I'm With John Madden: No More Commercial Flying For Me

Chuck Baldwin Ministries ^ | 01-13-03 | Baldwin, Chuck

[Theodore R.]

I'm With John Madden: No More Commercial Flying For Me

By Chuck Baldwin

Food For Thought From The Chuck Wagon

January 13, 2004 After retiring from coaching, former Oakland Raiders Head Coach and now popular sportscaster John Madden hung up his wings. He had been forced to spend numerous hours flying commercial airliners with his NFL team, but upon retiring he said, "No more flying for me."

When first approached to take a position as a professional sportscaster, Madden said he would only consider the offer if he could travel to games via a bus. The networks agreed, and Madden hasn't flown since. I think Madden has the right idea.

While Madden's decision to stay out of the "friendly" skies was made several years before the terrorist attacks in 2001 and was doubtless made for other, and more personal, reasons, it seems especially sagacious in light of recent decisions by the Bush administration. According to the Washington Post and CBS News, President Bush plans to color code every passenger who flies a commercial airliner.

News reports state that airlines and airline reservation companies would be forced to turn over all passenger records to U.S. government officials. The government would then assign a color code to each passenger, ostensibly determined by the passenger's "threat level."

Passengers would be assigned a red, yellow, or green color. A red coded passenger would be stopped from boarding; yellow would require additional screening at security checkpoints, and green would mean only standard security for boarding. The government plans to implement the new system next month.

Reports also quote Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokesmen as saying frequent flyers could receive special passes which would allow faster check-in if they were willing to allow the government to access their personal information. Of course, this information would be entered into a government database.

To any person familiar with the incremental methods used by totalitarian regimes to regulate and control their populations, this latest measure being enacted by President Bush can only be regarded as "scary." By now, it should be obvious to every thinking person that the Bush administration is composed of a bunch of "control freaks" who are attempting to turn America into a police state!

Freedom and independence are extremely fragile commodities. They can only be maintained by an alert and vigilant citizenry. Unless the people of the United States awaken from their obvious passivity, what freedoms we have left will quickly vanish!

It's time to face it: President Bush is no friend of liberty, and neither is he a friend to constitutional government nor national sovereignty. Four more years of a Bush administration could very well mean the death knell of freedom in these United States.

The character and constitutional ignorance of Washington politicians being what they are, the only scenario that offers even a modicum of opportunity for freedom to last a while longer is for one party to occupy the White House while the other party controls Congress. It seems party stalemate is about the only thing that is somewhat favorable to freedom these days.

Obviously, the ideal solution would be for Americans to throw off the current two-party system altogether and elect independent men and women of real honor and character who would have the courage to obey the U.S. Constitution and to restore the principles contained in the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.

In the meantime, if one wants a foretaste of a burgeoning police state, just try boarding a commercial airline. Of course, once air travel has been completely Gestapoized, it's only a matter of time for ground travel. Until then, however, I think I'll postpone the leap into Big Brother's Brave New World by getting on the bus with John Madden.

© Chuck Baldwin

[HiTech RedNeck]

Seeing that you respond with a ridiculous joke, you know your serious point has been demolished.

[Hodar]

Do you mean like the scheme that now allows police officers to set up roadblocks in order to ask the people in cars if they have any information about any crimes committed?

Yes, that is one use for a roadblock. Other uses are to set up roadblocks at 2-3am to check for drunk drivers. Would you rather have a drunk diver caught and charged while sitting behind the wheel at a roadblock, or in the emergency room while you are praying that your wife survives the night after her head on collision with the drunk?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Yes, the real name of the game is "dragnet city." By screening all air passengers in the name of stopping a mode of attack that nobody would fall for anymore, they get to find more people to arrest FOR ANY REASON.

[Hodar]

No, you misunderstand. I sincerely doubt that you or I would allow some muslum fanatics from taking over a plane and flying it into a building. However, neither one of us can speak to what the whole plane will truly do. This variable is choatic at best.

Perhaps the sight of seeing our thoats cut open, and the blood spraying the passengers, as a display of what will happen to any passenger who interferes with the hijackers will frighten the rest of the plane into quietly accepting their fate.

Bottom line . We do NOT know that a plane full of people will do in another hijacking attempt. So all we can do is do what we can to prevent it from happening again.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Were you aware that most "drunk drivers" (by the technical legal definition) are not actually drunk enough to cause serious impairment under most traffic conditions?

