The American Spectator : Just Stay Home

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Just Stay Home

By Jed Babbin on 11.15.10 @ 6:09AM

Until the government stops harassing travelers and goes after the bad guys.

The trade association of U.S. airlines -- the Air Transport Association -- says that it expects that about 24 million Americans will take to the air over the Thanksgiving holiday. That would be about 3 percent more air travelers than flew last Thanksgiving. I hope they are wrong. Travelers should drive, take the train, bicycle, walk or just stay home. Just don't fly. If we stay on the ground, the message may finally get through to our government: stop harassing us and concentrate on finding the bad guys.

Air travel was almost pleasant in the 1970s and '80s. The food -- at least on airlines other than the now-defunct Eastern Airlines -- was pretty decent, service existed and all in all it wasn't too bad even for those of us shuttling between Washington and Los Angeles every two weeks. It got steadily worse because the airlines were going broke in the 1990s and now -- since 9/11 -- only fools travel when they don't absolutely have to.

There are two ideas which dominate US airline security, and both are false. The first is that every air traveler -- be it a four-year-old girl or a 24-year-old Yemeni man -- is an equal risk. The second is that it more important to keep dangerous objects off the plane than to keep a dangerous person on the ground. And plans based on these assumptions are metastasizing into a burden on air travel that will damage our economy severely.

We have been dutifully marching through magnetometers for decades. After 9/11, were grimly tolerant of the new searches, taking off our shoes, divesting our laptops of their cases and even leaving liquids and cigar lighters in the checked bags. But last Christmas, none of that prevented Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding a Northwest flight with PETN (a very concentrated and powerful explosive) sewn into his underwear. Were it not for the action of a young Dutch filmmaker -- who, if memory serves, leaped over several rows of passengers and forcefully doused Umar's drawers -- a lot of people might have been killed.

And in reaction to this, our dear Homeland Security Secretary, the lovely and talented Janet Napolitano, said that "the system worked." Now, though I claim some expertise in matters of national security, I am unaware of any system which ensures that there's a brave Dutch filmmaker on each flight, sitting on the edge of his seat and waiting for a faint puff of smoke to rise from someone's BVDs.

As a result of Umar, the Touching Sensitive Areas agency ordered accelerated deployment of the x-ray scanners which display us naked for inspection by TSA employees and the use of enhanced "pat down" techniques that the selfsame TSA clods use to run their hands over every part of our bodies. And yes, I do mean every part, even those we render inaccessible to all but our spouses and physicians. A multitude of news reports say that there is a whole lot of groping going on.

Airline pilots and stewardi are refusing to go through the scanners because of the health risk attendant to repeated X-ray exposure (and because they don't like being fondled by TSA). TSA -- not your radiologist -- says the scanners are safe. Right.

I am a cancer survivor. I have not, and will never, submit to the full-body x-ray scans. You should follow my lead. And when someone gropes you -- touches your privates even briefly or "by accident" -- get their name and their supervisor's name, and the names of any and all who assist them and report them to the airline you were going to fly. Not to TSA: they're governmentally impervious to such complaints.

Better still, stay on the ground until the Touching Sensitive Areas gang is brought under adult control. Which will require a complete rethinking of how we screen passengers for air travel: we need to concentrate on keeping bad guys -- not just bad things -- off the aircraft. It's time to shift the security burden off the typical American traveler and onto the backs of the would-be terrorists.

Yes, we still need the magnetometers, the bomb-sniffing dogs and better high-tech screening of air cargo. We need the Federal Air Marshals, and more of them, aboard our airliners. But we must make air travel tolerable again for those of us who aren't trying to blow ourselves up. And there's two ways we have to do it.

As the Christmas underwear bomber's case proved, we could -- if we weren't governed by lazy libs -- gather intelligence on people who are dangerous and keep them off the aircraft. Abdulmutallab's dad tried to report his Islamic radicalism to the State Department, but the information went into a black hole and wasn't translated immediately into a "no-fly" order on the young man, as it should have been.

After the incident, the Obama administration was said to be revising the way information was handled. I have no confidence that this has been done, and no evidence to say it has been accomplished. The incoming chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (probably Michigan's Mike Rogers) should hold a hearing to find out as soon as the new Congress convenes in January. We need to make it very easy to get on the "no-fly" list and very hard to get off.

And then there is the liberals' biggest bugaboo, profiling. Yes, it's high time we adopted the methods of profiling that have kept the Israeli airline El Al free of terrorist attacks for more than three decades. Every passenger should be screened behaviorally and -- let's say it loudly and clearly -- special attention needs to be paid to every Muslim male between the ages of 17 and 45.

Would that be discriminatory? Of course. But discrimination is legal unless it is -- as the courts have said for many years -- invidious. In the 1984 case of McLaughlin v. Florida, the Supreme Court said that invidious discrimination is a classification which is arbitrary, irrational, and not reasonably related to a legitimate purpose.

The facts of Islamic terrorism demonstrate that additional screening for Muslim men in that age group is supported objectively and rationally and is related to the legitimate purpose of preventing terrorist attacks. It may be discrimination, but it is both legal and necessary. And it should be done, comprehensively, throughout our air travel system.

The 9/11 attacks were aimed at crippling our economy by hampering our ability to conduct air commerce. We recovered from it because we are innovative and because we know that air commerce has to continue if our economy is to thrive again. Secretary Incompetano and her gang are doing what UBL couldn't: making it so miserable to travel that most of us won't. Janet should be fired, and her replacement ordered to take the burdens of air travel off the businessman and the vacationer and put it on the backs of the would-be terrorists where it belongs.

About the Author

Jed Babbin served as a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush. He is the author of several bestselling books including Inside the Asylum and In the Words of Our Enemies.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (217) | Leave a comment

Booger| 11.15.10 @ 6:11AM

From the desk of Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano:

To: TSA Airport Security Screeners

Dear TSA Security Screeners,

I realize there has been a great deal of controversy lately concerning the use of our full-body x-ray devices, as well as the accompanying manual pat-downs for individuals who choose to opt-out of the x-ray screen. After conducting a thorough review of our procedures and thoroughly consulting with Attorney General Eric Holder, I am issuing the following guidelines and talking points for use when interacting with members of the general public who have questions or concerns about our screening procedures.

1) First of all, it will remain our basic procedure to randomly select passengers for x-ray screening. If there are concerns about radiation, please be aware that this machine exposes an individual to no more than the equivalent of forty-three x-rays at the doctor's office. Travelers expressing concern about the radiation should be advised that it is "roughly equivalent" to a doctor's x-ray, please do not advise them of the total amount of radiation as they are not on a "need to know" list for that level of specific information.

2) Travelers who are concerned about x-ray exposure are allowed to opt out of screening, but must submit to an "enhanced pat down" search. First of all, draw as much attention to the traveler opting out as possible in front of other travelers, preferably by loud vocalizations. This will help to discourage other travelers from opting out of the x-ray. Next, make the pat-down as uncomfortable as possible. There should be a "frank" examination of the groin region, as well as the chest/breast area for female passengers. We will soon be distributing surgical gloves for full cavity searches as well. Remember to advise travelers that if they refuse both the x-ray and enhanced pat down they are subject to immediate arrest with a presumption of guilt for an attempted terror attack.

3) In the event that minor children are randomly selected for the x-ray all above procedures will still apply. Please make sure that parents are aware that they are NOT allowed to be present during "enhanced pat down" procedures conducted upon their children. If they object make sure they are aware that the x-ray is still an option; if they continue to cause trouble they should be arrested immediately and DHS contacted to take custody of their children.

4) To avoid concerns of profiling we need to make sure that certain groups are not subjected to this procedure. Specifically, there has been a great deal of concern amongst our peace-loving Muslim community about the continuous backlashes they have endured in the last decade. As a result, should an individual wearing recognizable Muslim attire be randomly selected for screening please allow them to go on through and simply screen the next person in line. This should assuage any concerns our Muslim community has in regard to profiling, as well as relieving us of legal liability for profiling.

5) Per President Obama's executive order 13666, any newly-elected member of the Republican party headed to Washington, D.C., should be subjected to both x-ray screening and an "enhanced pat down." If they refuse either procedure they should be arrested immediately as per the above guidelines. Attorney General Eric Holder has assured me there will be no Constitutional or other legal issues in following this directive as their refusal would constitute a breach of the peace.

I hope this has cleared up any concerns or questions you have regarding our new x-ray screening and "enhanced pat down" procedures.

Thank you for you service,

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano

http://beautifulletters-bls.blogspot.com/

Emma| 11.15.10 @ 9:19AM

Perfect satire. And because it's so accurate, I'm not laughing. I'm furious.

Fred Burr| 11.15.10 @ 9:41AM

My wife and I have given up on air travel some time ago. Now understanding the further indignities we have to endure if we want to fly, there is simply no way we would consider it. There has to be a better way, but this administration is too stupid, or pig-headed. to try to figure it out!

daddio| 11.15.10 @ 11:47AM

This is what happens when a bureaucracy is started with no oversight. It balloons out of control. I do not have any confidence that any administration will take this on.

WGMOW| 11.15.10 @ 1:19PM

In three sentences you have summarized what is wrong with ALL government bureaucracies.

jmulcahy| 11.15.10 @ 11:02PM

If you love this, you will love Obamacare. God help us.

maxime| 11.15.10 @ 1:24PM

Fine satire except for point 5. The Republican Party is as complicit as anyone for these damned machines. They gave us the DHS and this ridiculous theatre, complete with the hiring of illegal aliens and other aliens who don't speak English on temporary work visas, while unemployment is 20%, while accusing us all of being terrorists. The "libs" didn't start that, not that they help at all, not that they wouldn't have done it too and aren't doing it now.

Additionally, former DHS head Michael Chertoff (R-Tel Aviv), A US-ISRAELI DUAL CITIZEN!!!, first ordered these scanners before Obama was elected (and before the fake retard "panty bomber"). He is now in the private sector profiting from their purchase by the govt.

Tum| 11.15.10 @ 1:52PM

This could be believable since she is also the one that has labeled returning service members from Iraq and Afghanistan as potential homegrown terrorist. Everyone needs to re-read "THE EMPERORS NEW CLOTHING", look at Washington, and become that little boy who spoke out the truth of what he saw. Americans need to stop being led around like 'sheeple' and talked to like they are idiots by the political cronies who think the 'sheeple' will believe anything they say....

Jon| 11.16.10 @ 1:25AM

Secretary Napolitano should be required to experience an "enhanced pat-down" each time she enters or leaves a federal office building. She and the TSA (Terrorist Society of America? Taliban Society of America?) are the greatest threat to the citizens of this country, other than her boss. The TSA has done more to terrorize American citizens than even UBL. And I'm sure the mothers of all the TSA enforcers are proud that they have trained their children to be successful sexual molesters, with the victims paying their salaray to molest us.

Wayang Kulit| 11.16.10 @ 9:06PM

May I propose a 5-point plan of my own, please?
Before we go any farther down these avenues of prevention, I believe we must exploit the powers of deterrence to the maximum. We should do in airline travel as the Indonesian pirates do: make it plain to every air traveler that if you eff with the plane or passengers, we will:
1. Round up all your living relatives.
2. Sell any merchantable ones into lifelong sexual slavery.
3. Very slowly and painfully kill all the others one by one in full view of the rest.
4. Disinter all your identified dead relatives and pay a dedicated cadre of ex-TSA screeners (nominally: the best will volunteer) to skull-eff the corpses, with bacon grease the sole lubricant.
5. Point out the very obvious benefits of self-policing.
That should do the trick, and the rest of us will be able to pay for a ticket with cash at the last minute and board barefoot with no luggage, and no searches, as in the good old days.

Appleby| 11.15.10 @ 6:51AM

I have pretty much quit flying anyway; I travel by train, where there is no screening of any kind for anybody, except for one three-hour block when my train was delayed at Niagara Falls by a Border Sting targeting gun runners (and busting a number of them, plus a surprising number of other people who were, it turned out, ineligible to enter Canada for reasons that would have been caught by airlines). Second-best is travel by bus, which actually requires us to get off the vehicle and go through customs and immigration in person, and at a few crossing points subjects our bags, which we must carry with us, to x-ray search.

Of course, terrorists are not aware of this option. We in Canada are assured by Howard Moscoe, on behalf of the TTC, that the terrorists do not know where we are.

mike in nevada| 11.15.10 @ 6:52AM

I agree that people should not fly this Thanksgiving holiday, but they have already paid for non-refundable tickets, and will use them. However, between Thanksgiving and Christmas I hope to see air travel greatly reduced as a protest against TSA groping. By the way, does Janet Napolitano have to go through her own screening procedures? Heh, I doubt it.

