IP: from This is True re airline security and freedom

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> ALSO ON MY WEB SITE is a continuation of my diatribe about airline
>   "security", which has grown too large for this space. You might
>   remember that I noted earlier that terrorists are working to deny us
>   the freedoms that our ancestors fought and died to give us, and that
>   United Airlines kept a man from traveling freely around his own country
>   because he dared to read books that some flunky SecurityDroid didn't
>   approve of. I concluded "Tell us, United: exactly whose side are your
>   security employees on? They sound a lot like the Taliban." Ben in North
>   Carolina thought that was going too far: United is "Un-American?
>   Taliban-like? Enemies of freedom? Wow -- the price of bad service sure
>   has escalated in the past month. I fly a lot, and there are a lot of
>   airline and airport employees as well as government officials out there
>   working hard to make the best of a bad situation. Though scrutiny of
>   their practices is important, seeing them ridiculed rubs me the wrong
>   way. Your comments seem off-base and sensational."
>
>   I wish. I *definitely* think there are severe implications regarding
>   how "airline security" is being used as a tool to destroy basic
>   freedoms -- and the government is not only not doing anything about it,
>   they're supplying National Guard troops to help. What am I talking
>   about? Forget subversive Harry Potter novels, I'm talking about
>   blacklisting opposition political party officials. I'm talking about
>   illegal search and seizure of reporters' photographs and notebooks. It
>   scares the HELL out of me that people are being detained because of
>   their beliefs, NOT their actions. Who needs terrorists to destroy our
>   freedoms when we're doing it to ourselves? If this concerns you, my new
>   essay is a must read: http://www.thisistrue.com/airsecurity.html . If
>   this DOESN'T scare you, perhaps you're not paying attention.


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