Where are We Going and Why are We Sitting in this Handbasket?

Saw a pointer to an article that's just too crazy to pass up. I've always been of the opinion that the creation of the Department of Homeland Security was a bad move for the United States. And if you've been watching the news the last few years, you've seen ample evidence for this position. Here's some more: recently, the DHS investigated a couple that was trying to be fiscally responsible and pay down their credit card debt. Sigh.

Here's another story that hits closer to home: When we were travelling to Colorado in January for a quick 10-day trip home, Lilja had a bathroom-related accident that required us to throw out the clothes she was wearing on the plane from Copenhagen to Chicago. Since we didn't have any spare clothes with us on the plane, we wrapped her in a blanket that SAS was kind enough to give to us and knew that we could retrieve clothes for her from our luggage as we passed through customs. Customs was its usual chaotic mess and we didn't want to miss our connecting flight to Denver, so when we eventually retrieved our luggage, we decided to grab Lilja's clothes, get through the rest of customs, get to our gate, and THEN get Lilja dressed.

As some of you may know, the International terminal at O'Hare is not connected to the domestic terminals and so you need to leave the secure area of the former and get on a shuttle that takes you to the latter. You then have to go through a security checkpoint again as you head towards your gate. Forcing a tired family, with two kids under the age of six, five carry-ons, two laptops, a stroller, and a car seat to go through a security check again after having gone through one at Aarhus and Copenhagen is cruel and unusual punishment in my opinion but that's another story. Anway, we arrive at the checkpoint with a blanket-wrapped Lilja in tow and after getting our laptops out, putting all of our stuff through the scanner, taking off our jackets, and removing our shoes, the attendant takes one look at Lilja and says "Uh, the blanket has to go through the scanner." We gave this guy a look that tried hard not to convey "You've got to be kidding me" (after all, you don't want to give these people any reason to detain you) and said "Our little girl is naked under this blanket, is there any chance we can keep the blanket on her?" He replied reluctantly "Uh, well, sure, but then we are going to have to do a pat down search of the baby." We couldn't believe it but agreed to the search (really we had no choice) and I'm happy to report that Lilja was found not to be a terrorist threat.

We were then allowed to gather up all our stuff, put our laptops in our backpacks, put our jackets and shoes back on, and try to salvage what remained of our dignity. Oh, and once we got to our gate, we could finally get Lilja dressed.

We live in interesting times.

Ken