Monday morning quarterbacks are bad enough if they know what they are talking about, let alone someone who doesn't have a clue.

Kendall, it sounds like the people responsible for pre-flight security checks are among those who don't have a clue. It's obvious the air marshalls can't trust them. But then there was virtually no security on internal USA flights before 9/11, so perhaps they;re rookies. The UK and many other countries don't permit armed marshalls on board, except of course on flights to and from the States, where Uncle Sam insists.

Meanwhile Big Mick reminds us that the guy who was shot said he had a bomb. The point being, I suppose, tha the marshalls are trained to recognise such a claim as a danger sign. But in present-day, shoot-first America, it's most often going to be a clue to mental illness.

The hysterical over-reaction to 9/11 was hard enough to stomach at the time. That a large part of the population is still living in fear, as evidenced by the irrational attitudes to risk voiced in this thread, would be laughable if it were not for all the human rights that are being surrendered because of it.

Why should any of this bother me? Only because whatever the US admin does today, her majesty's supine government does tomorrow.