Wanted--stiff upper lips

As someone who once worked for an airline this post really hit home with me. But you don't need past airline experience to understand. Fact is, we're never going to completely erase the threat from terrorists. Eventually they'll get us. If this is indeed a global war on terror and we're all involved, then we need to steel ourselves a bit more.

Or, as Tamara so eloquently put it,

Listen to me, folks. Put down the legislation and step back away from it. Let out a cleansing breath. Now, chant along with me:
THERE IS NO WAY TO MAKE AIR TRAVEL SAFE.
THERE IS NO WAY TO MAKE LIFE SAFE.

That's not to say governments should give up and quit trying to secure public transportation. What it does say is that at some point we're going to reach a point of diminishing returns leading to hysteria, seemingly illustrated by this story. As it stands now even foiled bomb plots turn out to be wins for the terrorists, and that's wrong.

It's a hard concept, since most of the world is filled with sane peace-loving folks who can't comprehend the inherent evil resting inside the hollow stinking souls of these hooligans. But defeating them is going to require a certain backbone from us all, or in the least a better attempt to fake one. Our forefathers would approve, I think.

MORE 8/20/06

Here's reaction from someone in the biz:

..Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, Europe’s biggest low cost airline, on Friday described as “farcical” and “Keystone Cops-like”. Terrorists “must be rolling around the caves in Pakistan laughing at us”

Some airlines have asked passengers to arrive three hours prior to their flights, probably in response to the anecdotal horror stories we're all hearing about people missing flights due to inordinate delays in long security lines fumbling with toothpaste tubes.

The airlines are simply reacting, but we need to get a handle on how we're going to handle threats without driving this industry out of business. Maybe we should let capitalism decide it--in other words, go back to letting the airlines do their own security. If you want to be absolutely sure, you go with airline A, who will require full body cavity searches prior to boarding. Cheaper fare, go with B, who only makes you take off the shoes. Or C, who equips every passenger with a stun gun.