Travel News from msnbc.com

Here's the latest news from the mainstream viewpoint, includes a story about a man with a urostomy bag having a humiliating experience during a TSA pat down, videos, and a list of all the U.S. airports now offering the new enhanced security.

Does anybody else remember how fun it used to be to fly? People had huge parties at the airports, meeting arrivals and seeing people off was normal for Americans. I tended bar at both major Alaskan airports so I know airport bars were our old social hubs, even for people traveling with children. Then the communitarians came along and started regulating Americans' public drinking and smoking and eating and in my opinion, it's all gone straight downhill from there. I believe that when we allowed trained facilitators to tell us what was bad for us and allowed them to press their opinions into law, we gave up our adulthood and became wards of Big Mother. If our neo government has the power to tell us how many drinks we can order in one night, then why would we expect to be able to say we won't pull our pants down if we need a spanking?

Seems like all kinds of horror stories about tsa harassment that happened over the past eight years are being revived for recently planned "opt out" days. I read a new old story every day. Makes me wonder what it would have been like if the Germans and Italians had internet in the 30s and we moderns had all their blogs and facebook pages to study for similarities.

It's kind of weird but I'm getting regular hits on the TSA job post I made of the local craigslist ad for Anchorage Airport TSA testers, from people looking for information about how to apply. Is it ethical for me to trick unsuspecting people into coming to my blog?

TSA pat-down leaves traveler covered in urine
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40291856/ns/travel-news

SNL TSA spoof http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joIxWcFO3bY

Song/video: Don't Touch My Junk (with a blatant pitch for Alex Jones embedded in the script) http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/70298.html

Thanks to Connie for finding these links!

American Yurts for American Homeland Security?

At Homeland Security, No Money Left Behind

By Dana Milbank

Wednesday, April 12, 2006; Page A02

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/11/AR2006041101397.html?sub=AR

"Vendors at this week's homeland security convention have the answer for any catastrophe. They will sell you body armor, vehicle barriers, nuclear detectors, manhole-cover locks, unmanned helicopters -- and Kyrgyz yurts."

Why didn't Milbanks mention American Yurt manufacturers, like Spirit Mountain, Rainer, Pacific, Nomad Shelters, etc? Mongolian gers are lovely, but hey.. we make them here in the good ole USA too. Maybe the Department of U.S. Homeland Security would prefer to use U.S. tax dollars to purchase U.S. made products for U.S. disaster victims. Plus, Milbanks' article says a 14 foot high yurt is $10,000 (which tells me nothing of the floor space) and U.S. made 14 foot yurts start around $5000.00 (and of course emergency GERTEES can be made out of scraps and a couple hundred bucks).

GERTEE December 21, 2007.. still standing!

Nord and Freddie waiting for the fire to get going.

Our woodstove burns out after about 4 hours. Now we just learned that a smaller stack, like a 3 inch wide one, would make it last TWICE as long!!! Funny how many things there are we still don't know. We can't wait to try the battery idea we learned from the Mad Hausers, and now Daniel's working on a design to bring cold air in to feed the fire through an "ice box" that makes an inside freezer/fridge. Like Nord said the first time she saw me modify the tent over in Hannsville, WA, "Wow, necessity really is the mother of invention, huh mom?"

I'm getting some notes together for "cooking on a woodstove" since so many visitors are coming in for that search. Seems I'm not the only person who wants to know how it's done. I do all my baking in metal stovetop containers, and I think it's a good thing to know how to do. But, my dream is someday I'll have a real wood cookstove in our cookshackgertee, and I'll fill Gerteeville with the smell of baking bread and cookies! It's been just too cool to look at this gertee through Nordica's eyes, and her contributions to organizing an 18 foot wide space to accomodate 2 adults and one child are invaluable. This is both of our first time living in one, and we absolutely love it in spite of the freezing mornings (which happen to people with cabins and houses too.. duh) . We really had to spend time inside it to know how it wraps around you like a mother holding a child.

We've found a local interior designer, she's a daughter of a great gal I worked with at Tonsina last year, and we can't wait to see what kinds of fabrics and sewing ideas she brings. The idea of GerTee is to encourage people to become inspired by the simple, ancient way to design and make their own space, and lately we've seen a lot of interest in the concept.

It's "sustainable."And, for those who are wondering, a fully equipped (plumbed to code and elect, etc) yurt is approved by HUD. Ger/yurts/GERTEES can be anything from an overnight playhouse-tent to a luxurious full scale home with ALL the modern amenities. The KEY is you can build one based entirely on your budget. Gers can be made from ALL scrap materials if necessary, just look at the pictures of disasters, see all that scrap lumber, windows, doors and curtains laying in heaps.. much of it that's not too water damaged is useable.

Nord wants to design a kid's gertee with rainbow roof beams and padded walls and floors. I want a grandma gertee with lots of room for sewing projects. What kind of gertee do you want to build? We're building gravel tent pads on the back part of the property this spring for our friends who want to come up this summer and build their own. Come visit us in GerTeeville. We'll show you how to make a 14 footer to take home with you for under $500. If there's a lot of interest I'll plan a building seminar-music and arts festival for late August, 2008. We'll open the first live Primitivwerks Bazaar and invite handcrafters from around the world to come show us how to make things. We're into it.