Darin| 11.15.10 @ 7:00AM

Good point, but even "non-refundable" tickets can be refunded. If you make enough of a stink, at the airline counter, about how when you bought the tickets you wouldn't be subjected to unreasonable search and molestation, they might give you a refund to shut you up. Be polite and calm but insistent. Do not give them any reason to call airport security. You are not making a scene - you don't believe you should be forced to spend your money so someone can grope you, your spouse, your kids, etc. But be prepared to walk away from it and count the ticket as a loss. Be sure to write a letter to the airline and copy your local paper. Send it registered mail to the airline. You support airline security, but what is being done does not provide security - only the illusion of security. And an illusion is far more dangerous than no security at all.

chuck| 11.15.10 @ 7:24AM

She probably goes for the free groping everytime. It's likely the only time the nasty pig can get anyone to touch her!

JFGalt| 11.15.10 @ 7:45AM

If you're in the elite this does not apply to you. You have special ways around security in airports or you have your own airplanes - no problems with carbon footprints either for them except when they beg for you to send more money to their causes.

Napolitano said that the enhanced screenings were in response to the bombs on the cargo planes. DHS and TSA are looking more and more like the new Gestapo. Its at every level. Did you see that in Orlando - Dept of Prof Regulation was raiding unlicensed barbers with SWAT teams? Law Enforcement in this country has run amock with power! No More Flying - Wipe the airlines out and let the elites that own them to fix this idiocy.

The Bishop| 11.15.10 @ 11:36AM

I would definitely hate to be the TSA employee who drew the short straw on doing the search on Big Sis, either by scan or hand. At least I'm no longer hungry for lunch now that that thought has entered my cranium.

Houston Rao| 11.15.10 @ 11:53AM

Some are calling for Nov 24th to be 'opt-out' day, in other words, opt out of the scans and opt for the pat downs. This will create problems to say the least on one of the busies travel days of the year.

Tum| 11.15.10 @ 1:45PM

How can you, a mere commoner, suggest that a member of the Washington monarchy be subjected to the rules that they impose on YOU. You will heed their directions or you will be sentenced to death by taxation.... They don't have to go through this crap because we pay for them to ride in private government planes at the tax payers expense. You forget the 'Bride of Frankenpelosi' and her free commute shuttle ride to California every week that has cost taxpayers big money every year....

Darin| 11.15.10 @ 6:54AM

If our illustrious leaders in Congress as well as all appointed officials (and all staff members) were subjected to this type of treatment every time they flew, I guarantee things would change. But Congress and its minions always fly privater charter or take a military hop. These rules are only for us sheeple.

If you want to know how to do airline security, look at El Al (Israeli airline). They face a far greater threat, but they actively engage in identifying the real threat to prevent an incident. Yeah, it's profiling, and yeah, it works.

darcy| 11.15.10 @ 2:37PM

Oh, but Darin, we can't profile people; that would be discrminatory, racist, and bigotted. Far better to permit a free society the loss of its freedoms than to give way to racism, intolerance, and discrimination -- the foulest forms of human vice.

Sarc off.

Most certainly we are being treated as sheeple. This will not last long, though; we are beginning to get wise to the ways of the statists, and understand that they intend us harm -- as Thomas Sowell has written, The Dismantling of America. Their words and actions must be seen through that filter.

Rancher Will| 11.17.10 @ 6:12PM

El Al example illustrates how if we eliminate the U.S. Goverment political correctness from airport security and let the Air Lines be in charge, then we would have those who are most interested in protection do it right. Air Lines, and their crews and pasengers and customers have more to lose and more to gain than does our Government with Air Port Security.

Alert1201| 11.15.10 @ 7:05AM

I live in Dallas with my wife and two kids, my parents in Conn. We use to fly up once a year but now I save my vacation over three years and we take the extra time to drive up. After the first time we did this we swore we would never fly again. We actually get to see the country it is a beautiful trip and we do not have to go through all the stupid frustrations of airports. Now I only fly on business.

barak obama [ggoblue]| 11.15.10 @ 8:12AM

once i put you in a smart car or an electric car, that will be the end of that!

CW in Dallas| 11.15.10 @ 8:58AM

Yes, I agree. Perhaps some of the rest of us might make an effort to re-discover the option of driving. I will be visiting my mother in North Carolina next spring. I had planned to fly (as usual), but this time I think I will just pack an ice chest, put my Labrador Retriever into the back seat of my 10-year old Volvo, and enjoy a scenic two-day trip to Grandma's house. I'm told that the roads are quite good, and it actually might be a very relaxing and enjoyable trip. Obviously it will take a little bit of extra planning on my part, but at least I will have some control over where I go, when I go, and what I'm subjected to during the trip.

Richard| 11.15.10 @ 11:43AM

We can stop that too, our energy policies will soon make car travel too expensive.

ZZZ| 11.15.10 @ 7:16AM

The backscatter-Xray scanners are bad enough for travelers (and, regarding travelers, I wonder whether any of the scattered Xrays are hitting people waiting in line to be checked through), but consider the TSA screeners themselves. Technicians giving medical and dental Xrays customarily leave the room while the Xray is being performed to avoid cumulative exposure. What's happening to all those TSA agents standing around near the backscatter-Xray devices day after day -- what's their cumulative exposure?

chuck| 11.15.10 @ 7:26AM

Getting what they deserve,obviously.

JFGalt| 11.15.10 @ 7:47AM

What is going to happen to the TSA screeners after awhile when they spend all day looking at naked men, women and children? They are going to be turned loose after work with a gun and a badge and all juiced up.

Bruce| 11.15.10 @ 8:44AM

Can the anti-cop hysteria. TSA agents are not Peace Officers and are NOT authorized to carry guns at any time.

Binnaiswrong| 11.15.10 @ 11:03AM

No, the TSA people are no threat, to anyone. Am I supposed to believe that a bunch of overweight slobs that missed a bunch of liquids on my last flight will actually protect me? Whatever!

Carol| 11.15.10 @ 1:14PM

Liquids??? On my most recent flight last month, I saw a frail elderly man use a pocket knife to cut off the plastic wrap from his noodle bowl on the way to the galley to get hot water. How did the knife get through the xray of his carryon? Great security from the Thousands Standing Around (TSA).

john| 11.15.10 @ 3:40PM

Pilots call them Thugs Standing Around!

PolishKnight| 11.15.10 @ 12:51PM

JFGalt, don't worry about it. I know a doctor who deliberately chose not to specialize in gynecology because he didn't want to come home to his wife after looking at sick women's private parts all day.

Bazza McKenzie| 11.15.10 @ 5:08PM

@ZZZ

They will of course sue the US government for the damage so caused and you, like all other taxpayers, will get to pay again.

Flatulent| 11.15.10 @ 7:28AM

Before air travel, I intend to eat items that are known to give me gas. When opting out of the X-ray scan I will give the TSA groper a little chemical warfare when his hand hits the right spot.

Business idea: underwear with Fxxx You TSA sewn into it that will show up on X-ray. I think aluminum foil would work.

daddio| 11.15.10 @ 11:50AM

BwaHAHAHAHAH!

daddio| 11.15.10 @ 11:50AM

BwaHAHAHAHAH!

daddio| 11.15.10 @ 11:50AM

BwaHAHAHAHAH!

wodiej| 11.15.10 @ 7:30AM

I did hear that the groping is done by the same sex but I don't want a stranger fondling me, no thanks. The culprits should have been on a no fly list to begin with. This is ridiculous. It's nothing but political correctness run amuck. Everyone should go through an enclosed scanner that will detonate any explosive material. That should solve the problem eh? Next.....

MikeBee| 11.15.10 @ 9:00AM

Wodiej,
Sounds like the Government has provided a new job that all those ephebophile-ex-priests will apply for. All they need is to be told that they will be fondling all male passengers between the ages of 11 and 16.

daddio| 11.15.10 @ 11:54AM

I propose a solution. Let's have Hooters girls search the men, and Chippendales men for the ladies. For the kids? Maybe we can bring Barney out of retirement. (OK, that was wrong and I admit it!)

AZRick| 11.15.10 @ 6:27PM

Barney the Dinosaur or Barney Frank?

MAJ Mike| 11.17.10 @ 11:24PM

I don't mind being groped, but I expect dinner and a movie first.

Intelligent Design| 11.15.10 @ 7:35AM

PROFILE

99.9% of terrorist attacks worldwide over the past 4 decades have been perpetrated by followers of Islam. Airplanes, office buildings, schools, churches, trains, nightclubs, military posts. Gee whiz, I wonder if there is some way to use technology to PROFILE. It's absurd that 310 million Americans have to wait in line to be searched. The terrorists must be laughing their asses off.

The TSA should be dismantled and its mission turned over to private enterprise. Government employees will never have enough imagination to come up with new solutions. The new Congress should act on this.

Ret. Marine| 11.15.10 @ 7:40AM

and to think the "won" ordered this harassment of the American flyer's while hosting the latest muslim outreach for the muslims at the black house weekly. So what's wrong with this picture? Well lets see, as a muslim, obamas Bin Ly'n likes it when the opportunity comes along to humiliate others, as required to do to infidels, another way to infuriates the We the People crowds by discouraging us to fly, example: this article, and of course the financial ramifications of this article, whats not to get about this whole episode? He wins all around with this one, just another day and another wrecking ball effect on this Nation. This son of a goat herder really makes me want to, well I'll leave it to my self least I want to end up in jail.

S.L. Toddard| 11.15.10 @ 7:50AM

The necessary first steps - the ones without which all other measures will be pointless and futile gestures - are to A) bar all immigration from Arab and Muslim countries immediately and indefinitely, and B) to expel every and all non-citizen Muslims from America. We must not be afraid to stand and say "America is an English-speaking extension of the Christian West, and will remain so." In fact, ensuring America remains an English-speaking extension of Western European Civilization is the first and foremost responsibility of the American Right.

Stephanie| 11.15.10 @ 8:05AM

Sounds good to me.
Sooooooo nice to have you back S.L. Not.

S.L. Toddard| 11.15.10 @ 9:56AM

I don't know who you are.

Mel Torme| 11.15.10 @ 8:55AM

Right on, S.L. It's good to hear from you, especially when you are right (like this morning). That is indeed the solution, but even the right wing is too cowardly to say this, including 1/2 of the commenters here.

I don't know what got Stephanie on your case, but she may just have brought something home from her trip last month that she didn't purchase (to clarify, I am talking about the TSA and the TMI post below. Yes, Too Much Information).

S.L. Toddard| 11.15.10 @ 9:56AM

Thanks Mel. I know I disagree with many posters here about foreign policy, Fox News and pro-GOP public figures etc, but I should think we would all, at least, agree that Islamicization must be fought tooth and nail in the West.

It should go without saying that the best way to prevent Islamic Terrorism in our home country is to prevent Islam in our home country .

Sam Vaughn| 11.15.10 @ 1:11PM

SL I don't always agree but your a thought provoking debater...

Margie| 11.15.10 @ 1:51PM

Don't let him fool you. He agrees with Ron Paul's assessment of America~ "They're terrorists because of us!"

Mel Torme| 11.15.10 @ 4:31PM

As would you (agree), Margie, if you ever spent time to listen to the guy (Ron Paul, that is).

Occam's Tool| 11.15.10 @ 9:38PM

Sorry, velvet fog---they're terrorists in spite of us. You just don't get it. That's where Paul is wrong, too. Withdrawal WON'T MAKE THEM STOP! It will encourage them.

darcy| 11.15.10 @ 2:54PM

I totally agree with you, S.L.

I firmly believe that the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act (allowing for decreased immigration of people coming from Western countries -- read that white European -- and increased immigration of people from "alien" cultures) was a deliberate effort to neutralize and eventually marginalize and subsume all that remains of our American heritage and the Judeo-Christian traditions and values upon which this country was founded and built. Diluting our heritage and the simultaneous destruction of the intact and stable family -- as is now going on with the push for homosexual marriage and earlier with Roe V Wade, and including the government's efforts to create dependency -- are all of a piece: the marxist takeover of America. It unfolds before our very eyes, and most recently, at a gallup, where we see events reaching critical mass, as in this latest TSA effort to turn us into subjects of the state.

the wise old owl| 11.19.10 @ 5:47PM

From the 1965 Immigration act to homosexual marriage. Rick? Rick Santorum? Is that you?

Occam's Tool| 11.15.10 @ 9:36PM

Now you know how the Israelis feel, SLT. It's always fun to watch your logic come a cropper.

Incidentally, I agree with you that immigration from those countries needs to be stopped. I would also check all students for terrorist ties and expel all those who have them.

PJ| 11.15.10 @ 9:00AM

I have to respectfully disagree w/you.

Generally the Muslims immigrating here are leaving hellholes & are most appreciative that USA is accepting them but not in large numbers. They are learning English, becoming productive members in the USA & wanting to live in peace.

