Back in the 1950s - a halcyon time when men were men, women were women, children were seen and never heard and Americans weren’t afraid to kick ass and take names - we were determined that Soviet communism would never prevail. A common slogan of the time captured that sentiment perfectly: “Better dead than Red.”

My, how things have changed. While it appears that we ultimately triumphed over the Soviets, their pernicious worldview successfully infected our institutions of higher learning, our public school system and ultimately our culture, degrading and distorting it into something the 50s generation would barely recognize today. We have been reduced from a nation of iron pillars to a collective bowl of Jell-O, quivering and quaking in politically correct dread of being perceived as racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic or religiously intolerant.

Hence the new catch-phrase for the Pepsi generation: “Better screwed than rude.” In the wake of the attempted bombing of Northwest-Delta Flight 253 in Detroit, commercial air passengers are already finding the skies much less friendly than they used to be.

TRAVELLERS flying to the United States face tightened security including extra baggage checks and restrictions on their movement while on board planes.

The restrictions are part of the US Government’s response to Friday’s terror scare on a flight bound for Detroit.

The US Transport Security Administration has introduced new rules for all flights into the US that include:

• A requirement for passengers to stay in their seats without any personal items including blankets, pillows, laptops or access to cabin baggage for the final hour before landing.
• Pat-down searches for all passengers to replace the current regime of random searches.
• A physical inspection of all bags before departure, requiring them to be opened.

The new rules have been put in place for four days but will be reassessed by US authorities before they expire on Wednesday (US time).

The changes mean it will take longer than normal for passengers to pass security checks before boarding, prompting airlines to urge passengers to allow plenty of time to check in.

Outstanding! Instead of employing common sense and profiling passengers with Mohammedan names, appearances and suspicious mannerisms, we will go down the PC highway. Rather than inconvenience a suspicious few - thereby better marshaling our resources and personnel - we will instead inconvenience everyone, from white-haired Wisconsin grannies to toddlers still in diapers.

Working feverishly on your laptop to complete that sales report before the plane lands? Better get it done before the clock starts on the final approach. Drank one cup of coffee too many before getting on the plane? If the approach clock is ticking you better hope you have excellent bladder control. Feeling chilly? No blanket for you.

Now everyone can feel safer as they arrive at the airport hours ahead of departure, stand idly in long, snaking lines, endure the ignominy of a pat-down and display all of their personal effects to complete strangers - of whom there will soon be more, as it will be necessary to hire more personnel for the screening procedures.

And if Douglas Laird gets his way, passengers will endure the further humiliation of walking the gauntlet through a full body scanner. I can certainly understand his enthusiasm: if airports around the world adopt this technology he stands to put quite a pile of jingle in his pocket.

I saw this coming almost a year ago and wrote about it a post titled “TSA Voyeurism” in February:

Millimeter-wave scanners. They’re all the rage now - just ask the TSA folks at Tulsa International Airport, which recently installed millimeter-wave machines [next] to metal detectors as a “primary screening technology.”

Millimeter waves penetrate clothing to show what’s beneath: passengers appear naked on the machine’s monitor. The Electronic Privacy Information Center describes millimeter-wave scanning as “equivalent to a ‘virtual strip search.’ … The level of detail uncovered [is] akin to a disrobing in public: the images seen by the screeners reveal the outlines of nipples and genitalia.” Supposedly, this will allow screeners to catch the weapons so many of us tape to our torsos.

Feel better about air travel now? Feel safer? Me neither. However, I do feel creeped out by the thought of some TSA drone getting his jollies on in the video monitor room.

Meanwhile Mohammedan terrorists (are there really any other kind?) will continue to deploy every strategy they can devise to kill innocent people. And all this because we’ve become a nation of spineless wimps and PC cowards.

But hey…there’s still room for laughter in all this absurdity, so I’ll end this post with a clip from the motion picture An American Carol: