As IF Times

link Publishers dumbfounded by airplane book ban – The Globe and Mail

It was just a matter of time. Canadians have been peripheral to the knee jerk reaction to the undie bomber thus far, but now our geniuses at Transport Canada have apparently thrown their submission into the idiot contest. There is little point in adding to the deafening chorus of those pointing out the uselessness of this new measure to try keep us ‘safe’. They are many, they are right and we don’t need to parrot them. Keeping books and magazines off flights? As if.

This is baldfaced competitiveness by our government on the eve of the Olympics to show that we can be as inane as the U.S. when it comes to inflicting senseless policies. We can be proud that although our budgets are smaller than the Americans’, we too can come up with world class performances on the world’s stupid stage. But it’s really not a fair playing field. In the U.S., you have strong voices condemning and bringing to task those that try to inflict misguided policies on the public. They have a long tradition of personal freedom and thus are less inclined to acquiesce to government edicts as is the case in Canada.

In Canada, where the sheep complex is deeply ingrained from generations of leftist politics, it’s much easier to impose all manner of ill conceived edicts spawned from the minds of petty bureaucrats and misguided politicos. The reputation of Canadians’ respect for law and order makes us particularly vulnerable to the whims of anyone able to get into a position of authority. It’s like having a Tim Hortons next to a police station.

But I could be wrong and this recent travel edict may not just be one upmanship in the 1000 meter giant stupid, but a sincere belief on the part of the 4 person braintrust that is probably the quorum at Transport Canada that this measure will outsmart the human fuses. Someone should slip them a note that in practice anything brought on board a plane can be dangerous. I’d feel safer sitting next to a guy with a book than if he carried on 4 bean burritos which is apparently allowed. Even if we are compelled to board with nothing on but the radio, some bright Abdul can still have explosives hidden in his toupee.

The people who somehow wind up in charge of such things,(and it’s a minor mystery how they got into such positions) are behaving as you would expect, they are unimaginative, they make wrong decisions and they inflict policy on the pretext of doing something useful. The true mystery is why the public stands for it. Why isn’t there a clamor to demand to know who these people are and then make them take the consequences for their incompetence. Fire them. Oh that’s right, they’re bureaucrats, they can’t be fired. They can only be transmogrified into another department. I suggest we contract them out to Al Qaeda or whomever is in the terror racket. They have done more to inconvenience the public and endanger lives than any of the human fuses.

The public should demand more of the people we elect to office and of the people we allow to live, yes live, in the bureaucracy of the country. A handful of incompetents should not be allowed to inflict stupidity on the rest of us. Sadly, this is definitely not a majority opinion. In the comments section to the above article, you have evidence of a segment of the population that just doesn’t get it. Someone named Northat62 opines,

“…Targeting all young Muslim men as terrorists would certainly breed more young Muslim men that have been terrorized by irrational government actions into terrorist acts. Sorry, that just doesn’t work…”

As long as this mentality exists in the public, it will exist in our politicians and in our bureaucrats. Because of this mindset, we’re definitely in the final 3 for the stupid medal.