I'm thinkin' this country has pretty much lost its damned mind.
Given up on fundamental concepts like logic, deduction, and pragmatism.
Some will note that those are pretty important things to have given up on, as for the most part, those are the characteristics that served this country well during its formation and subsequent development.
The culprit ?
Political correctness gone amuck.
The mistaken belief that we, as a nation, must never risk offending any person or group, no matter how thin their skin or how obtuse their perceived slight might be.
Take, for example, profiling.
Profiling has been a longtime tool of effective law enforcement, based heavily on probability theory and historical evidence.
When police interview witnesses after a crime, what's the first thing they ask ?
"Can you give me a description of the perpatrator ?"
Why ?
Because that is the most effective information to use in quickly narrowing the suspect population.
If the description is a 6'3" 250 pound white male with blond hair, it makes no sense to stop and question every 4'11" 90 pound gray haired grandmother.
It makes no sense, and it significantly reduces the effectiveness of law enforcement because it unnecessarily dilutes the available effort to find the real criminals.
Police officers have used the physical descriptions of criminals as an investigative tool since the time of Aristotle.
Because it works.
And they have used the historical extrapolation of crime data similarly, for the same reason.
If you have a neighborhood where there are an abundance of strong arm attacks, the historical preponderence of those crimes committed by green pygmies, and the neighborhood is populated primarily by green pygmies, it makes no logical sense to look for red giants in a neighborhood two states away.
And yet, when it comes to the most important crimes in modern history, our law enforcement personnel are hobbled by political correctness.
They can't use proven, historically helpful and efficient methods like physical descriptions because a few groups have claimed offense and labeled that process "profiling".
On September 11, 2001, nineteen Muslim extremists belonging to Al Queda perpetrated a violent act of terrorism against the United States and its citizens.
Because of that, every person flying commercially now must have their person and their property restricted and inspected.
Without regard to whether or not they fit the "profile" of persons who have previously committed the crime.
On December 22, 2001, Richard Reid, another Muslim extremist, tried to blow an airliner out of the sky using a shoe bomb.
Because of that, every person flying commercially must now remove their shoes for inspection, without regard to whether or not they fit the "profile" of persons who have previously committed the crime.
I used to joke that the security lines would be more interesting if Reid had been a woman and had tried to use a bra bomb.
But then, on Christmas day last year, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, another Muslim extremist tried to use a bomb hidden in his underwear to take another airliner down.
Seeing a trend here ?
See any grandmothers, or children, or blond haired blue eyed Scandinavians ?
Now, to a degree, I don't have any problem with every passenger being subjected to some kind of security screening.
Just as I don't have a problem with licensed weapons not being allowed in schools or such.
Reasonable precautions.
Reasonable precautions.
But, I would hope that when all indications are that the terrorists we have experienced so far have been primarily made up of Muslim extremists, those people would be subject to some additional, more intensive screening.
But, with its typical alacrity, the TSA responded with another idiotic procedure.
Bob Thomas, a 53-year-old officer in Camden New Jersey's emergency crime suppression team, was flying to Orlando in March with his wife, Leona, and their son, Ryan.
A cop, taking his wife and son to DisneyWorld.
Ryan, who is all of four years old, has ankles that are malformed and his legs have low muscle tone, requiring him to wear leg braces..
In March he was just starting to walk after four years of trying.
Mid-morning on March 19, his parents wheeled his stroller to the TSA security point, a couple of hours before their Southwest Airlines flight was to depart.
The boy's father broke down the stroller and put it on the conveyor belt as his wife walked Ryan through the metal detector.
No surprise, the alarm went off, triggered by the boy's plastic and metal leg braces.
The TSA screener demanded they take off the boy's braces.
The Thomases were dumbfounded.
"I told them he can't walk without them on his own," Bob Thomas said.
"He said, 'He'll need to take them off.' "
Ryan's mother offered to walk him through the detector after they removed the braces, but the TSA screener demanded the four year old walk on his own.
By then, Bob Thomas was furious.
He demanded to see a supervisor, who asked what was wrong.
"I told him, 'This is overkill. He's 4 years old. I don't think he's a terrorist.' "
The supervisor replied, "You know why we're doing this, and you know anyone could be a terrorist." Thomas said.
Unless four year old Ryan can somehow magically transform himself into a 20-35 year old Muslim extremist, that's crap.
And if that's the type of evaluation and judgement being used to determine who should be carefully watched and who the real terrorist are, well, I ain't feelin' real secure with the TSA keeping us safe in the skies.
In early 2009, the TSA announced:
"As part of TSA's continued efforts to transition the workforce to a cadre of well-trained, professional transportation security officers, uniforms and gold badges more reflective of the critical nature of their work and of the high standards they must uphold have been introduced. By the end of the year, all 43,000 screeners should have the new uniforms and badges, which cost a total of $12 million."
Instead of spending $12 mil on pseudo cop uniforms, a more straightforward way might be to screen TSA employees better and train them more.
Screen them for some basic common sense, and train them in using reasonable judgement when dealing with people who don't fit the criminals profile.
Because it ain't profiling if you fit the description.
Because it ain't profiling if you fit the description.
"Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error." ---- Marcus Tullius Cicero
"I'm all in favor of the democratic principle that one idiot is as good as one genius, but I draw the line when someone takes the next step and concludes that two idiots are better than one genius. " ---- Leo Szilard
