Archive for the ‘Children, Fools and Bureaucrats’ Category

Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano got it right when she said, “When it came right down to it, the system worked…Once this incident occurred, everything happened that should have happened.” She was unwittingly explaining how a terrorist from Nigeria who was already on one terrorist advisory list managed to board a plane in Amsterdam without a passport and successfully smuggle and ignite a chemical explosive aboard a plane in Detroit. Yes, the system works; it’s ineffective by design.

Fortunately the explosion was a dud. According to one report, the detonator hidden in the suspect’s underpants was too small, resulting in a fizzled explosion that merely scorched the man’s own little detonator.

In fairness to Napolitano, our airport security system is not her creation. It was established in 2001 by politically correct liberals and skittish conservatives who thought it would be unfair to profile those most likely to blow up airplanes. As a result, we’ve been fighting a terrorist group for nearly a decade, yet we still dare not speak their name: Muslim religious fanatics. Meanwhile, the random search method has remained virtually the same since 9/11 and remains a misguided policy that’s more public relations than public security.

Profiling potential terrorist suspects based on what we already know is going to get a better result than any system that uses random factors. That’s a mathematical fact. But isn’t it unfair? Yes–that’s why it’s effective. The more unfair, the better the results. In sports it’s called gaining an edge over your opponent. In Las Vegas it’s called playing the odds. In warfare it’s called military strategy. Random searches might be more foolish than trying to draw an inside straight. It’s certainly more deadly.

Being nice to radical Muslims may rate us points at U.N. cocktail parties, but it’s no way to confront the very real and very dangerous situation in which we find ourselves. We know our enemy, their ideology, and their intentions. The time is way overdue for a more realistic approach. Profiling won’t be the end all to the war against Islamo-fascism, but it’s the right place to start.

Yesterday’s White House photo-op-press-conference-and-Obamacare-sales-presentation reminded me of a funny TV commercial from the Sixties written by Stan Freberg. The narrator says, “Nine out of ten doctors recommend Chung King chow mein,” The camera pans through all of the seated doctors, and eventually it becomes apparent that they’re all Asian except for one Caucasian.

President Obama, lacking a sense of humor, surely didn’t see how absurd his little health care pageant looked—150 doctors wearing white lab coats so you knew they were real doctors—in what could have passed for a Monty Python sketch.

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The 2016 Summer Olympics will not be coming to Chicago. Even for a group of corrupt IOC bureaucrats, this must have been a no brainer. But to hear the Chicago media tell it, the whole thing had to have been political. Politicians including Jesse Jackson went so far as to blame George Bush for creating anti-American sentiment affecting the Committee’s decision. Jesse Jackson’s bias is understandable even if it lacks honest perspective.

Here’s a more objective breakdown: Chicago is called “The Windy City.” Rio de Janeiro is called “The Marvelous City.” Chicago has graft, gang violence, and the Cubs. Rio de Janeiro has Mardis Gras. Chicago has Barack and Michelle Obama. Rio de Janeiro has sunny beaches littered with bikini clad sun bathers .

Do the math people, do the math.

President Obama could take some advice from famous poker player Amarillo Slim: “Look around the table. If you don’t see a sucker, get up, because you’re the sucker.” During the President’s first address to the U.N. General Assembly today, he was met with hearty applause. Oh yes, they like Obama. They like him the same way a bunch of poker playing card sharks like an unsuspecting sucker sitting across the table.

While Obama no doubt sees himself as a magnanimous world leader, the rest of the Assembly sees a high-rolling pigeon, about to be taken to the cleaners. If our president were a savvy card player, he’d be able to see beyond their diplomatic platitudes. Underneath those economic programs, climate change initiatives, and demands for international justice, lies a more practical goal: Money and political concessions, neither of which are necessarily in America’s best interests.

Unfortunately, Obama is a naive amateur when it comes to the high stakes nature of international relations. But he’ll stay at the table, arrogantly confident that he’s holding a winning hand of conciliation and appeasement. Meanwhile, the tyrants and dictators of the world will smile, and say “Deal the cards chump.”