THE COST OF TERRORISM

I have no use for terrorists, but perhaps this sounds like an inane statement to you, because you'll say, "Well, who does?" So, let me explain a bit more clearly, "I think that they should be executed, and as quickly as possible."

There was a statement made in the title of a book about 30 years ago by Ed Davis, Chief of Police of Los Angeles, and it was: Hang them at the airport. If they're caught in an act of terrorism, then they're guilty. Oh yeah, we are a nation of laws, I know. By the time we get them into a prison cell for good, we've spent millions and not taught any of them a lesson, at least one they will understand.

Look at what we're going through right now, the terrible inconvenience to all travelers, and the billions in costs. Osama bin Laden and all his top echelon men should be executed almost as quickly as they are caught. Whoops, that's right. We need to milk them for information and so they'll live out a life with TV and visitors on a regular basis, while they make converts to the cause in prison. Balderdash.

That's like the terrorists who brought the plane down over Lockerbie; the wheels of justice are grinding exceedingly slow in that case. The pussies in the UN will give them ten to twenty years and they'll be back home in less than ten.

Right now there are between five and ten thousand fighters in Iraq, and they're holding the whole country hostage. The electricity is off more than it's on, because terrorists are dynamiting the towers that carry the wires. Look at the price the ordinary citizens are paying for that.

I GO THROUGH A BODY-SEARCH AT THE AIRPORT

When I flew to NY the last time I spent half an hour going through an extra search, and damned if my shoes did not register gun-powder. Man, they used gloves and little round swatches of cloth and they registered the same a second time. The nails in my shoes came close to being pulled out. Most people do not have nails in their shoes today, but I do.

They asked if I was taking nitroglycerine pills, which I am not. Here I am, 79 and a cripple in a wheelchair, and if I had not been so early for my flight, I'd have missed it. The last time I saw that was back in '83 when my Dad was 82, frail, with a little Col. Sander's tuft of hair on his chin, and he got searched thoroughly.

The funny thing about it is that he had forgotten that his .22 starter pistol was in the little handbag where he kept it and that was the one he was using! To top that, they missed it, even though it had shown up in the xray machine! Damn. If they had found it he might have had better medical care in prison and still be alive at 103. Ain't that a kicker?