tax evasion and airport security
I'm back. It was short but sweet. I failed getting arrested at the airport.
Let me explain: due to increased security regulations international travellers are required to be at least three hours early at the airport. The shuttle that I booked dropped me off four and a half hours before departure time, in order to be able to check in and pass all the security checkppoints and scans and customs procedures. The self-check-in took about five minutes, and so did clearing the security points. I did some duty free shopping.
I am not sure why they call it duty free, if you buy a pack of chewing gum the card tells you the price without tax, but after you agree to pay what the card says, they proceed to calcuate what it is actually going to cost you including tax. I managed to evade the tax twice. The first time was when I bought a PSP game for the superkid with what were then my last 50 dollars. When the clerk calculated the tax, I told him 50 was all I had, so he gave it to me without tax. Out of gratitude I gave him all my change, about 54 cents. Then I found four more dollars. I tried to get two packs of chewing gum, 1.99 each... ex. tax. In the preceding minute and a half I had totally forgotten about the tax again, (honestly! I scare myself. It's probably because I can never remember things that don't make any sense...) and so I got the two for 3.98.
At that point still three hours to spend before boarding. There was a bar. I decided to get a drink on my credit card. At the bar were two Americans from Michigan and another Dutch woman. The Americans were friendly and jovial and engaged us in conversation. They had not voted for Barack Obama. Before long I was in a discussion with one of them about 911, the documentary, and the incredible coincidence of there being a camera man on the spot in a perfect position to catch the first plane flying into the first of the twin towers on film... that same camera man being allowed to enter the burning building with a group of fire fighters... and all of these fire fighters re-emerging from their crazy mission alive, as if in a Disney movie.
He didn't even know there was footage of the first plane hitting the towers. I told him that I believe (a small number of people in) the American government had precise information of where these planes were going to hit, precise enough to get it all on tape and that instead of preventing the attack they made a propaganda movie about it that they used to start the war. I think I shocked him, and a lot of other people around us, by asking him if he thought the American government above betraying their own people. He admitted that he did not think that.
A bit later I realized that had this airport been in ...(pick one...) Morocco, I might not have left it the same day on my scheduled plane.
Let me explain: due to increased security regulations international travellers are required to be at least three hours early at the airport. The shuttle that I booked dropped me off four and a half hours before departure time, in order to be able to check in and pass all the security checkppoints and scans and customs procedures. The self-check-in took about five minutes, and so did clearing the security points. I did some duty free shopping.
I am not sure why they call it duty free, if you buy a pack of chewing gum the card tells you the price without tax, but after you agree to pay what the card says, they proceed to calcuate what it is actually going to cost you including tax. I managed to evade the tax twice. The first time was when I bought a PSP game for the superkid with what were then my last 50 dollars. When the clerk calculated the tax, I told him 50 was all I had, so he gave it to me without tax. Out of gratitude I gave him all my change, about 54 cents. Then I found four more dollars. I tried to get two packs of chewing gum, 1.99 each... ex. tax. In the preceding minute and a half I had totally forgotten about the tax again, (honestly! I scare myself. It's probably because I can never remember things that don't make any sense...) and so I got the two for 3.98.
At that point still three hours to spend before boarding. There was a bar. I decided to get a drink on my credit card. At the bar were two Americans from Michigan and another Dutch woman. The Americans were friendly and jovial and engaged us in conversation. They had not voted for Barack Obama. Before long I was in a discussion with one of them about 911, the documentary, and the incredible coincidence of there being a camera man on the spot in a perfect position to catch the first plane flying into the first of the twin towers on film... that same camera man being allowed to enter the burning building with a group of fire fighters... and all of these fire fighters re-emerging from their crazy mission alive, as if in a Disney movie.
He didn't even know there was footage of the first plane hitting the towers. I told him that I believe (a small number of people in) the American government had precise information of where these planes were going to hit, precise enough to get it all on tape and that instead of preventing the attack they made a propaganda movie about it that they used to start the war. I think I shocked him, and a lot of other people around us, by asking him if he thought the American government above betraying their own people. He admitted that he did not think that.
A bit later I realized that had this airport been in ...(pick one...) Morocco, I might not have left it the same day on my scheduled plane.
Ha Ha you are very funny. Narrated the incidents including ur shopping in an interesting way. :-)
ReplyDeleteRight you were! Obama is a blessing for the USA and also for the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteI hope your party in NY has been pleasant. :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you, yes the party was really fun. it was nice to meet all those people, that I don't know very well, they are very friendly and there is a really good atmosphere between them. I even danced but I do not really feel that I am a very good dancer. then again, most of us are not :-)
ReplyDeleteIt was really fun.
The tax thing? Why it's such a song and dance nobody knows. I think it's a plot to keep us all doing math and practicing our powers of ten.
ReplyDeleteThat was quite a conversation you had in the bar. Keep them thinking!
I have heard that version of the 911, :), you are quite daring to share it there.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard about this documentary. More info, please..
ReplyDeleteSMB, it is called "911 the documentary" by Jules (and Gédéon) Naudet.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was watching it, I suddenly started to think certain events were difficult to swallow, and when I Googled, I found this link, which has some suggestions and bits of information that to me rings a lot more true than the documentary seems to do.
It has been suggested that Jules and Gédéon are not even really French. They seem to have disappeared after this movie, strangely this little miracle they pulled off has not opened up a glowing career for these undoubtedly very gifted (or incredibly lucky) film makers. They can almost be said to have disappeared off the face of the earth!
Gee, thyme, that doesn't sound so lucky to me? Thanks for the info.
ReplyDeleteLucky in the respect that they were able to make the most spectacular movie of the century, and they got the events down from the very moment that first plane hit... which can not be a coincidence: it must either be the hand of God that steered them, or foreknowledge. Who sent them there, is the big question.
ReplyDeleteWe have had the same thing with taxes, I didn't understand at that time and I don't understand now. lol.
ReplyDeleteDo you believe there is some truth in the story that it was the government behind it all?
I don't but of course I can't be sure.
Depends.. what do you call government. Watergate has proved that in America the left hand doesn't necessarily know what the right is doing.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do believe that.