You know, I was going to write about Security this morning. I can't -- in looking over the numerous stories about the underwear bomber, the closing of part of Newark Airport yesterday, the disclosure that there was no 'smoking gun' and that we will be doing closer screening for people entering our country -- it is all just a bit too much for me.

I am not a fan of security theatre. We have seen far too much of that since those attacks so many years ago. Terrorism is indeed a threat to our country, there is no question about it, but at what point does this nation get real about handling it? Do we keep our citizens in a perpetual state of fear? Do we keep bombing the rest of the world? Will that ease the threat? Do we further close our borders? How much of the threat is caused by us and how much is extremism from the outside? At what point do people just stop believing the threat? I often think of the story of Chicken Little in times like these.

What do we believe and what do we dismiss? These are all the things I thought about as I attempted to write the blog this morning. I have no answers. I have questions. Many, many questions.

My main question is why, if we knew years ago about countries like Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Yemen, Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria being a threat to America --why are we just now giving extra screening to people entering our country from theirs? Why did this measure take so long? It seems to me this policy would have been implemented long before this administration took office.

This is one area where I have long felt needed far more scrutiny: People entering our country. Not people already living here. Why aren't we giving more screening to checked baggage as well? Whatever happened to the Ports of entry being checked? We cannot live in a bubble of safety, I know that. I also know that there can be things done to help increase our own security without making people already here guilty until proven innocent.

Oh, and I would really like someone to head the TSA. That kinda puts a chink in the chain. I don't believe in security theatre, but I do believe we can make our nation more secure by being efficient about what we do. I can't connect the dots either.

&
Raine