Will Arnold ever be President of the United States of America?

For as long as I can remember, people have been talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger becoming President some day. The scary part of that discussion is that many of those people were serious about that possibility. Keep in mind that this was during the days when Arnold was playing the Terminator rather than having his face imprinted with CGI. He had moved past his days playing Hercules running around NYC and his self promoting video biography of his days from the body building circuit, but he was still just a big man with a funny accent.

These days Arnold has built some significant clout that could put him in position to run for office some day. He's married to a Kennedy, he's been the governor of California, and even though things didn't always go the way he planned in California, he did manage to keep the state in one piece in some pretty rough times.

So what's to keep the strong man from running say in 2012? There is the little detail of him not being an American citizen. At some point in the process of developing our system of government, the founding fathers decided that while foreigners were more than welcome to move to America, they certainly could not run for President. That makes sense to a certain extent, and what that means is that poor Arnold isn't eligible to be a part of that electoral race.

Is there a loophole? This is America, land of the loopholes. All Arnold needs is a Constitutional Amendment. That can either come through the Legislature or each state would have to have a vote on the matter, and if every state said yes, then it could happen.  If you think about the process, you can quickly determine that this would be a lengthy process. If there were a major push, and the majority of the country was behind it, the Amendment might get passed in 10 years. (Remember, you have to have state-wide petitions, each state would have to consider the proposition and have a vote on it before anything else would even be possible.)

So what about Arnold? As far as we know, he has no Presidential aspirations, but even if he did, he wouldn't be in any condition to run the country by the time he actually could. At 67, Schwarzenegger would be in his late 70s by the time he might be eligible to run for office. McCain had a hard enough time with the age issue during the last election, so I don't think that Arnold would make out any better on that front.

My money is on this answer being no, Arnold Schwarzenegger will never be the President of the United States of America. That's just my opinion. Feel free to comment on this topic below.

TSA body-check boycott?

I know this a little bit old, but someone asked me about it and I figured I should follow up on it.

When I first heard about full-body scans at airports, all I could think about was the scene at the space port in that classic Arnold Schwarzenegger flick, "Total Recall." All of the passengers pass in front of this giant x-ray screen and you get to see the skeletons walking through the detector. I never thought anything about it at the time because it was a pretty awesome effect at the time, especially with Arnold busting out of the screen a few minutes later. Lots of action can make up for moments that should make you think.

I don't think anyone watching that movie had a moment to wonder about the amount of radiation involved in the procedure. I know I didn't. So here we are almost a decade later and we are concerned about what this new form of security will entail. I certainly can't blame anyone who has a concern about the radiation risks, but how does the radiation exposure from this machine compare to the hour on the tanning bed, or out in the sun?

Now there is an alternative available-the body check. All the news and personal reports about this option sound unappealing. No one wants their personal space invaded in this manner. There are stories of inappropriate touching and injury in some cases. Considering my options, I think I'd be inclined to take my chances with the radiation rather than give a complete stranger that kind of access to my body.

Nevertheless, there was a huge movement to boycott the scanner and force TSA workers to perform the body checks over the Thanksgiving holiday in order to mess up the system and show government officials why both the scanners and pat downs are a bad idea. What is wrong with you people? It's the holidays. No one wants to spend more time in the airport when all they really want is to get home and see their family. I'm sure your idea has merit, but why not just call for a complete ban on air travel? That would be a whole lot more effective because the airlines would feel the need to put pressure on the government to back off.

So yeah, my first thought is don't ask people to mess up their holidays for your message. Go through the scanner and get on the plane. Just promise yourself that you won't tan that week and you will probably break even on your dosage of radiation. I'm sure that the TSA is already hard at work on new methods of doing these checks so boycotts won't do anything more than inconvenience your fellow travellers.

As a bonus opinion, I heard that one of the main proponents of the boycott wasn't even travelling over Thanksgiving. Way to go, buddy! It's always impressive to see a guy asking other people to stand up for something they aren't willing to stand up for themselves.