A couple of quick things

First, Mrs Notthat is back in the Auberry Metro Area with the grandkids and the bonus of a miserable, raging cold. I told her she shouldn't breathe in any air I've coughed in, but she can be stubborn that way. I haven't heard much about how it is going up there, other than upon arrival they spied a bobcat casing the joint (probably scared away by Mika the Amazing Barking Machine) and that Riley has a knack for feeding goats. They all come home tomorrow and I can't wait. (There had better be pictures though!)

Second, I have often joked that it was a good thing that the shoe bomber, the guy personally responsible for us having to take our shoes off at the airport, did not pack explosives in his underwear.

Well guess what - now that's now been done by a moronic Nigerian on a flight to Detroit. I've heard no word that we will need to start removing our underwear at the security checkpoints, but I'm sure we are getting very close to complete strip searches at some point in the near future. (Seriously!) Apparently the current response is to force passengers to sit in their seats with nothing in the laps for the last hour of a flight. This is based on the sound reasoning that a terrorist will not think go into action at any point before this.

This makes no sense and just certifies my desire to never fly again unless there really is no other option (including paddling a canoe to Hawaii). I'm not worried about my plane going down - I'm just tired of the crap we have to go through to get on a plane; crap that almost nobody believes really does that much good.

This Nigerian guy's dad warned the US a month ago that they should watch out for him. The US thanked the dad and filed the info next to where it keeps other valuable things (like its conscience when it comes to useful health care reform).

Granted, the dad probably followed up the warning with an offer to make the US very wealthy if only it would allow him to temporarily transfer some funds from a failed failed business deal to their account for a few days.

That's it - move along...(and I'm really sorry if the "moving along" involves a plane flight for you)