As IF Times

link Judge Clears United Airlines in a 9/11 Collapse – NYTimes.com.

Really?  We needed the measured wisdom of a judge to determine that United Airlines was not responsible for the twin towers’ destruction? Didn’t anyone have a newspaper?  It’s this kind of clear legal thinking that separates us from chaotic third world countries.  The fact that only 11 years have passed since the event is irrelevant, at least now we have the final, official word on culpability.  For the 11 years leading up to this verdict, I’m sure the world was on pins and needles awaiting the conclusions.  It’s quite possible that this learned judgement was the result of thousands of hours of sifting through documents, affidavits and reports.  It’s also quite possible that this task was given to the junior judge as a test, as in “let’s see if he can get this one right”.

As a society, the west has fallen irretrievably into the rathole of the legal blame trap.  Everything that happens whether natural or orchestrated is seen to have some kind of root cause, which most importantly have  legal and therefore financial consequences attached.  The most pedestrian events are now subjects of legal rulings, edicts and compensatory consequences.  The most obvious events are the subject of interminable scrutiny and post mortem analysis.  Let’s not forget; someone pays for all of this high level thinking.

As people cede more and more of their activities to various government proxies , they open the door for more and more idiots to get into the business of managing them.  In fact they encourage them.  We used to assume that anyone elected to positions of public responsibility would, at the very least, have some measure of common sense whatever their partisan biases may be.  That assumption is tossed out a 20 storey window when one observes the headlines that pass through on the newswires.  Exhibit A:

“Montreal By-law requires dogs understand commands in both official languages”  a proposal put forth by councilor Benoit LaDouce of that city.  http://www.cbc.ca/thisisthat/blog/2012/12/12/montreal-bylaw-requires-dogs-to-understand-commands-in-both-official-languages/

Or, getting back to the 911 events, the ongoing tragedy which are the ‘security’ measures surrounding airport security and the TSA:

“TSA detains ‘explosive’ laced girl in wheelchair”  http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/12/14/tsa-detains-explosive-laced-girl-in-wheelchair/

A theory was offered as to why the very basic human trait of common sense is now a resident of milk cartons and missing posters.  A Stanford study posits that:  “…we are losing our intellectual and emotional capabilities because the intricate  web of genes which endows us with our brain power is particularly vulnerable to  mutations – and these mutations are not being selected against our modern  society because we no longer need intelligence to survive…”  see article here:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2231924/Are-getting-stupid-Researchers-claim-longer-need-intelligence-survive.html

Whatever the reason, the declining use of common sense while being replaced by what passes as intelligent analysis in people’s lives will only lead to a society in which everything is governed by some official edict.  May as well be fans at a Madonna concert.  When mass exodus of common sense occurs, we wind up with a population that would allow someone like a Benoit LaDouce to be elected to office….or much worse.   Getting back to our learned judge at the top of the article, he’s looking forward to his next big case.  The OJ Simpson mystery.

link Taxi advocate to hacks: profile your passengers – am New York.

Boy this should be fun party conversation.  This is interesting because the issue is exactly the flip side of the TSA grope and feel regimen being employed at airports today. 

The head of the NY taxi union, Fernando Mateo,  is taking the outspoken position of publicly declaring that cab drivers should profile in picking up their fares.

“…Profile your passengers,” that’s the surprising message that a top taxi advocate is sending hacks after a livery cab driver was shot by a Hispanic suspect.  You know sometimes it’s good that we are racially profiled because the God’s-honest truth is that 99 percent of the people that are robbing, stealing, killing these drivers are blacks and Hispanics,” said Fernando Mateo, president of Hispanics Across America and the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers…”

Naturally, the politically correct knee jerk uproar ensues, including of course the canned outrage from Mr. Fair Play himself, the articulate ‘Reverend” Al Sharpton.  Actually if anyone cared to listen closely to what Mr. Mateo had to say, he wasn’t advocating racial profiling per se, he was advocating for drivers to be alert and aware of fares that were potentially dangerous.  It’s purely a coincidence that, “99 percent of the people that are robbing, stealing, killing drivers are blacks and Hispanics”.   The key point is:

“…so if you see suspicious activity, you know what, don’t pick that person up…”

Apparently this advice is too radical and extreme for the PC world.  As usual, people who have no stake in the game are telling people on the front lines what to do because of fanciful theories.  It’s reminiscent of idiots criticizing soldiers who shoot before being absolutely certain that the target was an enemy.  In doing a google search, I am unable to find the following headlines:

“Well dressed middle aged woman holds up cabbie at gunpoint for $20″

“Businessmen force cabbie to drive at gunpoint to Waldorf Hotel”

“Tourists in Hawaiian shirts rough up cabdriver in Midtown”

“Grandmothers beat up helpless cabdriver in Queens”

One of the oldest cliches is “you can’t tell a book by it’s cover” which is mostly starry eyed delusion, especially when it comes to sizing up people in an urban setting.  They’ve obviously never been to the south side of Chicago trying to ask for directions from some fine looking young men in hoodies, baggy jeans and over-sized sneakers.  Very few gangsta wannabes run around in khakis and polo shirts for some reason.   So the PC crowd insists that cabbies expose their lives to pick up a $20 fare in satisfaction of some PC principle.  Cabbies are not allowed to be leery of shady looking characters because feelings would be hurt.

