Flying friendlier skies: the nude option

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A new way to speed the line

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My Washington contacts in the Obama Administration indicate that when it comes to your flying safety and convenience, current brainstorming is definitely "outside of the box."

The "roll out date" is uncertain -- given the political delicacies involved.

However, the promotion code for the new policy is already set: "LCMS" for "less clothes; more security."

Here is the current thinking:

Fliers will be given a choice.

Those who choose the "nude option" will, after disrobing, be scooted through security at a breathless pace.

They will quickly take their places on plane seats where they will be covered only by transparent "blankets."

This will allow crew and other passengers to maintain constant surveillance for anything suspicious in bare passenger behavior.

At the first sign of suspicious action both passengers and crew will be positioned for an instinctual preemptive lunge.

All those choosing the nudist option will be required to sign a good behavior pledge assuring that prudent -- not prurient -- surveillance of other passengers will be motivated purely by security concerns.

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Those of a more prudish, less nudist nature will suffer the consequences.

Far more waiting, far more delay.

Those who reject the nude option will face an exercise in "behavior modification" -- an alternative to the "nudist track." See below:

An alternative to the "nude track"

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Thorough, full body pat downs by security personnel in hopes that more and more of the folks who find this disconcerting will be induced to choose the less touchy-feely option: a quick dash through security in the nude.

Those who enjoy the full body pat down may, of course, suffer a more pleasant flying experience.

Administration officials are aware this could all backfire -- if too many travelers find this security massage so relaxing that many, many choose the slower pat down option over the faster full nude flight mode.

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Checking with care

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A "flier in the ointment" is how to handle the crucial lavatory challenge.

How to prevent these largely unsupervised solitary episodes from becoming nightmare havens for inflammatory action by would be saboteurs.

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Portable potties in history

One option, still in the "brainstorming phase," is to replace passenger lavatory visits with traveling portable potties rolled down the aisles by "hospitality workers" summoned on passenger demand.

This bares thinking.

Life on the other side: the "Soggy Mountain Boys"

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"A Picture of Life's Other Side" is nicely brought to life by the movie "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?"

These videos tell it all.

As the World Turns: say "bye bye" to being on top?

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Is American world dominance a thing of the past?

Is the Obama Administration's aggressive forward strategy to stabilize and reshape Afghanistan a glamorous, quick flashing cover for an over extension, then a lessening of American power?

Will China match or even win over American power?

Anyone can have an opinion.

Let's hear one.



Geopolitical strategist Parag Khanna suggests that three centers of competing but cooperating power are emerging.

His argument emerges in his volume The Second World: How Emerging Powers Are Redefining Global Competition in the Twenty-first Century, Random House, February, 2009

Read Khanna's provocative views directly in this New York Times article, "Waving Goodbye to Hegemony," March 6, 2008.






Here is how Publisher's Weekly summarizes his thinking:

Khanna, a widely recognized expert on global politics, offers a study of the 21st century's emerging geopolitical marketplace dominated by three first world superpowers, the U.S., Europe and China.

Each competes to lead the new century, pursuing that goal in the third world: select eastern European countries, east and central Asia, the Middle East Latin America, and North Africa.

The U.S. offers military protection and aid.

Europe offers deep reform and economic association.

China offers full-service, condition-free relationships.

Each can be appealing; none has obvious advantages.

The key to Khanna's analysis, however, is his depiction of a second world: countries in transition.

They range in size and population from heavily peopled states like Brazil and Indonesia to smaller ones such as Malaysia.

Khanna interprets the coming years as being shaped by the race to win the second world—and in the case of the U.S., to avoid becoming a second-world country itself.

The final pages of his book warn eloquently of the risks of imperial overstretch combined with declining economic dominance and deteriorating quality of life.

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And here is how The New York Times Book Review puts it:

"No shots will be fired. Instead the three imperial rivals will woo and coerce, relying on distinct styles.

The United States offers military protection, along with the promise of democracy and human rights.

The European Union dangles the prospect of membership in, or affiliation with, the world’s most successful economic club, provided that applicants undertake specific reforms.

China talks trade, investment and infrastructure projects, with no annoying demands for political reform in its would-be client states.

“To a large extent, the future of the second world hinges on how it relates to the three superpowers,” Mr. Khanna writes, “and the future of the superpowers depends on how they manage the second world.”

Yes, "size can matter" in the search for hegemony

Keeping things in perspective....

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When reporting "a picture of life's other side," some topics can be more senstive than others.

One of them is size.

We all know of the perennial debate -- raging from the bedroom, to the water cooler, to the therapist counch, to the talk show, to the battlefield: "Does Size Matter?"

Please don't dismiss this as just "girl talk."

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Size has been raised by President Barak Obama -- during his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize at Oslo, Norway, December 10. 2009.

