As Deb mentioned we spent the other day working though the Department of Homeland Security's Local Boater application process. With it, getting Kintala and her crew back into the US will be considerably less of a hassle. Basically it works by making sure we are "in the system", identified, finger printed, photographed, and issued another I.D. Number. This new number has been added to my Social Security number, Passport number, pilot's license number, and aircraft mechanic license number, all already stored in government files somewhere. I'm sure my new number, along with all the other numbers, will be cross-referenced (somewhere in the NSA's super computers – did you know they will probably get the very first quantum computer?) to my bank account numbers, cell phone number, cell phone numbers of people I have called and who have called me, user names and passwords, this blog, e-mail accounts, Internet browsing records, my training records for the years I flew (particularly after 9/11), the Coast Guard's paperwork on Kintala, all of my 1040s over the years, and probably a list of my High School detentions. (Long list, that one.)
Such effort on the part of the history's most powerful military / security apparatus, spender of literally trillions of dollars a year, and all to keep an eye on a middle-aged White Anglo Saxon ex-Protestant (WASeP?) who hasn't hurt anything bigger than a fly in several decades. Sometimes I wonder just who it was that sat in those committee meetings and decided that retired people living on sailboats were such a security risk. Then again, my guess is the powers-that-be have become so paranoid that every single person on the planet is now considered a security risk. It seems a lot of Americans have joined them in that delusion.
I'm glad I don't live that way.
Those that do can rest easy tonight; secure in the knowledge that S/V Kintala and her crew will not be bothering anyone. The Department of Homeland Security is keeping a close eye on us just to be sure.
Such effort on the part of the history's most powerful military / security apparatus, spender of literally trillions of dollars a year, and all to keep an eye on a middle-aged White Anglo Saxon ex-Protestant (WASeP?) who hasn't hurt anything bigger than a fly in several decades. Sometimes I wonder just who it was that sat in those committee meetings and decided that retired people living on sailboats were such a security risk. Then again, my guess is the powers-that-be have become so paranoid that every single person on the planet is now considered a security risk. It seems a lot of Americans have joined them in that delusion.
I'm glad I don't live that way.
Those that do can rest easy tonight; secure in the knowledge that S/V Kintala and her crew will not be bothering anyone. The Department of Homeland Security is keeping a close eye on us just to be sure.
1 comment:
We went through all that bullshit going to Canada and back by sailboat. Insanity. They do take it seriously though as we had one friend who failed to clear back into the states and had troopers and DHS at his doorstep a week later. He almost lost his boat.
We have to do the same thing next week. You would think they could use the existing info on record but no, you have to fill out everything again and get fingerprinted for the 20th time.
P
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