If you have ever been down to Nevada like I have you will see all sorts of naked sun bleached water lakes.

    If you go to the museums down that way, which is very beautiful to my mind, you will read all about all the old wonderful life forms.

    I love Nevada, cept Vegas ain't worth dead a cowboy's shit.

    dwr

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  31. WiO, I may have misread your last/

    I'm going to bed now, exhausted.

    dwr

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  32. My old girlfriend
    Would eat Deuce for lunch
    The hat and the moon too
    This wouldn't be
    Just an afternoon brunch
    It's just my hunch
    This would be
    A man eating lunch

    :)

    dwr

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  33. "we are all made from stardust."


    ( :

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  34. Why is it that it's only your site that shuts down my Safari unexpectedly?

    Only yours!

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  35. OK, Rat. I'll bite. Tell me the difference between what Jesus preached and what Paul preached. Paul being a Jew also, by the way and quite the Pharisee before he was struck blind.
    Go google something up for us.

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  36. Cause I radiate so much energy.

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  37. Rat don't know shit.

    "The words of a dead man are modified in the guts of the living."

    W H Auden

    There were so many different types of understanding of Jesus in the ancient world it would take me all day to list them.

    After much time a kind of catholic view got established.

    Hi Melody.

    We are indeed stardust.

    Joe Campbell would agree with you, but take it a little further, proly saying stardust is us.

    :)

    Might be a good name for a roadside cafe :)

    dwr

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  38. O Desert Piece of Living Scat I'll try once more, though the only thing you ever seem to do is oil your AK 47 and dream about old body counts of your dead.

    In HINDUISM there is a concept (that means thought!) that there is never mind without matter, nor matter without mind. And the mindless One rests in repose (a goddamned metaphor) "above" the play of the world.

    That is why I mentioned to Melody that it is a damned good question whether 'we are stardust' or on the other hand 'stardust is us.'

    dwr

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  39. An eight-year-old Afghan girl was killed when insurgents detonated a bomb in a bag which they had given her to take to police nearby, the interior ministry said Sunday.

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  40. You must remember one thing, Bob. There are some seriously deranged assholes of the Hindustani persuasion.

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  41. What is believed to be the only surviving authenticated portrait of Billy the Kid went up for auction in Denver on Saturday and sold for $2.3 million.

    ...

    "There's only one photo of Billy the Kid, and I think that's why it captivates people's imagination," she said before Saturday's auction.

    The tintype was auctioned off along with more than 400 other Western-themed items, including documents from Buffalo Bill's aborted divorce, Native American antiquities, and a painting from Andy Warhol's "Cowboys and Indians" series depicting a Navajo woman with a baby on her back.


    $2.3M

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  42. Easy, gag.

    Saul/Paul of Constantinople told the converts that Christ did not require them to follow the Torah. That they did not need to circumcise, nor eat kosher.

    Jesus of Galilee kept the Torah sacred.

    Major difference.

    Followers of Jesus, of Galilee, had to be Jewish.

    Not so for those converted by Saul/Paul.

    Saul being an agent of the Romans, Jesus being a revolutionary against them.

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  43. The "New Testament" not being the work of Jesus or James, but of the Roman Emperor Constantine.

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  44. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, in Cuba following emergency surgery June 10, is in critical condition, Miami's El Nuevo Herald reported yesterday.

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  45. NOW IN PAPERBACK --
    HOW JESUS BECAME CHRISTIAN


    Building upon the view that Paul – not Jesus – invented Christianity, Barrie Wilson demonstrates conclusively where and how this is so. Paul’s religion differed from that of Jesus and his first followers in terms of its origin, beliefs and practices.

    More provocatively, he demonstrates how this new religion became attached to Judaism, showing that the New Testament Book of Acts is a literary fiction designed specifically for this polemical task. Discussing how Christianity separated from Judaism by attacking not only Torah but the Jewish leadership, and its understanding of covenant, he exposes the real roots of Christian anti-Semitism.

