Temperature rising

No, it has not quite hit Farhenheit 451 yet, but hotted up security in UK airports now have banned books -- not all books, just certain scary ones -- and will confiscate particular offending materials, as proscribed by ... well, it's not quite certain who exactly is making these insane-based decisions.

Craig Murray has related that someone intending to bring Murray's book, Murder in Samarkand, on his flight had it confiscated by airport security:

“Is that about terrorism?”, asked the lady that examined my onboard luggage. “Humm, well, it contains mentions of that, but it’s about your former ambassador to Uzbekistan and more about diplomacy”, I replied politely. “Does it have al-Qaida in it?” I looked a bit confused. “What?” - “Well, I have to check this with my manager, the rest of your stuff is fine, though.”

The manager then came after a minute or two. “Hello Sir, can you tell me about this book?” “Sure, it is about Craig Murray, former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan.” “Where, if I may ask, did you buy this book?” - “Well, it is available at any Waterstones here in Britain. I just bought my copy in the Angel branch yesterday.”

“I am afraid you cannot take this onboard, Sir.”

There is now zero distance between the act of learning about the things our governments are doing and terrorism. I know we have a word for this....