One year ago, the New York Police Department started a program to randomly search the bags of commuters as they enter New York’s subway stations. The program basically puts a couple of police officers next to the turnstiles, where they randomly select passengers to subject to a search.

My subway station seems to be an NYPD favorite - they’re stationed there about twice a month, which from anecdotal evidence from friends in other neighborhoods seems to be extremely frequent. I’ve always told myself that if they tried to stop me, that I would refuse, leave the station, and walk five blocks to the next stop and get on there.

They’ve never stopped me, however. Until this morning.

And I’m proud to say that, although I was risking running late for a meeting, I immediately said “No. I am going to walk up the block to the next station.”. Then I turned around and walked away. It’s easy to see how a bad guy could do the same thing.

I bear no resentment towards the cops on this: they’re just doing their jobs, and I suspect that they don’t really beleive that their time is well spent on this clearly porous security tactic. They didn’t hassle me at all (which they’d have no right to do, as refusing a random search is my right). But I hope that they at least report the event to their superiors in order to deliver the message that this tactic is a ridiculous waste of taxpayer dollars.

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Have you seen me?

I haven’t ready any of the New York Times Op-Ed commentators in at least six months, ever since they put them behind the pay-only TimesSelect wall. I have no idea what any of them are saying these days. I think I saw that they’ve got Ted Koppel in there now, too. I wonder what he’s saying in there? I have no idea.

Sometimes other web sites and blogs will excerpt a paragraph or two from TS commentators, but even this seems increasingly rare. Usually, their essays are non-existent to those of us who are not TS members (or print edition subscribers). It makes me wonder how much these commentators are shaping the national discourse the way they used to. It’s hard to have a ripple effect when you’re throwing stones in a small private pool.

But then again, perhaps the private pool is all that matters. Maybe the truly influential people in media and government who matter most are, in fact, subscribers and members, and it’s just low-lifes like me, people are too cheap to pay fifty bucks for access, who are left out.

On the other hand, low-lifes like me, bloggers especially, are increasingly playing a larger role in politics. Most political bloggers have bit the bullet and paid for TS, but they can’t include links to full-length articles.

I’m sure there are illegal backdoor techniques to get into TimesSelect, but I haven’t tried any, and besides I don’t want to have to bend over backwards and twist myself up ethically to read this stuff, anyway. I may, of course, break down and pay someday, but for now I guess I’m playing a game of chicken with the Times: I’m hoping that they will give in before I do.

None of this, of course, questions the Times’ decision on business grounds. This may well turn out to be a short-term success story, at least financially. As far as the long-term effects of limiting the range of their editorial voice, we shall see.

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Because I often work very late or come in very early to the office, I have been able to observe some demographic patterns on the subways in the AM hours. It’s interesting to see how the ethnic, class, professional, and gender makeup evolves as the morning hours go by.

(Please forgive the generalizations inherent in ad hoc ethnography):

3:00-4:00 AM
Drunks of all sorts, club kids, and winos. Late night workers, busboys, getting off their shifts. Only a handful of people per car. 6:1 male/female ratio.

4:00-5:00 AM
Transit workers changing shifts. Maybe 6 people per car. All male.

5:00 AM - 6:00 AM
Blue-collar laborers, minorities, immigrants. Half the car is asleep. Maybe 20 or 25 people per car. 9:1 male/female ratio. MORE…

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