One more reason it's not easy to live inside my head

This time I posted the reason to the buddhism community. Go on and have a look.

http://www.livejournal.com/community/buddhists/221841.html

My brain doesn't ever stop moving - not ever. I suspect ideas like this are its revenge for not having meditation time or something in which to quit running in circles. On the other hand, it is a fascinating prospect if you think about it or have read the original source material...

Staff meeting in 40 minutes.

Hate staff meetings. Hate hate hate. Probably going to grab pen or pencil and scrap paper, spend meeting scribbling chibis. Meeting comes w/lunch but lunch is generally pizza. Alternatives to pizza include salad and garlic knots, but the salad usually has chicken in and the garlic knots have cheese on, so I expect I'll be eating falafel again (I made way too much and have to use it up).

bah.

Will probably spend most of the meeting pondering Tolkien themes again. I fear last night's considerations and reading re-awakened the sleeping monster in my brain that drove me to read every single thing my library had with Tolkien's name on it - including every available volume of the Book of Lost Tales notes series, the Unfinished Tales, and the non-Middle Earth books like Smith of Wooton Major and Farmer Giles of Ham. oy.

Because...

... I have reached my limit on all the war news I can handle for today, and my limit on fear of what people are accepting as 'normal' because such acceptance is easier than thinking - on either side of the war issue, mind - because of this, I am not reading or watching any more war news today.

There is stuff going on in the world that doesn't involve Iraq. There's stuff going on that doesn't involve Korea. Hell, there's stuff going on that doesn't even involve the United States. And some of it's pretty fscking cool. Here, courtesy of BBC News Online:

South Africa's indigenous San peoples have signed a deal ensuring they will profit from a diet drug being developed from a plant they have used for generations. Under the terms of the agreement, the San people will receive regular fees as the drug - developed from a plant used to suppress the appetite - passes various stages on the way to market. They will also receive a proportion of the royalties if and when it becomes commercially available, which could be in as little as five years.

Well, hell, looks like I don't get to stop worrying after all.

ACLU email in my inbox about a proposed airport 'security' system called CAPPS II - Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System. According to the details they gave:

"According to the Transportation Security Administration, CAPPS II would involve two distinct phases. First, it would use private sector databases to gauge the likelihood that passengers are in fact who they say they are. Once this check is done, a deeper background search would be conducted using top-secret law enforcement and intelligence databases. This more invasive process would then result in passengers being assigned a color-coded threat level: green for minimal danger, yellow to trigger heightened security measures and red to signify an acute threat."

TSA wants the background search database responsibility to be in the hands of law enforcement/intelligence organizations, not the DoT. Yeah. That would be, oooh, out of the range of any kind of public oversight?

*growl*

Okay, TSA, YOU get to bear the brunt of my irritation at having shattered what little fragile psychological peace I'd managed to construct today. I am fscking SICK of people telling me that being screwed up the ass is good for me! Especially when there's indications that you plan on using 'private sector databases' that hold information like credit histories - what the HELL business is that of yours?

( So what did I do, you ask? I faxed my Congressbeings, all three of 'em. Here, this is what I wrote. )

Not exactly 'watch out for civilians' or 'quit harassing American Muslims', but dammit, it's at least something I can do.