Comments for blog@

Comment on Why do men tell me things? by Sagredo

Sagredo — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:53:20 +0000

“On the other hand, I wonder whether it is that men simply spout off all the time, expecting other men to challenge them with counter-spouting-off if they hear something with which they disagree.”

This is actually the case for a good proportion of men. Also, I’m a little confused by the way you’re talking about “men” like you’re not really one of us? Despite your clarification…

Lots of men actually enjoy these sorts of group spouty bullshitty dick-waving sessions, perhaps as a bonding thing, and then that sort of becomes their default mode of interaction. And as it happens, lots of other men, like yourself, like it rather less. I think in an extraverted society that can sometimes count as a failure to perform socially in some sense in some situations. But it’s not usually considered a failure to perform maleness as such. Men who don’t like this kind of male bluster aren’t considered to be “not really men”.

Comment on Why do men tell me things? by The Use of Force | eitheory.com

The Use of Force | eitheory.com — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:53:57 +0000

[...] Why do men tell me things? (eriktrips.com) [...]

Comment on fly me. or not. by ozoozol

ozoozol — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 05:30:18 +0000

We (my partner and I) are driving up to Seattle from SoCal in December, for precisely the same reasons. We made the same drive last year as well. My partner sometimes doesn’t have choice about flying for business (oddly, to SFO), but if we do have an alternative, we take it. Amtrak is still good, for the time being, but not all that much different in price from flying.

You didn’t say what your travel window is — if it is for the “holidays,” we could carpool (serious offer) and you could use the months in between to determine that we’re not creeps, and vice versa. If it’s not, then I don’t have other solutions, but wish you luck in finding a way (Craigslist carpool query, maybe?)

Comment on fly me. or not. by eriktrips

eriktrips — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:21:19 +0000

@S Miller #5: The problem I have with going through the scanner, besides not wanting to be seen naked by strangers, is that my body is not only atypical but the TSA is overly interested in body parts that are do not appear to be made of flesh. Going through a scanner is very likely to earn me a “private” search in which it is possible that I will be asked to disrobe. At the very least I would have to show them what is in my pants. I am not going to do that, quite simply.

The patdown, although described as “professional” in most cases I’ve been told about so far, is stil invasive in ways that are triggering for someone with, um, strong boundaries. People touching me without permission freak me out. People touching me with “permission”–which it is now assumed I have granted by purchasing an airline ticket–also freak me out if they do certain things that another person might not even notice as possibly problematic.

So that is the short version of why the scanners are out of the question for me and the patdown is doubtful.

It is especially maddening that your current last name saves you the trouble of secondary screenings now. How many people with ill intent toward their flight mates has the TSA caught so far? Seems like zero is not a particularly impressive number for the scale of antics we are supposed to put up with. It is so much bullshit I do not even understand how the average traveler can swallow it all. But somehow, we do.

Comment on fly me. or not. by eriktrips

eriktrips — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:00:24 +0000

@Vicki #3: I can understand not wanting to think about it too much if you are going to fly soon. I do remember when the airlines gave you things like playing cards and “Junior Flight Captain” pins to us kids and a meal with every flight no matter how short. That kind of service disappeared long ago, but the state of flying now is absurd. The depths of our paranoia and our bizarre submission to security theater do not make a great deal of sense to me. Nothing can be made safe, and nothing we are doing is making flying any safer anyway.

But I could go on and on. I already did!

Comment on fly me. or not. by S. Miller

S. Miller — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 10:42:13 +0000

Flying has become increasingly frightening for me even though the experience itself has become less intrusive. I get nervous standing in those long lines and angry about all the personal freedoms given up for the sake of security theater. I do not feel safer now that I am not given secondary screenings now that my last name is less suspect.

I have not flown since the new screening measures have gone into effect.

My husband has. He said that you are through the new scanners before you even realize that is what you are in line for. From what people have been saying, opting for the pat down seems to annoy your TSA people more than going through the scanning machines.

Comment on fly me. or not. by vicki

vicki — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 07:46:33 +0000

i hate it that flying, with the search etc., is this triggering for you. but i’ll be flying cross-country so soon myself that i can’t fully engage with these thoughts — have to avoid thinking about the flights upcoming in order not to feel scared and panicky. (it used to be a pleasure to travel, when Pan Am and TWA treated you like welcome guests. sigh.)

Comment on fly me. or not. by eriktrips

eriktrips — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 03:20:38 +0000

Thanks, Jeanet. That’s helpful!

Comment on fly me. or not. by Jeanet

Jeanet — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 03:11:44 +0000

It is a big deal! I am pissed off for you, and myself and everyone.

Jeanet

Comment on Why we have ethical questions but not answers by Why we have ethical questions but not answers (via blog@) | Pilant's Business Ethics Blog

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 04:51:47 +0000

[...] As so many do, this post started as a reply to another post elsenet where a writer was quoted about something like the impossibility of an ethics of narrative or what is commonly thought of as postmodernity's most glaring problem: that of the relativism of its moral arguments, when it has any. Usually when I read the phrase "post-modern 'anything goes'" it is being written by someone in a field in which postmodern theory does not figure very larg … Read More [...]