Filibuster Cartoons
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So the Department of Homeland Security really dropped the ball, and a known flight risk from Nigeria was allowed to board a US-bound plane with a bomb and nearly blow up everyone. He was luckily subdued by the other passengers (as seems to be the case in most of these situations) but the episode has still proved quite embarrassing for Secretary Napolitano and company.
And, as usual, the security establishment’s response to their failure to apprehend a known flight risk whose own father had warned the CIA, has been to impose even more stupid rules on law-abiding passengers. In the immediate aftermath of the Christmas Day plot, many Canadian travelers bound for the US were forbidden to bring any carry-on luggage on their flights, while others were forbidden from leaving their seats at any time during the last hour of the trip. These are just stopgap regulations for now, but the thinking is they will gradually congeal into some sort of stricter status quo about what you can and cannot do with the little bags you bring on the plane with you. Likewise, because the Nigerian guy tried to smuggle stuff in his pants, there’s been a lot of talk about making those full-body x-ray things more common.
The terrorists are obviously winning on some level, as plane travel is becoming a more and more absurd hassle with each successive attempted attack. Take off your shoes, hand over your nail cutters, throw out all your liquids, don’t touch your carry-ons…. More and more people are being punished for the antics of a few, and yet the antics gleefully continue anyway, since, for some bizarre reason, terrorists do not seem to be deterred by stricter laws. I mean, it’s been a pretty clear rule for several decades now that bombs are not allowed on planes, and yet some folks still bring them on board anyway. Funny, that.
