Is it just me, or does all this obsession over airplane security to the exclusion of all else feel like the Maginot Line of anti-terrorist efforts?

Totally.

It's an idiotic statement taken just on its merits - leave aside the fact that while a subway bomb may not kill as many people all at once (and Madrid killed far more than 30), it actually has the potential to affect far more people and is much easier to accomplish - but, hello? Aren't two deadly bombings in major cities enough to at least suggest that perhaps - perhaps - our attention might need to be focused elsewhere?

And by elsewhere, I don't mean the rural, 500 miles from any border of anything or target of remotest interest to anyone areas that just got themselves a federal windfall. (On a related note, how weird is it feeling that we've got to at least count on the House to restrain the idiocy of the Senate?)

According to the survey of nearly 800 end-users, 11 percent of users have purchased products and services from spam e-mails and nine percent of users have lost money due to an e-mail scam.

Gee, I wonder what the overlap was.

Is it just me, or does all this obsession over airplane security to the exclusion of all else feel like the Maginot Line of anti-terrorist efforts?

Definitely not just you. I've been expecting someone to blow themselves up in a shopping mall (or several simultaneously) at Xmas time or at a major sporting event (just imagine a suicide bomber throwing themselves in one of the dugouts, and how that affect people) ever since 9/11.

I think that if and when there's another airliner hijaking (whatever happened to 'skyjacking'?) there's no way in hell the hijakers are gonna get into the cockpit, even if they start killing people to try to force the pilot and copilot to open up.

This was one of my first thoughts after I was able to think about anything but the horror of it all. Not going to work again, and it's not even going to require what happened with the PA flight.

I think that if and when there's another airliner hijaking (whatever happened to 'skyjacking'?) there's no way in hell the hijakers are gonna get into the cockpit, even if they start killing people to try to force the pilot and copilot to open up.

Yep. That route is closed. It was closed by the fourth plane that day.

Spend money securing cargo, jeniuses. Leave my nail clippers the fuck alone.

Let's spend some money on R&D on sensors for and evacuation of transit systems. And equipment. And training. And stockpile some anti-toxins, vaccines, and etc. in key locations. And have a network in place to distribute them efficiently. Lets fund these things in a ::gasp:: multi-state fashion! Maybe, and I know this sounds simply ::nutz:: have a national plan for the nation's safety -- instead of handing municipalities in EAST BUMBLEFUCK blank checks.

I don't want big governement, I want THIS government to respond as efficiently as NYC just did (which is appalling since NYC government isn't exacly known for efficiency).

And we can't count on the National Guard to do it, those poor suckers are all in Iraq. We need systematic training, starting with the big cities, for all the law enforcement and rescue workers in the country. Duh.

Definitely not just you. I've been expecting someone to blow themselves up in a shopping mall (or several simultaneously) at Xmas time or at a major sporting event (just imagine a suicide bomber throwing themselves in one of the dugouts, and how that affect people) ever since 9/11.

I've expected that, too, though it does seem Al Qaeda has a bit of a fixation on major cities and transportation networks. I wouldn't count on that lasting, though--someday some terrorist is going to realize that if they really want the population terrified, taking out a Walmart on the day after Thanksgiving is the way to go.

This was one of my first thoughts after I was able to think about anything but the horror of it all. Not going to work again, and it's not even going to require what happened with the PA flight.

I don't think it'd work on a passenger plane, but it might theoretically be possible to infiltrate a cargo plane crew, where there'd be less people to fight off the attackers.

Anyway, since I live in a port city, dirty bomb on a container ship is my personal nightmare scenario.

You basically can't stop suicide bombers in public places. We need to be able to deal with them as well as possible.

And by all means, lets secure the ports and chemical plants. Jeezus. That involves "more than maybe thirty people".

I wouldn't count on that lasting, though--someday some terrorist is going to realize that if they really want the population terrified, taking out a Walmart on the day after Thanksgiving is the way to go.

Or blow out a section of elevated highway or a tunnel. Making people scared to drive would be extremely crippling to the way this country lives day-to-day.

And now only 100 posts or so to go.

You know, I managed to confuse Maginot with Plimsoll.

I am all better now.