I’ve got to stop using Morning Edition to wake me up–it’s worse on my blood pressure than coffee.

This morning they chose to do a piece on a new policy that American has come up with at some airports of separate expedited security lines for elite members. Maybe it’s just me, but this seems like an eminently-sensible solution to try to win back some of their most valued customers–the ones who, without which, they will surely go under. These people pay a lot of money for their tickets, or buy a lot of tickets. In return, they have always gotten comfier seating, better food, and better service, including their own line at the ticket/baggage-check counter. Under the current circumstances, in which the airlines are hemmorhaging money because many of these customers are now unwilling to fly due to security hassles, such an approach is an entirely natural extension of such service.

But of course our friends at NPR treat it as some kind of anti-democratic outrage, seeking out and interviewing brain-dead customers in long coach security lines to complain about how unfair it is, when we’re all supposed to be “equal” in America. “Why can’t they just get to the airport an hour earlier, like we have to?” one woman whines.

Now to be fair, they also interviewed a guy who said, common sensibly, “They pay the extra money, they get a shorter line.” But my question was, why was this even a story?

But anyway, to the degree that it is a story, they actually end up burying the lead, attempting to end it on an “upbeat” note. They tell us that when the system becomes federalized shortly, no longer under control of those elitists at American, we can be sure that such unequal treatment will come to an end…

Shockingly, the head of the Labour Party in the UK has penned (well, or typed–technology marches on) a piece in the Guardian entitled, “Americans Are The Good Guys Now.”

Remember the old aphorism about “a conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged”? I think that much of the western world was mugged three months ago…

The Grey Old Lady thinks that Fox News is doing well by doing… well, not good, but patriotic. The nerve of them, calling terrorists “terrorists.”

In other words, FNC is behaving like most news organizations did prior to Vietnam, and beating the competition in the ratings. How about that? Is this a great country or what?

If the Telegraph is to be believed, Mullah (“Cyclops”) Omar is now living out of his car.

No, really. The next step, after they repossess the car, is probably under a highway bridge with a shopping cart.

Gotta love it.

Apparently, it’s not just holdovers from the Clinton Administration who want to regulate air guns–some members of the UK Parliament wants to do it also, according to this article from Newcastle.

When we can’t put our eyes out with BB guns, the terrorists win.

Hmmmm, according to this story from Newsweek, Venezuela’s President Chavez isn’t just a Castro wannabe–he’s a certifiable fruitcake.

Hmmmm, according to this story from Newsweek, Venezuela’s President Chavez isn’t just a Castro wannabe–he’s a certifiable fruitcake.

Hmmmm, according to this story from Newsweek, Venezuela’s President Chavez isn’t just a Castro wannabe–he’s a certifiable fruitcake.

CCRM has their weekly outrage posted. It’s by Allen Pizzey at CBS from November 25th. According to Mr. Pizzey:

The Taliban claims infighting and excesses of the United Front prompted people in Kandahar and other ethnic Pashtun provinces to ask them to keep fighting. Considering that tribal warfare and its attended looting and lawlessness helped propel the Taliban to power five years ago, who is to dispute that some Afghans may consider their law and order form of Islam a better alternative? A lack of women’s rights, bans on music and other archaic laws may offend westerners but in many parts of Afghanistan such strictures aren’t that much of a step backwards.

Los Angeles reader (and web designer extraordinaire) Bill Simon makes an interesting point about the cultural change since 911.

I can’t believe my ears. I am hearing Christmas music and it is only the beginning of December! It is not just in stores, as one might expect, but KMZT is playing it. Then, while listening to “hold” music (as I was waiting for a company to pick up their phone), I was hearing, “Oh Holy Night.” KOST FM is playing holiday music all the time. Have you noticed this? It is as if September 11th not only awoke our sense of patriotism, but also the spirit that’s embodied in the Christmas holiday. I am 55 and I remember a time maybe 35-40 years ago when, for weeks before Christmas, the radio stations (like the original KRLA!) played Christmas music, intermixed with their top 40 tunes. But just a few years ago I couldn’t find Christmas music on the radio even on Christmas day! I am Jewish and I don’t have any religious ties to Christmas. But I missed the music and the feeling of the season it provided. It had gotten so bad that I had to go out and buy Christmas Carol CDs. Now the music is back and I LOVE it.

He also follows up the thought with this (particularly apropos in light of the loss of George Harrison last week):

An ice age is receding. The Grinch is gone. The Blue Meenies, in the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine,” have been defeated. The people in Pepper Land (who the Blue Meenies had turned to stone) are coming back to life. When I saw the look on the faces of the liberated Afghani people as they listened to music, danced in the streets, sang songs and flew kites, I couldn’t help thinking about the Blue Meenies. The Blue Meenies hated music, flowers, love, and laughter. And remarkably, liberating Afghanistan from the Blue Meenies apparently liberated us from them as well. Hurray!!!

Good analogy. And in thinking about it, this is really a classical story (and movie) theme. I happened to catch the end of the movie Tron last night, and it had the same thing–the evil Master Control Program was defeated, and all the lights slowly lit up, and the people of the computer world came out of hiding, and started celebrating. Or think Wizard of Oz–Ding, Dong, the witch is dead…

Life imitates art imitates life.