Scam Update

Of course, this would have been as easy to predict as the sun rising tomorrow in the eastern sky. What do you think the right is going to suggest in the wake of the Christmas Eve would-be terrorist bomber on the flight landing in Detroit? If you guessed a ramping up of intrusive and draconian security measures, well, a gold star for you. Let's begin with the retired Army general, obviously a prototype of his kind, who suggests that what we need is more screening, and if you're a Muslim male between 18-28, you should be strip searched.

Beginning tomorrow, they are ratcheting up the screening of everybody coming into the US,

All passengers flying into the United States from abroad will be subject to random screening or so-called "threat-based" screens, the Transport Security Administration said in a statement.

But it further mandated that "every individual flying into the US from anywhere in the world traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening."

So God help you if you're flying in from a state the US has deemed is a state-sponsored terrorism country--or, be it noted "other countries of interest." Because if you're coming from one of these places, you're going to go through "enhanced" screening. That's those machines that see through your clothes if they are available. If they aren't we're talking full body pat-down. Real nice if you're a Muslim, much less if you're a Muslim woman.

It's all crazy, of course. Has been from the beginning. (See this piece from the New York Times from 2007, for example.) Making life more miserable for air travelers is not doing a damn thing to make us safer. It's a huge--HUGE--scam, brothers and sisters. Because if a terrorist wants to attack us, he will despite the security measures. These people are not stupid. They are going to circumvent whatever security procedures we devise. We're constantly guarding against the last attack. Unfortunately, I can say without too much fear of it being untrue: just wait and see.