Even before 9/11, airline passengers were subject to all kinds of intrusive searches of person and baggage.  The underlying purpose of such statist conduct is to humiliate people in the most embarrassing manner possible, in order to remind us [in George Carlin’s words] that they “can [mess] with us whenever they want to.”  Who better to carry out this function than sociopaths and perverts for whom disrespect for others is probably genetically-determined.

The Best of Butler Shaffer