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There was a brief news item Sunday about police raiding a plane full of passengers in Detroit and taking three of them off for questioning. We’re now seeing just how clearly the incident points out that Americans have become paranoid and stupid in their irrational fear of terrorism.

That’s Shoshana Hebshi on the right. She’s a suburban housewife from Ohio. Her father is from Saudi Arabia and her mother is Jewish. She’s just a typical American with mixed ethnicity. But because she happened to be seated on a Frontier Airlines plane from Denver to Detroit Sunday with two men from India — who also didn’t know each other and didn’t talk to each other — passengers and crew were suspicious of them.

What were they suspicious of? There’s no reason to think they were suspicious of anything other than the fact that they looked a bit different from the rest of us. We don’t have first-hand accounts from the two Indian men, but Hebshi wrote extensively about her experience on Monday.

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It’s not often I have reason to praise a major politician. It’s even less often that I expect to have praise for Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown, but Gov. Moonbeam did something praiseworthy last week.

After the California Legislature passed a bill requiring helmets for minors skiing or snowboarding, Brown vetoed it, telling lawmakers in his veto message that parents should make the decision for their children instead. The veto message (PDF) said:

To the Members of the California State Senate:

I am returning Senate Bill 105 without my signature.

This measure would impose criminal penalites on a child under the age of 18 and his or her parents if the child skis or snowboards without a helmet.

While I appreciate the value of wearing a ski helmet, I am concerned about the continuing and seemingly inexorable transfer of authority from parents to the state. Not every human problem deserves a law.

I believe parents have the ability and the responsibility to make good choices for their children.

Sincerely,
Edmund G. Brown

I’m a big fan of wearing helmets when doing dangerous things, but I’m an even bigger fan of parents having the power to make decisions for their own children.

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Stockbroker Martin Kessman might be 64 years old, but he’s behaving more like a 6-year-old recently. The 290-pounder in Nanuet, N.Y., is suing the White Castle hamburger chain because he can’t get his fat body into the booths built for people considerably smaller. He claims the chain is violating his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. I’m not kidding.

As you can see in the photo, our rotund hamburger fiend is able to get into the booth, but he claims it’s not comfortable enough. I’d suggest he be arrested and carted off, but stupidity still isn’t against the law.

It’s easy to make fun of this idiot — and I take great pleasure in doing so — but the bigger issue isn’t one moron suing a restaurant. No, the bigger issue is that we’ve become a society of people who believe we’re entitled to get our way — even when we’ve created the problem we’re whining about.

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