Who should we really worry about?

American converts to Islam tend to be more fervent in the practice of their new religion (but that goes /all religions.) And we know the extreme practice of Islam leads to violence.

The English-speaking children of moderate American Muslims are being educated by Saudi Arabian financially backed Imams. Saudi Arabia is a country having "invented" Wahhabism, an extreme form of Islam & swimming in extreme amts of money.

Imams who preach in mosques, schools, & prisons & who may or not be American citizens need to be re-educated somehow on the peaceful aspects of Islam.

Saudi Arabia needs to change its ways. Those politicians like Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, member of the Bush family, & others need to stop being influenced w/Saudi Arabian money.

Saudi Arabian money & influence are being spread throughout the world. Saudi Arabia & greedy politicians are the problem not the individual Muslim.

S.L. Toddard| 11.15.10 @ 9:53AM

Islam is incompatible with Western Civilization. It has been a primary goal of Islam, for a thousand years, to destroy Christendom and convert Europe to Islam at scimitar-point. Democratists are wrong that Democracy is right for all peoples, and that Democracy leads to an open society, and that the U.S. should promote Democracy in Muslim countries. The converse is true: open societies lead to Democracies. They are, in fact, a pre-requisite. Democracy is a product of Western Civilization, not a cause of Western Civilization. Democracies take on the character of the peoples participating in them, and so when Islamists are granted a democracy they utilize their numbers to democratically push the state in an Islamist direction, as they are now doing in Turkey. And as they will in Iraq and Afghanistan, whenever we decide to leave. Our own Republic relies on its citizenry having Western values and virtues, and on their respecting the Rule of Law. These ideas are alien to Muslims.

We must end all Muslim immigration to America (and the West), and expel from America all Muslim non-citizens. In addition, we should cease promoting Democracy in nations with populations that hate America and the West, and support leaders there capable of hammering down Wahabism et al with whatever tools they have, authoritarian or no. It is obviously not in the interest of these United States to empower unfriendly peoples.

PJ| 11.15.10 @ 11:30AM

Democracy never took hold in the Middle East not because of Islam but probably because that whole region never evolved from a tribal rule mentality. Also historically, it was advantageous for people to convert under Islamic rule; non-Muslims had an extra tax.

The past & today's violence of Islam & lack of democracies in Islamic nations are more complicated than what you state. But I can safely say that today's violence is strictly due to Saudi Arabian influence.

I will also state this: Western values & virtues are derived from natural law. Everyone on this planet is familiar w/natural law & most likely tries to follow it: it's in our DNA. To say that Western values & virtues & also rule of law are alien to Muslims is just plain nonsense. With a few exceptions everyone wants to live in peace w/their neighbor.

Harry the Horrible| 11.15.10 @ 11:44AM

You're seriously deluded.

If a non-Moslem nation shares a border with a Moslem nation, chances are it has terrorism and insurgency coming across its borders. Hell, even different sects of Islam don't coexist very well if they share borders.

This isn't unique to the ME and Asia. Before the unification, there was a heck of lot raiding by "border reavers" across the English/Scottish borders. But thats ancient history.

PJ| 11.15.10 @ 12:40PM

Hey Dude,

You might actually want to read my 2 prior posts, but this time do it very slowly. You might actually find we share some common ground.

I'm sorry, I can't help myself, but I have to shoot a hole in your theory: "If a non-Moslem nation shares a border with a Moslem nation, chances are it has terrorism and insurgency coming across its borders." How about American's southern border? Last time I heard Mexico was a Christian nation! I think there's terrorism & a little insurgency going on over there.

It is not a religious issue. It's about money, power, greed! Some nations use religion as an excuse to grab power & that is the problem with the Middle East. The everyday Arab wants an elected government to rule fairly over everyone; ie Muslim & non-Muslim.

Me--deluded? I think not! You're the one that needs to update your sources.

darcy| 11.15.10 @ 3:14PM

I suggest you get a copy of On War Against the Turk, by Martin Luther (1529), available in Vol.46 of Luther's Works, pub. by Fortress Press, Philadelphia. Or, you can link here: http://gatesofvienna.blogspot......jihad.html
for the relevant parts of the essay.

S.L. is spot on: Islam is incompatible with our Constitution and presents a very real threat to it; Muslims belong in their own country, not here where they are enjoying our freedoms that they us to facilitate their incrementalist approach to subjugating us.

GW Bush was an absolute fool to promote Islam as a religion of peace. It is NOT peaceful and it is NOT a religion; it is a political system that employs the trappings of religion to lure in the unsuspecting.

Margie| 11.15.10 @ 6:25PM

Very interesting reading there by Martin Luther on Islam.
I have experienced this portion personally, where he says, "Where the spirit of lies is, there is also the spirit of murder, though he may not get to work or may be hindered." This is a Biblical truth.

And this:

"Just so Mohammed treats the Gospel; he declares that it is indeed true, but has long since served its purpose; also that it is too hard to keep, especially on the points where Christ says that one is to leave all for His sake, love God with the whole heart, and the like.

Therefore God has had to give another new law, one that is not so hard and that the world can keep, and this law is the Koran."

This is an example of so many false Religions in the world that replace the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with their own!

"For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Lo, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, 'Lo, He is in the wilderness,' do not go out; if they say, 'Lo, He is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man." Mt. 24:27.

Of course Mohammed didn't perform pretended miracles, (that is going to be what the Anti-Christ does), but he was a false prophet.

As to immigration, I can't say that I agree with you & Toddard. Toddard is an isolationist anyway, and worse~ and I don't have the answers, but I'd be for perhaps a moratorium on ALL immigration for a few years.. not just Muslims.

darcy| 11.15.10 @ 6:52PM

I appreciate your comments, Margie, and especially that you took the time to read the Luther text over at gatesofvienna.

I really hope, though, that you can get your hands on a copy of Luther's entire essay, as I referenced above; you will be much edified. God Bless You.

I bought my volume 46 from Concordia Pub. House, St. Louis, MO. For $34.oo.

Margie| 11.15.10 @ 7:01PM

Thanks, darcy, and for the info. too. I love the non-PC of the earlier Christians. There are still some of us around here, too. :^)

Another of my faves is John Bunyan (Pilgrim's Progress), but he also wrote numerous other books & works as well. I also love Charles Spurgeon as well. Are you familiar at all with them?

darcy| 11.15.10 @ 7:16PM

Yes, Margie, I have read Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (30 years ago), and have read many of C.H.Spurgeon's sermons, as well as a biography of his life; it was said that in his London pulpit his oratory was exceptional: loud, clear, and forceful, and not requiring any external device to make his utterances perfectly clear to those sitting way in the back.

But I am more into Luther's theology, these past 20 years, than into that of Spurgeon, as fine a preacher as he was.

Occam's Tool| 11.15.10 @ 9:41PM

Minor disagreement, Margie. I don't have much of a problem with non-Islamist emigres from India, for example. Look at Bobby Jindal.

No, go after criminals, Islamists, and unskilled people that add nothing to our labor force. Seal off Mexico. They do us no good.

Margie| 11.15.10 @ 11:23PM

OT~

It was just a thought. I was considering the issue and thought why not have a moratorium on all immigration for a few years, that's all.... because don't we need that at this point anyway? And I don't disagree with your first sentence, either. Not at all.

Bruce| 11.15.10 @ 9:52PM

When are you "I love you - you love me - we're all one big family" types going to get it through your heads that Islam is NOT a religion? Islam covers an entire spectrum of their society - its legal system, it's mores, its value system, etc, in addition to its religious foundation. Have you ever even looked at the Q'uran? I doubt it, or you would see for yourself the evil it includes. Islam is the ONLY "religion" that states - specifically - that anyone who does not follow its precepts is an infidel, and any infidel who refuses to convert can and SHOULD be sentenced to death. It is the ONLY "religion" that endorses lying to non-Muslims about what it says in the Q'uran. It is the ONLY "religion" that encourages its followers to give their life - or the lives of their children - in the name of their false, pederast "prophet." Islam is an abomination. The legal part of Islam - Shariah - is completely incompatible not only with our Constitution, but with the civilized world itself.

S.L. and Darcy are absolutely correct - and you need to educate yourself to the EVIL that is Islam.

Margie| 11.15.10 @ 11:17PM

Screw you, Brucey baby.

Harry the Horrible| 11.15.10 @ 9:59AM

Hmm.
Who spreads Islam in the US to produce those converts, eh?
And haven't we also seen a bunch Somali Muslim terrorists and wannabes lately?

Appleby| 11.15.10 @ 11:51AM

Muslim extremists are like the crocodiles on the beach in Australia -- as the tour shepherd told us, it is not that there are so many, but that you do not know exactly where they are.

Chris| 11.15.10 @ 11:39AM

Exactly.

Stephanie| 11.15.10 @ 8:03AM

I flew last month and I was groped by a female TSA agent. It did take me aback as there was no warning. I was picked radomly and I thought it was because I had on a sort of loose fitting billowy jacket. I offered to remove it and she said no, and proceeded to feel my breasts and put her hand up against my crotch. AND it was done not behind a screen, but in front of everyone waitng in line. I have to say, it happened so quickly that I really didn't have time to get embarrassed until after I walked away and had time to think about it.
Yeah, I guess as a blond 57yr.old American female, I do look like I may have a bomb in my panties.
Napolitano is an idot.

Pecos Pete| 11.15.10 @ 8:18AM

I haven't flown since 1998, mostly due to the uncomfortable conditions on board the flying buses. I certainly won't fly in the future. I find that driving is a most pleasant activity and provides for good conversations with my passengers, even if I am the only human in the vehicle.

martin j smith| 11.15.10 @ 8:21AM

This is what I think about when I consider airport security: All of the exercises that the TSA is utilizing is a tremendous waiste of time and money and more importantly GEARED to HARASS the flying public. Why might this be so? Look at Obama's policies towards terrorism and one might see a motive there. This Department of Homeland Security by the way that turns its back on violence in Arizona and instead takes the state to court.
This is what should be done could be done instead: OK x-ray all backages and bags but and here is why Obama is a serious problem_-profile plus random checks of individuals. What profiling ?
All Middle-easterners,Arabs and muslims in general focusing on the 16-40 age group but not excluding others. Next,known converts to islam in the US and abroad. Profile any members of political groups of any kind that are sympathetic to Terrorist ( that is a problem because it means the Democrat Party leadership and even some RINOS ). But more seriously known groups which support terrorist tactics. The lone wolfe--rogue. Individuals known to publicly express anti-American sentiment and seem capable of involving themselves with terrorist organizations and then there is the "apparent innocent" completely off the charts yet might be used willingly or not to aid or abet terror. There will be a need to do random unprofiled screening but not the current system where everyone is on the line. Oh yes, one more thing. Interviewing those passengers who behave or seem suspect in their intineraries. I would bet that using these methods would be just as effective and even more so an cut down on time.

However the goal is really not to protect passengers but to get the passenger to cry for " no more security-enough of this. Then... BOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!

Petronius| 11.15.10 @ 8:33AM

The saddest of facts is that Americans have never believed in real Freedom as a people. Ask anyone and you will hear a litany of what is wrong with everyone else. Americans want the entire world to be as they would have it. On election day I confronted an old lady over her advocacy for regulating dog breeders. As she is not engaged in that activity I told her she was interfering in the occupations of others and it's none of her business. At the top of her lungs, she yelled, "yes it is!!" This same mentality now preoccupies the being of everyone you are likely to come across. There is nothing more satisfying to those of small stature and enormous ego than having carte blanche to abuse others on a whim. These overgrown hall monitors and crossing guards love what they do. But then, look at who they work for.
Who does the United States Government hold in utmost contempt?

Kay Grace| 11.17.10 @ 10:10AM

Very well said! Most every law passed today infringes on the freedoms of someone (else).
How does the saying go? "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Some of the most dangerous people today are those with a little (or a lot) of authority whether actual or perceived.

Dave| 11.15.10 @ 8:38AM

Several years ago, soon after 9/11, I watched a TSA goon in Columbus openly leering at all the big breasted women, "randomly" selecting the youngest (and biggest) for a wanding - no touching yet in 2001. If that bleep is still working for TSA today, you can bet he is having the time of his life right now.

Louis Jenkins| 11.15.10 @ 8:38AM

I do not fly! I've quit. If a few million more people would things may be different. Maybe the TSA people would begin to concentrate on who really does the bombing. Call if profiling, call it racists, call it what ever. It is past time to concentrate on the killers. But no, they want everyone to suffer. This is just another nail in the coffin of the late, great USA.

skedaddle| 11.15.10 @ 8:43AM

This evil seriously needs to be stopped. 0bama has made every family make this choice: take my children on a fantastic holiday by airplane but only if you're willing to chance having your spouse or child sexually groped/traumatized by a stranger or only travel distances assesible by car/train. obama is sick and enjoys abusing people who aren't in a position to effectively fight back. What he did to the Supreme Court during the State of the Union was just a start and he's been on a roll ever since.

chris haynes| 11.15.10 @ 8:47AM

You don't like it? Stop squaking. Take a private jet.

