The night was alternatingly clear and cold, and spitting down rain. Most of the trees and branches from last night still litter the parking lots, but the lakes have diminished in size. For the second night, I had to stop at a new checkpoint before entering the campus of a certain well-known company that, amongst other things, manufactures weapons. I had resigned myself to having to stop at the damn thing every night from now on, but I figured I'd ask the guard if it was a permanent checkpoint. The answer: no, only until the weekend. Why? Because (guard's opinion) government inspectors are checking the company out and the extra security measures are just there to make the company look good.
Why is it that people, or conglomerations of people, only go that extra mile when they are being watched or think they are being watched? This is where threatening to punish your children backfires. It teaches kids to be sneaky. They focus on not getting caught rather than on changing the behavior. The threat of punishment doesn't teach children to do good because it is the right thing to do - it teaches them to do good because if they don't, somebody more powerful than them is going to do something bad to them. Then they grow up and become the heads of weapons manufacturing companies and only have tight security when they are being watched by somebody more powerful than themselves.
I'll now quote a line from one of my favorite films: "I am filled with confidence."

Of course, to be fair, this whole rant is only based on the opinion of one security guard. Maybe there's some sort of specific threat that made the extra security necessary. This doesn't make me jump for joy either. Why don't these companies make place mats or aquariums or something? Nobody would care if those got stolen, and they wouldn't have to hire all of these extra people to watch over them.

cds I listened to while once again swerving around debris: Godspeed You Black Emperor! "live at the Mercury Lounge, NYC, 11/6/99", Bathory "Nordland 1", Do Make Say Think "s/t", Tone Hulbaekmo & Hans Fredrik Jacobsen "Langt Nord I Skogen", and Kalenda Maya "Pilegrimsreiser"

now: Coil "Queens of the Circulating Library"