Moo. Baa. The people have spoken.

I don't know with whom I'm more frustrated:

• The government, for preaching and peddling FUD
• The FAA and TSA, for hiring completely incompetent drones workers
• The general public, for putting up with all of it
• The media, for taking the gub'ment FUD and spreading it like syphilis

In a nutshell: because of a thwarted attempt to hijack airlines, we are no longer allowed to bring liquids, books or electronics on board. No water (wait ad nauseum for a steward to bring it), no toothpaste (ew.), no books (just SkyMall, please. Consume!), no DAPs (music kills) and no laptops (because watching Captain Ron for the umpteenth time is sooo much better).

It gets worse: mindless chimps people are actually agreeing with authorities, spewing the usual tripe about feeling safer with more regulations and the "small price to pay" for safety.

Try this one, from Bill Brown, Harbeson, Delaware: "I agree with the UK banning all electronic devices in the cabin. These items need to be checked in and stowed in the cargo area. We can do without these items until we reach our destinations." And he's not alone.

F-ing what?! Are you serious? You'd rather place your cellphone, $2,000 laptop and PDA into the cargo hold and let the baggage apes throw it around like a dead panther cub in the wild? The utter lack of intelligence and foresight appalls me, and though I am no longer surprised, I still find myself shocked.

It's not that we're not safe; it's just a different perspective. We're just like the rest of the world, which gets on with its life and understands that things happen and crazy people blow things up. But Americans are giving up their rights left and right, telling themselves it's OK. You can sit at home and wring your hands over it, worrying that the terrorists will steal your personal data unless you let your DSL provider charge you more to send "secure and reliable" email. You can stay off planes altogether, or board them and arrive dehydrated in all your glorious bovinity, proud that you didn't let the terrorists win. You can sit and cower and obey everything the nice, white politicians tell you. And after a while, you won't have a choice to do anything except listen, because it will be law, and you'll be wondering why no one stood up to say it was wrong. No one stood up, including you.

Besides, you weren't using those civil rights anyway, were you?