> Back to Nate and Danny's ideas. I for one would rather not
> have security in airports whatsoever. I would be plenty happy
> to take my chances. I don't think that every plane would
> suddenly start blowing up.

I strongly disagree. By your own analysis, "there are lots of people who 
hate the U.S." and will do organizations like Hamas "a favor by harming 
the evil U.S." If this is true, it couldn't possibly be the case that our 
airplanes would be reasonably safe with no security at our airports. In 
fact, we can almost be certain that there would be a huge upswing in 
terrorists attacks, if only because Bin Laden is on the record as saying 
that he *wants* to hit us again. Every one of the Bin Laden tapes contains 
ominous warnings about future attacks. He is not being sarcastic. In 
conjunction with addressing the root causes of terrorism, we have to 
protect ourselves against the people who already hate us now. We must be 
realistic about the dangers that face us. The British, American, and 
Pakistani intelligence agencies just broke up a major terrorist plot 
against airliners. This is the context for the entire conversation that 
we're having now. The threat is real.

~j