Whither, mother wit?

wrote in message
oups.com...
[...]
Commonsense has suddenly become very unattractive for law enforcement
agencies as flying has for common passengers, with terror threats
matched only by even more extreme knee-jerk reactions from authorities.

What "suddenly"?

Common sense has been absent for a very long time, and that absence became
MUCH more apparent in the year 2001.

Especially here in the US, we have a government that is selling us terror,
as a way of ensuring their job security. Part of their marketing is to
imply that a) we are all in grave danger if not for their efforts, b) that
they are incapable of doing their jobs without treating *everyone* as a
terrorist, and c) that they are capable of keeping destructive items off of
airplanes (a most absurd premise if ever there was one).

Ironically, the recent "foiled plot" in the UK is a good example of why
airport security is overblown, and a good example of how terrorism
investigations should be carried out (at least with respect to where the
efforts should be focused...it remains to be seen whether the suspects were
ever any actual danger to us, but regardless at least the authorities were
focusing their efforts where they could actually accomplish something).

Pete