There are exceptions to be sure (maybe they saw something on the x-ray), but the shoe/ID/etc carnival is much less common over there than here. Most Americans don’t get that type of treatment either — this would have been special attention in either country.
And if 0.00001% of flights get blown up, so what? Part of freedom is some level of risk.
We jibber and thump our chests like enraged baboons whenever someone discusses taking our freedom to own guns away, even though 30-40 thousand people die from firearms every year in the US.
But when there’s a remote possibility of a plane being blown up, when an illegal immigrant with no more likelihood of killing someone than the average American might get into the US, or when more drugs might get into the US we say … “yes. please. master. take our rights. it’s for our own good. for the good of our country. please, sir.”
Hypocrisy driven by a government and media in bed with corporate interests. There’s big money in selling guns, even to people who shouldn’t be handling so much as a Super-Soaker. There’s also big money in security technology, ID technology, policing, imprisonment, etc. Follow the money, and you’ll realize how corrupt we are.
