damn. link dead.

Jesus! That wasn't just any passenger, it was Tariq friggin Ali, a major literary and political figure!

This morning, flying out of SFO, the steel lace-grommets on my boots set off the metal detectors, as usual. The security guard wanded the boots, verified that this was just the eyelets, and then (not as usual) told me to take my boots off and run 'em through the X-Ray. When I balked -- who the hell wants to walk around on the dirty floor in their stocking feet, and besides, I have degenerative disc disorder in my lumbar, which makes keening and crouching unpleasant -- they singled me out for two --TWO -- pat-downs and another goddamned wanding. Nice to see that airport security are demonstrating their ability to identify credible safety threats.