December 30, 2009

I have been living in this country for over 50 years but the American mentality still amazes me. Americans are so hung up on their "rights" that it is unbelievable.

The reason why I am writing this is what I heard today on the news. They are all over with that fortunately unsuccessful airline bombing. Now as I said the other day the Monday morning quarterbacking started.

The guy from Nigeria changed plane in Amsterdam for the Detroit flight and apparently he slipped through security. Today the Dutch announced that they would start full body scans for all US bound travelers. Good!

Now, the good Americans are complaining about the invasion of their privacy. These people are nuts. What about their privacy if the plane blows up. What will they complain about then?

Why are they so upset about being seen naked on the scanner. Do they have something to be ashamed of? The only thing they should be paying attention to is to make sure they have clean underwear on.

The way I see it, if the plane blows up with me on it my privacy is being invaded. Because maybe I didn't want to be blown up at that particular time. It is being done against my will.

So, in order to make flights safer I don't care if they want me to take all my clothes off, as long as everybody is required to.

People who are ashamed should realize that the first few naked pictures might be interesting but after these inspectors see hundreds every day they will have a difficult time keeping their foods down.

This brings up another issue. We should be aware that in this country the bad guys have more rights than the victims. And that is a sad reality.

Granted the Constitution says that a person is considered innocent until proven guilty (or something like it). But come on! A guy caught with explosives is innocent until proven guilty? There is something wrong with this equation.

If the Arab hijackers would have fallen out of the planes before they hit the World Trade Center they would had to be proven guilty otherwise they could have walked. It's a good thing they died. They saved a lot of money for the courts.

Security here is not very convincing. Today the police found a van on Times Square that was parked there for several days. They emptied out the neighboring office buildings, closed the streets. Eventually they found nothing but used clothing inside the van.

But the kicker is that this van was parked there for a few days without anybody noticing it. Broadway at 41st to 42nd street is not exactly a quiet and obtrusive area. Police and ticket agents galore are in the area. So how come nobody noticed it for days?

My confidence in the system to prevent any kind of terrorist initiated disaster is not great at all.

What they are great at is pointing fingers at each other and explaining their inaction after whatever happened. And in politically inspired speeches telling the public what must be done in the future.

What this country needs is a little strong arm ruling. Worry less about stepping on people's toes or invading their privacy and worry more about making this a safer place to live.