FEAR ALERT: UPDATE #4

I posted yesterday regarding the apparent absurdity of X-ray screening of shoes for explosives . . . despite a Homeland Security report indicating that such scans don't work in identifying explosives. And yesterday, sure as shit, the Transportation Safety Adminstration defended those very same X-ray screens of shoes, stating that they're "an effective way of identifying any anomaly, including explosives."

War is Peace. Ignorance is Strength. Up is Down & Inside is Out. Welcome to America, Version 0.6. Say someting often enough, and it becomes true, no matter how ludicrous it sounds.
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Update #5, 12:50, PM: According to AP, a London-to-Washington flight was "diverted" after a claustrophobic passenger got panicky. The pilot -- undoubtedly over-reacting because of the current atmosphere of FEAR (Atmosfear?) -- issued an alert, resulting in two fighters scrambling, and escorting the plane into Logan in Boston.

(Hey, maybe it's good afterall. That is two more scrambling fighters than there were on 9/11.)

But my favorite part of this story? The following quotation from George Naccara, of the Transportation Security Administration:

I don't know what she had on board with her, but we have been told she did not have a screw driver, she did not have any liquids such as vaseline, and any notebook she may have had, it did not contain an al-Qaida reference. This is still playing out, of course. There was speculation in the beginning of all those items, but those have been proven untrue.

(Emphasis added). He said he had no information about matches.

I can't speak for all of you, but I'm glad to know in these SCARY times that at least some of the panicking claustrophobes on airplanes aren't writing about Al Qaeda while they smear vasoline all over themselves.

Good grief. Is this where we've come to?
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Update #6, 10:21 PM: Reuters reports that federal Customs officials evacuated a large ship container terminal in Seattle today, after bomb-sniffing dogs became "alarmed" at two containers from . . . Pakistan. Amazingly, a search of the containers turned up no explosives, chemical or biological agents. Instead, the inspectors found one was "filled with clothes and the other with large bundles of used or recycled textiles."

Hmmmm. Who's with me on this one, thinking that maybe it was the bomb-sniffing dogs' handlers that became "alarmed" at the containers from . . . Pakistan. Unless, of course, the dogs read Nastaliq script, speak Urdu, or have been trained to sniff curry.