finally. Can we stop the stupid patdowns of innocent travelers and disconnect the porno scanners at the airports now? I have to travel tomorrow and I'd rather not go through that crap again.
The response of any bureaucracy is to double down.
Back in my days as a Catholic seminarian (don't ask), I met a well-connected priest who told several of us that the Catholic Church in the United States is going bankrupt, not because of lawsuits stemming from pedophile scandals, not because of the cost of supporting priests or other religious, but in order to make payroll for laymen working in diocesan bureaucracies. He gave the example of the diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, saying that there were a thousand laymen working full-time in the chancery alone.
I still have trouble believing that number. What does it take to get a business with that many employees?
In any case, the principal way in which Catholic dioceses have been responding to the lack of funds is to shut down parishes rather than scale back the bureaucracies. So, yes, I'm afraid that you're right. The TSA will only get more intrusive.
That was Cyril Northcote Parkinson, whose writings on the issue are summed up as "Parkinson's Law,"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_Law
"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."
And I hate to say it, but the same is almost certain to happen with the "National Security" bureaucracy as the USA empire collapses.
They'll have an authentication problem.
Some of his followers might see it too.
Their grunts may be more normal, but the ones on top are quite committed. Plus, dying for the cause ensures that you are rewarded, so its a pretty hard system to beat.
Clearly untrue. Perhaps it is easier for you to view an enemy as a lunatic monster bent on senseless destruction, but nearly every mass murdering organization in the world, whether it's a terrorist group like Al Qaeda or a military power like the US, has very concrete motivations and objectives for its actions, and is well versed in the logic of power. Realpolitik is deeply rooted in a rational worldview. You may disagree with the premises or the reasoning (I certainly do), but calling Al Qaeda 'completely irrational' is way off.
But how will the bottom- and middle-tier guys they know they're taking orders from Bin Laden's designated successor and not agents of some country's (you name it) intelligence services?
It takes a nontrivial amount of planning, preparation, money, and coordination to pull off the kind of simultaneous suicide operation we saw in Sept 2001.
It goes:
People get pissed off > They band together and share their anger > They decide to do something about it > They do something about it.
After the fact WE brand them as part of a large effective organization, 01/09/11 did require funding and planning due to the requirement to fly planes and the synchronization of multiple TEAMS.
The Madrid and London rail bombings required almost none (find people, make explosives, pick time/place, synchronize watches).
The activities in Iraq require almost no planning and really demonstrate that there is no globe spanning plan, if there was all the Iraqi suicide bombers would travel somewhere US interests can be attacked more easily. But they don't, ergo 'AQ' is actually a loose collection of people with similar motivation and very limited ability to communicate or distribute funds globally.
If I'm too cynical or sarcastic for your taste, I apologize preemptively and profusely.
1) Quickly find (or make up) another evil empire or shadow enemy to be afraid of. Suggestions: Wikileaks, music pirates, subversive citizens, militias, Arab dictators, nullification by jury educators ...
I'm gonna go on a wild guess and say that Ben Gurion airport is one of the most secure airports on Earth. I don't see any justification for all the above stuff.