This presumption of innocence only works in the safe confines of the streets.  If you enter the gritty world of airports, that’s different.  In this bizarro world the assumptions are turned upside down.   If you happened to be the middle aged woman, the well dressed businessman or the gaggle of grandmothers, you would be subject to the scrutiny of the beady eyed TSA agents ever alert for signs of nefarious intent.  In fact you would be treated with gloves, not kid gloves, but the blue latex kind.  Here, profiling is reversed: you are actually singled out for extra scrutiny the more innocent you look.  If you are old and in a wheelchair, good luck catching your flight.  You really can’t make this up.

link Enhanced pat-downs necessary for now, TSA chief says – CNN.com.

Neccessary? As if.  It’s as clear an admission of institutionalized idiocy as anything uttered since someone insisted icebergs were disappearing.   On the latter issue, at least those words were famously offered by a particular politician, so we all knew it was unvarnished poop despite the massive worldwide propaganda campaign.  (Incidentally we probably won’t hear much about global warming for a few months because all of the concerned protestors are off skiing at Val D’Isere enjoying the record snowfall)   In this particular case, the decree has come from the TSA,  a Frankenstein government agency that has morphed from defending the public to one that itself is terrorizing the public.  Another descent into a real life George Orwell novel.

Since this is an agency policy, political parties on both sides are reluctant to reign them in since woe be to the party that publicly opposes the TSA should any grief happen.  That party will be painted as being responsible for any ill fate that may befall anyone and all of a sudden, it’s a partisan issue. By now, numerous stories have exploded into the public space about the Mexican prison style searches now being administered by the TSA in under the cover of security.  People can search and read for themselves about the outrageous and invasive manner in which the public’s collective safety is being protected and make up their own minds.  Suffice to say, as someone commented, on a date it would be called second base. 

The alarming fact that no one seems to be willing to reign in the tactics and deeds of this domestic terror organization should disturb everyone.  There should be a bi-partisan push to bring back into line an agency which seems to be responsible to no one.  At the moment, the decrees of an unelected bureaucrat, John Pistole are carried out without pushback except for the vocal protests of Ron Paul, a Texas congressman.  We know for an absolute certainty that there are numerous other effective and more importantly, intelligent ways to truly shield air passengers from harm.  As most know, the Israelis are very adept at assessing risk by individual interviews and evaluating traveller profiles.  Of course the politically misguided fear of being labelled profilers trumps any concession to common sense in employing these same techniques over here.  Consequently, we are more willing to infringe upon the privacy of the innocent public as well as physically assault them rather than risk the scarlet letter of profiling. 

Certainly, the job of security could me made so much easier if all the terrorists had a consistent, identifiable profile.  If only they were all the same race, age and sex and whose flights originated from the middle east or North Africa.  If only they had the same religious affiliation and haircut.  If only this small group stood out conspicuously from the rest of the population.  If only there wasn’t a history of Grandmothers, children, goofy teenagers and frequent business travellers who consistently pose dangerous risks.  Yes, it’s too bad that the methods employed now are the ‘best techniques’ we have today to blunt attempted attacks. Playing real life whack-a-mole with obviously benign travellers is the best way to stop would-be terrorists.  And finally, it’s a good thing these tactics have captured every attempt in the past.  These are the brilliant techniques used today by an agency using tens of billions of dollars.  This apparently represents the acme of American ingenuity and intelligence. 

If this were all about safety and not about politically correct security Kabuki, it would make far more sense for ALL air travellers to be medicated with rophynol before all flights and then loaded like baggage  onto storage racks aboard the aircraft.  That way, all checks can be avoided, aircraft can carry many more passengers and they wouldn’t even need airline stewards.  You wouldn’t even need airlines, just FedEx or UPS.  How is this much more grotesque than the stupidity being imposed on people today?  You just can’t help but think that we have the genius of Wile E. Coyote running the TSA.  Like him, billions of dollars are spent to create elaborate contraptions to do something very simple.  He never catches the frickin bird.