Assume that those who would plan terror attacks have at least as much information as we have. They know that "it remains unclear whether the AIT would have detected the weapon used in the December 2009 incident"; that "only 2 percent of all passengers would have been picked at random to go through" these questionably-effectual scanners; and that "random" means people who look like they will readily

A hearty "thank you" to the Defending People reader who nominated this blog to the ABA Journal's Blawg 100 popularity contest. Now go vote for someone in the Criminal Justice category—Gideon, Seddiq, Pryor, Greenfield, Berman, or Sylvester; hell, vote for Scheidegger if you're into that sort of thing. Anyone but me.Oh, yeah, and the IMHO category too. Tannebaum, Randazza, Charon …

Leslie Malkoff was headed to Dallas with her husband Kurt. Malkoff said she thinks people are missing the whole point of the scanners."You know what, everybody is so afraid, more afraid of being felt up than blown up. You know what, whatever it takes, I say, not to have someone take a bomb in their underwear. Whatever. So you're fine with either one? I'm fine with either

The statist media’s spin on National Opt-Out day is that it was a failure:As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport said 39 (out of 47,000) fliers opted out of the scanners. All continued to their flights after being screened, while at LAX, there were 113 opt-outs across eight terminals, which was less than 1 percent of the total travelers screened. (ABC.)In the spirit of Defending People

Marc A. Thiessen, writing in National Review Online, is apparently shocked. Shocked: The current uproar could happen only in a country that has begun to forget the horror of 9/11. Indeed, it appears many in the country have forgotten. A new Washington Post–ABC News poll found that 66 percent of Americans say that “the risk of terrorism on airplanes is not that great.” Sixty-six percent. What does

The memo, which actually takes the form of an administrative directive, appears to be the product of undated but recent high level meetings between Napolitano, John Pistole, head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA),and one or more of Obama’s national security advisors. This document officially addresses those who are opposed to, or engaged in the disruption of the implementation of the enhanced airport screening procedures as “domestic

“I just want to arrive safely, and they are welcome to take pictures of me, my wife, and my daughters.” That’s from the comments to Ruth Marcus’s Don’t Touch My Junk? Grow Up, America.I can’t make this stuff up:

Suppose that it’s 1 January 2001, and you know that at some point in the next 12 months terrorists will take down four airplanes, killing more than 500 passengers. You have a job that requires you to travel from Houston to Newark at least once and up to twelve times. By road, you live 20 miles from the Houston airport and work 10 miles from the Newark

Tom DeLay has been convicted of Money Laundering and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering.He'll be going to the court for punishment; range is 2-20 on the conspiray and 5-life on the substantive offense. I think probation's a safe bet.

What's another word for unquestioning compliance? Submission. And what's the Arabic word for submission? Islam. Islam is about submission to the will of God, but Islamic fundamentalists want people to submit to what they say is the will of God. So—assuming that they are no more inerrant than the rest of us—what they want is unquestioning compliance with them. So in a way, when you think about