JUST FOR THE RECORD

I'm shedding no tears...NONE...over the photographing and fingerprinting of visitors to the USA.

Two years and three months ago we were savagely attacked by terrorists who had taken advantage of our open society. They studied us and determined they could use our own societal standards against us.

We're Americans...we tend to presume the goodness in all people because, frankly, most Americans are good people.

So when bad people come around and use that against us, well, something has to change.

Let me hand you a trivial, but point making example. Yesterday I purchased a bag of cheese cubes at the commissary. Through the bag they looked OK. And the expiration date was still a week out.

I got them home...opened them, even ate one or two when I discovered that several of the cubes in the bag had green mold growing on them.

See - on the surface everything was in order...the view from outside the bag and the sell-by date were in order.

When Hajid the bomber makes his way into the USA he might have done sufficiently good work so that his view from outside the bag is OK, and his passport might appear to be in order...(as in not yet expired).

While shopping for that bag of cheese cubes the rules in the commissary did not allow me to treat some of those cubes differently than the rest. I wasn't able to open the bag, pull out the "bad ones" and keep those that didn't look bad (presuming one can identify such things visually),

And so, as a result, I am returning the entire bag (less those two I ate). That is how we handle such merchandise.

Individuals from most of the nations of the world who decide to get worked up into a lather over this photo/fingerprint thing will do so ultimately on personal terms.

By that I mean eventually all their arguments come down to "but I'm not a terrorist." Seriously...one can attempt to argue that this is a step backward for the freedom represented by America...an affront to citizens of many nations" all you want...but in the end the argument boils down to "I'm not a terrorist".

The murder of 3000 Americans was a step backward for the freedoms represented by America...and an afront to those who cherish liberty and goodness all over the world.

And since you look pretty much like every other cheese cube in the bag, you get treated as all the others. Pretty simple to me.

And...if the fact that we now have a better record of who came in and who didn't go out is inconvenient for you, well, you may not be a terrorist, but you had poor intentions anyway.

So why are the 28 countries different...we don't require their citizens to be photod and printed? Seems to me the US Government has a special level of faith in the governments of those nations to treat them differently...as if these friendly and modern governments...the products of mature and stable democracies have demonstrated a seriousness about fighting terror that the rest of the world isn't up to yet.

Or maybe it is that you take just a bit of extra special care when dealing with your closest friends. I worry about it frankly, because Hamburg Germany seems to be a magnet for muslim thugs who are looking to study terror tactics...because the entire country of France is awash in muslim refugees who fit the profile of the footsoldiers in this unholy war they are waging on us.

But I just really wanted to go on record as letting you know that Brazil can go tit-for-tat on the fingerprinting thing all day...it bothers me not one bit. Because when Brazil comes to my house, and I want to make sure I know who I'm dealing with or have the tools to fix it if I find I've been duped. well, I don't have trouble sleeping nights for taking such measures.

Whine all you want. You get no tears from me.