Delta Airlines doesn't want my business

A few days ago, John Stewart had a piece on the "War on Women" and showed a graphic of a nativity scene in between a woman's legs (the "vagina manger"). Bill Donohue, the head of the Catholic League, nearly had a heart attack and demanded from the sponsors of The Daily Show to pull their ads. Delta Airlines decided that one religious person's point of view is more important than that of others and pulled their ads. I, a Delta frequent flyer (even had status with them last year), didn't like the company giving into one religious person's point of view and let them know my feelings. What I got back was less than satisfying:

We’re always reevaluating our advertising opportunities and updating our strategy in an effort to reach our desired audience.  Most importantly I want you to know, Delta culture is one of inclusiveness and we do not discriminate nor do we condone discrimination in regard to age, race, nationality, sexual orientation, religion or gender.  As a global airline, Delta has historically been very committed to diversity and we are proud to embrace diverse people, thinking, and styles. Our commitment to diversity is highlighted on delta.com:

 Looks like Delta's policies don't exactly match Delta's actions. They just chose to side with a religious nut rather than embrace the inclusiveness that they strive for. They decided that the religion, thinking and style of Bill Donohue is more important than that of John Stewart, The Daily Show and their audience. Sorry, Delta... you've lost my business (and got added to the list).

TSA all over T&A

With all the traveling for residency interviews, the ever-increasing invasion of privacy that is the TSA is starting to become more than just an annoyance. They either get to get to look at you naked (via a body scan) or perform a "heavy" pat down (i.e. grope your genitals... or in some cases, cause your urostomy bag to spill urine all over you). A lot of people are afraid of radiation exposure with the body scans, but (based on how little radiation is emitted by X-rays that can actually see your bones) I'm not so worried about that (though I wouldn't go through them if I were pregnant or had any chance of being pregnant). It's more the invasion of privacy. The government has no right looking under everyone's clothes. It's humiliating and unnecessary. The other option (being groped) is no better. But, if someone is going to take away my dignity, I may as well make them do some work. I'm a little disappointed that the planned pre-thanksgiving protest of refusing to be scanned (and thus, backing up the security line) didn't pan out, but I plan on getting to the airport early just so I could make those useless TSA agents get off their asses and work. Also, I plan on getting them to change to new gloves (who knows how many other people's genitals they've groped with the same glove?).
This is even more upsetting because it really doesn't do much to prevent a terrorist. It's all a show that isn't impressing anyone. It's much easier to do all the work behind the scenes from the moment a passenger books a ticket, but I'm sure the government is afraid that people will think that they aren't doing anything to keep them safe. I'm glad that people are finally starting to protest, but, like with all other steps TSA has introduced, (take your shoes off, no water, etc.), I have a feeling people will fall in line, because it's just easier to.

The Intolerant Neutral Planet

The recent, blatantly racist Swiss vote banning the building minarets is upsetting, but, to me, not surprising at all. This is coming from a country where the ruling party's banners featured three white sheep kicking a black sheet off a Swiss flag with the words "For our security" under it. Although, as a non-white person, I have been subjected to subtle racism before, Switzerland is the only place where I experienced overt racism and the only place where I felt uncomfortable.
Here's my experience. A few years ago, I was at a conference in Germany and afterwords, since I'm into mountain climbing, I decided to make a short trip to Switzerland. I took the train from Frankfurt to Basel and an hour before we got to the Swiss border, I see three border guards enter my train car, talk into their radios and headed straight to me (the only brown person in the car). They asked for my passport. I showed it to them. They then asked to search my bags. Went through both my bags. I had a poster from the conference and they asked to open the tube and took out the poster (tearing it in the process). They then asked why I am going to Switzerland, for how long, who I'm staying with, whether I'm looking for a job, what kind of work I do, etc. They asked me to prove to them how long I'm planning on staying in Switzerland. I wasn't sure how to do this. Eventually, showing a print out of my return flight worked. After 45 min, they let me go and left (no questions to anyone else in the full car). Meanwhile, the entire train is staring at me (the presumed terrorist).
Things didn't improve once I got to Switzerland. Everywhere I went, I got a suspicious look. Especially in stores (every store), where the employees followed me throughout the store (to make sure I wasn't stealing anything, I guess). I started playing a game with them, where I would walk around in circles in the store and watch them follow me, to see how many laps I could make them do.
I was surprised that a country that I've always seen as so benign (so neutral) could be so hateful towards others. I suppose Switzerland's "neutralness" is really a manifestation of it's isolationism and xenophobia.



Zapp Brannigan:

With enemies you know where they stand but with Neutrals, who knows? It sickens me.

Ou se trouve le gerbille hôtel?

I wouldn't mind going to a rodent-cage themed hotel, but the hamster costumes kind of creep me out.

Getting away is fun

I just got back from a few days in England. It was nice to get away (although, I didn't totally get away since I gave a research talk - one in which I got viciously attacked on some minor points). What was really nice was getting away from the news. I think it's good for me to pay less attention to all the craziness in the world... I will try to avoid it as much as possible from now on.

Oh, and for your entertainment here are some signs that may not have the same meaning in American English as British English:

In Windsor, near the Queen's home

In Hackney, London (voted the worst place to live in the UK)


In Oxford (No, I didn't try it - I was afraid of what 80% meat entails).

Fuel Surcharges

When a barrel of oil went up to $150 this summer, all the airlines started adding extra "fuel surcharges" of tens to hundreds of dollars. For example, the actual fare for a flight from New York to London could be found as low as $160, but with $350 in fuel surcharges and another $50 in various airport fees, all of a sudden you're paying almost $600. Now that oil is less than $50, you'd think they'd drop those fuel surcharges, but I still see them. I know that airlines are suffering from the recession, but it's a bit dishonest of them to have ridiculously high fuel surcharges when when fuel no longer costs that much. They should be honest and just raise fares.

On the pleasant side, I just filled my tank for less than $20 (it was $60 only 3 months ago).