Where we lost reason.

In the US, a suspected criminal is deemed innocent until proven Guilty beyond a REASONABLE doubt.

We have a REASONABLE person standard developed under common law of judging how one might, or should act.

There is another REASONABLE degree of certainty standard for how a person acts given a likely future outcome.

We give our police officers rights to act on their REASONABLE suspicion.

Business owners have to provide REASONABLE accommodations to persons with disabilities.

We live in a society that bases itself on reason. It is the little catchall that makes sure our laws are vague enough to be interpreted for any given situation. We know that as soon as a law is written without some wiggle room to be applied in certain circumstances, we will find ourselves tied to force UNREASONABLE pressures on the public.

Which brings me to the TSA.

The 2 inch molded plastic gun that a GI Joe doll was holding was found to be a ‘replica’, and therefore confiscated.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/2173150.stm

A 5-year-old boy was mistaken for a terrorist, because his name was similar. He was then treated like the terrorist.

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/01/09/tsa-searches-detains.html

An MIT Student was “lucky she wasn’t shot” because her shirt had blinking lights on it.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3635225&page=1

Is everyone in the TSA poorly trained? Stupid? Trained to be stupid?

Where has reason gone? Would a 2 inch molded plastic gun held by a doll reasonably be mistaken for a weapon? Would a reasonable person read: “38 year-old Muslim”, and figure they better take a closer look at the 5-year-old? Can we give people some training on what a bomb looks like? Lord knows people in Boston needed it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare

And how about just completely losing our freedom of speech:

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/28/0355208&from=rss

Something really needs to be done about all this. People are choosing not to fly because of all the hassles.

I'm not saying we need less security, we just need REASONABLE security.  I'm all for being proactive, but I say we should wait until someone successfully hijacks a plane with a GI Joe doll before we start banning it from flights.

Tomorrow, Sean and I are leaving for Vegas. Are we taking a 1.5-hour flight, or 7.5-hour drive?

Lincoln Town Car baby!!!