Clarion Content

The Clarion Content is not a big believer in interdiction. If the War on Drugs has taught us anything, it should be that one has to win on the level of motive. If one can't erode the motivation, one can't interdict everything. We think that this cross-applies. Hence, we were not too stressed by a couple of anecdotal reports we received recently about airline security after the near disaster in Detroit.

In two different place we heard essentially the same story, nothing has changed. One was a local Durham friend who traveled to Australia for ten days in early January. While there she obtained a European brand kitchen knife made from a ceramic composite. It is neon yellow, and we saw her caught raw chicken with it after her return. It is a sharp pairing knife with a three inch blade. Having purchased it while in Australia and done no cooking there, she somehow forgot that she had it in her handbag. She unthinkingly brought it on the plane on her flight out of Melbourne, unmolested, undiscovered and unaware.

While not as extreme we saw a comment that read much the same from one of our favorite football writers, Peter King in Sports Illustrated. He wrote in last week's column on the divisional playoff round, "Nine flight segments since the aborted terrorist on the plane in Detroit on Christmas. Zero difference in security that I've seen. Have I just missed it? Or is there just not the vigilance we should be seeing? Hard to tell, but I've not seen slower lines with more patdowns or anything I thought we'd see. I hope TSA knows what it's doing."

Things that make you go, hmmmmm. Anyone?

Labels: Pop Culture, thought