Sunday, December 19, 2004
You Can't Fix Stupid
Tom Quinn heads up the Federal Air Marshal Service under the Department of Homeland Security. Quinn has mandated a dress code for air marshals which, as T.J. Bonner of the Border Patrol describes it, "makes them stick out like a sore thumb." Nevertheless, agents have reportedly been told, "You wear a sports coat, or you wear a suit coat, or you look for another job."
Chuck Muth: Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Quinn made a surprise visit to Reagan National Airport in DC and reportedly grew considerably angry upon discovering, as the Washington Times reports, that "29 or 30 deplaning air marshals were dressed in varying states of compliance with the conspicuous marshal dress code."
Doggone it! They looked just like...um, regular passengers. I'll have somebody's head for this!
Even if that means "blending in" with passengers decked out in Jimmy Buffet shirts and Panama hats on a plane bound for Miami in July?
The fact is, few passengers travel in business clothes any longer...which is why air marshals attired in their Sunday-go-to-meetin' suits are easily picked out in the airport crowd. Quinn's dress code is, for want of a more accurate Word...stupid.
Good grief. If Osama is indeed sitting in a cave somewhere having a good chuckle at our expense, it's not without cause.
We have airport screeners who can fondle buxom blonds, strip-search grannies-in-pearls and give tykes-in-diapers a "full wanding"...but who aren't allowed to "profile" for additional scrutiny Middle-Eastern young men from Muslim countries.
Tom Quinn heads up the Federal Air Marshal Service under the Department of Homeland Security. Quinn has mandated a dress code for air marshals which, as T.J. Bonner of the Border Patrol describes it, "makes them stick out like a sore thumb." Nevertheless, agents have reportedly been told, "You wear a sports coat, or you wear a suit coat, or you look for another job."
Chuck Muth: Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Quinn made a surprise visit to Reagan National Airport in DC and reportedly grew considerably angry upon discovering, as the Washington Times reports, that "29 or 30 deplaning air marshals were dressed in varying states of compliance with the conspicuous marshal dress code."
Doggone it! They looked just like...um, regular passengers. I'll have somebody's head for this!
Even if that means "blending in" with passengers decked out in Jimmy Buffet shirts and Panama hats on a plane bound for Miami in July?
The fact is, few passengers travel in business clothes any longer...which is why air marshals attired in their Sunday-go-to-meetin' suits are easily picked out in the airport crowd. Quinn's dress code is, for want of a more accurate Word...stupid.
Good grief. If Osama is indeed sitting in a cave somewhere having a good chuckle at our expense, it's not without cause.
We have airport screeners who can fondle buxom blonds, strip-search grannies-in-pearls and give tykes-in-diapers a "full wanding"...but who aren't allowed to "profile" for additional scrutiny Middle-Eastern young men from Muslim countries.
