What’s In A Name, Baby?

I have written before about the screening process at the airport. The TSA goes out of its way to do stupid things. I am a big fan of security and have no problems submitting to reasonable measures. The problem comes when common sense is thrown away and foolishness takes its place. I believe it is absolute foolishness to strip search little old ladies and let men who fit the demographics of people who have committed terrorist acts for the past 20 years pass untouched. We are lulling ourselves into a false sense of security because we allow the ACLU and others to play games and insinuate we are profiling. Well so what if we profile? If all rapes are committed by men then why would we search women while looking for a rapist? Is that not profiling? This has gone way too far. Recently on a local news cast it was reported that two men broke into a place and stole an ATM. The video camera showed two black males yet when they gave a description of the men police were looking for they reported that the had medium complexion. Isn’t it a bit absurd to leave out the skin color no matter what color it is? Including it would narrow the field of possible candidates for any viewer who might be looking for the perps.

Now, back to the airport. I have been searched more times than you can imagine and I have a military ID card. I do not fit the demographics and once I produce the card you would think they would let me through. I am not opposed to random searches of military to keep the terrorists from faking military ID cards though they might have to shave and that would present a problem. I also am amazed by the fact that flight crews have to go through the security checkpoint. They have to put their bags in and they have to go through the metal detectors. The have items confiscated because they are “dangerous.” Perhaps it is just me but why would you take nail clippers from a pilot who has a crash axe in the cockpit? And how stupid is it to screen a pilot for harmful items when he is flying the plane? If he wanted to cause problems and injure people he could fly it into a building!

Even if we take these items to be acceptable we have to draw the line somewhere. It was reported today that babies have been denied access to planes because their names appeared on a no fly list. This has got to be the second dumbest thing in air travel. The first is that TSA actually thinks the baby’s name is on the list because he did some bad thing to end up there. What kind of a mental moron can not figure out that a baby did not commit some act to get on that list? How stupid is it to make a family miss a flight because their baby’s name is on the list? Common sense tells us the baby should be removed from the list, and TSA rules say not to stop or search children under 12 if their names are on the list, but there is little common sense in some of the TSA workers.

Now, Surfside just posted about the Anti Civil Liberties Union. Here is something amazing from the article:

Critics including the American Civil Liberties Union say the government doesn’t provide enough information about the people on the lists, so innocent passengers can be caught up in the security sweep if they happen to have the same name as someone on the lists.

So the ACLU thinks there is not enough information about the people on the lists. You can bet your bottom dollar that if more information was on the lists this same ACLU would be suing for violations of people’s right to privacy. They would say the government is being intrusive yet now they condone it. Matter of fact, I think the ACLU is the organization that said the lists were intrusive and do not work. Now they want us to gather more information. As a side note to Surfside’s post. Who gives a damn what the ACLU wants with regard to the Abu Ghraib photos? The A in ACLU stands for AMERICAN. The only Americans at that prison are the ones the ACLU wants to hurt so where is the concern for their “Civil Liberties” and the civil liberties of the soldiers who will face greater dangers?

It is time to put reasonable measures in place to keep air travel safe. I am all for reasonable measures but while old men using walkers are searched someone is slipping through.

Story at My Way News.
N. Mallory posted her feelings about air travel security here.

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One Response to “What’s In A Name, Baby?”

  1. N. Mallory says:

    Awwww…you mentioned me. I bet there’s some prestige in that. 😉