Corbett on That Laptop Ban

In case you were wondering about the strangely circumscribed ban on large electronics from certain Middle-Eastern airports that was abruptly announced in March, wonder no more. Jon Corbett, writing at Professional Troublemaker explains that the ban was in reaction to compromised scanning equipment. From Corbett's closing summary:

[T]he government lied to us when they said there wasn't a specific threat, they withheld information from us because they thought we'd be scared, and they implemented a laptop ban that will be ineffective and expensive at best, dangerous (as a result of increased fire risk) at worst...

This should come as no surprise from a government that will not openly name our enemy, much less declare war, and is now hoping to "make a deal" with some of our enemies, as if nobody has had (or tried) that idea at any point over the past few decades. (This is not to say it was ever a good idea in the first place.)

That said, if you have the time to read the article about the laptop ban, note the author's three arguments about its impracticality, and consider how similar they sound to any Republican's protests to the effect that any standard left-wing economic measure is "impractical". However true and well-researched such points may be, they will hold no water for supporters, because they are not motivated by practicality. They are motivated by a demonstrably incorrect morality that conflicts with the requirements for life on this earth. (For what it's worth, all three of Corbett's points immediately occurred to me when I first heard about the ban.)

-- CAV