Altanta PI lawyer Andrew Speaker has been very much in the news lately.  Nicknamed by Drudge “TB Andy” (a la Typhoid Mary, for those of you who didn’t get it the first time), his face has been plastered all over the tabloid media.  We sure do love diseases.

So why have blawgers found this story so interesting?  Let’s see.  Man is sick.  Virulent, perhaps deadly, strain of TB.  Father-in-law researches the stuff for the CDC.  Makes it through customs even though he’s on the watch list.  Oh yeah, he’s a lawyer.

Friends, his profession neither adds (nor subtracts) to the story.  Did anyone suggest that he contracted TB from a judge?  Did his employ his vast rhetorical skills to overcome the ICE guard?  No.  It just happens that he’s a lawyer.    Let’s leave Andrew Speaker alone.  He really didn’t mean to bump Paris Hilton out of the news.  So can we forget that irrelevant aspect and focus on the really important stuff.

Why is it they check the bottoms of my shoes, and won’t let me go through the magnetometer, because I have a fourth ounce of shampoo in my possession, but TB Andy breezes through?  If you ever needed proof that this whole border crossing nonsense is a palliative to make the public believe they are safe from terrorists, here ya go.  It’s designed to make average, ordinary and utterly non-threatening Americans (of whatever race, color, national background, etc.) feel better through harassment.  That’s right, safety by annoyance.  The more they annoy, the safer we feel.  God bless America and Homeland Security.

Have you ever considered the ramifications of cracking wise to one of these fellows with the private security company patches on their shoulders while you’re trying to convince them that your Rolex is real?  Don’t you dare bring that coca-cola (that you bought 12 feet away at the concession stand) through.  Why not?  No TB in there?  LOL.  That one will cost you a strip search.  Oh my god, not the latex gloves!

Seriously, this is just silly.  The border is a sieve.  We all know this.  So why pick on the easy targets, the regular folks who pay taxes so that those guards can earn minimum wage.  If someone on the watch list can waltz in, the scheme is not working.  So give us a break.  Let’s go back to that America where we didn’t have to prove our worthiness to anyone in a uniform.  And profile the guys who are coughing uncontrollably. 

UPDATE:  Mark Bennett, Houston defense lawyer extraordinaire,
  I’ve got this all backward.  He contends that the rationale for this airport charade is to instill and maintain fear in regular folks so that they remain willing to give up their individual freedom for the pretense of safety.  He’s makes a very good point.  I’m not sure we are really saying anything different, but rather make the same point at different places on the spectrum.  Either way, it’s a good read on an important issue.