As IF Times

link Enhanced pat-downs necessary for now, TSA chief says – CNN.com.

Neccessary? As if.  It’s as clear an admission of institutionalized idiocy as anything uttered since someone insisted icebergs were disappearing.   On the latter issue, at least those words were famously offered by a particular politician, so we all knew it was unvarnished poop despite the massive worldwide propaganda campaign.  (Incidentally we probably won’t hear much about global warming for a few months because all of the concerned protestors are off skiing at Val D’Isere enjoying the record snowfall)   In this particular case, the decree has come from the TSA,  a Frankenstein government agency that has morphed from defending the public to one that itself is terrorizing the public.  Another descent into a real life George Orwell novel.

Since this is an agency policy, political parties on both sides are reluctant to reign them in since woe be to the party that publicly opposes the TSA should any grief happen.  That party will be painted as being responsible for any ill fate that may befall anyone and all of a sudden, it’s a partisan issue. By now, numerous stories have exploded into the public space about the Mexican prison style searches now being administered by the TSA in under the cover of security.  People can search and read for themselves about the outrageous and invasive manner in which the public’s collective safety is being protected and make up their own minds.  Suffice to say, as someone commented, on a date it would be called second base. 

The alarming fact that no one seems to be willing to reign in the tactics and deeds of this domestic terror organization should disturb everyone.  There should be a bi-partisan push to bring back into line an agency which seems to be responsible to no one.  At the moment, the decrees of an unelected bureaucrat, John Pistole are carried out without pushback except for the vocal protests of Ron Paul, a Texas congressman.  We know for an absolute certainty that there are numerous other effective and more importantly, intelligent ways to truly shield air passengers from harm.  As most know, the Israelis are very adept at assessing risk by individual interviews and evaluating traveller profiles.  Of course the politically misguided fear of being labelled profilers trumps any concession to common sense in employing these same techniques over here.  Consequently, we are more willing to infringe upon the privacy of the innocent public as well as physically assault them rather than risk the scarlet letter of profiling. 

Certainly, the job of security could me made so much easier if all the terrorists had a consistent, identifiable profile.  If only they were all the same race, age and sex and whose flights originated from the middle east or North Africa.  If only they had the same religious affiliation and haircut.  If only this small group stood out conspicuously from the rest of the population.  If only there wasn’t a history of Grandmothers, children, goofy teenagers and frequent business travellers who consistently pose dangerous risks.  Yes, it’s too bad that the methods employed now are the ‘best techniques’ we have today to blunt attempted attacks. Playing real life whack-a-mole with obviously benign travellers is the best way to stop would-be terrorists.  And finally, it’s a good thing these tactics have captured every attempt in the past.  These are the brilliant techniques used today by an agency using tens of billions of dollars.  This apparently represents the acme of American ingenuity and intelligence. 

If this were all about safety and not about politically correct security Kabuki, it would make far more sense for ALL air travellers to be medicated with rophynol before all flights and then loaded like baggage  onto storage racks aboard the aircraft.  That way, all checks can be avoided, aircraft can carry many more passengers and they wouldn’t even need airline stewards.  You wouldn’t even need airlines, just FedEx or UPS.  How is this much more grotesque than the stupidity being imposed on people today?  You just can’t help but think that we have the genius of Wile E. Coyote running the TSA.  Like him, billions of dollars are spent to create elaborate contraptions to do something very simple.  He never catches the frickin bird.

link RTDNA – Radio Television Digital News Association | Communicator |Sen. Rockefeller Suggests Eliminating FOX, MSNBC.

This is great piece of irony, which is lost on this particular Rockefeller.  The greatest part about the First Amendment to the U.S. constitution is that through its successful implementation, the mental vacuity of people such as Jay Rockefeller is on full display for people to see.  It’s always curious that many who champion the views of the liberal left, who notionally support the poor and downtrodden are themselves blessed with obscene wealth often passed on through the generations rather than by virtue of their own efforts.  Our man Jay is a prime example of this.  Great grandson of the legendary John Rockefeller, he of the Standard Oil Fortune, Jay’s only connection to the common man in his entire life was likely the filling station attendant at the family gas pump.   

The most obnoxious feature of such leading citizens is their genuine belief that the worldviews conjured up in their fantasy worlds are the only ones that are valid and must be passed on as decrees to the unwashed masses.  Despite reaping great wealth, success and respect within a political and social framework which enabled their ancestors to attain such success, they do their best to deprive others of exactly the same privileges and benefits.  Our hero Jay’s most recent wisdom is that the FCC should shut down Fox News, MSNBC etc, to stop all them from broadcasting their inflammatory views.  Of course, he really means FOX; MSNBC is on his team.  That was thrown in to support the illusion that he was rational and fair.

“…There’s a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to FOX and to MSNBC: ‘Out. Off. End. Goodbye.’ It would be a big favor to political discourse; our ability to do our work here in Congress, and to the American people, to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and more importantly, in their future…”

Well, first of all, the FCC doesn’t regulate cable.  Secondly, unlike mainstream TV where all the distortions are free to any who will believe them, you actually have to pay for cable channels.  Which means that people would rather pay up for the quality of information of FOX, than get for free the pretense of objective news on the networks.  But it’s the unmitigated gall of this guy to promote muzzling free speech because some don’t happen to agree with him.  The bug inside of him that he refers to can probably be fixed with a lobotomy day procedure.  Our hero is dismayed that the popularity and reach of FOX has so successfully blunted the leftist propoganda that masquerades as news from his camp.  The last set of midterm elections showed that people had a chance to evaluate the messages by the opposing political sides and his side lost big.  Essentially, the public gave the Dems a big AS IF! 

Third and most importantly, the main role of the press/media is to be an advocate for the people, not cheerlead the government.  The First Amendment was crafted specifically so that governments could not run amok and spread propoganda to influence the public.  By having a skeptical media, people were protected against a tyrannical regime.  Hmm.

People in America are somewhat unique in the world in that they don’t really have the inclination to be governed by a ruling class, nothwithstanding the Camelot idiocy.  The roots of the country predisposes the population to be skeptical of talkers and supportive of doers.  As is now clearly obvious, people are more inclined to be partial to those who share their values than those that just talk about them.  And if you’re talking about taking away the rights of free speech, well, that’s just un-American.