FPOD wrote...
I found it sickening to watch an old women (possibly in her late 70's) get pulled to the side for a pat down.
Would it have been less sickening if it had been a 20 year old young man? And if so, why?
Actually yes it would have been less sickening. The general profile of the last dozen or so terrorists who have tried to bomb a plane have been male in the age range of 20 to 30. It's makes more sense to pat down a 20 year old man than a 70 year old woman. If you can find a single instance where a 70 year old woman blew up a plane then maybe we should consider frisking granny but, until then it's a waste of time harassing an old woman.
FPOD wrote...
I would rather see people profiling suspicious people instead of treating everybody as if we're all equally guilty.
That's a bit self-contradictory, because from a legal point of view, general suspicion is the mother of profiling. I wonder where P.C. comes into play with profiling. Furthermore, I'm seriously gobsmacked and astonished to find someone of your self-professed political conviction speaking out in favour of profiling.
My self-professed political conviction also includes the prevention of crime where applicable. Though I don't remember actually speaking out in favor of profiling just posing a question (sometimes to learn something you must play the devil's advocate). I see it as asinine to ignore the obvious.
As for the P.C. nature as I mentioned. The current politically correct nature of some Americans refuse and will violently fight any notion that there are similarities in the people who have perpetrated every or nearly every terrorist attack since 9/11. It's "politically correct" to frisk granny while ignoring that there hasn't been a terrorist attack by an old woman bombing a plane in the last decade. Meanwhile, someone who fits the very characteristics of a terrorist are supposed to go un-harassed. I assume you are familiar with the flying imams controversy. In a nutshell,
* The imams refused to sit in their assigned seats. Instead, it is claimed that they fanned out in the cabin, sitting in pairs close to the front, middle, and rear exit rows.
* Shahin and the two imams seated in Coach Row 9 requested seatbelt extensions (a strap with large metal buckles normally used by obese individuals to lengthen their seatbelts), even though flight staff say none seemed to need it. They then placed the extensions on the cabin floor in front of them, instead of attaching them to their seatbelts.
* Three of the imams traveled without any checked baggage, and on one-way tickets.
* According to a nearby passenger who spoke Arabic, the two imams sitting in the back of the plane, while speaking to each other in Arabic, mentioned Osama bin Laden and condemned America for "killing Saddam".
The P.C. crowd chastised all who felt that these men were suspicious. Calling them racist, and just about every other nasty word in the English language. Simply because people were being suspicious on a plane and people felt that they may be in danger. So while the P.C. crowd has been hammering it into our heads that we shouldn't be aware of our surroundings and that "nobody is suspicious" or even going so far as to eviscerate anybody who dares speak up that somebody IS doing something suspicious but, turned out to not be a large problem once investigated. (though the behavior was still suspicious at the time). The P.C. crowd in the media spends no time dragging the person out in public to be flogged by the masses for what they claim to be bigotry, xenophobia or what have you. An unintended consequence of these public media floggings is that fewer people will speak up if they see suspicious behavior as they are scared of being wrong. That fear will be capitalized on by our enemies.
Therefore, Political correctness in this situation will get people killed.
On top of that, Political correctness lead many of the supervisors of the Fort Hood shooter to wash their hands of the situation simply because if they were wrong they would be gutted like fish by the media and every Islamic group in the civilized world. Fort Hood came about due to the failings of military personal from identifying a threat out of fear for not being politically correct in their assumptions that he may pose a danger to people.
In conclusion any logical person would know, if you are looking for somebody it's better to look for somebody fitting the description. If our police departments worked like our TSA regulations. The next time a black guy robs a store. Police will be kicking down the doors of every white woman in a fifty mile radius.
Edit: Glad to see your still alive lion. I can relate. I've had a bank account frozen before. Though they didn't specific why they froze it. I never got to unfreeze my account they simply mailed me a check a couple weeks later.