Safe in the Skies? (Cavuto rant)

FOX News ^ | 10/21/03 | Neil Cavuto

[abnegation]

For the life of me, I cannot understand why everyone is dumping on 20-year-old Nathaniel Heatwole, the kid who somehow managed to plant box cutters and other nefarious items on two airplanes.

Now he faces 10 years in the slammer. For what? For embarrassing some people?

[abnegation]

Cavuto ping!

[RightWhale]

Phil Hendrie was right on target. Nobody will be able to hijack a large passenger jet again without a fight, and a boxcutter won't help him. The simulated explosives is another matter, but that would be a threat only to the airplane. There won't be another flying into building like last time.

[Amelia]

Neil nails it. I was thinking the same thing today on the way home from work, after listening to yet another news report about this - but Cavuto says it much better than I could (and also to a wider audience! -*grin*-)

[narby]

I disagree on this one:

There is no security system that can't be broken, given enough imagination, time, and money. But an apparently strong security system can provide the ONLY deterrent to a whacko highjacker willing to die, if you can convince him he's likely to fail.

When the kid broke the airport security, he just published an advertizement to Osama, saying, come on in, the waters fine! I got through, so can you!

Now we will have to put up with even more BS from the TSA in a never ending effort to convice the bad guys that they can never succede.

[VxH]

We should be thanking this kid. He may have saved lives.

He simply pointed out that the empire is not wearing any clothes. So now the tailors are all twiterpated and pissed off....

Our Federal gov. is an embarrassment.

[At _War_With_Liberals]

Didn't take the 2 new huge beaurocracies too much time to prove incompetence and reject responsibility, did it???

Our govt- In perpetual spin mode. Spending hundreds of billions more with no accountability.

[glorgau]

When the kid broke the airport security, he just published an advertizement to Osama, saying, come on in, the waters fine! I got through, so can you!

Not telling people is called "security through obscurity". It is a sure prescription for failure.

[cruiserman]

Duct tape and bleach? Scary.

[Oliver Boliver Butt]

When the kid broke the airport security, he just published an advertizement to Osama, saying, come on in, the waters fine! I got through, so can you!

I don't think this kid did anything extraordinary to get this stuff on board. And I don't think I'm the only one who isn't surprised that this happened. He probably walked it on board while granny was getting searched or got it in via ground crews. I suspect the current government-run security is only marginally better than when airport security was run by non-English speaking immigrants making minimum wage.

[InvisibleChurch]

When the kid broke the airport security, he just published an advertizement to Osama, saying, come on in, the waters fine! I got through, so can you!

i don't really think that terrorists are sitting back, shyly, waiting for someone to do what this kid did... i'd think they are trying, and possibly succeeding at the same things the kids was trying, EXCEPT they aren't sending emails to the authorities and leaving their names and addresses .... i expect terrorists to be terrorists and thus plan and test and think like teorrorists

[dts32041]

So I still won't fly, if I can't drive take a train or boat, I ain't going.

[Mears]

I'm with you. The fact that he even E-mailed them about it first should mean something in the courts if it ever gets that far.

The Department of Homeland Security is a joke and so is security of airplanes. Until we can profile,as Israel has been doing for years,we are just putting on a good show.

They should name an airport after this kid as far as I'm concerned.

[bvw]

Okay. Then, narby, according to that wonderous theory, you should arm all the police in your town with toy guns. They look real enough, eh? And replace any barbed wire fences with some black polypropylene plastic that looks like barbed wire. Much cheaper.

And locks on your doors? Lock decals are even better!

[Mr. Buzzcut]

You can unionize and federalize Incompetents but at the end of the day they are still Incompetents ...

[WinOne4TheGipper]

What's been happening w/ ABC and the controversy of them smuggling uranium in? Shouldn't we be more worried about that than some blades in a box?

[Political Junkie Too]

Also, there was the story a few months back about three kids who got caught on the water in a fishing raft in a strong breeze and were pushed to the edge of the tarmac at JFK airport. They walked across taxiways and runways for an hour before finding police.

-PJ

[vetvetdoug]

This kid will be fried. Government workers and prosecutors will boil this kid for exposing their incompetance. Government workers hate to be shown as they are; bloated bureaucratic incompetant, lazy and inefficient workers.

[edeal]

In my mind Cavuto is the rising star on FOX news. When I first saw him we disagreed on some economic policies, mainly in relation to the FED, so I didn't think much of him.

Over time, however, I have found his judgement and reasoning to be extremely sound. I say dump Gretta and give Cavuto the 10 o'clock hour (Although I would also suggest giving him 8 o'clock and bump the credibility of Prime Time).

[Egon]

he just published an advertizement to Osama

No he didn't. He sent an email (or emails) to the people he supposedly should have. If they hadn't sat on the email for weeks, no one probably would have been the wiser. The TSA could have passed it off as a test of their security.