Another small win for terrorism

It was depressing, but not really surprising, to see that all the bins had been removed from the train that I caught to work this morning. Since it's impossible to tell who runs what on the railways any more, it isn't feasible to ask anyone what their justification is for this moronic act, although I have no doubt that a mass of meaningless guff can be put out about "making customers feel safer". In fact it's a matter of "making customers' life less convenient and covering our own arses". Every facet of our life that we permit acts of terror to change, no matter how small, is a victory for terorism and a defeat for us. A pathetic bureaucrat probably made this decision to remove the bins without undertaking any rational thought whatsoever apart from "what if a bomb went off in a bin? Wow, then I might be in a bit of trouble". And so, bit by frightening bit, we lose.

I see that the US Department of Homeland Security is now under a new boss. It would be nice to think that my three-year tirade against that organisation, which was run with all the skill of a giraffes' limbo contest, had something to do with the change of tack, but I somehow doubt it. I particularly like the new concept of "trusted traveller" which, with luck, might end the farcical check after check after check that we currently have to go through when visiting the country. Perhaps frequent visitors to the US, who haven't blown the entire place up just yet, might even get their own immigration lane one day (kind of a "six visits or more" lane). But, well, that would be far too sensible, wouldn't it?