“They hate us for our freedoms,” said former President George W. Bush by way of explaining the 9-11 attacks. Well, thanks to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), we no longer have one of our freedoms, namely freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. This month, the TSA escalated its screening procedures to require airline travelers to submit to either nude imaging scanners or “enhanced” pat-downs of their genital areas.

So, now that we’re considerably less free, maybe “they” won’t hate us anymore, or, at least, not so much. And if that’s the case, maybe we can dispense with the porn scans and groping.

Of course, we know that’s not going to happen. Whenever governments or police agencies are criticized for exceeding their authority, their response is to circle the wagons and dig in.

And that’s what they’re doing in response to the backlash that erupted last week after John Tyner, a software engineer on his way to South Dakota to hunt pheasant, posted on the internet an accidental video of his own experience with TSA gropers. “You touch my junk and I’m going to have you arrested,” Tyner told the TSA agents, who then escorted him from the airport. After his video went viral, Michael J. Aguilar, head of the TSA’s San Diego office, said Tyner could be facing $11,000 in fines for — get this — leaving the airport.

The $11,000 fine, the TSA made clear, would apply to anybody who enters an airport checkpoint, refuses to be scanned or groped, and then tries to leave. They must first submit to questioning by TSA agents. This threat was made in response to a website’s call for people to opt out of the nude scan (if they can) and force TSA agents to pat them down. Read more »

A reader recently sent me a link to the following article that appeared in t r u t h o u t, an on-line publication its editors describe as “devoted to equality, democracy, human rights, accountability and social justice” — in other words, devoted to promoting a secular, leftist political agenda.

The article was about a member of t r u t h o u t ‘s board of advisers, a former Air Force lawyer named Mikey Weinstein, who had founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). MRFF recently received a lot of attention after forcing the Defense Department to rescind its invitation to evangelist Franklin Graham (son of Rev. Billy Graham) to speak at the Pentagon’s National Day of Prayer event in May.

According to the article, that and other recent victories MRFF has won “have earned Weinstein the enmity of the hardcore Christian Right and the mentally unstable”. When I got to that line, I almost stopped reading. Any alleged journalist who airily dismisses anyone who disagrees with his one-sided view as “mentally unstable” has, in my opinion, taken himself out of the debate and is worthy of no further attention. However, I read on.

Weinstein, who likens Christians to “vampires” and is fond of using violent metaphors to describe what he’s going to do to his opponents (“Wherever I see unconstitutional religious predators in the U.S. military, of any stripe, I don’t care if I live or die. Someone’s gonna get a beating and we’re going to do it.”), began the organization after suing the Air Force Academy over alleged anti-semitic harassment experienced by his son and other Jewish cadets. Read more »

Nevada voters have absolutely no reason to send Harry Reid back to the U. S. Senate this November. He has used his position as majority leader to push the United States toward bigger, more powerful, more expensive, and ever more intrusive government — a place where American voters, and Nevada voters especially, do not want to go.

Furthermore, he has done this using all those underhanded political tricks Americans have come to detest: backroom deals, arm-twisting, bribes and blackmail. In the process, he has contributed memorable new phrases to the lexicon of political corruption, phrases like “The Cornhusker Kickback” and “The Louisiana Purchase”.

Yes, Nevada voters have no reason to re-elect Harry Reid. And Harry Reid knows it. Which is why he is doing what every self-serving politician does when he knows the issues aren’t on his side: he tries to demonize his opponent and make her the issue instead. In doing this, he is getting a lot of help from the news media. Read more »

I was planning to write something patriotic for Independence Day — you know, something about how an oppressed people living on the edge of an untamed continent stood up to tyranny; a people who, though vastly outnumbered and under-supplied, fought and won a long, hard war against the greatest economic and military power on Earth and, who, as a result of their victory, bequeathed to us a freedom that, until that time, no people in the history of mankind has ever known.

That’s what was on my mind when I staggered through the kitchen door Saturday evening after returning from a 58-mile bicycle ride that had left me utterly exhausted. I opened a Wild Cherry Pepsi, plopped myself down on a kitchen chair, propped up my sore legs, and called my son on my cell phone to let him know I had made it home more or less safely.

It was then that I noticed the winking red light on the remote handset of my landline phone. Someone had called while I was out on my ride. Who could it be? Except for telemarketers, hardly anybody calls me on that line (and telemarketers don’t leave messages).

With a great effort, I hoisted myself out of the chair and ambled back to my office to retrieve the message off the base station. It was somebody from the Census Bureau. Calling me at 5:37 p.m. on a holiday weekend. He left a telephone number and a “Case ID” with instructions to call back. Read more »

Last week Dan Rodricks, a local columnist for The Baltimore Sun, wrote about being issued a $40 speeding ticket after an unmanned speed camera clocked his car going 40 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone. He thought it was terribly unfair, because the stretch of road with the speed camera ran by a deserted cemetery, and he thought the cameras were supposed to be placed only in school zones and work zones.

I admit to feeling a moment — just a moment, mind you — of the smug satisfaction liberals must feel when a prominent conservative gets caught doing something unconservative, like soliciting sex in the little boys’ room.

Rodricks is a liberal and, as he says, “I support speed cameras.” So when his own puppy jumps up and bites him on the butt, it’s hard to resist taunting him, “Nyah! Nyah! See, I told you so!”.

But I will resist, partly because Rodricks has a valid complaint. And it’s not just about the speed camera not being anywhere near a school or work zone. The state law authorizing counties and municipalities to set up unmanned speed cameras requires that signs inform motorists that they are in a school or work zone where speed is photo-enforced. The law also requires that warnings, without fines, be issued for the first 30 days a speed camera is in place, but Rodricks was ordered to pay a fine for a violation that took place only eight days after the camera was placed at that location. Read more »