"Security" vs. Freedom

Thomas Sowell notes that Israel manages to achieve excellent airline security without violating air passengers -- along the way to discussing how full-body x-rays and pat-downs illustrate the Obama Administration's contempt for freedom and the American people:

If anything good comes out of the airport "security" outrages, it may be in opening the eyes of more people to the utter contempt that this administration has for the American people.

Those who made excuses for all of candidate Barack Obama's long years of alliances with people who expressed their contempt for this country, and when as president he appointed people with a record of antipathy to American interests and values, may finally get it when they feel some stranger's hand in their crotch.

As for the excuse of "security," this is one of the least security-minded administrations we have had. When hundreds of illegal immigrants from terrorist-sponsoring countries were captured crossing the border from Mexico -- and then released on their own recognizance within the United States, that tells you all you need to know about this administration's concern for security.

I was in grad school shortly after the atrocities of September 11, 2001. I recall half-joking afterwards with an Objectivist friend that we'd know we were losing when the a new bureaucracy was created to deal with the threat of terrorism. That joke very quickly came to pass.

More incredible is this airline security situation. I was involved with a campus Objectivist club back then, and soon after the atrocities, we learned that an ARI speaker would be in the area. So we took advantage of that fact and worked with a local Objectivist group to set up a lecture on my campus. Someone I know from that group joked about having campus security frisk everyone on the way in to the lecture. Now, less than a decade later, that, too, has pretty much come to pass.

I hope Sowell is right.

-- CAV

Updates

Today: Minor edit.