White House Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel’s mantra never to waste a crisis has grown a whole lot sicker.
The Obama Administration is pressuring foreign governments to degrade U.S.-bound passengers with naked X-rays. The pretext for this is, of course, the wanna-be underwear bomber’s aborted–by normal people, not bureaucrats–attempt to blow up a plane over Detroit on Obama’s birthday (observed), despite the fact that the so-called “whole body imaging” machines can’t penetrate plastic or rubber that resembles skin, though they do give the government’s voyeurs a clear view of passengers’ flab, moles, scars, sores, sweat, nipples, buttocks, and genitals.
One of the few things that government does well is exploit its own incompetency to expand its power over the people whose rights it is supposed to secure. But taking advantage of the acknowledged failures to “connect the dots” regarding the “underwear bomber”–including the fact that the guy’s own father reported him as a threat–to violate the corporal privacy of America’s citizens and guests takes government power-grabbing through incompetency to a deeper, sicker level.
Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither. And that’s exactly what they’ll get.
After my misspent youth as a wage worker, I’m having so much more fun as a blogger, helping other discerning travellers plan fun and fascinating journeys. Read more …