Color me confused. How long have we been told that the sordid practice of profiling is wrong, wrong, wrong? So instead of pulling people out of the line to go through airport security because they look like they might fit a known pattern for terrorists, the wheelchair bound Grandma gets strip searched, all 85 lbs. of her. Better that someone like the underwear or shoe bomber gets through than offend anyone. Of course the victims of a terrorist strike should feel vexed but apparently they were wrong.
And then I read this in a December 10th news story: “President Obama made it illegal this week for federal law enforcement agencies to profile US citizens. People will no longer be stopped for the way they look or for the religion they practice… unless they’re going through an airport or a border checkpoint. Federal law enforcement is no longer allowed to single people out based on their national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation. But TSA, customs and border patrol still can because they’re exempt from these bans…. Attorney General Eric Holder received push-back from TSA and Homeland Security while devising these guidelines. The agents profile to maximize national security and try to keep America free from outside threats. President Obama’s new guidelines also don’t apply to local and state police. He hopes these agencies will naturally follow suit. However, this could confuse people since most of us only deal with local law enforcement.” If it looks like a terrorist, smells like a terrorist and feels like a terrorist, it probably is.
Well, maybe there is reason to hope for a small bit of sense in Washington, who knew? Aren’t there groups out there who are determined to kill us Americans for our freedom loving way of life? Should that not work out right away for them, there are plenty of Christians, school children to kidnap or shoot and journalists to behead in the rest of the world.
Then along comes the Diane Feinstein Report on Torture, I mean Enhanced Interrogation Techniques. Imagine, making people go without sleep for 48 hours. I did that in college to study for finals. Or being in a confined space with bugs. Allow me to tell you about a motel I stayed in once. Let us not forget waterboarding, something that dozens of journalists and our Special Forces have gone through just to experience it. Do any of them have any marks or scars? Not quite like pulling off fingernails is it? She said, “We got no information”, Jose Rodriguez said, “We did.” Call me heartless, but when there are thousands, maybe millions of radical extremists who have sworn to wipe my nation and me off the earth, I prefer to be sure we do everything to prevent it from happening.
Could I go on? Well yes, right in our own back yard, just across the Hudson. The Commissioner of the NY Fire Department, Daniel Nigro, noticed that women were sorely under represented in the ranks. Nearly all of the firefighters were men! Men, strong enough to carry a fire hose into a burning building and to carry me out. Well, Diversity won out and standards have been lowered to let more women in the NYFD and Public Safety be damned. Do I have any objection to women firefighters, not in the least, but only if they can do the job. This is not about quotas, it is about lives. But, silly me, I am obviously not thinking straight. So please don’t share my thoughts with anyone, if it gets out, I may be sent for reprogramming at the Politically Correct Ideology Camp for Dissidents.
I will have lots of company.