You use a separate terminal. No intrusive security. No pat downs No two hour lines. No screaming. No removing shoes. The finer things are for the finer folks.

MikeBee| 11.15.10 @ 9:15AM

Chris,

Hmmmm. I think I see a potential startup business emerging. Using the internet, get folks who are traveling to the same place at the same time to all charter a private jet. Just split the cost. No lines, bigger seats, no pat downs, no waiting. Hmmmmmm..................................

Robert Voegtlin| 11.15.10 @ 8:56AM

This whole business is stupid. First, end the connection between the cockpit and passenger section. Second, profile. Third , let the passengers carry weapons. We will lose planes and passengers but they will not be used as weapons to attack us. Our rulers do not want us to fly or travel. Serfs should stay home.

darcy| 11.15.10 @ 3:26PM

You forgot TORT reform. No way your idea will fly unless there's some serious tort reform.

btw, I thought the connection between cockpit and cabin was already "hardened."

Old Soldier| 11.15.10 @ 9:00AM

The airlines are the latest target in the Obama Administrations' efforts to systematically destroy industries. The auto, medical, insurance, and banking / finance sectors have all been targeted and taken their hits. The oil industry is dying in the U.S. with the assistance of the EPA and Department of Energy.

Apparently the airline unions didn’t contribute enough because it’s their turn in the barrel.

PJ| 11.15.10 @ 9:06AM

"The airlines are the latest target in the Obama Administrations' efforts to systematically destroy industries."

I think your statement is food for thought!

Harry the Horrible| 11.15.10 @ 11:49AM

Could be something else.
The Tokugawa shogunate executed shipwrecked foreign sailors and any fishermen who visited other countries. They also deliberately allowed the internal bridges and roads to deteriorate.
This was part of their program to control the Japanese people and, specifically, the Daimyos.

darcy| 11.15.10 @ 3:28PM

It is exactly a plan to seize the airline industry. Duh!!!

BackToBasics| 11.16.10 @ 1:33AM

Democrats will love it if we stop flying and thereby stop emitting so much carbon dioxide on a per capita basis.

I'm not sure a boycott will work with this crowd. The Republican Copngress may be able to help but this is 6 weeks away yet and 2 - 3 months before they can get moving on legislation and any investigation they may wnat to pursue on this.

Redstateboy| 11.15.10 @ 9:02AM

Historians will look back on these times and scratch their heads wondering... "well why didn't they just PROFILE the Males of obvious Middle Eastern descent between the ages of 17-30??" and then further History Books will be solely devoted to the this periods utter insanity of kow-towing to the sickness of Liber-ulisms' political correctness.

Heywood| 11.15.10 @ 8:55PM

They'll just kidnap grannies grand kids, tell her to shove C4 up *you know where* and board a jet. As far as I know that scanner won't pick up everything inside of a persons body. In fact, there's been reports of many white westerners who've been working with the terrorists. And also--as soon as any male sits down on any passenger jet, ev1 is watching that person like a hawk--just like that Dutch film maker was.

PJ| 11.15.10 @ 9:11AM

Is it just me or is "Big Sis" looking & sounding more like Janet Reno? Could they be cousins or could they be "sisters" cut from the same cloth?

NavyBrat| 11.15.10 @ 9:23AM

I've long thought that she might be Janet Reno's secret love child she had by John Lovitz. Ditto Elana Kagan.

PJ| 11.15.10 @ 11:39AM

Totally agree about Kagan. What is it about these democratic women of power? The men are way better looking!

MikeBee| 11.15.10 @ 4:48PM

You know how a man and his dog tend to begin to look alike after a number of years? 'Nuff said......

Dave Thomas| 11.15.10 @ 9:17AM

The system is working fine. The founders designed a system that would limit the reach of the state.

The only people unsatisfied with the system are statists who want to violate the Constitution. I suggest they move to Europe where they do not protect individuals from the state. Our forefathers came to America to gain freedom from Europe, and after reading this article they did a good enough job to frustrate this statist.

NavyBrat| 11.15.10 @ 9:20AM

I'm looking forward to flying home to Memphis from here in Pittsburgh next week. I plan to opt out as well. And when these gub-ment job needing lackeys in the TSA proceed to grab my junk, they will also come across my ostomy bag. Now, there's ALL KINDS of fun I can have in this situation.

The lackey, who wouldn't know an ostomy bag from a grocery bag I'm guessing, will ask me what it is. And I will respond that its a sack of shat. I will be MORE than happy to open it for them to examine the contents. If they oblige me, then, that's on them. Literally & figuratively.

Opt out, folks! Let's see some of that Tea Party sentiment trickle into these efforts to change our nation's security proceedures. This reaction to the LAST threat does't work. I agree with Mr. Babbin. Let's do this Israeli style. Can anyone tell me the last problem there ever was on an El Al flight? I didn't think so.

Occam's Tool| 11.15.10 @ 9:46PM

Concur. We should have adopted the Israeli approach 9/12/01.

rick| 11.15.10 @ 9:24AM

Why is the Govt even involved in this? All security should be the responsibility of the airline industry. All we have now is a system that doesn't work and is a travesty. One big subsidy for the airline industry. If they paid for security NO ONE who posed a threat would get on a plane. Ask El Al Airlines...

peyank| 11.15.10 @ 9:30AM

i'm for new have practice for and getting news from home that is can make give a time

rpm| 11.15.10 @ 9:35AM

All this would be hilarious if it weren't so sad/sick. As it stands, they have no idea who actually gets on that airplane. All the photo ID stuff has a hole in it you can drive a truck through. I am not going to explain it, but I know for a fact that airport personnel are aware of the hole. Think about what you show to who as you go through "security", then get on an airplane. No fake ID's required, even though the propostion that the terrorists can't get good fake iD is as absurd as the rest of the TSA operation.

I, personally, think that these inept "terrorists"--like ths shoe bomber, the underwear bomber, etc. are mainly intended to make us wrap ourselves around our own axle in the security department.

I have spent a LOT of time on airplanes in my life. Prior to 9/11, my rule was--less than four hours driving , drive. After 9/11, it went to 6 hours. Now it is at least 8. About one more ratchet up--it goes to overnight.

Sandy| 11.15.10 @ 9:38AM

I know we have a growing problem with homegrown terrorists, but, until every passenger, getting on a plane everywhere in the world,headed for the US, is found to be safe, and not a terrorist, this is a foolish invasion of our rights and freedoms.

Another thought that crossed my mind, is that the Obama administration is pushing hard and heavy for high-speed rail across the country. If you kill the airline industry, you have automatic passengers for your pet project.

KDW| 11.15.10 @ 9:45AM

A few months ago my brother and his wife
were at Midway Airport, seeing his mother-in
law off to her vacation destination. He calls
me on his cell, whispering that the airport
screeners had just pulled a 'terrorist' suspect
out of line for some advanced screening. This
wheelchair bound, grandfather-terrorist
type looked to be in his mid-eighties and suffering
from some degree of dementia. Clearly a security
risk, the TSA personnel stood this crippled
man up while they 'screened' him. Our
heroes even checked under his WHEELCHAIR
(an obvious spot for liquid explosives)!

This display of heightened security accomplished
absolutely nothing ( well it did cause this poor
old man to start crying which probably wasn't
the intent of the search). If this is as serious as
airport security gets, we might as well abolish
all pre-flight searches.

Let's make this simple. We are at war with
ISLAMIC TERRORISTS! Homeland Security
was created and airport security was enhanced
because of deadly attacks by ISLAMIC
TERRORISTS! The solution to our problems
with airport security is to focus on rooting out
attacks by ISLAMIC TERRORISTS!

We actually do have morons on our team.

darcy| 11.15.10 @ 3:34PM

The solution to our problem is A Real Islam Policy for a Real America -- check it out here:
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/012935.html

Bruce| 11.15.10 @ 10:03PM

Does anyone else remember when Gen Joe Foss - a Triple Ace (WWII, Korea, Vietnam), not to mention a recipient of the Medal of Honor - was pulled out of line during TSA screening a few years back while he was enroute to a meeting of the Medal of Honor Society? Some nitwit agent apparently thought his Medal could be used as a weapon and wanted him to toss it in the barrel with other confiscated material! The freaking Medal of Honor! After being held up and missing his flight (and the meeting) he found a police officer who recognized his name and the Medal and intervened.

John Navratil| 11.15.10 @ 9:49AM

Opt out, en masse - certainly! That will get the message to the TSA.

Reduce travel and let the airlines know - absolutely!

Write to your Congressman and tell him or her that the TSA needs to go. It's security theater, but it's worse than just that.

(1) It is tyranical.

(2) It debases the traveller.

(3) It trains the people to submit to capricious whims of the government.

(4) It shields the airlines from responsibility.

(5) It is runs by bureaucrats rather than anyone who has a vested interest in the traveller arriving safely. In fact, it prevents the airlines, who have that interest, from acting to protect those interests. Perversely, it removes the responsibility the airlines should have from them.

Remember the good old days when airline security was criticized for being "security by the cheapest bidder". Does anyone like it any better now that it is security by a monopoly, unionized force of government employees who have absolutely no responsibility to the traveller?

On the plus side, Big Sis has demonstrated exactly what it takes to become a despot - a kingdom.

darcy| 11.15.10 @ 3:39PM

Absolutely right, John Navratil. Especially worrisome is the conditioning, as you point to in item #3.

It does seem, however, that we sheeple are not so sheepish after all. The feds will either back off and employ profiling or there will be a confrontation -- how it takes shape, I don't know. But we're not sitting still for this.

KyMouse| 11.15.10 @ 9:56AM

If you're any where near my age, you can still sing, "See the U-S-A in your Chevrolet..." I used to love flying, and learned to fly small planes when I was a teenager, but now I would much rather drive, if time permits. I'll happily log 600 miles in a day -- and with audio books, air conditioning and Cracker Barrel restaurants now standard equipment, driving is just so much more than flying.

John Navratil| 11.15.10 @ 10:10AM

KyMouse,

Get yourself a private plane and bring your own crackers along :)

GreginOkinawa| 11.15.10 @ 9:58AM

Sounds like people are starting to "shrug". Who is John Galt?

Joe Doakes| 11.15.10 @ 10:09AM

January 10, 2010

To the editor;

Recently the United States suffered yet another attempted act of war from a terrorist acting on the misguided notion of jihad. This fellow evaded airport security, then while seated on the aircraft attempted to detonate a bomb in addition to the fuel tank positioned below him. The jihadist’s failure was a result of a lack of preparation; neither his will nor our efforts to keep him off the plane did anything to ameliorate his plans. This jihadist, like many who have attacked this nation in the past, are men educated in mind and not in morals, and as such are a menace to civil society, and must be stopped at any cost. After thirty years of the free world trying to stop various forms of jihad we are no closer to stopping the next attack because the ideology that creates the next radical Islamic terrorist still exists; so long as it exists we will neither have peace nor security - nothing short of a regional war that redraws the boundaries of countries in the middle east will bring us the opportunity of lasting peace. Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan did not alter their evil plans upon the sight of a TSA agent. That said; a small suggestion.

If an airline operated a system akin to how credit card companies detect fraud, in the atmosphere of airport security, what would that look like? Might a pre-flight approval system consist of various credentials already in a citizens possession; a system for non-citizens would perform the same function of verification with cross referenced forms of identification, the elimination of the option of using cash to purchase a ticket, and the elimination of purchasing a ticket without being pre-qualified to do so in the first place. In addition, the airline would be responsible for all security; remember the $50 Billion per year TSA could not stop this jihadist, and frankly in a world where people willingly swallow prophylactics filled with narcotics to breech our drug laws, the TSA will not stop the next one; an airline that is one hundred percent responsible for the occupants and operation of the aircraft can and will. They will have the ability to reject people who do not meet their flight criteria identity policy in a way that the TSA is forbidden from doing. The profit driven airline can drive the innovation that will be required to detect individuals whose behavior is suspicious even before a ticket is purchased by combing the data points that separate out frequent travelers from those that have never flown, or are traveling in a manner not consistent with past patterns, and thus require more scrutiny at security checkpoints prior to boarding the plane.

