Ah, the joys of being a reader in a non-reading world. In the near future (if it hasn't already occurred), titles of every book purchased with a credit card will be appended to our permanent records, and depending upon what books those are, a copy will also be appended to your travel papers to enable some clueless TSA official to harass you.
Anyway,
was apparently reading a scary enough book on a plane to get noticed.
HENRY ROLLINS.COM
I just got a letter from a nice woman who told me the man I sat next to on the flight from Auckland to Goldcoast Australia reported me to the Australian Government because of the book I was reading.
“I hope this finds you before you leave Australia as I think its something that won’t surprise you but might give you a smile when you are sitting in a hotel room. I work in one of those Government areas that deals with anti terrorism matters. A fine service is provided but unfortunately we get to read a lot of things submitted by lunatics. The Australian Government set up the National Security Hotline to report terrorists.
The person who sat next to you on the flight from New Zealand does not agree with your politics or choice of reading and so nominated you as a possible threat. As they were too cowardly or stupid to leave their details I can’t call them to discuss their idiocy with them.”Interesting that he and I exchanged nothing but polite hellos. I was reading Ahmed Rashid’s book
Jihad: The Rise Of Militant Islam In Central Asia
He’s a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and the book is on the Yale University Press. Didn’t Bush drink beer at Yale? Didn’t he not seem to learn much at Yale?
Of course I wrote the nice lady back.“I was reading a book called Jihad by Ahmed Rashid which is a history of Central Asia. I didn't speak to the man next to me past how do you do. I think Ahmed Rashid is published by Yale University Press. Bush's alma mater. Please tell your government and everyone in your office to go fuck themselves. Tell them twice. If your boss is looking for something to do, you can tell him I suggest he go fuck himself. Baghdad's safer than my hometown and your PM is a sissy. You have a nice night.”I really don’t take kindly to that kind of shit. I like it though. Love it. Confrontation. Tension. Adversarial relationships. More please. It’s the only time it gets real.
(via James Wolcott, who linked to this story)
Tags: Books, /civil_liberties
