Now That's Politically Correct

• By Ralph C. Jensen
• Apr 08, 2010

There’s no denying that I have little, if no use, for the current White House administration. Its demeanor about security, much less, homeland security is less than stellar.

However, the Obama administration has abandoned the policy of using nationality to determine which U.S.-bound international air travelers should be subject to additional screening. Instead, the system will be more intelligence based.

Under the new system, screeners will stop passengers for additional security if they match known pieces of intelligence. This is much easier to understand than the administration’s “blunt force” type of screening methods.

I think it’s a nice way for the administration to say that the United States is now going to use profiling to scan certain passengers.

Finally, something I can agree with.

Critics aren’t impressed, as expected, saying the measures are discriminatory and are overly burdensome.

Let’s look at discriminatory versus stupidity. Recently, while flying out of Las Vegas, TSA screeners had pulled aside a grandmotherly-type figure and her wheelchair for further screening. I watched the entire procedure. She was scanned and frisked, when agents finally decided she posed no threat. What were they looking for, a few stolen bingo cards or missing poker chips?

Seriously, does this woman pose a threat? No.

From an administration that has made one policy blunder after another the past year and a half, it seems they have finally gotten something right. The new program, with its politically correct moniker, is tailored to what the intelligence is saying, what the threat might be as opposed to stopping all people of a particular nationality or those with a particular passport.

And for goodness sakes, it’s time to reconsider screening everyone’s grandmother. Only her homemade orange marmalade jam is a threat.