It is almost treasonous that after so many kicks to our collective complacency we are still only fighting the last battle, and not the next one. Securing an aircraft is best left up to the airline and the crew of the airplane, and not the federal government. The private airline possesses the incentive to maintain the safety of the airplane that the TSA and the rest of the security apparatus lacks. The federal government lacks the economic incentive to do a quality job, but the private airline is nimble and can evolve the policies and procedures the government is not permitted or politically unable to do. The current setup seems to serve only one purpose - to avoid responsibility for anything at all, in that atmosphere you can bet we are going to lose much more then an airliner in the future. The radical Islamic threat from 1979 to 2010 has grown stronger, and developed a greater reach into the west then our side has developed a defense or plan to defeat; we are fooling ourselves if we think a watch list, that no one even bothers to check, is anything more than a placebo for the cancerous philosophy of radical Islam.

Appleby| 11.16.10 @ 4:42PM

There would be a market for Musliim-free airlines (as well as child-free airlines, and smokers-only airlines, etc.) and if the government would just get the heck out of the way and let the market rule, the problem would soon be solved.

In fact, copying a surprisingly popular bungee jumping purveyor in New Zealand, why not offer free air travel to anybody who agrees to ship his luggage ahead by FedEx and fly nekkid?

barf| 11.15.10 @ 10:14AM

you righty's are always screaming about tyranny and abuse of the dems, this whole tsa thing is bushy's legacy and being profited by bushy's pal chertoff!!! time to get your spokeholes, like foxpac, and the beck, to talk about what is really going on here.... this is against the constitution, and should be stopped... even the israel security wont use these body scans, or the gaterape we are now getting.... some of us cant drive or take a train from coast to coast.... if 10 to 15% stop flying it will take a big bite out of the airlines pockets, and big brother might wake up.... the muslims have won, the war aint in afganicrap its in you own city.... get tsa to do something about all the terrorists coming over the mexicant border daily.....

NavyBrat| 11.15.10 @ 10:38AM

If you're REALLY serious about adopting the Israeli style security measures, then good for you. But its been "us righties" who've been screaming to do it that way since 9-11. Guess you missed all the outcry. I remember it though. But, of course, if we do it Israeli style, then "you lefties" will cry in your beer about "profiling." So if there are more lefties like you who think that's a good idea (which I whole heartedly agree with, btw), then speak out & put your money where your mouth is. Otherwise, you're just bitching about Bush, as usual.

Bruce| 11.15.10 @ 10:10PM

You're a fraud. Since when has a lefty given a damn about the Constitution or illegal immigration?
Chertoff also was a friend of the DEMOCRATS, working in the Clinton administration, and was approved for his position as head of DHS UNANIMOUSLY. You may recall the Dems held the majority at the time and could have killed his appointment. They did not.

Pollynkorect| 11.16.10 @ 5:54AM

Chertoff was/is an Israeli JEW, put in charge of protecting homeland security of a gentile nation. Our educational system fails to inform citizenry of the pathological hatred that Jews have for non-Jews, so we passively allow our historic enemies to assume leadership positions over us. Very dangerous to our well-being. George Bush was despicable for promoting Jews to rule over us, as are Obama and Democrats and status-quo corporate Republicans. No wonder so many politicians don't want us to have guns. They are terrified we'll find out what they're doing to us and we'll rise up & give them their just desserts.

NavyBrat| 11.16.10 @ 11:07AM

Yeah, idiot. We're ALL out to get you "goys." BOO!!!!

JeffT| 11.15.10 @ 10:14AM

PC run amok. We are heading to Disney World next spring. Our original plan was to fly. Now, we'll drive. We'll travel without excess radiation, no fear of a terrorist take-over, and by that I mean being manhandled by TSA thugs and have better food. . I suggest everyone else follow the author's lead.

Joe Doakes| 11.15.10 @ 10:21AM

ps. Raise the price of a ticket.

Stefan Stackhouse| 11.15.10 @ 10:29AM

The way airline passengers are being handled (and that is the right word) is little different than the way that livestock are handled. I simply refuse to subject myself to such treatment. I have arranged my life so that I don't have to fly on an airline, and will not do so unless and until I am certain that I will be treated with respect and dignity, and that air travel will be comfortable rather than an ordeal.

The thing that amazes me are the millions of people who ARE willing to put up with such handling. This must be telling the aspiring authoritarian statists in our midst everything they need to know.

Leslie| 11.15.10 @ 10:40AM

Time to start profiling in earnest and CAIR can kass my iss.

Mark| 11.15.10 @ 10:44AM

Boycott Flying! Please join us: http://www.facebook.com/pages/.....1010710392

George S| 11.15.10 @ 11:00AM

This is what happens when you mix politically correct multiculturalism with an enemy who will gladly die to make his point. We cannot solve the problem posed by the latter, but we sure as hell can get rid of the former. Maybe this is what it takes to come to our senses-- being forced to make a choice between sitting in an airplane where no one is checked or having our privacy and dignity stamped on by an all too eager government.

The solution is simple. Allow airlines to conduct their own security with immunity from civil rights law suits. If CAIR, or other sympathizers, then boycotts that airline, think of all the business they'll lose when the flying public finds out they ban Muslims!

Bruce| 11.15.10 @ 10:12PM

Can we assume you meant to say "think of all the business they would GAIN when people learn they ban Muslims?"

desotobill| 11.15.10 @ 11:00AM

I heard muslim women are exempted from this type of search. Any one know if that is true? If so it completely destroys the logic of the search as the most likely culprits are exempted. PC gone wild.

NavyBrat| 11.15.10 @ 11:09AM

CAIR is trying to get that exception instituted. Given the fact that we bend over & assume the position for the Muzzies on every OTHER issue, I'm sure that Frau Incompitano & Herr Holder will hold that line & allow for this exemption.

lester| 11.15.10 @ 11:21AM

They're here. Disgusting Arab/Muslims in the USA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smw9QuH1xkA

lester| 11.15.10 @ 11:24AM

It is one thing to practice a religion; it is another to cower the police into violating the First Amendment.

BerlGoetz| 11.16.10 @ 10:39AM

How can the generation of the MC5 and SRC allow the Islamization of Michigan? Where is their freedom-loving energy?

Albert| 11.15.10 @ 4:17PM

That would really be rich. Terrorism is committed by Muslims, and then Muslims become the only group to be exempted from the search and grope procedures. And of course, Janet Nazipolitano will not understand people's outrage. We truly are ruled by idiots.

Tommy| 11.15.10 @ 11:05AM

just listen to your heart...

Houston Rao| 11.15.10 @ 11:57AM

For those who have to fly, there may be a way to opt out of both the full body scan and the pat down.

Put all your clothes in a plastic ziploc bag, walk naked through security in just your underwear. Opt out of the scan, and when it comes to the pat down, pull your underwear off and reveal all the potential hiding spots. See but don't touch.

Past security, pull your clothes out of the ziploc, put them on and put away the ziploc for the next trip.

I thought you could walk up naked to security but then they may have for indecent exposure!

We have enough people doing this, it will change screening habits in a hurry.

Skippy| 11.15.10 @ 5:28PM

Brilliant! An echo of my solution to this issue.
This works for men better than for women.
As you approach security, refuse the Penis/Breast Measurement Device/Scanner.
While they explain the Personal Molestation Option, smoothly unbuckle your belt and slide your pants down to your knees, while stating calmly and clearly "you can look but not touch".
A few hundred of these a day will either have them change their misguided ways or make the evening news a lot more interesting!

BackToBasics| 11.16.10 @ 1:45AM

TIC aside; there's a certain persuasion of men who would like this. TSA will proabably solve this by making a hiring quota of 100% of TSA men be of this persuasion. Couldn't happen? Ha, it could for sure!

And for that matter, how about being groped by those so inclined?

Abdul Hassan| 11.15.10 @ 12:06PM

I fly every week, and I must say I get royal treatment every time. The TSA agents always flag me to go ahead of everyone without going through any scanners, and pat downs. They even say on occasion "Allah be praised!". In Atlanta, one agent handed me free snacks as he allowed me to pass in front of the other sorry passengers. He apologized if he caused me any distress. Who needs an official Dhimmitude, when an unofficial one is already in place!

Lisa| 11.15.10 @ 12:07PM

This is the fault of the weeny liberals that make up a small majority of our country. They scream profiling and we end up getting groped at the airport. Well I say we need two types of air travel, those that profile and those that don't. How much you wanna bet the libs travel right along with everyone else on the profiling air lines?

bob alou| 11.15.10 @ 12:12PM

Why not just call TSA and let them know that you heard your Member of Congress or Senator making threats against the security and safety of our Nation. If they had to submit to this kind of harassment it would end pretty quickly.

rv1982| 11.15.10 @ 12:25PM

Maybe "Archie Bunker" of the 70's "All in the Family" sitcom had it right...just give everyone a handgun when they board the plane.

Cranios| 11.15.10 @ 12:25PM

Perfect sensible article. However, Janey couldn't possibly be fired, nor any of these sensible recommendations adopted as long as we have a perfectly senseless individual in the Presidency.

ทาสีคอนโด| 11.15.10 @ 12:30PM

Perfect satire. And because it's so accurate, I'm not laughing. I'm furious.

Average JoeBob| 11.15.10 @ 12:34PM

Next time I fly I'll have a silicone 12-inch "sex toy" (minus the batteries) down my pants. I can't wait for the TSA agent's expression when he runs his hand over it - I hope he asks me what it is...I will offer to expose it in public view if he questions it. BTW, there's nothing illegal about concealing a 12-inch silicone "member" in your pants...unless it could be used as a weapon(?)!

lester| 11.15.10 @ 1:48PM

Spinal Tap - The Movie

Pete| 11.15.10 @ 12:45PM

Shortly after 9/11 I was forced to throw away an empty water bottle. I put it on the belt, it went through the xray, and when it came out, some TSA clown took off the cap, indicating that a capped empty bottle could be a weap0n. The next time I flew, I removed the cap from my plastic water bottle and put it in my pocket while the empty bottle went through the x-ray. Yes, I am that dangerous. I figured out an ingenious way to "re-arm" my empty water bottle. TSA is a model for government waste...wait until these folks are at the front desk of your local Obamacare clinic.

Frog in Uniform| 11.15.10 @ 12:54PM

Damned muslims and dumb government goons!
Is it that diffcult to single out a raghead in a plane? Can't we just forbid those assholes to fly anything but a muslim airline? In fact, there should be some kind of apartheid: any raghead, any dumb broad with a veil or a burqa should be required to fly with Talib Air, Tupolev jetliners manned by pilots from Chechnya, dutifully escorted by F-18's, while the rest of us, the civilized human beings could board any airplane with knives, scissors, Uzi's and have a very pleasant flight like it used to be in the fifties.

Frog in Uniform| 11.15.10 @ 12:57PM

...and come to think of it: when was the last time a Christian, or a buddhist or a Jew or an atheist hijacked a plane or smashed it in a building? Dumb hypocrites!

Rockerbabe| 11.15.10 @ 1:40PM

Complain, complain and complain some more; you have been inconvenienced. . . so what? If you don't like the inconvenience and humiliation, then drive to whereever it is you want to go. That's what I do; if I can drive it in 10 hours or less, I drive. Haven't had to take a flight anywhere in quite a few years. I am sick and tired of the indignities, but then again, if I were traveling by air, I would prefer to not get blown up! This current government practice all started with your buddy, Bush, Jr., but as usual, you find ways to blama the entire system on the Dems. YOU need to grow up and so do the folks who post on this site. Just a bunch of crybabies; you don't worry or care about anything, unless you or someone you do care about gets hurt. How sad.

By the way, all of your complains about the state of air travel is par for course. When the airlines were regulated, we had good service, better service and decent treatment; now that the airlines are deregulated, we have, well what we have now. High prices, lost luggage, no meals, snacks and often no beverages. Long lines, unruly travelers and weary airline employees. BUT, the airlines are making a profit off of you and isn't that what's all about - profit for the rich??!!! Grow up, you got what you wanted, but it didn't turn out the way you thought.

John Navratil| 11.15.10 @ 2:19PM

Rockerbabe,

Napolitano put these machines in, not Bush. Of course he create the Dept. of Homeland Security. Security from whom, I'd like to ask. And, since 9/11 the airlines have exactly nothing to do with security so there's no need to blame them at all. As to their "profits for the rich", the airlines are only expected to return to profitibility this year. But I suppose you've been subsidizing your employer or clients for the last couple of years, haven't you?

That said, when does the safety dollar spent cost more than a dollar in other areas? When the chance of getting cancer from the scanner (we'll have millions per day going through these things) exceeds the chance of being blown up in a plane, will we have gone too far? When we spend a dollar frisking a nun at the airport while someone else is blowing up the subway, will we have spent that dollar wisely? When someone wishing to evade the scanner is detected with a bomb in his rectum, will we then need to submit to cavity searches to board a plane? I'm pleased that you have chosen to replace your use of one of the safest means of transportation (flying) for one with at least ten times the risk of death (driving). That's the nature of liberty, we are free to make foolish decisions based on a misunderstanding of the risks. There are, however, those who suggest that this security, mandated by the government, is unnecessary and ultimately puts the travelling public at greater risk by forcing people to drive where previously they would fly. Before one-hour check-in requirements, I would fly 200 miles rather than drive. Now there is little point unless the distance is 400. Further discouragement does not increase public safety, but rather reduces it.

