Whaa?

New at Reason: Fat, sleepy truck drivers? Airline planes full of hostages? Mad cow patties? What does the government want from us? Jeff Taylor tries to dope it out.

Comments

[Rupert Brokaw]

I am by no means a Clark supported, but lemme throw this bone out. Leading up to Iraq, part Deux, many conservative talk show hosts claimed Clinton did nothing for 8 years prior to 9/11. So to avoid the same from happening while the media consolidates, democrats are jumping on the "I tried to do something about it while those on the other side of the aisle thwarted me" approach.

Now that I have said that, I do find it frustrating that all the major networks and their affiliates have damn near identical news all the way down to the format, headline slogans, and the way its written, and smaller news publications, especially the independents and mags like Reason, get marginalized by "mainstream" critics.

[Dan]

So, in the name of fighting terrorism, the U.S. itself resorts to a form of low-grade terrorism, certainly purposeful intimidation. Threatening to blow plane-loads of innocents out the skies unless your demands are met is insane

Threatening to blow hijacked planes out of the skies is entirely sane. They're flying bombs.

Threatening to shoot down planes which have entered US airspace without permission can also be sane, depending on the circumstances.

Escorting planes that, due to a lack of proper policing, are vulnerable to hijacking, is also quite sane.

None of the three constitutes "terrorism" in any sense of the word.

[AJMB]

What the article said was, a lack of policing satisfactory to the TSA (ie-U.S. sky marshals on board). So it's a case of do as we say, or else. Very similar to a terrorists tactics, I think.

[Matthew Cromer]

Well, it's official.

Tim Cavanaugh has officially forgotten that 9/11 ever happened. Unfortunately for me I cannot as a classmate of mine was on flight 11.

I'd much rather see REASON writing polemics against unjustifiable government intrusions that are clearly unconstitutional (like the WOsD) rather than ranting on about perfectly understandable security policies and weight-throwing.

[Argyles]

Taylor's organization should be called BEEF (Beef Eaters Eschewing Fraud).

[Scott]

So it's a case of do as we say, or else.

The best description of government I've ever seen...