I'm somewhat amused that my initial attempts of an Internet searchfor a transcript of Obama's remarks yesterday on Flight 253 came up empty. I then discovered a Washington Post link via a conservative blogger by doing a search on the same phrase other conservatives also apparently noticed: "isolated extremist".
This incident, like several that have preceded it, demonstrates that an alert and courageous citizenry are far more resilient than an isolated extremist.First, the White House needs better fact checkers: the hero who subdued Farouk Abdulmutallab was not an American citizen or the flight crew, but Dutchman Jasper Schuringa. Second, what is notable is the group Al Qaeda goes entirely unmentioned despite claims of the suspect himself, and in fact a relevant Al Qaeda group came forth to claim responsibility. Third, perhaps it's just a reflexive part of his legal training, but is it necessary for Obama to say "a passenger allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device on his body"? Is there any doubt something happened on Flight 253? Do we speak of the alleged burns on the suspect's body? Is Obama really more concerned about the American legal rights of a Nigerian terrorist?
The Politics of Symbolism shines throughout this transcript; it took until the Christmas incident for Obama to decide there was a need for an airline safety review. Anyone want to make a bet that Obama's eventual "solution" is to "stimulate the economy" by hiring more and more TSA personnel?
Never Underestimate the Stupidity of a Government Bureaucrat
I did quite a bit of business travel until about a month before 9/11. Then I went on my first business-related flight several months after 9/11 (and the failed shoe bombing incident). (The interruption in business travel had more to do with clients willing to pick up expenses.) I ended up getting detailed searched each way, I lost track of what happened to my shoes, and TSA personnel seemed more interested in exercising authority than in patiently explaining things to passengers not used to the new rules and regulations. (In this case, there was this pack mentality where I was surrounded by 2 or 3 TSA personnel talking to me at the same time, someone searching me, someone taking my shoes, etc.)
I'm sure every passenger has his or her favorite horror story, and I'm sure there will be readers whom will believe their story trumps mine. But probably the most exasperating one for me was when I won the "detailed search" lottery after waiting an unusually long period in the security line and the time cutting a little too close to departure time. So I go through the search, race to the gate--just in time--when the agent stops me and refuses to let me board, saying that my boarding pass--which had the lottery notice--had not been stamped. My response is--you've got to be kidding; how the heck am I supposed to know that the TSA personnel were required to stamp the boarding pass? How is it my problem if the TSA personnel screw up? Am I supposed to know to ask them--"I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job--I don't work for TSA or the airlines, but aren't you supposed to do something to my boarding pass before I leave here?" It's not like you're given a piece of paper at the outset saying, "WARNING: If you leave here without getting your boarding pass stamped, it's your problem."
So the gate agent said, "I can't let you on the flight; I could lose my job over this," almost with a note of pride of a job well done in terms of catching me as if I was attempting to sneak by him onto the flight! So then they page someone from TSA to the gate. As you might guess, the TSA did not break any speed records in getting to the gate. I'm like--don't they track this in their system? Can't they verify my checked status real-time? Of course not! In the meanwhile, the pilots are unhappy about my not boarding in a timely fashion, another person on standby wants my seat, and finally the TSA agent shows up. And then subjects me to a free, complimentary mandatory second search (in front of everyone, of course). If the first search wasn't stamped, as far as the TSA was concerned, it never happened. When I briefly protested, the response was, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. The hard way is you end up going back to the security checkpoint with me and missing your flight."
I instinctively realized--this is nuts! It had nothing to do with my inconvenience or annoyance. I think the American people have all but given federal bureaucrats a blank check to make arbitrary rules and regulations allegedly in the spirit of flight safety. What's particularly exasperating is these petty infringements on liberty started under the Bush Administration. Things have relaxed a bit--you no longer have restrictions on nail files and knitting needles. It's like TSA personnel stay up late at night dreaming up scenarios of, for example, people fashioning weapons out of tubes of toothpaste, baby teethers or gel deodorants; I wonder if there's a rule against small-busted women wearing falsies onto flights...
I don't think they get it. There was a famous book a few years back called "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" (by Robert Fulghum). I don't recall if the author discussed bullies, but everybody knows what bullies are like--they rarely pick on someone their own size. The point is--you can't guard against everything. I hardly know how a terrorist thinks, but I understand the concepts of surprise attacks, decoys, and soft targets. It may very well be the case that some groups take it as a challenge to fashion a weapon out of allowed TSA exemptions, although I suspect that the government is focusing an undue amount of resources on certain classes of threats; it's like squeezing a balloon--expect a pin prick on the other side of the balloon you haven't grasped.
Bruce Schneier wrote an interesting relevant essay a few years ago titled "Terrorists Don't Do Movie Plots"; let's stop the madness. Do we really need to restrict juvenile diabetics from being able to go to the bathroom during the final hour of a flight as a knee-jerk overreaction to NWA Flight 253?
Political Cartoon
Chip Bok, using the context of the well-known Ally Bank ad (below), expertly mocks Senate Majority Harry "Bad Santa" Reid, recently quoted as saying (in response to the Louisiana Purchase/Cornhusker Kickback kerfuffle) ""I don't know if there is a senator that doesn't have something in this bill that was important to them. And if they don't have something in it important to them, then it doesn't speak well of them." (Reid has respect only for those politicians whom have the audacity to speak up for their fair share of the
Ally Bank Commercial
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Joe Cocker Track: "When the Night Comes"
This is a Bryan Adams' penned song, but Joe Cocker made the song his own. Joe Cocker, of course, also has his own niche based on songs like "You Are So Beautiful" and remakes of "The Letter" (the Boxtops) and "With a Little Help From My Friends" (the Beatles). I loved Cocker's version of this song so much, I bought a second copy of the "Best of Joe Cocker" when I couldn't find my first copy after a move.
