Another douchebag blew himself up.  This time in Mockba, taking 35 people with him, and wounding over 150 more.

I have been traveling on business of late, for the first time since just before 9/11/2001.  Thus, I haven't flown anywhere in roughly 10 years.  So, I got to see what all this fuss was about at the airports.  I have to tell you that I was very worried about being singled out for "enhanced" screening, as it is more likely than less likely that nobody is going to "touch my junk" without my permission - and nobody at an airport is going to get it either.  The good news is I was not selected for "enhanced" screening.  Also, in the interest of fairness, though I have railed against the TSA's reported abuses in several posts, I was treated with courtesy and professionalism by those TSA employees I came in contact with.

Passing through 3 busy airports on one recent trip, I was keeping an eye out for what was going on around me.  At the time, there were two things I noticed: 

1) While hung up waiting for a delayed flight, I observed the ground crew people coming and going up and down a flight a stairs into the terminal and right next to a gate.  Clearly they were dressed for outside and were entering through a door below and coming up the steps.  No security other than presumably a swipe card of some sort.  I assume there was a video camera somewhere watching that door, but it struck me that if somebody went through that door who shouldn't - especially a terrorist type, by the time someone saw it, it would already be too late.

2) While I was standing in line waiting for my turn at TSA ID and Ticket inspection, it became apparent to me that a terrorist didn't need to board a plane.  All a terrorist had to do was pack a potent bomb into a big carry-on bag, and detonate it in the middle of all these people stuck in the queue.  Plenty easy to kill a bunch of people and never having set foot on a flight.

Apparently the scumbag in Moscow did exactly that - detonated a bomb planted in a carry-on in the middle of a queue of people.  Boom, we're all dead.

Recently, a pilot was ostracized by the TSA because he observed something similar to what I saw with regards to grounds crews coming and going as they pleased.  And, of course, we now have a suitcase bomber in Moscow.  The point of all this is:  Terrorists can reach us and blow Americans to bits anytime they can get people into the United States to carry out their vile work.  All these intrusive airport security measures - women having their breasts felt up, men having their genitals probed, or people having an image taken of their naked body,  is not only anathema to the both the Constitution as well as common mores on what constitutes sexual assault, but it is utterly totally useless in stopping a determined scumbag who wants to kill Americans at an airport.

We are permitting ourselves to be subjected to these ridiculous intrusive searches in the name security that we, in fact, do not have.

My stomach turns when I read people being interviewed about this whole security mess who say they are in favor of the current procedures because it makes them "feel" safe.  There are few things that get me angrier quicker than some jackass idiot who gives up their vital parts and rights in trade for the illusion of security.  These are the people who enable these outrageous and useless invasions of our core privacy by out-of-control government.

So roughly a score dead in Moscow, by a Jihadist who didn't have to go through any screening whatsoever before he blew them all away. 

Oh yeah, and one more thing.  Mr. Jihadist - a "middle-eastern looking male".  What a non-surprise surprise.  It is less wrong to profile middle-eastern looking males - a tiny fraction of the traveling public (at least domestically), than to feel up hundreds of thousands of people 'at random' who we all know have nothing to do with Jihadism and it's bloodthirsty work.   Spectacular stupidity.