If you look for the bad actors you will find their weapon. If you look for the weapon, you have to know what to look for. Hint: it won't be in shoes any more. Anything else is a waste of time, money and liberty.

To you last statement: this person most certainly did NOT get what he wanted, because it turned out EXACTLY as I thought it would.

John Navratil| 11.15.10 @ 2:27PM

Rockerbabe,

P.S. You might want to research that bit about airfares being higher after airline deregulation.

Albert| 11.15.10 @ 4:30PM

Rockerbabe:
Stop complaining? "Inconvenienced?" An X-Ray scan and body pat-down are not "inconveniences." They are invasions. PERSONAL invasions. And they are inherently unconstitutional (see the 4th Amendment.) Further, "inconvenience and humiliation" are not a necesasary price to pay for "security." This is not an "either-or" situation where we must have personal invasions or else we get terror attacks. There are alternative methods that are far more effective and far less invasive. But then, this is not about airline "security" anyway. This is population control. Lines of passengers going through X-Rays and pat-downs are analogous to cattle queueing up to be branded or piglets brought in to be castrated. The purpose is to desensitize the population to being herded and controlled like cattle. Lastly, blaming terrorism on airline deregulation is patently absurd, bordering on irrational.

deltablues| 11.16.10 @ 11:53PM

Rockerbabe,
not flying doesn't work for those of us, like me, who work in other countries and have to fly a lot of international long-haul sectors to get there and back.

Intelligent Design| 11.15.10 @ 1:41PM

Islam is subversive to our Constitution. There is little or no valid distinction to be made between "extremist" and "mainstream". For example, Saudi Arabia does not allow the practice of any religion other than Islam. The Saudi Arabian constitution is the Koran, and their law is Shari'a. The Ayatollah Khomeini said that Islam is nothing if it is not politics, meaning the goal of Islam is to merge so-called "church" and state to form a theocratic dictatorship under Muslim rule. Islam does not recognize secular law in the Western sense. Islam is hostile to religious freedom, our Bill of Rights, and Western civilization in general. Muslims see those of us who are Jews or Infidels as the enemy, to be conquered and forced to live by Islamic "holy" law. Islam is rooted in the 7th century, as well as in tribal customs which pre-date "The Prophet".

Nothing could be more hostile to this free republic, and freedom everywhere. Congress should pass legislation identifying Islam as a dangerous political ideology subversive to the Constitution. Congress should outlaw mosques, shari'a law, immigration by Muslims, and ban Muslims from serving in our civilian government or military. Profiling should be used to screen airline passengers, and the TSA should be turned over to private enterprise.

True religions oppose evil, but Islam embodies evil.

Redstateboy| 11.15.10 @ 1:48PM

if there's a hot TSA woman.. can I request she give me the pat down?

Bruce| 11.15.10 @ 5:11PM

Not unless your name is Alice - or you're in drag:)

MoeBlotz| 11.15.10 @ 1:49PM

Learn to drive a big truck,the trucking industry needs more drivers. Take a long trip and get paid for it as well.

SPaquet| 11.15.10 @ 2:25PM

Unfortunately you can't drive a 18 wheeler over water, and if the republicans and tea party members cave you won't be able to afford to drive one anyhow. The lame duck session will be interesting, I wonder how many surviving democtats will play russian roulette with thier political careers by passing such job-killing nonsense like "crap-n-trade, EPA greenhouse gas reduction mandate and the like. Most if not all liberal democratic party members will go ahead and jump off the cliff, they assume falsely that people will not rememder or agree with them.

Redstateboy| 11.15.10 @ 1:49PM

These pat-down procedures may get the likes of Bwarney Fwank to fly more often.

SPaquet| 11.15.10 @ 2:11PM

I'm traveling on the 22nd of November and dread the tsa screaming,"this one opted-out of the booty scan.I'm a white male in my middle 40's but will also dread when a highschool major or G.E.D. rocket scientist wants to grope me. I get harassed often, me and the 75 year old wheechair bound woman being detained and belongings being riffled through by inept baboons who shout at people in line for not taking their shoes off quick enough. Luckily I get to fly on personal jets on occasions; they say" are we ready", we show our ID and we're on our way----too expensive though. I'm glad I won't be leaving at Thanksgiving time, I'd have to leave the house at 2am to make my flight for 10:20 for Lihuii,Kawaii . I heard most flight attendants and pilots are also opting out of those obtrussive body scans or a special pat-down by the same shouting tsa moron- entitled agents.I am sure it will not be pretty when someone shouts at me and wants to violate my person.

prestonsbrooks| 11.15.10 @ 2:30PM

You guys taking alternate travel are missing the point: the government intends to create a Stasi-State. Soon, if WE do not stand up, you'll soon be porno-scanned at the train depot, stadium, subway, bus station, etc. This is about Dictatorship, people. Wake up.

Margie| 11.15.10 @ 3:06PM

S.L. Toddard is a phony and a rabid anti-semite who sides with the enemy. Here is who he really is from a previous post:

S.L. Toddard| 12.30.09 @ 1:37PM

When did Islamic extremists attack America before we insinuated ourselves in their affairs? How many *religiously motivated* attacks against America did Muslim extremists wage before the creation of Israel?

apodoca| 11.15.10 @ 7:34PM

Tell S. L. Toddard, the moron, to talk to Thomas Jefferson about the Barbary Pirates.

Occam's Tool| 11.15.10 @ 9:48PM

Give that man a SEEGAR! And, while we're on the subject of knowledgable antiterrorist guys:

Imagine an attack on America's energy industry by state sponsored terrorists. Then imagine a President who is a panderer to Islamists, and who takes himself more seriously than the Constitution. Then imagine a white knuckle ride that never lets up!

We know the second statement is true, and the third statement is a book describing the first, called Texas Said No!.

Texas Said No! grabs you by the throat by page 6, and then is LITERALLY unputdownable through the last page, where it ends all too soon. To tell any more would be to give away too much stuff, but if you liked The Last Centurion by John Ringo, you'll love this one, as it is very similar to Ringo's book, only stripped down without any padding, slamming through its talking points like the TCU defense on a roll. If you care about your country and the course it's taking, buy this book and put it next to America Alone on your shelf. It's that good, and that important.

It is published as an E-book. Check it out at www.texassaidno.com

GENE HAUBER| 11.15.10 @ 3:08PM

LET'S FINGER FUCK JANET NAPOLITANO ONEC, DAILY AT EVERY US AIRPORT,,,,FUCK HER!

martin j smith| 11.15.10 @ 3:49PM

Having heard more views on the TSA "touch Squad"
I would say this: Those who thought of this method were either very stupid and did not think thru how it would be recieved or quite the opposite. They new very well how it would be received and want people to"change their behavior" and not fly. A victory for terrorism.
I think that our elected officials should be involved in pressuring Homeland Security to come up with more rational approaches. And in that regard here is a question:
How do Muslims in general and Muslim women in particular feel about their "junk" being touched ?
Has anyone heard anything about that ? I think it is time to force our security services to face the fact that religious,ethnic,political and criminal behavior profiling needs to be used--plus bomb sniffing dogs and any other protective measures that make sense..

WAKE UP| 11.15.10 @ 4:06PM

It pays to remember that this was all started by a bunch of Islamic madmen. That remains the REAL problem.

darcy| 11.15.10 @ 4:10PM

Please take a few moments to acquaint yourselves with this, a well-rounded and rational look at "the insane naked-body-scan-and-genitalia-grope security regime" with which we are contending.

"Why we don't copy Israel's airport security practices," at
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/017899.html

Margie| 11.15.10 @ 4:57PM

darcy,

The link you provided disgusted me.. do you really agree with that blogger that the reason we don't use the Israeli method is all tied in to race?

I can smell White Nationalism all over it.

Yuck.

Margie| 11.15.10 @ 5:20PM

Or rather, that the writer believes that intelligence is based on one's race.

The reason we won't use the Israeli's system isn't because of "non-whites" being the superior Race, but rather because we are too PC to even suggest or think about profiling and using our minds to judge whether or not someone seems suspicious.

That involves intelligence, competence and common sense but it has nothing to do with whether one is WHITE or NOT!

darcy| 11.15.10 @ 5:32PM

Is he saying intelligence is based on race? Or is he saying that there are statistical group differences?

I have no problem with acknowledging that as a group the Hebrew race register higher on IQ tests than most other groups; I have no problem with achkowledging the fact that Asians -- as a group -- outpace white students in academic achievement.

I also have no difficulty recognizing that among the black population there are many stellar examples of great intellect, such as the very famous economist, Thomas Sowell. Have you read any of his books?

John Navratil| 11.15.10 @ 5:43PM

darcy,

You are about to do a big 'ole belly flop into Part III of "The Bell Curve".

I'm with you on two points (1) I am not impressed with the overall talents of the current TSA staff (perhaps that has to do with my general anti-authoritarian bent, and (2) I discern that the TSA staff does not appear to match the demographics of the U.S., overall. Anything more than that will be conjecture, unless based on other data.

John Navratil| 11.15.10 @ 5:47PM

darcy,

P.S. Sowell's "Basic Economics" was required reading for both of my children before the first college tuition check was written. His "A Conflict of Visions" is a seminal work.

John Navratil| 11.15.10 @ 5:47PM

darcy,

P.S. Sowell's "Basic Economics" was required reading for both of my children before the first college tuition check was written. His "A Conflict of Visions" is a seminal work.

Occam's Tool| 11.15.10 @ 9:54PM

The "Hebrew race"? Honestly, darcy, the reason for the Jews snarfing up the Nobel prizes is that we do it to annot Tim* and SL.

Seriously, the reason for it is a culture that focuses on academic accomplishments for guys as a way to get the cute chicks. It all depends on what you make the guys focus on to enhance their breeding prospects.

Asians overall do NOT outpace Caucasions in academic achievment. In the US, yes, but it may interest you to know that in Australia and New Zealand Asians are associated with thugs and gangs.

Again, I believe culture trumps genetics. Once upon a time the British were among the best educated people in Europe. Not anymore.

darcy| 11.16.10 @ 12:39AM

Well then, Occam, if culture trumps genetics, what with 70% plus of black children being raised in single-parent households without benefit of a father's influence and their moms dependent upon the state for their survival (generation after generation, thanks to the Great Society), it would seem, again, that the black race is intellectually -- as in IQ, per your theorem -- disadvantaged.

John Navratil| 11.15.10 @ 5:38PM

I have to agree with you, Margie.

If there is any salient point to be made, however, it is that the current TSA staff has been hired to look for things; specifically the things they are taught to look for. An El-Al type security requires looking for behaviours and for flaws in the passenger's stories. I'm told, but have no first-hand experience, that the interrogation takes as long as the questioner is not satisfied.

Whatever the individual qualifications of the current TSA staff may be, the organization has not hired the staff it would need to perform this sort of search.

Albert| 11.15.10 @ 6:33PM

"If there is any salient point to be made, however, it is that the current TSA staff has been hired to look for things; specifically the things they are taught to look for."

This is exactly the problem. TSA-people are looking for things. Every time the TSA-people devise a new search method, (again while looking for THINGS, not behaviors) the terrorists will devise a new way to evade the search.

Margie| 11.15.10 @ 6:51PM

Thanks, John. I wish we WOULD adopt the Israeli's method.

I just really really really despise racism.. including "White" racism, White Nationalism, Race Realism or whatever they like to call it.

And yes darcy, I have a few of Thomas Sowell's books on my shelves, along with over 200 others, mostly by conservative writers. Absolutely love the guy. I also admire the mind of David Horowitz, who I have never seen anyone quite so perfectly describe the mind of thew Leftist and its many guises, including how racism in all of its forms is a trait shared with the Left. He should know~ he was one. (A Leftist).

darcy| 11.15.10 @ 7:02PM

Margie, have you read Horowitz's Shadow Party and Radical Son? Just curious. They're both helpful, IMO, to gaining insight into what's going on with/in the Left -- and their tactics. Glad to learn you're wise to them, and thanks in part to Mr. Horowitz'a work.

Occam's Tool| 11.15.10 @ 9:57PM

El-Al screeners are also treated like professionals.

It is obvious that the screening is a joke. I am Jewish, but look Lebanese. My fraternity brothers had a great time calling me "Abdul" when I grew a beard. I should be groped on EVERY flight I take. I remember telling a priest once, when I was about to get on a plane, that I would not be stopped but that a Little Old Lady in a wheelchair would. If you have never seen a priest rolling on the ground in laughter (as my prediction bore out), let me tell you, it's a treat.