    How Jesus Became Christian is noted scholar Barrie Wilson’s first book intended for a general audience. Reviews of the hardback edition have been outstanding. The Globe and Mail wrote, "Barrie Wilson has produced a significant and sensational work of scholarship. And it is truly religious dynamite.”The Canadian Jewish News recommends it as “one of the most important works to have appeared in recent years on Jewish-Christian relations.” The Boston Globe and the Times of London both said, "This book is certainly controversial." James Tabor, chair of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte wrote simply that it is "...beyond doubt one of the most significant works on early Christianity to appear in decades."

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  46. desert rat said...

    The "New Testament" not being the work of Jesus or James, but of the Roman Emperor Constantine.


    YOU ABSOLUTE DUMB SHIT YOU KNOW NOT A GODDAMNED THING

    dead wolf running aka bob for any new readers

    dwr

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  47. You don’t have to be paranoid to discern naked prejudice against Muslims and Jews in the opposition to ritual male circumcision. Sadly, perhaps reflecting their own neuroses, a small number of Jews have integrated the calumny and don’t want their sons to be subjected to the rite.

    Instead, they’d like to distort the practice by inventing artificial ceremonies that seek to eliminate the hallowed custom.

    Anti-Semitism not only endangers the lives of faithful Jews but also has the insidious potential to poison the minds of its victims.


    Circumcision and Bigotry

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  48. 1 Corinthians 14:34 women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says.



    Rat is the dumbest shit in the world.

    We all know that wasn't written by Paul but by some dude who wanted women "in their places."

    I used to quote this to my wonderful wife when the checkbook low or she was ticked over some matter.

    Rat you are totally illiterate
    Jesus, so an old story goes, may have scribbled a phrase or twp in sand.

    But the deeper meaning of this story "scribbling in sand" would be beyond your prosaic mind.

    My daughter is waking up.

    dwr

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  49. Why boob, you've told us that the Bible is just literature.

    Open to editing and revision.

    Emperor Constantine certainly had that done.

    Or the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, the Gospel of Judas and other Agnostic Gospels would have made the cut, at the First Council of Nicaea.

    The First Council of Nicaea exemplified the raw power of Constantine to shape Christianity.

    That Christianity was profoundly changed after that power was exercised, historical fact.

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  50. Why boob, you've told us that the Bible is just literature.

    Open to editing and revision.


    Obviously, you dumbest of all shits.

    And myth, which is reality

    Go oil the AK 47.


    You understand that.


    dwr

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  51. And Jimmy Carter was right, not you, he at least had an intuition of the meaning of the myth of Buffalo Woman, thou shalt not stare at women with only lustful desire.

    moron

    dwr

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  52. This quote exemplifies the common tactic, when boob or the Story of "o" come to a topic of disagreement, with me.

    When the law is against you, argue the facts. When the facts are against you, argue the law.
    When both are against you, attack the plaintiff. - R.Rinkle


    It is quaint.

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  53. Take the hour and listen to Mr Ehrman.

    Agree with him, or not.
    Faith, it does not change the reality of the Roman influences upon Christianity that came well after Jesus was on the cross.

    The Christianity of Constantinople and Rome was nothing similar to that of Galilee.

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  54. Emperor Constantine's 6 Major Changes to Christianity

    1. Constantine changed the place of the Resurrection of Christ.
    2. Constantine changed the time of the Resurrection of Christ.
    3. Constantine changed the time of the birth of Christ.
    4. Constantine changed the Scriptural method of becoming a Christian.
    5. Constantine changed the relationship of Christianity to the state.
    6. Constantine changed the headquarters from Jerusalem to Rome or Constantinople.

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  55. What was the biggest change to Christian identity after Constantine’s conversion and why?


    Once Constantine claimed to convert to Christianity, it was well on its way to becomming the state religion of the Roman Empire. His conversion is questionable since once he made the claim that he was a Christian he began to modify the Church to better reflect his personal beliefs.

    The trinity, mentioned above, is just one of the pagan concepts that became acceptable under Constantine.

