Beachbum - dumbfounded? There are two issues: fair/balanced reporting and the inadequacies in air travel security and safety. Both are addressed in this thread.

Yes, there are still problems with air security. Bush has done a miserable job on that front as well. But her state of paranoia is laughable. She had more chance of buying the farm on the way home from the airport in a car crash than an exploding plane.

The fact that she references Ann Coulter, that screeching, delusional, hate-filled harpy, is a clue as to where she stands and her level of intelligence. She's like the people who twist the word "patriot" and turn it into an image the nazis would be comfortable with. Freedom is not free, and if she's willing erode her civil rights for the illusion of safety, then she's an insult to the millions who've died for those rights since the birth of our country. But she has every right to be a lunatic with scary visions of dark, swarthy men dancing in her head. Pity her children, she'll fill them with her hysterical fear and prejudice.
We have nothing to fear but fear itself can take on many meanings!

Popping back in to say that the Washington Times article that I mentioned above is being quoted and discussed on the cable networks today repeatedly........ MSNBC has referenced it several times, and the columnist was on Fox Morning Show today. Whatever one's political leanings, I don't know how you could listen to the 9/11 Commission's press conference on their report today, and read columns like the one I've referenced today, and not realize that we had darn well BETTER be super-vigilant and ask questions sooner rather than later........ in any suspicious situation, or the future could be pretty bleak.

Budman, don't be so sensitive! Drink another beer, turn on FoxNews and gently slip back into your nice, safe delusion.

Why do people like you always want to tell others what to do? People have debated on this forum since the beginning. Maybe you should stay away from the scary threads and go clean out your trailer. I wouldn't want your head to explode from political spew!

vespertine:What a load of crap.

A lot of people on soapboxes preaching their viewpoints loud and clear. Funny how "they" become less tolerant of others because it'a a topic that touches close to home. Take your heads out of the sand and see the world for what it really is...a scary ass place.

I would urge Fodor's to leave this thread intact instead of censoring or deleting it. If this is not relevant to travel, then I don't know what is.

IMO, there's been a false sense of security imparted where airline travel is concerned. For a variety of reasons and due to a variety of loopholes, there is really no better security today than there was pre- 9/11. Government authorization to shoot down hijacked airliners is not exactly what I ever called "improved airline safety measures." But it cost the airline industry a whole lot less than any REAL security improvements, didn't it? And that's what it all boils down to.

Don't ya just love the title of Jacobsen's article? Is it really possible to be terrified of a McDonalds' bag and musicians nodding to one another?? I think this article, and the back and forth on this thread represent the silly state of our national mood. Hyper-sensitive people attack when their view of the world is challenged.

They need to travel more and get out of their comfort zone once in awhile. The world has always been a scary ass place for most people since the dawn of time. That's no excuse to throw out all of our rights in the name of security. Danger will ALWAYS be around as long as humans are; let's not get crazy and freak over every little thing.

I read the article and I could just picture that uptight, middle aged yuppie and her gutless wonder of a husband staring rudely at those men. If they were screwing with their heads, can you blame them? They probably deal with those looks all the time. The tone in her article is unintentionally funny; she's so serious and unaware of how she comes off. In this day, how can anyone be so oblivious??

I'm confused about what rights you think we're giving up in the name of security, vespertine. And, "...how can anyone be so oblivious??" I've got the same question....

Remember the movie True Lies, where Schwarzenegger and Tom Arnold walk through an x-ray tunnel on their way into NSA offices? I wonder if they could modify that for airport use?

The problem I see with positions people are putting forward are extremes - either (1) a panic mode making it sound like we are all in dire danger this very second or (2) a don't worry about it, things are ok, there isn't much we can do about it anyway. Neither extreme is reasonable or right.

There is a rational middle ground - recognizing the actual serious threat from terrorists, asking reasonable and throughtful questions about what steps we can take to better protect ourselves, but without going into a state of panic, still living our lives, recognizing that life holds all sorts of risk. In other words, in my view, if we stop living our lives freely, then the cliche that terrorists will have won is true, but thinking, questioning and creating a real dialagoue is not a victory for the terrorists - instead, that is how a free, democratic country should act in the face of a threat.

Also, I think (based on my knowledge - I am open to change this view if shown I am wrong) that security is virtually completely a government issue now, and any failures are largely a federal government money issue (which is why issues like the federal deficit actually matter).

I'm not how much sense this all made, but hopefully my point got across.

Boo!

This is what the Frommers editors had to say:

[Note to CrabApple: We rarely delete messages from these boards, and we won't be doing so in this case. This story is one woman's interpretation of an experience on a recent flight. It's certainly topical right now, and if our readers want to discuss it, so be it. There's nothing in it, anyway, that would cause us to censor it.]

<The only purpose of the original story seems to be to scare people into supporting the war on terror and to feed into GW Bush's war hype in an attempt for votes. >

Where do you get this garbage -- just make it up? You trying to tell us that it's a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy?

Take all politics and political spew to salon.com, please!!!

vespertine, Horse Hockey!!!

I cannot believe you people who keep saying that this story is absolutely false and inaccurate. The head of the air marshals has confirmed that things happened as reported by Jacobsen. You weren't there so you can't interpret their behavior so to say Jacobsen's theory isn't possible is just irrational. The fact that these men were musicians doesn't mean that is all they could be! No one knows for sure what's happening but we do know there are radical Islamic militants who are eager to kill us and our way of life. I think we need to at least keep an open mind before we bury our head in the sand and pretend everything is rosy.

Just like the war in Iraq was necessary because they had "weapons of mass destructions" right??

Do you believe everything you're told by the government? The war in Iraq was necessary to fill the pockets of Bush and his greedy ilk. If there was no oil there, the war never would have happened and any thinking person knows that!!

How do you G.W. lovers defend such a buffoon? He barely has command of the English language! Everytime I see him on TV with that stupid smirk on his face I'm embarrassed for our nation. Thankfully, my state was blue for Gore (the real President, you know, the one with the most votes)

Anyone who thinks this close-minded soccer mom is a rational person is probably of like mind. You'd probably wet your pants and get into the fetal position if that band walked onto your plane! Why aren't you afraid of militant, red-necked, right-wing nuts like Timothy McVeigh? Identify with them too much???

Leelani, I don't think people are saying it didn't happen. There are just certain people that don't think what happened was cause for any concern because they didn't find anything to warrant an arrest and nothing technically happened.

I would have found that behavior suspicious as well. I haven't heard anyone else's story on that flight so it's hard to say how others saw the situation. I'd rather know about it than not.