Let the Plane Crash; I'll Keep My Shoes On
Sometimes I don't remove my shoes before security screenings at the airport. If I'm early, and if I am so inclined, I'll elect to leave them on (removal is, afterall, voluntary). I know that I'll need some extra time, because once I've paraded through that metal detector with my shoes defiantely wrapped around my feet, our friendly government TSA agents are going to swarm to me like bees to honey, with the express purpose of giving me 15 minutes of personal misery designed to make me rethink the wisdom of my actions, in very much the same way a gang enforcer might break the arm of a shopowner who has fallen behind on his monthly protection payments.
This is my own quiet protest against the incredible absurdity of some of our government's responses to the plane hijackings of September 11, 2001. Not every reactive policy was absurd; many were logical and correct, including disallowing knives of any size on flights (now rescinded, unfortunately) and the reinforcement of cockpit doors combined with regulations requiring that they remain closed and locked during flight. And it is precisely this second example that should logically negate the need for something so silly as shoe removal by every member of the flying public.
A barricaded cockpit door removes the possibility of a hijacker commandeering a commercial aircraft. Once that possibility is removed, the number of casualties of any airborne terrorist act is limited to the number of passengers on the plane plus the random number of people on the ground that might be killed by falling debris (a number that averages, statistically, close to 0). So potential casualties from such an event has been reduced from many thousands to a few hundred. And casualties in such low numbers have never been important to our government, as illustrated by the government's response, throughout its history, to such things as handgun deaths and drunk driving deaths, it's cavalier attitude towards troop casualties, and our complete lack of a comprehensive public health care system. We have an infant mortality rate that's right up there with many third-world countries, and I'm telling you, it's a tragic thing.
So all of this begs the question, "why is the goverment examining our shoes?" And there is only one answer: visibility. Are there large numbers of citizens watching the off-loading of cargo containers at our country's ports? No there are not, so our government only inspects a tiny fraction of them. Ditto with cargo planes. But boy, it really looks like our leaders in Washington are getting things done by forcing the 750 million or so passengers that fly on our commercial flights every year to take off their shoes. Now THAT'S visibility.
And it's also completely insane.
This is my own quiet protest against the incredible absurdity of some of our government's responses to the plane hijackings of September 11, 2001. Not every reactive policy was absurd; many were logical and correct, including disallowing knives of any size on flights (now rescinded, unfortunately) and the reinforcement of cockpit doors combined with regulations requiring that they remain closed and locked during flight. And it is precisely this second example that should logically negate the need for something so silly as shoe removal by every member of the flying public.
A barricaded cockpit door removes the possibility of a hijacker commandeering a commercial aircraft. Once that possibility is removed, the number of casualties of any airborne terrorist act is limited to the number of passengers on the plane plus the random number of people on the ground that might be killed by falling debris (a number that averages, statistically, close to 0). So potential casualties from such an event has been reduced from many thousands to a few hundred. And casualties in such low numbers have never been important to our government, as illustrated by the government's response, throughout its history, to such things as handgun deaths and drunk driving deaths, it's cavalier attitude towards troop casualties, and our complete lack of a comprehensive public health care system. We have an infant mortality rate that's right up there with many third-world countries, and I'm telling you, it's a tragic thing.
So all of this begs the question, "why is the goverment examining our shoes?" And there is only one answer: visibility. Are there large numbers of citizens watching the off-loading of cargo containers at our country's ports? No there are not, so our government only inspects a tiny fraction of them. Ditto with cargo planes. But boy, it really looks like our leaders in Washington are getting things done by forcing the 750 million or so passengers that fly on our commercial flights every year to take off their shoes. Now THAT'S visibility.
And it's also completely insane.
Labels: Government
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