As IF Times

link Scientists Find Liberal Gene | NBC San Diego.

I suppose it’s all possible.  There seems to be a genetic root cause to explain lots of strange behaviour these days. Once this particular affliction is classified as an illness as it should surely be, the next step is to get reparations or supplements from the government for medical treatment.  Predictably, you can bet that another study will determine that only with wine and expensive brie will the condition abate.  I would argue that wine and expensive brie are symptoms of the affliction, but unfortunately, I can’t just make things up.

In our lifetime, many ‘deviations’ from what is considered normal have been diagnosed as having some roots in genetic predisposition, or even classified as a clinical illness.  Recently, there has been a push to classify obesity as an illness, as has been generally accepted for alchoholism.  For years, the notion of attention deficit has been pushed as a disorder requiring pharmaceutical treatment of innumerate young children.   Depression is widely accepted now as having a genetic root and so does promiscuity and excess risk taking personality (though some may argue the last two are the same thing).  There has even been some discussion as to the causes of homosexuality.  Is there a gay gene?  There’s no doubt that hoarding behavior and obsessive compulsive disorders must be a result of  some mental or even biological crossed wires.  What this all really means is that people are different and normal is an elusive notion.

Evolutionists will argue that certain human behavioral characteristics, manifest extremely by some individuals, are present in most people albeit in smaller doses.  Being partial to risk taking for instance may serve well when survival issues are paramount.  This can be the case in the instance of some physical ‘abnormality’.  Certain groups of the population are Thalassemic for example which means that red blood cells are smaller than normal and therefore not as able to process oxygen.  While this may at first seem to be a handicap, people with this condition are better able to survive malaria in areas of the  world where this problem exists.

Liberalism as a pathology is a tricky one.  Not the notion of liberalism itself, at least not its stated principles of tolerance, the acceptance of diverse thought etc etc. That’s a philosophical position.   I’m referring to the behaviour most often associated with liberals, such as intolerance and nonacceptance of differences of thought.   This feature makes it easy to spot people with this sad affliction.  Another glaring symptom is the unwillingness to accept and digest a logical argument in the face of all evidence.  The most insidious aspect of this ‘malaise’ is the need for the afflicted to control others or at least dictate how others should behave.  Most often, sanctimony is a flagrant tipoff symptom of liberal malaise in a person.  Now that a gene has been isolated as a cause, is there a cure?  Perhaps a minor lobotomy procedure is all that’s needed.  If sufferers are lucky, perhaps altered states drugs will help. 

Oh wait!  The big push to legalize pot!!  The penny drops.

link BAA backs call to end redundant airport security checks | World news | guardian.co.uk.

It’s starting to happen!  Not long after the report of the pilot who refused to be molested at airport security points, the Brits are bringing some sanity to the process as well.  Finally! 

After all this time some movement to curb the ridiculous tactics employed at airport security checkpoints is at hand.  The hamfisted methods used at US airports were emulated at airports throughout the world for the past 10 years.  This article brings a glimmer of hope that this will change.

While they screened 100% of the passengers to filter out 0.000001% that posed any danger to the public, they failed to guard against much more pressing and dangerous issues affecting fliers.  Far more dangerous to most travellers are the other fliers who are allowed on board with obvious illnesses such as hacking coughs.  Anyone who has ever had to suffer sitting next to a wheezing and hacking passenger for greater than 4 hours knows how terrorized and trapped they can feel. 

Same thing for body odors.  It is very traumatic and inhuman to be forced to sit next to someone with blatant disregard for personal hygiene.  You are essentially marinating in the sweet fragrance for hour after tortured hour.  Having the plane go down in a fiery ball may be considered merciful in comparison.

The third horror is to be seated next to someone who clearly requires the space of 2 seats to support their massive bodies.   There are few things less appealing in life than to sit nose to armpit with someone overflowing like lava into your seat space.  

If you happen to get all three of the above scenarios all rolled into one, well, that should  be grounds for some kind of compensatory damages from the airline and perhaps even a tax holiday for one year. 

If you asked  most people if they’d prefer to take their chances with more logical and less invasive screening with the slim likelihood of terror action or the chance to have the above 3 described experiences removed from possibility, I’d bet lots of money they’d vote for  the latter.   The only terror most people face is to look about the boarding area and pray that someone with any of these issues won’t be seated next to them.  It’s time to recognize that the only people who’ve really been terrorized all this time have been air travellers.  Time to end the terror.