Breadbaker wrote:

A year ago, at Ben Gurion, we were subjected to the screening procedure boarding a British Air flight to London. A cute young Israeli woman asked us about ten minutes worth of questions. The woman was disarming and the questions were disarming ("Where were you Bar Mitzvahed?")... [W]e had been screened as individuals, not as objects. Having been determined to be of zero security risk, our bottled water was deemed safe.

For a number of years, I worked at a National Security policy think-tank in Washington, on matters of counter- and anti-terrorism. Shortly after September 11th, my group assisted in bringing in a number of Israeli security experts to Boston Logan (at the airport's request) to train their staff in El-Al-style airline security, which, as you mentioned is focused on behavior and attitudes, rather than physical searches. The problem is that such methods constituted "profiling" and a lawsuit by the Massachusetts ACLU quickly followed, killing the pilot program at Logan. (In full disclosure, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU.)

Asking about passengers' destinations, reasons for travel, method of payment and general demeanor is a much more effective (and in my opinion, less invasive) method of screening out potential threats, but it has been deemed unConstitutional.

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In regards to the sub-headline for this article, we would do well to adopt another Israeli policy in regards to cockpit security. On Israeli airliners, the pilots are forbidden to carry weapons (despite almost every single one of them having served in the IDF), and the cockpit doors use a lock-out system similar to an airlock: there are two doors, both bulletproof, and only one can be opened at a time, with a vestibule in-between, just large enough for one person to stand.

I'm amazed that the producers of American Idol seem to have gone out of their way to pick failed musicians for this year's "competition." The top 8 finalists (and a good many of the top 50) were all professionals who failed to make a dent in the industry, not the undiscovered "talent" that the show claims to search out.

• Carly Hennesey Smithson - one of the biggest bombs in recent record industry history. In 2001, MCA (where she first met Randy Jackson) spent $2.2 million on her, her record, Ultimate High, sold less than 400 copies worldwide (not a typo).
• Michael Johns - twice flopped in Australia, with two different bands (both of which he used as springboards in an attempt to start a solo career).
• Syesha Mercado - Was a contestant on ABC's song and dance talent show The One(a fact expunged from ABC's website and her wikipedia article); she has done commercials for Ford and her father was a Motown backup singer.
• David Archuletta - won Star Search at age 12, way back in 2004; he has sung for AI producers and contestants in two separate back-stage parties (Seasons 1 & 4) and has appeared on the CBS Early Show to promote his album releases.
• Jason Castro - Co-starred as the love interest in the 2006 MTV drama-mentury Cheyenne.
• Kristy Lee Cook - Signed by Arista in 2001, with a deal that included touring with and video appearances by Britney Spears.
• Brooke White - released an album, Songs From the Attic, in 2006 and has, at least opened for country singer Phil Vassar.
• David Cook - professional musician who fronted the Creed-like Axium and played bass and sang backup vocals for The Midwest Kings; released an album in 2006 entitled, Analog Heart.

To borrow a line from the horrible Aliens vs. Predator movies: No Matter Who Wins, We Lose, for we'll have to suffer through their dreadful "music" on Top 40 radio for years.

Although North Carolina's primary is technically "closed", this year, the board of elections is offering a new process called "One Stop Voting" -- wherein those who choose to exercise early voting (April 17-May 3) have been able to register at the polling place, after the April 11 deadline and/or change their party affiliation, allowing them to vote in either primary.

My wife voted on Monday and told me that at least two people at the polling place were changing their Republican affiliation to uncommitted, so that they could vote for Obama, according to their statements to the election workers.

Info on One Stop Voting: http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/content.aspx?ID=32

The story, as of 10:30am EDT, was that Clinton supporters, but not the actual campaign, were in talks with the Obama campaign about an "exit strategy," as CNN called it.

What that means is lost on me.

It's possible that the story has changed in the last hour, since I last turned on CNN, but the youTube clip is earlier than the coverage I saw, and CNN's homepage lacks any coverage of a "breaking" story such as Clinton in formal talks with Obama.

@alexkoppelman: I'm still a little dismayed that you've yet to update your blurb, which was incorrect when you posted it, as I posted on the first page of comments. (Not to mention, that the original report is, apparently, baseless.)

It's reflective of the dramatic decline of CNN, many of whose serious reporters have either left or resigned. Their web reporting is equally poor, take for example their attempt to shill their "give up your copyright to CNN, so we can be lazy" iReport system within their '7 Minutes of Terror' dreck on the upcoming Mars lander mission:

iReport.com: Send your photos, video of Mars (since changed to 'space').

Nothing like having the second paragraph in your banner article ask people to send in their personal photos and videos from the surface of another planet, to reassure the public that your reporting is careful and accurate.