Why have Americans turned wimpish on aviation security?

So, let’s look at recent events in US aviation security. We’ve got the whiny little girls – sorry, I mean big bold manly pilots - who don’t like to be searched. But we’ll come to them in a moment. First, let’s think about bombs in printer cartridges. Remember them? Yemen, Dubai, England, UPS, computer printers with plastic explosives wired up to cellphones – got it ? Novel? Yup, sort of. Dangerous? Maybe. Anyhow, when we had bombs in big shoes, did anyone, anywhere, feel the need to ban big shoes? No, of course not, that would be silly. And when we’ve had bombs in luggage in the past, have we banned suitcases? No, of course not, that would be moronic. So WTF is going on when TSA (and other, equally stupid countries – the Brits for example) ban the container the device was hidden in? Sheesh - and then they wonder why we doubt their intelligence.

Okay, let’s get to the girlies. It seems that macho pilot types are really rather nervous and shy and the thought of someone of the same gender actually touching them, in order to carry out a perfectly reasonable search, is all too much for their fragile – but gigantic - egos. And, like so many other groups – Customs, Law Enforcement, Frequent Fliers, minor politicians, a variety of religious nutjobs – they feel that they are a special case, should be regarded as above suspicion, and in most every way are far superior to everyone else on the plane. (Did I mention the gigantic egos in play here?).

Seems like they’ve never heard of robberies – never mind terror attacks – where, hey, the perpetrators used innocent dupes, sometimes by guile and sometimes by sticking a large handgun in the face of the dupes’ loved ones. This latter case is known as Tiger Kidnapping and happens frequently enough that any half-decent law enforcement officer (and that would be most of them: half-decent...) will have come across a case. Typically they turn up at the bank manager’s house at night, take the family hostage, then send the banker to the office the next day, to either rob the place on their behalf or to facilitate one or more gang members robbing the place. And all the time, the ‘Mad Dog’ gang member has your wife (or husband) and the kids at the end of their gun barrel.

So, turns out those ‘idiots’ at TSA are actually protecting the families of US flight crew from such horrors, whilst the pilots themselves whinge and whine, trying desperately to paint big targets on themselves and their families.

One of the biggest – and most potent – criticisms of the ‘fast track’ schemes for airport security seen over the last few years has been exactly this point: if you give someone - anyone - special access, then terrorists (half-decent ones anyways) will seek to exploit them. So, incidentally, why don’t we search the staff – including security staff – at airports? Are they so above suspicion, so guaranteed to never get in trouble, never be targeted, that they can have free access to secure zones in our airports every day, ever year for as long as they work there?

Ignore the nonsense on this issue in the mainstream media – and there are now many thousands of words on these topics, mainly driven by pilot unions and anyone with a grudge against the TSA – and try something different: think for yourself. It’s not that hard, honest.

And another thing...

In the previously mentioned blog, it states "a determined terrorist enemy loves nothing better than to see his operatives handled like civilian criminals". Remember my comment on stupidity ? Well, double it.

AQ and other groups hate being seen as common criminals - they crave more than almost anything to be seen as warriors, fighting jihad in the manner of their forefathers, brave soldiers facing the infidel hordes. And the previous dumb sob in the White House handed them that recognition on a plate: 'you are all enemy combatants, with a new unique status, and not at all like drug dealers, perverts and rapists'. (and they got a rather natty orange jumpsuit as a free uniform).

Dear God, please shine a little of your light on those who claim to have you in the centre of their lives and outlook.

There is an actual serious point: no matter your views (if you are a well-adjusted person) you might feel that if you'd grown up, say, in Palestine, you might just be tempted to pick up a rock, petrol bomb or gun and have at the Israelis - and similarly for the cliched young, Muslim, 2nd-generation immigrant lost in an infidel land looking for an identity, a noble cause, a chance to be a man.

But Islam, like all the big religions, has a real down on crime. So, if the local bandit/guerilla/freedom fighter heroes are actually seen by polite society in your neighbourhood as more akin to the crims I mentioned above - then do you think it might be less likely you'd join them, or more likely?

Hmm, I think we know the answer...

There, that's it - now take a rest, you've just been using a part of your body that hasn't had much exercise lately (once the headache wears off, trying looking at Fox news with a new perspective... and keep that brain active, or today's gains will soon be lost).

okay, that's enough - go back to hot air little dawgie. The rest of you, thanks for bearing with me :-)

Right-wingers and stupidity go together like... hot dogs and mustard?

What is it with right-wingers in the US, are they born stupid, or it gets handed out when they sign-up for that smart black uniform and those gucci leather boots ?

Phew, sorry bout that. See http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/02/25/identifying-terror/ to get an idea of why I'm so angry. The blog is nothing special (hot air sums it up entirely), in that it is typical of much right-wing ranting (okay, okay I can talk...) since Ft Hood.

Let me help out the hard of thinking (and God knows there are a great many of them).

If you label, officially, Hasan's murderous rampage as terrorism, then how do you objectively distinguish that from the many (too many) other nut-jobs going postal across the fair land ? And not, "Well Bubba, ah knows terrorism when ah sees it.." - but real, hard-nosed, legal, intelligent, objective analysis.

Get it yet ? The answer is almost certainly, that it can't be done. So if Ft Hood is terror, then how many of those other attacks would then fall under that same heading? (Is the penny finally dropping?)

And the good ol US of A instantly becomes - officially, legally - "the most terror-ridden country on the planet". And would that be good for business, do you think, Mr T Party?

So, rather than cowards, the Washington politicos are simply smart, and do not want the country's image dragged through the mud (or the level of endemic violence highlighted any more than it already is).

But of course they're smart: they are running the country, whilst the hard-of-thinking whine and whine online, and on air, and on Fox... To blacken the nation's reputation around the globe.

(Yup, it took a little anger to get me back to this blog...)

:-)