esrosedotblog

GRIM AND BARE IT

Our passports run out this year. While it is not likely that I will be leaving the country, it is always good to have some mobility. Suppose the worst case happens in the next four years? I will need it.

You can do it all in the mail now. The forms are on line. You send the old one in with photos and they send the new one back. I am sure that this is only for renewals. In fact I am surprised that, in these red alert times, they even let you do it by mail.

There is one new step though. I guess that it has been taken to thwart terrorism. I am not too sure about the theory behind it. You are not permitted to smile in the passport photo any longer. This news was delivered just before the flash: "Don't smile!"! It sure is effective. I not only did not smile I look absolutely scared in the photos.

I guess the thing here is to set a tone. Homeland security is a serious business. (Boy, I hate that H-word. The Nazis used it; as do all dictatorships. It drips with xenophobia).

Anyway, none of us should be smiling in our pp pictures. And not only that, what are we thinking? That we would be smiling at the immigration officer?

What will happen if we come across the borders laughin' and scratchin'? Will we be admonished? Strip searched. Held in solitary? Sent to an undisclosed location; another country that has no laws against torture?

Well forget that. We now trump any other places as far as twisting the nuts is concerned.

Anyway, wipe that fucking smile off your face. This is the future. Totalitarianism is a serious business. Our leader sets the tone, the humorless bastard.