“We should resist the temptation to enact proposals in the mistaken belief that anything that may be called anti-terrorist will necessarily provide greater security.” – In Defense of Freedom
“America will find an appropriate way to mourn. But if we must have a shrine or monument for our remorse, let’s put it on the 200th floor, right next to the antiaircraft guns.” – Jonah Goldberg, from the National Review
11:55pm MetaFilter really IS more addictive than crack. I find the discussions there to be well rounded and very diverse. I put in a thread about having kids say the Pledge of Allegiance in school and I got tons of great comments back. I’m currently embroiled in the thread about whether or not we should have a National ID card and how far we should allow our freedom to be eroded because of the attacks. After the initial shock and fear, I now am very concerned that all this talk about giving free reign to the gub’ment to ID us and DEMAND papers whenever and where ever they please is not a very good idea.
The frantic scramble to “secure” the airlines is also appearing to be slamming the barn door after the horse got out. As an Atlantan, I’ve dealt with Hartsfield Int’l. Airport for years. Security? Yeah, riiiight. If you call a posse of silly black girls with purple hair and 2 inch long fingernails making $10 an hour security, then we sure had it. Is it really a surprise that a guy got on an airplane at Hartsfield with a loaded .22 pistol a couple of days ago? Not to me it isn’t. I think it’s silly to confiscate nail clippers and key rings, folks. It’s also irritating and useless to ban all carry on luggage as well. If the goddam airlines could get our fucking luggage to our destinations WITH US in the first place then we wouldn’t be carrying 4 tons of shit ON THE PLANE, now would we? I mean, come ON. Does all this mean a fucking thing now anyway? The deed is done. DONE. OVER. FINISHED.
And as far as bailing out the airlines goes, well, I think it’s a necessary thing for the economy, however, the spinoff industries such as travel agents who are now holding out their hands and using this situation to get free government subsidies – they should bugger off. They were already nearly dead thanks to the online ticket sales explosion and this is just an excuse to get bailed out of a situation they were already in. Hey, people, things are tough all over, get over it and get a shitty new job like the rest of us.
I think we are making ourselves miserable and giving away our freedom and way of life at a time when we should be staunchly grasping it. Meekly standing aside and allowing ourselves to be undone by what has happened is not the way. It is exactly what bin Laden and all terrorists want! They can’t take away our way of life, but they know that we can, if we are scared badly enough. We MUST defend our way of life. Once we’ve let these liberties fall away, we’ll never get them back. Look at what has happened historically when we get scared and lose our heads.
Is it worth it? Do we really want them to win?