Security Theater: Hijab carve-out on the way!

Feel safe yet?

CNS News:  On the pat downs, CAIR has recommended that Muslim women wearing hijabs refuse to go through the full body pat downs before boarding planes.  Will you insist that they do go through full body pat downs before boarding planes?

Janet Napolitano:  Look, we have, like I said before, we are doing what we need to do to protect the traveling public and adjustments will be made where they need to be made.  With respect to that particular issue, I think there will be more to come.  But, again, the goal here, you know, we’re not doing this just to do it. We’re doing it because we need to keep powders and gels and liquids off of planes that are unauthorized just as we need to keep metals off of planes.

Wrong.  The answer we’re looking for is, “Yes.”  As in, “Yes, we will require everyone to go through full-body pat-downs before boarding, and if CAIR doesn’t like it, they can get stuffed.”

Napolitano’s unwillingness to even approach the y-word means we can conclude that:

• There will be a “Muslim exception,” continuing our political establishment’s program of making Muslims the new privileged class.  (And yes, it started with George Bush.)
• None of this is about security.  Otherwise there would be no talk of “adjustments” that exempt the specific group of people whose members

  ...killed 3,000 innocents on 9/11; tried to detonate a shoe bomb on a flight; attempted to bring down airliners with liquid explosives; created parcel bombs in the hopes that they could rain airliners down on American cities; and also constructed undergarment bombs to slay men, women and children

  etcetera, etcetera...?
• It’s all about power, and it always has been, so...
  
• Shut up, bend over, and take it.
• (Unless, of course, you’re a Muslim.)
  

Elsewhere:

Previously:

(HT:  Doug Ross)

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Bad joke(?) of the day

Rep. John Mica (R-FL), one of the authors of the 2001 law that created the Transportation Security Administration (and likely new chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure), demonstrates an astounding lack of imagination for someone who has been a member of congress since 1992:

When the TSA was established, it was never envisioned that it would become a huge, unwieldy bureaucracy which was soon to grow to 67,000 employees.

Bwahahahahahaha!  Stop it, yerkillinme!

Of course, as Ace notes, a return to private security would be no solution because:

1. Private companies will not impose Israeli-type security provisions either; they will immediately be sued out of existence by CAIR

...aided and abetted by various federal agencies...

for taking special notice of Muslim passengers.  The government is the only organization big enough to withstand such suits, but of course it never would do anything [link added- o.g.] that is so politically incorrect.

...certainly not as long as we have a government that won’t even name the enemy.

2, therefore, the choice isn’t really between strong security and weak and/or invasive security; it’s a choice between weak and/or invasive security and... well, there is no choice.  Whatever happens we will have weak and/or invasive security.

Meanwhile, Michael Aguilar, director of the TSA’s San Diego facility, has gotten all huffy over one citizen’s contempt-of-wannabe-cop. [HT: Patrick]:

The Transportation Security Administration has opened an investigation targeting John Tyner, the Oceanside man who left Lindbergh Field under duress on Saturday morning after refusing to undertake a full body scan.
...
Michael J. Aguilar, chief of the TSA office in San Diego, called a news conference at the airport Monday afternoon to announce the probe.  He said the investigation could lead to prosecution and civil penalties of up to $11,000.
...
According to Aguilar, Tyner is under investigation for leaving the security area without permission.  That’s prohibited, among other reasons, to prevent potential terrorists from entering security, gaining information, and leaving.

And remember, our taxes pay for all of this.

Elsewhere:

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Clipfile - November 12, 2010

“When the right-thinking folks get it wrong, it’s never their fault.” - Glenn Reynolds

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Smitty gets called up

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Would it were so...

Rich Galen has hopes that with a new congress:

...that pesky Article I of the U.S. Constitution might be given a shot of adrenaline.

Article I begins thus:

“All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”

Not in the Oval Office; not in the Departments and Agencies; not in the offices of the many Czars within the Executive Office of the President, but in “a Congress of the United States.”

But that would mean congress taking responsibility and accountability for government actions!  As the Brits say, not bloody likely...

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Jeffrey Goldberg stumbles over the obvious

Goldberg:

It is a source of continual astonishment to me that pilots — many of whom, it should be pointed out, are military veterans who possess security clearances — are not allowed to carry onboard their airplanes pocket knives and bottles of shampoo, but then they’re allowed to fly enormous, fuel-laden, missile-like objects over American cities.

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Clipfile - November 8, 2010

“‘Ethics’ in modern practice has simply become a method of evading actual ethical behavior by creating a checklist of Don’ts which are almost entirely unrelated to the actual ethical transaction; compliance with this silly list of Don’ts allows actors to violate the real ethics of the profession like there's no tomorrow.” - Ace

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My biggest problem with daylight savings:

Convincing the cats to reset.


Previous grumbles:

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So MSNBC bounced Olbermann for donating to Democrats...?

Big deal.  He can always go to work at NPR.  I bet Vivian would just love him.

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Mark Twain on mathematical extrapolation

Roberta has put up a post in which she marvels at

...how short a time it took for statistical analysis of mass behavior of large groups to be considered with an eye to predicting and possibly manipulating the outcome.

Her citations of a couple of pre-World-War-II projects give me an excuse for hauling out this 1883-vintage example of mathematical prediction which still should stand as a lesson to us all.

(As Mr.Clemens spends a couple of pages setting things up, you’ll find it all  below the break.)

more...

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