[citation][nom]dane0199@yahoocom[/nom]Just body scan the muslims... they seem to be the ones causing the issues.[/citation]
Except, how do you plan to identify them? Not all muslims are 'brown sand people'. Unless you plan to force them to sew some sort of symbol on the outside of their clothing.
Nazi references aside, I giggle at all the 'right wingers' complaining about the 'left wingers' outrage at this. I thought conservatives wanted smaller gov't and less gov't involvement in our lives. As a strong advocate of smaller gov't I dislike this because I view it as an further intrusion of the gov't into our lives and industry (the airlines). We have seen a disgusting erosion of our liberties in order to trade it for a feeling of safety (which I believe is largely in our heads and not a real improvement in actual safety). --Ben Franklin's quote about sacrificing liberty has already been made so I won't repeat it here--
Sure, you can argue you don't have the constitutional right to fly on a plane and that the plane is private property so they have the right to decide who they want to let on. However, I would say 'sure I agree with you, as long as we stop the airline subsidies and stop paying for the FAA and TSA with public money.' These private agencies are heavily subsidized by and managed with public dollars. You can't complain that this is purely a private industry and therefore the constitution doesn't apply when they're taking public dollars. It's also a silly argument that it's a private venture when it's a gov't agency that's doing the scanning and keeping the logs of and deciding who's on the 'no fly' lists.
Now, it's true roughly 75% of the FAA and TSA funding comes from taxes on tickets, but the rest is made up from the general fund, especially when there's a downturn in ticket revenues. Furthermore, the smaller private short range airlines and cargo carriers heavy taxes that heavily subsidize the large passenger airlines that use a far greater percentage of the FAA and TSA services, particularly things like the AIP. Just talk to an independent, small aircraft pilot about how much they pay vs. how much they get and I can guarantee you'll get an earful. If the FAA and TSA were purely funded by ticket revenue, then you can make the argument it's a private venture, but as long as there is public dollars involved ... well, you can go pound sand.
Based on the number of miles flown in the last decade, there has been one airline terrorist incident per 11.6 trillion miles flown, enough to go to Neptune... twice. Yes, it sucks for those people and their families who do die in these tragedies, but at a risk of 1 in 55,000,000 yearly (if I fly monthly) I don't think this justifies the level of panic and terror people are devoting towards it (heck you're 110x more likely to be hit by lightning in a year and 7900x more likely to die in your car). And finally, don't forget the two things that have stopped both the undie and shoe bombers... the PEOPLE ON THE PLANE! These guys were not stopped by the gov't, they were stopped by the people noticing something was wrong and standing up for themselves and their own safety. It's silly to expect that anything the gov't will do will actually have any effect, the gov't regulations are predictable and the terrorists can train for it, the key is to be vigilant and responsible for your own saftey.
Honestly, these panicked, fearful reactions that cause us to erode our own liberties and sacrifice our free way of life is exactly what the terrorists are trying to get us to do. And because of things like these new scanners, the PATRIOT Act, bogging ourselves down in foreign wars and the fact it took us forever to start rebuilding 1 WTC, makes me worry that they're winning because we're doing EXACTLY what they're hoping we would do. Remember, Osama hoped his actions would get us involved in a war in the Middle East because it costs us money, political capital with other nations, and generates recruits for his organization, which is what's happening today.