Pesident Obama made an off-hand joke last night in his State of the Union address, while promising high-speed rail.  It would be faster than airplanes for some trips, he said, and without the pat-downs.  There was mild laughter in the audience.

The ACLU fired off an angry tweet that Violations of the Constitution are no joke!

That wasn’t what caught my ear, however.  What boggles me is that he thinks there will be no — and should not be now– pat-downs for passengers on trains.  Why the hell not?  What on earth makes anyone think trains are safe and airplanes are not?

As I recall, the second big Al-Qaeda blow following 9/11 in the US,  was at Atocha Station in Madrid on 3/11 2004 , a date no Spaniard will ever forget.  191 people died; 1,800 were injured

Bloody, awful bus bombings, as no one can forget, were the earliest signs of escalating terrorism in Israel.

A bus bomb went off in Manila yesterday, killing 5 and wounding 13.  Bus bombs have been used for years in Mindinao in the Southern Philippines.

While it’s true that a bomb on a train or a bus doesn’t send everyone necessarily hurtling to their deaths it’s not true that they are any less horrific, or capable of creating fear and slowing all kinds of commerce and travel.  They are certainly  just as easy — especially when the President makes a joke that there isn’t much security on the trains.  I have to admit, on  my last train trip, in October, between Philadelphia and the Washington D.C.  I was startled that there was nothing at all in the way of baggage checks.  I don’t like them either either.  I don’t want them, but if I were an untrained would-be bomber I’d be noticing where the security is tight and where it’s not.

Find something else to joke about, Mr. President.  There were plenty of goof-balls sitting in front of you that needed a good ribbing.

How many Republicans does it take to screw in a light bulb?  None. They’d rather sit in the dark.

Print PDF