Thomas Friedman very rarely says anything I like. But blue moons do happen. I just saw him on CNN saying (I quote from memory):
Our day is supposed to be the Fourth of July, not September 11th. We’re supposed to be a beacon of hope, not an exporter of fear. Are we going to be taking our shoes and our belts off forever? We need to accept a little more insecurity in our lives so we can live like Americans again.
Mr. Y writes similarly that security is mostly a state of mind.
Yes. Yes we are. Because the 33%-44% of Americans who fly every year simply could not stand to bear the miniscule chance that their fellow ‘muricans might get blow’d the fuck up.
Meanwhile, the people who actually do the flying want nothing more than to have a normal, reasonably convenient experience at the airport.
The non-flying public practices a peculiar kind of cruel compassion on those of us who have to fly.
Has anyone in history ever better-summarized the essence of what it is to be an American than H.L. Mencken:
At first glance, when I saw this in my Google Reader, I thought, “Hey! I like David Friedman….oh wait…THOMAS Friedman…yeah, don’t like him all that much.”
Yeah, Thomas Friedman is David Friedman from the antimatter universe.