John II| 11.15.10 @ 4:40PM

Let's add it all up:

1. Random harassment of airline passengers by low-wage degenerates instead of concentrated attention on suspicious-looking passengers by trained and observant professionals.

2. X-ray exposure for everybody under the gaze of low-wage degenerates.

3. Groping for many, including children, by low-wage degenerates.

4. Planning and oversight conducted by the likes of Incompetano: i.e., high-wage degenerates.

Agreed. Except for one indispensable link: the tolerance of a degenerate culture for degenerate security procedures. Score another big win for the terrorists. Thank you, Janet.

chris haynes| 11.15.10 @ 5:21PM

Another fiasco from the warmonger elite.

Make friends. Bring abortion and homosexual marriage to moslems. Bomb them if they say no. Secure oil for Europe, when we have a 500 year supply in Wyoming. Borrow trillions from China to pay for it. Grope the children of peons. Private jets for those who count.

John Navratil| 11.15.10 @ 6:51PM

chris haynes,

I think the security system is a farce. However, I take issue with your characterization of "Private jets for those who count".

The reason the "peons" are being groped is because the demand, initially from the "peons", was to make sure Richard Reid wasn't sitting next to them. How many times have you heard some "peon" say that they we "OK with it" as long as it was for safety. Well, perhaps there are limits, even for "peons".

Don't, however begrudge those do use private aircraft their ability to fly without a TSA security check. I use a private aircraft (Cessna 210) for business and travel and can tell you that the TSA is chomping at the bit to institute this insanity for private flying.

Before you dismiss this a the whining of some rich fat-cat (I am not), please note that no one gets in my aircraft that I do not know and no bag gets loaded that I don't approve. It's a lot like you and your personal automobile.

VFORD| 11.15.10 @ 5:52PM

I will not be flying again until we get some common sense in govt and profile passengers, as is done in every other country on the planet!

John Navratil| 11.15.10 @ 6:11PM

VFORD,

I once asked Congressman Nick Lampson if he had to allow one person to board the plane without being screened would it be the elderly woman or the twenty-something male from the Middle East? His response: "I'd check everyone".

Typical political non-response. I suspect you and I will not be flying commercially for a while.

On the other hand, there is a faint glimmer of hope. Big Sis seems open to letting the pilots on without this level of screening. Will the crack in the damned dam open? We'll see.

Kathleen| 11.15.10 @ 6:55PM

My husband and I are both frequent fliers. We've been all over the world and back over the years. We have enjoyed our trips, both for business and pleasure. And we have spent a lot of money to fly where we needed to go. I have no issues with providing the best security there is to keep us from being blown out of the sky at 30,000 feet by terrorists. And I am not a prude. However, the new security procedures that the president and Napolitano have put in place are no longer acceptable to me. I am NOT willing to be strip-searched, or to be exposed to a possibility of dangerous radiation. And I refuse to allow anyone to do a full-on touching of my breasts, my vaginal area, and separating my buttocks so they can search for bombs. This is absolutely unneccessary. I have flown to and from Israel many times, and have gone through their security, which is the strictest in the world, and the most effective, and I will not allow my rights to be eroded in my own country, because our government has chosen NOT to work with the Israelis to provide us with the BEST possible security there is.

My husband just got back from a trip for his work, and on his trip back home, he was subjected to BOTH the full body scanner and an enhanced pat down. He was wearing light-weight slacks, and he noted that the TSA agent, when running his hands along my husband's backside, SEPARATED his buttocks to get very up close and personal. That is NOT acceptable!!!

Furthermore, how is it okay for Muslim females, who are dressed in their Islamic garb, able to get away with refusing to go through the body scanner AND refusing to get an enhanced pat down? (They are "allowed" to have a pat down around the head and neck area, only.) I cannot even BEGIN to tell you how furious I am with THAT arrangement. Frankly, Muslim terrorists are the REASON for all this craziness. Yet, we're going to allow those dressed in burqas and hijabs to get away with this?? If bombs are missed on the people wearing that garb, and they get manage to get on a plane that I'm on and blow it up, how is touching my breasts, feeling my vaginal area, and separating my butt cheeks to check for explosives going to keep my plane safe??

I have several upcoming trips, and have cancelled my plans for flying. It is not important enough to me to keep up my air miles, and the trips are not important enough for me to be "forced" into flying. I DO have a very important week-long conference coming up in January, and I have cancelled my flight plans, and have now made plans to drive halfway across the United States to get there. We are getting information on taking the train, as well. And as for international flights...well, we won't be doing that any longer until the rules are changed. I will NOT fly anymore domestically, or to head out of this country, until this nonsense is STOPPED. That is not an easy decision for me, because I do like my travel. But, that is the decision I have made.

Pollynkorect| 11.16.10 @ 6:14AM

Perhaps Americans should show up at airports wearing burqas and hijabs. The TSA goons will be too PC to grope presumed Muslims, since their boss is more afraid of offending Muslims than Americans.

Bigfoot| 11.15.10 @ 7:20PM

I cannot give up seeing my son and grandson in Central America. Drive thru Mexico? Out of the question. We need heavy profiling. But just asking passengers if they are Muslim is ludicrous. No, profiling will be on racial features. So what! It is better than groping nuns and little children. The liberals have delivered us into the hands of the terrorists. Throw the bass turds out! The Tea Party 11/10 is just the beginning.

Chris| 11.15.10 @ 7:57PM

Hi Bigfoot.

1. Drive or train to either Canada or Mexico. Let's say Canada.
2. Fly from Toronto or Montreal to Carib or Central America.

The rest of the world uses profiling and scanning, but have not followed the TSA.

Give your hard earned cash to non TSA cooperating airlines. Boycott US airports until this is over.

And.... I live in the Pacific and my Grandkids live in Manitoba -- I pay extra to land in Vancouver over LAX. or SF.

Appleby| 11.16.10 @ 4:54PM

Who told you Toronto and Montreal don't have strip search machines? We do.

apodoca| 11.15.10 @ 7:31PM

Obama is deliberately seeking to destroy the airline and related industries and put more people out of work.

Heywood| 11.15.10 @ 8:44PM

They could easily get past these extra draconian security measures. We're incapable of stopping a small group of terrorists from attempting to blow up a jet by getting to them before they plan it and attempt to carry their plans out. What are we capable of? The best idea I've heard was to infiltrate all of the educational systems of countries that teach fundamentalist Muslim religious dogma. Has anyone done that yet? Are they still teaching them to have a culture of death and martyrdom? Do they still call on their populations to hate the infidels? If they haven't yet tried that they should try it--probably cost less money than doing what they've been doing so far.

john adams| 11.15.10 @ 9:10PM

i think everyone should opt for the pat down and make orgasm noises as the TSA are molesting you. spread the idea to every website

Kay Garce| 11.17.10 @ 10:36AM

I think you're on to something! :)

Occam's Tool| 11.15.10 @ 10:00PM

I pretty much don't fly, except to 'Bama to see my inlaws and Guatemala to see my family's friends there. Otherwise, the Twin Cities are within driving distance, as is Fargo. I suppose I'd also fly to Israel to buy some trees in Tim*'s name. That's about it.

Bruce| 11.15.10 @ 10:23PM

I note that nobody has mentioned perhaps the most grievous abuse I have ever seen committed by the TSA - that of the picture on Drudge of a TSA agent doing an "enhanced pat down" on a Catholic Nun in full habit, IN FULL VIEW OF THE PUBLIC! I find it hard to believe there wasn't a revolt by fellow passengers who witnessed that disgusting spectacle.

Rick| 11.16.10 @ 4:37AM

I refuse to fly unless forced to do so. The government is blaming Americans for 9-11 instead of Muslims. I refuse to be treated worse than an animal. Federal government groping has nothing to do with anti-terrorism. It's all about pushing the limits of obedience and complacency in the face of federal government totalitarianism.

Kristen McFarland| 11.16.10 @ 5:58AM

I do some issue with Mr. Babbin's statement about forgoing airline travel: I believe and even suspect this is what those who instituted these ridiculous measures, have an underlying reason to control population movement and want the American people to stop traveling in order to confine us to certain geographic areas; that's just the icing on the cake to them..there will be an uprising but not in the way the statists running the government think...

chris haynes| 11.16.10 @ 8:51AM

The private plane exemption is for fat cats. Pure and simple.

Sure the TSA wants to end it. But the elite wont let them. But they should. The passengers could easily take it over and fly it into the White House.

Ive flown private jets. Nobody checks a thing. I've flown them with Saudi clients. All great guys by the way. And still nobody checks a thing.

Thomas| 11.16.10 @ 9:36AM

Excuse me, but has anyone noticed that the United States, along with the rest of the civilized Western world is at war? And, that the people with whom we are at war use terroism involving martyrs?

Back in the halcyon days of air travel in the '80's and '90's. of which Mr. Babbin is so fond, passenger security screening was already a way of life. In those days, however, the only real threat to aircraft was from hijackers. And the weapons of choice for hijackers were firearms and large knives. There was little danger of encountering a hijacker intent on destroying an aircraft in flight at 30,000'. Hijackers, unlike terrorist martyrs rarely were willing to die for their cause. But, carry-on luggage was x-rayed, people had to pass through a magnetometer and if it sounded, they had to be hand screened and sometimes searched. After 9/11, the screening changed very little, initially, because the weapons used by the hijackers were items that were allowed to be carried on board by travelers. The 9/11 hijackers were successful, because they used the loopholes that existed in the security system at that time, including the protocol that called for cooperating with the hijacker. As no one had ever hijacked an aircraft to use a guided missile, resistance was deemed an unjustifiable risk at that time. Not so today, where such a hijacking would likely be met by the entire compliment of the aircraft physically attacking the hijacker.

But, our enemies didn't give up. If they couldn't take ver the aircraft and crash it inot a large building, they would destroy it in the air, al a Pan Am Flt 103 over Lockerbie Scotland. How to do that? Checked baggage was out, as it was being actively screened before being placed ono the aircraft. Carry-on luggage? No good. That was being screened the same was, and all electronics had to be functional. On the person? That would work, as long as the person was not subjected to a pat-down search or organic trace sniffing technology explosive could be carried through with little problem. The problem was with the ignition device. When lighters and matches were banned, it was extremely difficult to get an ignition source on the aircraft. That changed, though. The TSA acquiesced to the demands of the public to be allowed to carry matches and then lighters on board. This made it possible to ignite explosive compounds, easily, while in the air. Of course, chemical explosives were still a problem. This was solved by banning liquids of unknown origin. A protocol that has been radically modified.

All of the weakening of security protocols designed to eliminate the possibility of introducing a functional explosive device aboard an aircraft allowed just that to happen. First it was shoes. Then it was devices carried in undergarments. The only thing that averted disaster was the fact that the bombers were incredibly inept. These attempts looked like scene from an Inspector Clouseau film. But they could have succeeded. They occurred because the parties involved identified and exploited flaws in the security screening system. So, in response to these incidents, the TSA institutes protocols to close these loopholes. And everybody starts screaming about it.

The problem is that none of these attempts were successful. Had the shoebomber's or the Fruit of the Loom bomber's plane gone down in flames people would not only be meekly lining up for full body screening, but would bludgeon anyone who refused into unconsciousness.

And before I have to hear about the wonders of "profiling", what does a Muslim terrorist look like? A young middle eastern male? Well, none of the last three attempted bombers in the U.S. fit that description. Middle eastern men in general? Two Muslim women brought down a Russian airliner with explosives. How about just Muslims in general? What does a Muslim look and what traits do they have that can not be disguised? How about Louis Farrakan, Cassius Clay [aka Mohamed Ali], Malcolm X and a host of others?

While i am not a big fan of the TSA, they have been asked to perform an impossible job. If nothing happens, they are jack booted thugs. If a plane falls out of the sky due to sabotage, they are incompetent boobs. I am sure that the TSA would welcome any suggestions that would allow them to perform their function more simply and in a less invasive manner. I believe they have a website where you can leave all of your well thought out suggestions.

Happy traveling.

John II| 11.16.10 @ 11:16AM

"I am sure that the TSA would welcome any suggestions that would allow them to perform their function more simply and in a less invasive manner."

You can't possibly be sure of that, Thomas. Unless you're willing to believe the more plausible certainty that TSA has been advised time and again to subject themselves to extensive training by Israeli airport security professionals.

In which case, you'd be believing something that makes your other certainty impossible. In other words, you make some distinctly good points, which all dovetail into nonsense.

To repeat: the deeper trouble is the fact that our degenerate culture cannot recognize, much less acknowledge, the degenerate character of the TSA management and security procedures--as evident in your own apparently nonchalant review of the slippery slope.

Thomas| 11.16.10 @ 12:59PM

Really?

