Things I didn't know...

Things I didn't know...  I do know about the secret “no-fly” list, which keeps over 20,000 people from flying in the U.S.  It seems obvious that (a) there aren't really 20,000 people in the world who are trying to hijack or blow up an airliner, and (b) that many of the people on that list are there in error.

What I didn't know is this: in the entire history of this secret list, only one person has ever succeeded in getting his name removed.

That is the kind of statistic you might expect to come out of the old Soviet Union, or North Korea, or Bangladesh.  Not out of the United States.

Reading this story made me think, for the umpteenth time, that the 9/11 terrorists really have won.  If there's an afterlife, Bin Laden and his buddies are laughing – at us.  The America they hated – that land of freedom and opportunity – is being eaten away by a burgeoning security apparatus and by a progressive-pushed journey toward socialism.

Is 10 AM too early for a drink?  Ah, well, it's the right time for a drink somewhere...