Suppose the TSA accepts the simple-minded premise that ethnic and religious profiling should be used to screen airline passengers. Would we realize it? Would the TSA announce this publicly, or would they quietly refuse to confirm or deny that they use profiling? Maybe they'd even try to appease Arab-Americans, Muslim Americans, and our nominal allies in the Islamic world by denying that they use profiling. But since the TSA doesn't publish statistics on who gets extra scrutiny at airport security check points, we wouldn't be able to prove or disprove that ethnic, racial, or religious profiling would be in use. Would this mean that people who don't fit the profiles never get extra scrutiny, or would a smaller percentage of little old ladies, Senators, and the infirm get some scrutiny after all? I say there would be some scrutiny of even the least likely candidates, in case they've been duped (or blackmailed) by Bad Guys into carrying "bad things" past a security checkpoint or in case the allegedly old, infirm, or Famous-and-Important are really imposters. I think it's already happening. I'm sure Baha doesn't like it; neither do I. But I think some of the vocal "I'm not a racist, but...." voices can quiet down; they've won, even as the absurd cases like GI Joe's 2" gun continue to surface. Prove me wrong. Or stop spewing your suspicions and animosity against these width swaths of "different" people. I'm not defending the TSA. Airport screeners have done some stupid things. I never did understand the nail file policy, and I agree with the cynical assessment that most of what we're seeing is window dressing, not effective security measures. But this constant ranting about how the TSA isn't doing it right at all seems to be based on some underlying assertions that can never be proven or disproved. Security successes are rarely visible. Goofs, like the mother with the bottled breast milk, are too often visible. It doesn't mean that all that's visible is all there is. So stop yelling and ranting and raving and try to present your agenda without red herrings and strawmen attached. Just a thought, Nick