He most delicately addressed the issues of what your benefits and obligations are when you are really big -- the world's only military superpower.

It has become increasingly clear that although Obama talks of early withdrawal from Afghanistan, his great power policy seeks American hegemony in the Afghanistan area -- to a far greater degree than did President Bush.

Do military superpowers really have more fun?

Or do they just get all tied up in knots?

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Men and women have been caught up in these discussions for centuries.

How big is "big enough?" How big is "too big?"

Can "too big" make you the "odd man out?"

Can "too small" leave you rejected, laughed at?

Can "too big" win you enemies by making you vulnerable to a kind of "big penis jealousy?"

(All of these questions assume you are a man. If you are a woman, please translate to match your gender).

Some therapists will advise you that a good way to answer these questions is "to talk to your partner."

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Fortunately satirist, writer and clergyman, Jonathan Swift has symbolically dealt with these questions in his "Gulliver's Travels," 1726.

In this classic, size proved a double-edged sword.

Let Wikipedia tell the story.

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On his first voyage, Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck and awakes to find himself a prisoner of a race of people one-twelfth the size of normal human beings (6 inches/15 cm tall), who are inhabitants of the neighbouring and rival countries of Lilliput and Blefuscu.

After giving assurances of his good behaviour, he is given a residence in Lilliput and becomes a favourite of the court.

Gulliver assists the Lilliputians to subdue their neighbours the Blefuscudians (by stealing their fleet).

However, he refuses to reduce the country to a province of Lilliput, displeasing the King and the court. Gulliver is charged with treason and sentenced to be blinded.

With the assistance of a kind friend, Gulliver escapes to Blefuscu, where he spots and retrieves an abandoned boat and sails out to be rescued by a passing ship which safely takes him back home.

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A global intellectual analysis with

analytical detachment

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Today, too, size can be a double-edged sword.

As the world's sole superpower, the U.S. can feel obliged, pressured, entitled to roam the world to subdue its enemies.

But even when they are small, they can sometimes tie one down.

And the bigger you are, the easier it can be for them to find some way to bind you down.

So how to break free?

To make size once again an asset which wins you friends and gives others enjoyment?

Remember, the biggest guy doesn't always win.

The bigger the guy, the harder he can fall

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One answer is to use a big head -- to think things through.

For size unguided can backfire.

There is nothing like using one's intelligence.

Time to date again -- in Afghanistan?

"They got some pretty little women there...and I'm a gonna' get me one."

It's a sentiment easy to understand -- especially if you like women in body armor.

Not all of these helicopter pilots
are in standard body armor

Let's remember all is not dark in "A Picture From Life's Other Side."

So if you are tired of trying your luck on "E-harmony" and "Matchcom," why not try something a bit more earthy -- or shall we say "sandy?"

Try your luck in playing your hand in the "Great Game" -- where great powers and small chieftains have wrestled with caravans, tanks, and humvees for centuries.

Today many who play in the "Great Game" are women.

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Well, there may not be that many ready and available...and, yes, I am a bit senior for those out there in civilian or military capacity.

Let's face it, a growing number of American and European women serve in the military -- and in civilian Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT).

(Not to be confused with PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is something some combat people bring home with them from Afghanistan).

In Afghanistan there are women to meet

U.S. women Marines
engage Afghan women

Let's remember there are exciting jobs available out there in Afghanistan -- as the U.S. seeks to mediate, administer and protect local development.

Men and women of an adventurous nature have ahead of them exciting and challenging cultural and professional experiences which will enrich them for the rest of their lives.

And the money isn't bad.

Just keep nearby the helmet and the body armor.


Indeed the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are currently advertising for new recruits for temporary positions at $70,000 to $155,000 a year.

Check this USAID page for more detail on Provincial Reconstruction Teams.

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There are issues:

Are the PRT's under U.S. military protection and leadership economic development tools militarized and Americanized and -- thus made more vulnerable to Taliban attack?

Can new forms of PRT more independent of the military be developed without being vulnerable to Taliban attack?

Are these PRT's compromising the role of non-government organizations (NGO's) as neutral humanitarian organizations protected from military attack?

Here's wishing you a non-scary Christmas season

Keeping things in perspective....






When it comes to Christmas greetings, we're definitely talking "a picture from life's other side."

Here in North Carolina, we note the changing of the seasons by reaching out to friends and neighbors -- and even to you on the internet...

We send you our warmest wishes for a non scary Christmas season...

Child of the North..at home with Ms. Tawdry

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It's hard to improve on this portrayal of my life.

Banjo picker, punk rocker, a child of the North, snuggling comfortably in the South....

Ah, 'tis truly a picture from life's other side.

However, I do not know Ms. Tawdry.