Airport Security

[roadrunner]

All of this is coming from the political pressure in Washington to be "tough on terrorism," and the "War on Terror." Which BTW I think is kind of a strange phrase.. I mean, how can we be at war with an emotion? Anyway, I think there's a lot of pressure on both the government, and the airlines, to do everything humanly possible, invasive or not, to prevent anything from happening on a plane, and if, God forbid, something does happen, anybody who is perceived as having skipped something is going to get crucified. So that pressure is trickling on down to the airport employees, and some of them are going beyond "erring on the side of caution," they're getting downright militant about it. But I'm all for reasonable measures, and I think the scans and pat-downs in general are reasonable measures. And to me there's no civil rights issue at all. If a private company, an airline, wants you to submit to a body scan, pat down, whatever, in order to engage their services, seems to me they should have the right to do that, or you can take the bus, or drive, or walk, or ride a horse. The Constitution only applies because it's a government entity implementing the security. But even so, the rights granted in the Constitution aren't completely unlimited. They can be limited when there is a "compelling reason" to do so, such as national security, or the "general good." For instance, your First Amendment right to free speech doesn't mean you can reveal classified information, or threaten people. So, even though I believe in respecting everybody's religious beliefs, if those religious beliefs mean you can't be searched before you board a plane, then I say, "Fine, we'll respect your beliefs, and we won't search you. You are free to find some alternate form of transportation. Now please leave the airport immediately." It's a national security thing.

The one thing that does worry me is the reports of the radiation the scanners emit. If it's going to be a health risk, they need to find a different scanning method. Which I suppose they're probably working on already. Actually, I'm not that worried about any of this, just glad that I rarely fly any more and don't have to deal with it!

We are not at war with the emotion we are war with the act of terror. Any government, group or organization which promotes, trains, funds, or commits terrorist activity we are at war with them.

I do think we need security but we need to profile whom we search. Not the grandmothers or the pilots who do not need a bomb they can fly the thing into the ground when taking off or landing not the family going to Disney etc. We need a national I D card for the folks who are flying on a frequent basis they would have to go through an FBI check to receive such a card their name would be on a list and would identify them when they purchased a ticket.

The Israelis profile by looking at and interviewing the person. They can detect if he is nervous traveling with a group of people that are nervous don’t give same answers that fit with the group etc. Have one way ticket, where they came from etc. They are very skilled and this alone makes anyone trying to commit an act of terror very nervous. If they have cause for concern then they search that person.

There are better ways to insure our safety than what we are doing.