[PetroniDE]

John Madden was a member of a college football team in the late 50's/early 60's that had a near fatal plane accident. I believe the college was Cal-Poly (someone check this).

Since that day, he has been reluctant to fly. I don't blame him. I don't like flying either and only fly when I have to.

[HiTech RedNeck]

No, I understand perfectly. So what if there is a gory scene, almost everyone will prefer that to a CRASH.

[Hodar]

Were you aware that most "drunk drivers" (by the technical legal definition) are not actually drunk enough to cause serious impairment under most traffic conditions?

Where do you get your information from? Do you have any facts whatsoever to back that statement up, or is it just your personal opinion? Perhaps you should spend some time talking to an emergency room MD or nurse. There are a few here at FR.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Those who end up in ERs are commonly high as a kite.

[blabs]

"But, there are some who are very paranoid, and having any scheme in place to protect them simply feeds their paranoia."

Give me a gun..I'll protect myself thank you.

Those who give up liberty for temporal security deserve neither liberty nor security.

[Bikers4Bush]

This has nothing to do with looking for drunk drivers aka someone committing a crime. This has to do with stopping innocent travelers and interrogating them with respect to crimes committed in the area.

You see the difference is with the first they are trying to catch someone committing a crime, with the second they are stopping you just to find out if you know anything.

You may not be able to see the not so subtle difference between the two but I sure as hell can.

[hopespringseternal]

We do NOT know that a plane full of people will do in another hijacking attempt.

All of the unruly passengers, bomb attempt(s), and assorted goofballs that even started to act up in the last two years have been generously pounded into submission by unarmed passengers before they had much of a chance to do anything. In fact, the terrorists couldn't even get 4/4 on the same morning as soon as people figured out what was up.

There is always the odd chance that a hundred or two people will meekly sit by and knowingly let four or five with 1" blades give them a face full of concrete and glass, but don't bet on it.

[hopespringseternal]

Red - anyone who gives the screener so much as an odd look or has a sufficiently grope-worthy body.
Yellow - anyone the screener doesn't like the look of.
Green - anyone who looks dangerous to mess with.

[Indrid Cold]

In WWII, the US government put those-most-likely-to-cause-trouble (the Nisei) in concentration camps. As odious an action as that was, it was wartime and at least they went after people who they thought were likely suspects.

The problem currently (as we all know) is that the government regs are making life more miserable for travellers without solving the problem. You can't just hire some ex-welfare case for 12 bucks an hour and expect decent security. If I were Osama Bin Laden, I could hardly think of a better way to wreck the US airline industry.

If your "Fly the Flag brigade" wants to make some changes, why don't you change things so that we feel like our government trusts us again? I'm a licensed firearms dealer with a MN permit to carry--how come I can't pack on the plane? I've been checked out by the FBI, fer chrissakes. I'd stand a post here in my neighborhood, be part of the home guard and all that--where's my government-issued M1 Garand?

There are a lot of us who'd like to help take down a terrorist, but the government isn't letting us help (beyond snitching them out on an 800 number). Further gridlock at airport security isn't going to help anything.

[Hodar]

There is always the odd chance that a hundred or two people will meekly sit by and knowingly let four or five with 1" blades give them a face full of concrete and glass, but don't bet on it.

And I don't want to bet ~3,000 lives that the 'odd chance' will happen again. Yes, I agree that there have been a few cases where ONE disturbed individual attempted to take over a plane, and he was taken down. But, we have not seen an attempt by multiple hijackers (in a coordinated effort) either succeed or fail since 9-11.

[steve-b]

2009 Edition:

Red: Known FReeper
Green: DNC Contributor
Yellow: Everybody Else

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever...

...fly.

[Aquinasfan]

Too many color schemes.

If I had a chauffered Winnebago, I wouldn't fly either.

[steve-b]

Really, someone who is unaware (or professes to be unaware) of the move to force states to adopt a 0.08 blood alcohol standard in place of standards based on actual medical research (indicating that significant impairment starts at 0.12-0.15) is in no position to comment on the subject.

[gcruse]

I agree. We need to profile and start looking for terrorists rather than weapons. Patting down grandmas and hotties produces jammed terminals. It may take another 9/11 for us to get serious about domestic terrorism.