    He also decided that people should stop worshiping on the Biblical Sabbath and begin worshiping on the day of his favorite diety, Mithra, the Sun-god, on the day of the Sun (Sunday).

    The heresies he introduced continued unabated until the original faith once delivered all but disappeared and due to it's political power a huge, powerful apostate church arose in it's stead.

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  56. Introduction: The Church Jesus Built

    Jesus Christ said that He would build His Church and that it would never die out. Is today's Christianity, with its hundreds of denominations with widely differing beliefs and practices, the Church Jesus promised that He would build?

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  57. Marada Movement leader Suleiman Franjieh said Sunday that his party would uphold its commitments to Lebanon’s diversity and to Arabism, highlighting the country’s right to resist Israel.

    Speaking at a meeting held to discuss the Marada Movement’s structure, Franjieh said his party would not takes sides with regional axes and supports a Lebanese model based on diversity and coexistence among all of its factions.

    “We do not support one axis against another and we are for a free Lebanon that embraces all religions and factions. We cannot see Lebanon controlled by one religion because this country can only exist based on consensus between all religions,” said the Marada leader.


    Commitment to Diversity

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  58. Constantine's Influence
    on Christianity


    The "Christianity" Constantine endorsed was different from that practiced by Christ and the apostles. The emperor accelerated
    the change by his own hatred of Jews.

    Constantine himself said, "Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd."
    -(Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3, 18-19, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1979, second series, Vol. 1, pp. 524-525).

    For example, at the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325), church authorities essentially replaced the biblical Passover with Easter, a popular holiday rooted in ancient springtime fertility celebrations.

    British historian Paul Johnson summarizes how Constantine's approach of merging religious
    practices produced a corrupted Christianity that meshed paganism with biblical elements.

    When we consider the vast differences between the mainstream Christianity of today and the
    original Christianity of Jesus Christ and the apostles, we can trace much of that change to
    Constantine and the religious system he put into power.

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  59. When we consider the vast differences between the mainstream Christianity of today and the
    original Christianity of Jesus Christ and the apostles, we can trace much of that change to
    Constantine and the religious system he put into power.

    ReplyDelete
  60. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  61. .

    When we consider the vast differences between the mainstream Christianity of today and the
    original Christianity of Jesus Christ and the apostles, we can trace much of that change to
    Constantine and the religious system he put into power.




    You make it seem as if this is something unusual. All religions evolve just as most of their myths are based on previous ones.

    Otherwise, why would you need priests, ministers, imams, and rabbis to 'explain' it all?

    There was one post you listed about 'hundreds' of Christian sects and denominations. I would probably challenge that as hyperbole, but with 2 billion adherants to Christianity you are going to find a menu of beliefs to suit everyone.

    The same can be said of most religions.

    .

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  62. .

    Your TSA at work.

    TSA forced woman, 95, to remove adult diaper for pat down, daughter says

    A Florida woman is reeling after her 95-year-old mother was embarrassed by having to take off her adult diaper at the Northwest Regional Airport while heading to Michigan.

    Jean Weber has alerted the Department of Homeland Security after her mother was ordered to take off the diaper in order to complete a pat-down search last weekend.

    Her mother, who is in the end stage of a battle with leukemia, was heading to Hastings, Mich., southeast of Grand Rapids, to visit her last living brother and other family members before possibly dying, Weber said.

    "At that time, all I could think about is why they are doing this to a 95-year-old woman who is in a wheelchair? She's in ill health and she just wanted to go home," Weber told The News from her home in Destin, Fla., Sunday afternoon...



    TSA:
    "We have reviewed the circumstances involving this screening and determined that our officers acted professionally and according to proper procedure."


    .

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  63. .

    Your TSA at work.

    I recently took an overseas vacation. In heading through airport security, I set off the metal detector. I start feeling my pockets and can feel the outline of a chapstick which I guess you would consider a gel. At any rate, the guy goes over me with a wand but never even touched my pockets. Never asked me to check them. Just waved me on through.

    I thought it a little odd.

    .

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