[quidnunc]

Pan_Yans Wife wrote: Was the teenager who flew the plane into a building in Florida a devout Muslim, or a disgruntled, confused AMERICAN teenager?

He was a Muslim whose father was a Middle-Eastern Islamist and who left letters indicating he was going on a suicide mission in support of Osama bin Laden.

Pan_Yans Wife wrote: Prior to September 11th, the worst act of terrorism on American soil took place because of an angry red-headed American male. Did you call for keeping an eye on all American men with red hair after OKCity?

His hair color had nothing to do with it; his identification with the wacko, hard-right-wingnut mentality which motivates the 'suiperpatriot' milita movement had everything to do with it.

You are aware that elements of the militia movement have expressed solidarity with al Qaeda, aren't you?

[Pan_Yans Wife]

There are two distinct issues, though.

There is the TSA, and then there is profiling.

Is TSA working? I suspect that it is, so far. And, I truly doubt the terrorists would use planes as missles to fly into our landmarks.

The profiling aspect is a much sticker issue, because of civil rights afforded to all people.

And, is there any specific incidence where the militia members have successfully thwarted TSA?

The teenager could not have been thwarted by the TSA, because he used a small private plane. Was his father affiliated with al Qaeda? Or, was the teenager just acting out aggression and anger, on his own, not at his father's bidding?

[Rockpile]

I notice that those posters jabbering about the Masterson guy leaving his bag unattended and what an idiot he was never once brought up that he was on the other side of the security perimeter. Since he and everyone else on that side had already been processed aren't the tsa defenders basically saying that the screening procedure was absolutely ficking worthless?

PS, I'm glad these posters fly so that their asses aren't weaving around the highway in front of me.

[Rockpile]

Back in the long ago when I flew via airliner I wore leather hiking shoes, stout clothes and carried leather work gloves, a flashlight and one of the cheap dust masks stuffed in my pockets on the grounds of maybe helping my chances a little in case the plane bellied into a potentially survivable crash.

Wearing sandals, shorts etc. seems like a bad idea to me in case you have to scramble over hot, jagged metal.