Okay, so on one level, this article about a man who shipped himself from New York to Texas is kind of amusing. Wanting to save a few bucks, he somehow puts himself in a shipping crate, manages to survive two flights in cargo planes, then pops out of the box once he arrives at his parents house — at which point the surprised delivery man calls the police, who arrest the man on an outstanding warrant.
But, on another level — aren’t we supposed to have more stringent screening of airline flights, and what’s getting shipped around the country? While I’m sure they can’t x-ray or check every box that gets shipped around, it seems to me that this one might have had something about it that might have raised some questions. Apparently the guy had enough room to move in the box to use a prybar to open it when he arrived at his destination — wouldn’t that affect the balance of the box enough to catch someone’s eye while it was being moved around? I don’t know what all else, but it just seems amazing to me that this guy successfully did this, and that he’d have gotten away with it if he hadn’t opened the box while the delivery driver was still there.
We should have more stringent examination of things, but we don’t. That’s because Homeland Security has been underfunded since it began. We don’t have enough money to enforce security at our ports and within our country, but we sure as hell have enough to start a war somewhere, create (another!) hotbed of terrorism, and then demand 87 billion dollars to cover our asses as we give Bush’s oil buddies no-bid contracts and half-assedly attempt to create an infrastructure and a democracy in the meantime. All this while we “support our troops” – on the cheap.
grr.
You know, anymore I don’t really talk about these things on my blog. I see them pop up here and I think, yeah, I suppose that would be something to share – wouldn’t it? But anymore the only thing that surprises me is that the media and subsequently the masses are starting to pay attention to the bullshit that’s been going on for the past two years. To sit up, take notice, and get pissed. I say – It’s about time. Welcome to the club – the rest of the world has been waiting for you.
I can certainly understand that — I’ve been letting more and more stories like this pass by, too. This one just was somewhere between indignation that he got away with it, amusement that he was crazy enough to try it in the first place, and amazement that he survived (many cargo planes aren’t pressurized).
I’m sometimes amazed (in a good way) that people like Atrios and Kos don’t snap from the pure amount of shit that they post on their sites. Still, someone’s gotta do it…
Don’t they run dog’s past the cargo looking for drugs? Wouldn’t the dog say catch on?
And they can and do x-ray boxes that big? The border crossings from Mexico have x-ray machines big enough to x-ray an 18 wheeler as it slowly drives through so they can examine the cargo with out unloading the truck.
What a crazy world…