disoriented

Senator Larry Craig and the Minneapolis Airport

The dis-oriented is a conservative Republican. I could not help but notice the story about Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig being arrested for disorderly conduct in an Minneapolis Airport (MSP) men's room.

Craig was arrested for soliciting an undercover male officer for sex. Craig pleaded guilty this week to a misdemeanor charge in the case. After Craig's plea, his home state newspaper, The Idaho Statesman, broke a story about a man who claims to have had sex with Craig in a restroom in Washington DC's Union Station.

Craig is a Republican who has always stood for family values. He has been a vocal opponent of gay rights legislation. I believe that Craig should resign. Not because he is gay but because he is a hypocrite.

I am also a business traveler who travels through MSP almost 40 times a year and I had no idea that it was a gay crusing hotspot.

Reading coverage of the Craig arrest, I learned that he was arrested in a men's room stall by an undercover officer. Craig did not actually perform any lewd acts but according to the arresting officer, Craig used standard signals indicating that he was interested in sex.

Hmm... I wonder what those signals are? Apparently Craig xxx things:

1. tapped his foot
2. touched the officer's foot with his foot
3. reached under the stall with his hand — palm up
4. rubbed the bottom of the divider with his hand
5. blocked the door with his luggage

I guess I'll have to be careful next time I am in MSP. I have been known to tap my feet in the men's room while listening to my MP3 player. I also always block the door to the stall with my luggage. I am a big guy and there is no other place to put luggage in those tiny stalls.

So while I may tap my foot or block the door with  my luggage, I have never reached under the stall or rubbed the bottom of it palm up or palm down. And I have never even accidentally touched someone else's foot in the next stall. Apparently these signals are well known on gay cruising sites.

As an MSP traveler, I was curious, which men's room did the arrest take place in. The Minnesota Monitor pinpointed the location. It is the men's room in the main 'mall' area, from the description, I think it is near where the shoeshine stand is (or was).

I'll have to make sure I don't send the wrong signals, next time I am in MSP.

The Spy Next Door: The Extraordinary Secret Life of Robert Philip Hanssen, the Most Damaging FBI Agent in U.S. History, Elaine Shannon and Ann Blackman

The dis-oriented author has always been interested in national security issues. I remember distinctly when FBI agent Robert Hanssen was exposed as a spy. So when I saw Shannon and Blackman's The Spy Next Door on the library's new book shelf, I knew I had to check it out.

To me, Hanssen  doesn't seem to fit the mold of 'spy'. Hannsen is married and the father of six children. He is a devout conservative Catholic. And as a spy for the Soviet Union (and later the Russian Republic) he did more damage and cost more live than perhaps any other spy in U.S. history.

Robert Hanssen was a technical guy, perhaps a geek in an FBI agent's world. In the end, his position in FBI counter intelligence was the ideal posting for a spy. 

Hanssen was a man full of contradictions. On the exterior he seemed a devoted family man. He was a devout Catholic choosing to worship in a church that still celebrated the Latin Mass. He became involved with the Catholic organization Opus Dei. He attended mass daily for years yet he entered into a platonic relationship with a stripper. He used the monetary rewards of his spying to shower her with gifts. He shared explicit videos of his wife with a friend and wrote about his sexual fantasies on an Internet site.

As a spy, Hanssen worked out an arrangement so that his KGB handlers probably didn't even know his identity. Hanssen never seemed to demand much of the KGB.  His information had to be nearly priceless yet he asked for very little money.

The information he provided resulted in the deaths of several spies working for the United States. Thanks to a plea bargain, Hanssen is serving a life sentence in a federal facility and his wife receives his $38,000 a year FBI pension.

The Spy Next Door gets 4 of 5 dis-oriented smileys

Purchase The Spy Next Door  from Amazon.com.

Biking With My Son

RAGBRAI is an annual bicycle ride across my home state of Iowa. RAGBRAI is a seven day ride averaging 4-500 miles and each year it draws almost 15,000 riders.

I rode my first RAGBRAI in 1976 when I was young and riding thousands of miles a year. I rode RAGBRAI with my friends , we were all young and fast. Today I am a middle-aged out of shape father of eight. This year I decided to ride a day with my 11 year old son Jason.

It was one of the best days I have ever had on the bike.

Jason and I decided to Ride Thursday from Cedar Falls to Independence. The route was 62.9 miles and mostly flat. On the other hand the day was well into the 90's with high humidity. We started early and had a great ride. Jason quickly adopted to riding in a crowd and learned to get on and off the road safely while announcing his intentions to other riders.

I was on my newly triplized bike — a classic Bridgestone RB-1. My son was on his mountain bike. At about twenty miles, Jason was chomping at the bit and I sent him on ahead with some spending money to meet me in the next town. I took my time getting there. I stopped to take some pictures and buy a smoothie. By the time I got to the town, Jason was nowhere to be seen. We had agreed to meet at the entrance to the town.

Unfortunately, this was the town that everyone decided to party in. The place was packed, you had to get off and walk your bike because of the crowds. I walked through the town twice, looking for Jason and could not find him. We did not have a contingency plan so after about an hour and a half, I decided to move on.

I had stopped about three miles out of town to get some water and my cell phone rang. It was a message. Jason had borrowed a cell phone and had left me a message. I called back and the lady who answered said that she was no longer with Jason. She went out of her way to look for him. About twenty minutes later, she found him and sent him up the road to meet me.

Eventually he found me. By this time, it was getting late in the day and we rode to the next town to have lunch. I think the heat was getting to Jason because he wanted to quit. I talked him into continuing and we went down the road.

We only had about 13 miles left but 11 of those were into a headwind that seemed to be increasing. As we made the turn into the wind we started down the road known locally as Amish Boulevard. This part of Iowa has a large number of Amish farmsteads. As we rode we saw barefoot Amish kids all over and horses and buggies everywhere. By this time, Jason was dragging along so we stopped in an Amish farm and bought freezee pops. We must have spent an hour or more there in the shade. By the time we got on our bikes again, the winds had died down and the sun was behind some clouds.

As it got late, it was clear that the majority of riders had already passed by. But with the less wind and without the sun, we were re-energized and we took off down the road. As our destination neared, we rode faster and faster until we rolled into our destination.

Along the way, Jason was one of the younger riders. Some of the military riders gave him stickers, a pen and a set of dog tags. The ride was three weeks ago and he still wears the dog tags. He said it was the best day ever. The smile on his face in the photo says it all.

Next year, I would like to ride the entire ride with him.