Wednesday, October 18, 2006

No-Fly lists even dumber than suspected

If you've been paying attention, you already know that the TSA's No-Fly list and secondary screening lists are a joke, but even so, this excellent investigative piece from CBS News will blow your mind. The TSA's lists contain people who are dead. They contain the presidents of foreign countries. They contain incredibly common names like "Robert Johnson." These farcical lists are supposed to secure the skies, and the way they're supposed to do it is by denying air travel to thousands of innocent people (without catching a guilty person smart enough to use a fake ID). Even worse, because the gargantuan lists have to be widely circulated, the CIA won't allow the names of actual terrorist suspects to be added to them -- in other words, the No Fly lists only contain the names of people who aren't under any serious suspicion.


Having recently endured an international flight, I'm not the least bit surprised. As far as commercial air travel is concerned, this is not a "War on Terror." It's a war on convenience, decency and common sense.

On a sunnier note, here's a positive independent review of the New Frontiers Symposium:

Afternoon at the Symposium

Saint Mary's University hosted the 2006 New Frontiers Symposium on Extraterrestrial Life, Space Exploration, & The Future. Numerous speakers gave talks on subjects ranging from Project Blue Book, to contact with aliens and the science of spaceflight.

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