OK, Bucky, here is your chance to be of help to the TSA. A 45 year old white female of obvious European extraction, named Murphy, comes through the screening line with 3/4 lbs of Semtex in the crotch of her underwear. How are you going to detect it?

Remember, if you don't, BOOM, 200 people dead.

John II| 11.16.10 @ 1:57PM

Hey Thomas. Well, I'm tempted to shrug and say, "You just LIVE with that remote possibility, the same way you live with the remote possibility that, because of metal fatigue and half-assed mechanical oversight, one of the engines will fall off the wing when you're at 30,000 feet."

But then I'd be slipping into your line of reasoning, wouldn't I? You see, Thomas, you're resting your argument on the materialist premise that risk-free physical safety trumps all other considerations--ANYTHING is acceptable if it serves the end of warm-fuzzy physical security.

That's why all you choose to do, in a telltale tone of lofty contempt (which I take as well to be revelatory of a serious weakness in your line of reasoning), is to enumerate scenarios.

And again, that's my point. The terrorists are basically nihilists themselves--which is perhaps why they sense this creeping (and creepy) weakness in Western culture as it's devolved over the past few centuries. Materialism itself is a particularly shabby form of nihilism. When you habituate yourself to arguing by its premises (with or without the insecure projection of contempt for moralistic twits like myself), you wind up with blind spots in your own discourse--and cheap rhetorical questions ("How are you going to detect it?") to which you assume you already have the only conceivable answer: Submit to groping by low-wage degenerates--there's no other way.

The Israeli airport security professionals don't do that. And, like the TSA, you're apparently not even interested in knowing what they do to keep their own passenger aircraft from going BOOM.

Hint: what they do involves moral judgment and intelligent discretion. Which is likely the principal reason why the Islamic nihilists cultivate a particularly vicious hatred for the Israelis--but mere contempt for the rest of us.

Thomas| 11.16.10 @ 2:45PM

I am glad to see that your answer to detecting the bomb in the woman's underwear is simply not to worry about it. Que sara, sara. 200 people dead from a terrorist bomb times as many bombs as are allowed to be smuggled onto individual aircraft is fine with you. And, realistically, with a population of 300 million+ people in the United States, what do the lives of a lousy 200 people really mean? I'm sure that all the relatives of those 200+bomb victims will agree with you and line up to shake your hand for your principled stand against whatever it is you are standing up against.

Actually, there are a number of ways to detect those explosives in the underwear. But, even the least invasive of them that is currently available, the puffer booth that detects hydrocarbon traces that are associated with explosives, yields false positives and any alarm has to be cleared by a physical search of the person.

Now about Israeli airport and airline security. You haven't lived until you see what Israeli security can do, and does. First of all, all vehicular traffic is stopped before entering the airport and searched. On on the property, all checked baggage must be checked away from the terminals. Then all carry-on luggage is searched before entering the airport. Passengers are stopped at random within the terminal and prior to the final security screening for a variety of reasons ranging from suspicious behavior, to nation origin and even last name. People are snatched out of line, held for as long as necessary and interrogated before being allowed to continue. This procedure also includes strip searches. Unselected passengers still go through a security check point and have their carry[ons hand searched and there person scanned by a metal detector. Now remember, Israeli airports [all 7 as opposed to 400 "primary" airports in the U.S.] only serve a fraction of passengers served in U.S, airports [11 million in Israel a year as opposed to 700 million in the U.S.]. And, they don't have to deal with those pesky little civil rights issues. They are polite about it, but failure to comply usually results in a very unpleasant experience.

Now what did you say about not wanting to know what the Israelis do about airport security?

John II| 11.16.10 @ 3:06PM

The "at random" part, if you're descibing it accurately, clearly wouldn't work in American terminals--and I've already said I'm against that, anyhow. But given the rest of the Israeli procedure, I have to doubt the "at random" part.

The rest of the security measures sound intelligent to me. We don't see eye-to-eye on this issue, Thomas, and not just because of the witless response in your first paragraph.

The trouble is, again and for the third time now, you don't seem to see why precisely we don't see eye-to-eye.

Thomas| 11.16.10 @ 3:49PM

As I see it, you are viewing the TSA screening protocols from a position of personal liberty. That is fine, except the TSA is viewing it from the standpoint of securing the flying environment for the passengers. While not mutually exclusive, these positions do require compromise. And the reality in the world is that a significant threat of airborne detonation of explosives aboard a commuter airplane is a a very real possibility. Ask the Israelis, whose system you seem to think so much of.

When people tout the Israeli airport security methods, they usually are referring to the Israeli practice of profiling. That might work in the U.S., if you weren't the one profiled. Now, if you were carted off from inside the terminal and interrogated, had all of your personal belongings searched and possibly even missed your flight because you were unable to provide some verifiable data to the security personnel, simply because your first name was Mohammad, I dare say that you would not be as enamored of it.

What the new TSA protocols do is attempt to address the problem of the carry of explosives, on the body, in a way that is the most effective while being the least uncomfortable; the full body scanner. It is not perfect, but then nothing is. And, it attempts to satisfy the peculiarly American attitude that people should be treated equally in any given situation and not actively discriminated against based upon gender, religion or national origin.

Personally, I have traveled almost exclusively by private automobile for the last few years, not because of the stringency of the screening protocols, but because of how inadequate they were for the identification of real threats.

I hopes this puts things into perspective for you. I am not certain if it will, though. I find it disquieting that you have, essentially, called me a liar twice in as many posts, without presenting any evidence to support that position. Maybe that is profiling on your part.

John II| 11.16.10 @ 4:49PM

"I find it disquieting that you have, essentially, called me a liar twice in as many posts."

Well, I find it disquieting that you should say so, Thomas, although I'm glad to see you tossing out a term like "essentially."

Three points, I guess:

1. I called your argument into question, not your integrity. In fact, I'm very impressed by your can-do Americano grasp of interesting factual detail. (I balked a bit over the "at random" part regarding Israeli security, but I could have no grounds on which to deny it except that it doesn't strike me as consistent.)

2. But as any philosopher or even logician will tell you, facts don't speak for themselves, contrary to the popular aphorism. Judgment orders the facts and interprets them. Your (good) judgment, for example, is partly or incidentally on display, I think, amid that otherwise snippy and off-point first paragraph in your 2:45 response. Mere annoyance or inconvenience (your apparent view of the groping) is as nothing compared to the loss of human life. And the trouble you take to communicate your facts is itself a sign to me you are not yourself remotely as materialistic as your arguments. So I not only did NOT imply that you're a liar; I didn't even claim that you're a materialist. (I think I've met a few sure-enough, thorough-going materialists [i.e., nihilists] in my day, and the fool's errand of arguing with them would never tempt me.)

3. No, I'm not viewing the issue from the "position of personal liberty." We all surrender huge chunks of personal liberty for the choice of any number of social activities, including public transportation. That's not the issue at all for me, if indeed it really is for anyone. Whatever free choices I make bring with them countless restrictions.

The issue for me (and likely for you as well, Thomas) is human dignity. TSA's ideologically motivated behavior (the crazed egalitarianism to which you allude in your last response, third paragraph from the end: cf. the treatment they accord PILOTS, for God's sake!) has crossed the line--predictably, I think, but predictions are no longer needed.

Akaky| 11.16.10 @ 3:15PM

Maybe it's just me, but I am wondering why the TSA insists on putting the pilots through the same ordeal as they put the passengers through, since, almost by definition, the pilots don't need to smuggle anything on board to destroy the airplane; they can do that just by flying the plane into the nearest conveniently located mountain.

John II| 11.16.10 @ 4:02PM

It's not just you. Many have asked that same question--and I think I know the answer.

The current TSA is under the control of the kinds of people who reject terms such as "Islamic terror" and enforce the use of terms such as "man-caused disaster." In other words, the operation is run by intellectually and morally challenged featherheads for whom "non-discrimination" is an indiscriminate ideological pose.

In a weirdly symbolic instance of function following form, Janet Incompetano is not just physically chubby; she and her like-minded politicos are what Aristotle called "fat-souled."

Paul Revere II| 11.16.10 @ 11:16PM

The comments are refreshingly frank and mostly apt, but . . . are YOU phoning/e-mailing your elected/ejected congresspeople & senators? Tell them why this TSA and DHS need to be taken in hand NOW. This is a gross violation of civil rights - and of common sense. The whole scheme seems deliberately designed and timed to disrupt holiday travel - and associated increased business of all kinds - as though it's part of Obama's grand plan to cripple and destroy American capitalism. We should keep insisting they model their plans on the Israeli methods, even though they will refuse. ("It's those Israelis - they're Jews!") BTW, an American profit motive does seem to be involved a bit, if you research who is involved in the selling of the snoop equipment: a non-observant co-religionist of mine, I believe.

Mike M | 11.17.10 @ 2:53PM

Obviously profiling won't help.

1. In 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by:
a. Superman
b. Jay Leno
c. Harry Potter
d. A Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40

2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by :
a. Olga Corbett
b. Sitting Bull
c. Arnold Schwarzenegger
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:
a. Lost Norwegians
b. Elvis
c. A tour bus full of 80-year-old women
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

4. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:
a. John Dillinger
b. The King of Sweden
c. The Boy Scouts
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
a. A pizza delivery boy
b. Pee Wee Herman
c. Geraldo Rivera
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:
a. The Smurfs
b. Davey Jones
c. The Little Mermaid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by:
a. Captain Kidd
b. Charles Lindberg
c. Mother Teresa
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

8. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
a. Scooby Doo
b. The Tooth Fairy
c. The Sundance Kid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
a. Richard Simmons
b. Grandma Moses
c. Michael Jordan
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

10. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
a. Mr. Rogers
b. Hillary Clinton, to distract attention from Wild
Bill's women problems
c. The World Wrestling Federation
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:
a. Bugs Bunny, Wiley E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd
b. The Supreme Court of Florida
c. Mr Bean
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

12. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against:
a. Enron
b. The Lutheran Church
c. The NFL
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
a. Bonnie and Clyde
b. Captain Kangaroo
c. Billy Graham
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

Kyle| 11.17.10 @ 11:11PM

If everyone decides not to fly, the airlines will go bankrupt, and then the government will takeover the airlines. Just like auto industry, housing industry, etc.

Eddie| 11.18.10 @ 1:56PM

Knoxville, TN just started the Megabus service to D.C. Chicago also has this service. Yes, it's 10 hours each way but no groping, long lines and outrageous prices like the airways. The busses have Wi-Fi and great comfort I understand and the cost is super. Maybe SOMEONE will get the message after airline booking drop off the map. Maybe not. We have to do something though. Hopefully, alternative transportation will attract more and more travelers. Screw the feds. They've gotten on my last nerve!

psysim| 11.18.10 @ 3:33PM

Airport TSA scanners and pat-downs present a security problem as well as an economic problem.

Opponents have warned that airlines will lose passengers if the invasive procedures continue.

The airlines share that concern of losing passengers --- one plane-load at a time.

Bruce de la Vega| 11.19.10 @ 11:43AM

I need to fly to interviews, to get work. OTOH, there's no way I'm putting up with being groped or exposed to unknown amounts of ionizing radiation. Maybe if everyone who flies can be issued a dosimeter they can wear all of the time to measure the accumulated exposure from their first flight until they decide it will be a long enough time until the next flight that it doesn't matter.

dragon6actual| 11.19.10 @ 12:42PM

I'm flying on Thanksgiving day. If a TSA agent gets overly "friendly", the agent had better be a smoking-hot female... but I'm STILL holding out for dinner and a movie.

TSA - or TnA? - or more correctly those governing what the TSA can and cannot do need to implement measures taken by the Israelis. They profile, and it works. The last time I looked, it wasn't 4 year old caucaisan boys or 80 year old black grandmothers who were smuggling bombs and other weapons onboard commercial aircraft.

The TSA needs another recruting motto. Clearly "We are looking for agents who can quickly get a feel for the job" is not the way to go.

Se98| 11.22.10 @ 11:55PM

There is technology that can detect all sorts of things developed by Sandia National Labs. It even detects chemicals. The scanner at the airports doesn’t. So now you could keep that expensive perfume and shampoo you took from the hotel, not that they would want it back. It does not use any type of x-ray technology what so ever. It’s more of a sniffer type technology. I drive though one every day. That’s right I said drive, you would never know it though it looks like a gate. Just think of it as one big dog that can detect anything I think it can do some nuclear detection also. Now why can’t this be scaled down to walk though at the airports. You could also get rid of most the TSA work force, you can cut that TSA work force by at least 40 percent, spend the savings new sniffer machines. But most of all you would have no lines and very pleasant flight.

Ps. Sure Janet, I take your advice. I will not fly anymore period. I’m driving from now on. Good luck on your hearing Janet.