On Christmas Day, some jackass decided to try to blow up a plane coming into Detroit using a liquid explosive with a chemical detonator strapped to his underpants.  The response from the US Government has been to require everyone to have no more than one carry-on, be subject to a pat-down before boarding (concentrating on the upper legs), and sit quietly with nothing in your lap for the last hour of the flight.

Because, obviously, someone is going to try to do the exact same thing again.

This is simply ridiculous.  It does nothing to make travel safer, and does plenty to make it far more inconvenient.

I hold to the sensible yet controversial point of view that the response should have been a big fat nothing.  Security cannot catch everything, and people need to understand that.  If every action by some asshole with a religious or ideological grudge causes a disproportionate reaction, then we as a society are forced to give up all pretense of freedom and liberty to be “safe”.  Do you want to see magnetometers at shopping malls?   Do you want to submit to pat-down searches before entering your workplace?  Do you want to book a “flight plan” for your daily car trips?  Do you want to have your book purchases okayed by a screening agency?  All of these things are possible reactions to the next “terrorist attack”.

The irony, of course, is that these “failed” attacks are working quite well.  They are instilling a sense of fear and uneasiness in society, and are costing the “evil empire” millions upon millions of dollars.

Well, I’ve had enough.  I was planning a couple of overseas trips this year, but not anymore.  Instead of flying to Finland, I’m going to drive to Quebec City and take in the Winter Carnival.  Instead of flying to Moscow, I’m going to take a train to the coast and take a cruise.

Make no mistake, I’m not afraid to fly, I’m just tired of the B.S.  And the people of the country don’t seem to have the will, desire, or ability to effectively lobby against these asinine rules, so I’m doing my part to make the airlines lobby to change them.  I’m voting with my dollars and not feeding another penny into this system until they figure out how to stand up to useless rules and make flying something that approaches a good experience and not the hostile, accusatory, inconvenient mess that it is.

I’m writing this after spending my entire day yesterday either waiting to take off, or standing in line for hours to get a hotel room due to an industry and government that can’t get its head out of its ass long enough to understand what’s really happening.  So, perhaps I’m a bit jaded.   But, to the industry and government, I say this.  Stop making your reaction based on the pretense of “Well, we have to do something.”  Because no, you don’t.  Sometimes shit happens, and most of us get that.  Not everything is preventable, and the sooner everyone realizes that, the sooner we can go back to being a normal society.