Y'THINK? – AT 8:40 A.M. ET:  It will come as a shock, but some people in authority are actually starting to think intelligently about airline security.  Calming medications may be required as you absorb this shock.  From The Politico:

If Americans don’t want the government touching their “junk” to improve air security, the alternative may well be greater scrutiny of passengers’ travel histories and personal backgrounds, security experts say.

The public backlash against the aggressive pat-downs the federal government rolled out this month could put more pressure on the government to introduce security measures previously rejected on privacy grounds, including in-depth interrogations of travelers at airports, government scrutiny of passengers’ airline information, and even creation of a secure, standardized national ID card.

Oh dear.  Isn't that...dare I say it in polite circles...the Israeli system?  Must not say it.  Might offend some very sensitive people.

“The question is, which kind of privacy do you want to have?” said Stewart Baker, a top Department of Homeland Security official during the Bush administration. “This has been a pretty searing experience for DHS. Obviously, we’re not going to do more in this area [of physical checks] and it would be welcome if we could do less….The alternative is to look for terrorists in advance.”

That approach to security, Baker said, calls for singling out suspicious passengers and subjecting them to intense questioning.

Can you just hear the reaction among "civil liberties" groups?  These are the same groups that are curiously silent about the scanners and pat-downs.  Bit of hypocrisy on the left, no?

We are paying the price for political correctness, but why should we be shocked?  Political correctness on college campuses has led to outrageous breaches of freedom – like speech codes and different standards for different ethnic groups.  A true civil libertarian told me some years ago that what gets taught in colleges becomes national policy 20 years later.  Chickens are coming home to roost.

November 26, 2010