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The fault here is not just with our endlessly incompetent security services, who give the benefit of the doubt to people who should have been arrested long ago or at least had their visas and travel rights revoked. It is also with a public opinion that sheepishly bleats to be made to “feel safe.” The demand to satisfy that sad illusion can be met with relative ease if you pay enough people to stand around and stare significantly at the citizens’ toothpaste.

Christopher Hitchens in Slate (12/28/09)

Hitchens’ words, especially the ones about the sheepish bleats to make us “feel safe,” made me want to dust off two HuffPosts I wrote last November. I may end up reposting them here. For now, though, here are the links:

* Barack: Talk To Us Like Grownups About Terrorism and Save Us From Ourselves

* Don’t Tell William Langewiesche to “Have a Safe Flight” (and Other Ways to Avoid Self-Destruction in the War on Terror)

Regarding the second link, I still can’t quite believe that we live in a world where a blogger can send out some e-mail and end up interviewing a writer of Langewiesche’s caliber. A good day.

Notes