What happened next...

Monday, my final day in Topeka, was spent packing and saying goodbye to my friends, and a tearful farewell to the 5 cable equipped televisions in their house. Before leaving town, we drove past the few places we had missed on our previous trips down Memory Lane and I was pleased to see quite a few Obama signs planted on front lawns and not that many McCain signs. I don't think it means anything; my guess is that the Republican National Committee and the McCain campaign doesn't think it very necessary to spend the money on a lot of yard signs in a state that's as solidly red as Kansas. And, I have to mention, the majority of the Obama signs I saw were in a old, arty neighborhood near Washburn University, one of the few liberalish spots in town. I didn't see any Obama signs in the suburban neighborhood I was staying in, though I didn't see any McCain signs either.

I also had to get some pictures of the Fred Phelps Westboro Church anti-gay picketeers out on their daily picket line. If you aren't aware of these evil clowns, you should be; go look them up on Google. My friend even bravely drove me past their compound so I could get a couple shots; she was worried because she heard they had the place covered with hidden cameras and didn't want them harrassing her; they really are looney tunes and her kids have to go to school with some of the kids from that cult. (I've always thought it strange that they don't homeschool their kids, or set up their own church school like so many other culty churches, but they seem to prefer mixing in with the public as much as they can. They really do thrive on publicity.) And I was sadly disappointed to NOT see the grand poobah himself, Fred Phelps, but the man is incredibly old and it's been rumored that he's been slowly dying for years. Still, it had been a long time since I'd seen the old fraud and really wanted a final glimpse of his cadaverian body clad in it's usual armor of skin tight Spandex...

After that, we headed to the airport and my final indignity of my trip; the fuckers at security confiscated my packed bottle of BBQ sauce in my carry-on! I had the option to check my bag, but I'd packed everything in one small bag so I wouldn't have to mess with bag check so I said screw it. My guess is, hundreds of bottles of BBQ sauce end up in the hands of the FTA, and those fuckers probably have a monster bbq party every month or so, or sell it to be repackaged as KC Masterpiece and make a tidy profit...

After I boarded the plane, I noticed that the woman sitting next to me was eating this huge, takeout salad in a plastic container, which pissed me off...there's far more potential for explosive devices or weapons to be hidden in her monster salad than in my little bottle of tangy and delicious BBQ sauce.

This country is SO fucked up.

NOTE: the mediocre photos are by ME. The picket sign says "Thank God for IEDs" (meaning improvised explosive device; Westboro Baptist is also anti-soldier, anti-war, and anti-American as well as anti-gay. They also hate Canada for some reason.) and anti-Phelps protesters spray painted, "God hates the Phelps" on the marquee of the church sign.